Caring for the Great Economy

In a fast moving world where the deteriorating environment is becoming more and more of a concern, we must make a conscious choice to care for the Great Economy that our God lovingly created.

How Should We Understand Creation?

• As God’s Sole Property
According to the bible, God unreservedly owns everything that is and everything that we have. Psalm 24:1 states that;
“The earth is the LORD’s and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it…”
As humans with a sense of self-entitlement, we often forget that we do not own the world or any part of it. If we are to understand ourselves as humans, rooted in the creation story, then we need to understand that exclusive human ownership of creation is false. We are given the resources of nature to use wisely and responsibly, but not to bring ruin or waste upon them. We have no biblical authority to harm or destroy anything on the earth.

• As Something to be Cared For
In Genesis 1:28, humanity was told to:
“…fill the earth and subdue it.”
This authority given to us is of responsible stewardship over what God found to be ‘good’. God created for his pleasure and continues to find worth and beauty in it despite its corruption by humans. This means that we, as humans, have a responsibility to ensure the ongoing protection and security of the earth as God’s creation.

• As Important to God
It is important for us, as Christians to understand that Christ’s gift of salvation was made possible only through God’s inherent love for the entire created order. Quoting John 3:16 as a verse intended for people alone is a misleading attempt to separate the love that God has for humans, with the love that he has for the whole cosmos.
We must understand that the created order is one indivisible unit in God’s eyes – nature, humanity and animal life are all the creation to which God feels deeply bonded. Our anthropocentric view of creation has led us to believe that we have complete dominion over the earth to the point of absolutism. This belief opens the way to exploitation of our natural resources and abuse of God’s creation.

The Great Economy

• What is the Great Economy?
In his lecture, ‘Christianity and the Survival of Creation’, Wendell Berry (a prominent environmental activist) discusses the idea that the created order should be viewed as the ‘Great Economy’ from which all economies are born. This theory argues that the earth and all of creation is the source from which everything that we have, and everything that we are stems. In other words, we are completely reliant on the earth for everything, and for this reason, must care for our environment like we do our cash, because it is valuable and essential. The Great Economy provides resources that allow us to eat, sleep, work, build, trade and live godly lives.
What this idea seeks to do is create a vision of responsible stewardship and guardianship of the Kingdom of God as a whole – to ensure that we understand dominion in a way that is responsibly, and conscientiously concerned for the environment as God’s creative masterpiece. We must understand that to focus on material items and material life at the expense of the environment is false economy – it denies creation as the source of all wealth and material.

• Looking Toward Heaven
Christians can, at times, have a mind-set that is so thoroughly immersed in eschatological hope and Christ’s imminent return that we end up living, not in the ‘now’, but in the ‘not yet’. The bible’s teaching in John 15:19 teaches us that we are ‘in the world’ but not ‘of the world’ – this can lead to a misunderstanding about our role in creation and the way in which we are to care for it.
We are one part of creation, and as such, we must never look to the future at the expense of God’s whole creative work, or deny or depreciate it in any way. If we are too focused on future events, it can be easy to be careless with our resources, or diminish the value of the Great Economy by regarding it as something temporary. We must remember that without the Great Economy, we would not be able to live the life that God intended for us.

• What Must We Do?
It is not acceptable for us as humans, made in the image of God, to withdraw from God’s primary love – creation – and deny our environmental responsibilities. The bible makes no secret of the sanctity with which the world was made, and the reverence that God felt, and continues to feel when he views his work. Creation is not in any sense, independent of God. God continues to engage with creation and respects it. Participating in the repairing and care for the world is an active engagement with the love that God is, and is a way of showing our respect for what we receive from the Great Economy. Let’s not forget that God’s redemptive plans include a renewal of the world that we currently live on. God cares deeply for the world as his divine creation.
To effectively honor our creative God we must learn to set our hearts to heaven and our minds to his Great Economy.

We can honor God this Creation Day by signing the petition to establish Creation Day as an official holiday. Sign here.

Nature or Creation?

Language matters.

A small difference in a turn of phrase or even the changing of a single letter can speak volumes if the context is right. Early in Christian history for example, debates over the doctrine of the Trinity boiled down to two words, two words spelled almost identically but for one letter. As it turns out, that seemingly small distinction would come to mark the boundary between orthodoxy and heresy.

Another distinction, which may seem small at first, is particularly relevant for our present day, the difference between “nature” and “creation.”

Though often used interchangeably, these two words in fact carry with them very different ways of imagining the world in which we live, and the shift from creation to nature has serious implications.

Once upon a time, not so very long ago, people saw the world around them as enchanted. The Christian tradition had long spoken of the world as something created and ordered by God, and filled with spiritual forces both good and evil. The land below and the sky above were, in a very real sense, understood as a gift from God, and we as His image bearers were uniquely connected to and responsible for the creation.

Yet over time, for reasons too numerous and complex to expand on here, the imagination of the Western world gradually became disenchanted.

No longer was this world around us “creation,” even if we still used the word. Instead, it was “nature.” The difference being that unlike creation, nature is just material, it has neither a meaning nor a telos, a goal.

This has serious ecological implications, because nature is something for human consumption – hence “natural resources.” The whole debate shifts. We might argue that we should use those resources more responsibly, or more aggressively, or that their use will have this health effect or that impact on the economy, but it all boils down to material that is given meaning by the ways it should or shouldn’t be used by people.

But if world is a creation, if God ordered it and placed humanity in it as his image bearers, then there is more to the story. In that case we have a calling to steward this place on behalf of the Creator whose image we bear.

Case in point, a recent survey showed that 57 percent of Americans believe “that humans are called by God to live responsibly with plants, animals and earthly resources.” These are people who are being shaped by a different story than the pervasive materialism of our day. A story in which the world is more than nature, it is creation. And that story has shaped their imaginations in such a way that it influences their day-to-day choices.

So yes, it is just the difference between two words, words that admittedly many of us use interchangeably without even noticing. But, once we start to pay attention, we soon find that its more than two words, it is two fundamentally different ways of viewing the world, it is the difference between enchantment and disenchantment.

And that enchanted creation, that place God set us over to care for and tend? It is worth fighting for.

Faith

“Faith is the substances of things hoped for. It is the evidence of things unseen.”

More and more, faith is being attributed to many different phenomena and idols, and to humanity itself, because of our oblivion to the God of creation.

Greek mythology entertains the possibility that there may be multiple deities calling for worship, awaiting to grant specific requests – especially pertaining to creation.Greek mythology also attributes creation of the earth to several gods. As Christians, we understand God, the Supreme Being, to be the sole creator of the universe. We also know from scripture that God is a jealous God and refuses to share His praises with anything or anyone. In Isaiah 42:8 it is declared;

“I am the LORD; that is my name!
I will not yield my glory to another or my praise to idols.”

The scriptures cite several events where God destroys creation, as a result of humanity and angelic creatures tampering with them. This is often done with the product of their God-given ability, as seen in many biblical events. On example of this takes place at the ‘Tower of Babel’, when men worked together to construct a skyscraper, in order to gain high repute all over the world. God took action on the tower and struck it down, and went onto flood the earth in an attempt to purge it of the disgrace that humanity had brought upon him. Of this event, Proverbs 8:21 writes that;

“Death and life are in the power of the tongue,
and those who love it will eat its fruits.”

Another example which illustrates humanity’s attempts to override God was in Genesis 6 where we witness angels co inhabiting with humans and having children that the bible describes as “Heroes and Nephilims or Giants.” David later went onto assassinate one of these descendants.

In giving us the capacity for faith, God has given humanity its strongest asset. God knew very well what man would be capable of. What is important to note is that faith is so strong, humanity has been able to continually act in contempt by performing ‘marvellous works’ such as Babel, without any divine authority.

Since man has been corrupted and using his gift for his own esteem, God sent His only Son to demonstrate the value of our existence and destination.

Ephesians 2:10 states;

“For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

The word is now clear where we must to put our faith and for which works it must be used. While many have been considered gods, Jesus was the only person in history who showed as much compassion, strength, and masculinity as the God of the Bible. Jesus allowed Himself to be flogged by His own creation, and died for them to prove His love and commitment to humanity. While there have been numerous leaders claiming to be god-sent, not one of them has ever claimed the punishment that was meant for humanity. Only one man in history was willing to go through fatal agony for the transgressions of the world.

As time goes on, miraculous ‘signs and wonders’ take place, as the Bible foretold, but we must be careful where we are putting our faith in these situations. Faith has been given to us as the foundation for our future, and our tool for discerning what is of God, and what is not. We must constantly test signs and wonders against scripture.

The fact that we can only water plants and trees and God makes them grow, indicates that only He deserves the credit for man’s triumphs.We may tend the garden, but someone else has to push the button.

Colossians 3:17 states;

“And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.”

The Ocean as a Channel of God’s Blessing

We often thank God for His provisions and for the evidence of His grace in our lives. Most of the time, however, we forget to thank Him for the blessings we get from nature and His other creation. Our busy lives rob us of the opportunity to bask in the glorious abundance of the land and the seas that surround us. We are content with worshipping God in the comforts of our own home or our church, and we fail to appreciate the fact that God meticulously created nature for us to enjoy and take care of.

The moment we confine ourselves to routine and forget about our duty to take care of nature, we also neglect the fact that we are responsible for the massive damage that nature is experiencing right now. In particular, our oceans are in dire need of protection and conservation. Marine life diversity is in constant danger because of the pollution and harmful chemicals that are dumped in the ocean daily. Directly or indirectly, we have played a major role in the ocean’s devastation – something that has already been happening even in biblical times.

This can be seen in Isaiah 24:4-6;

“The earth dries up and withers, the world languishes and withers, the heavens languish with the earth. The earth is defiled by its people; they have disobeyed the laws, violated the statutes and broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore a curse consumes the earth; its people must bear their guilt. Therefore earth’s inhabitants are burned up, and very few are left.”

Our Biblical Mandate to Care for the Ocean

One of the reasons why God created man is for him to be able to rule over all creations.

In Genesis 1:26, God said;

“…Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

We should honor God and obey the mandate He gave us by making sure that we are able to take care of all His creation, including the ocean.It is never too late to include ocean stewardship in the daily cross that we have to bear.

Yes, we can honor God by singing praises to Him. We can obey His commands by sharing the gospel to others. But we must also be burdened by the responsibility to take care of the ocean so we can continue to enjoy all the blessings that God has prepared for us through the vast bodies of water that He has created.

We do not have to leave our jobs or our ministry. Little things that we do on a daily basis can greatly contribute to our collective effort to protect our ocean and marine life from further damage and destruction. By being involved in community campaigns and petitions to celebrate creation and protect our environment, we are already pleasing God in our own little way.

Join us in the upcoming celebration of Creation Day. Click here to find out more about Creation Day 2015.

6-Day Creation: Why it Took God So Long

Then God said, “Let us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” Gen 1:26 (NASU)

God created the earth alone; the land, sea, atmosphere, plants, animals, birds, fish, and all creatures, visible and invisible, all in a perfectly organized sequence.

The bible enables us to understand that the creation and population of the earth took God six whole days. That is thought provoking because The Almighty God could have finished it all within a twinkle of an eye. Yes, this is possible if God could call those things that were not into existence as if they were. Roman 4:17.

But, from Genesis 1:1-28 we see a God who cherishes His creation so much that He sees no reason for him to rush the process of creating them. He will simply create something and wait for several hours to assess and observe it, looking at it through His holy and all-seeing eyes.He will carefully observe each creation and gave it a pass mark before retiring for the day. This, He did diligently, for six days.

Why do you think God has to do that?

He was looking for perfection: Our God is a perfect God; there is no fault, blemish or imperfection in Him. Hence it is only necessary for Him to create an earth system where all things work together in perfect harmony, just the way He wanted them to be, and all for His divine purpose.

He was looking for conformity: God has a purpose for everything He created. He does not just make things, He has a divine plan for even the least of His creation, hence God has to analyze each creation and identify whether it is conforming to that purpose. This includes man.

He was looking for beauty: God wanted a beautiful earth – a real replica of heaven where He wanted man (who He created in His image and likeness) to dwell and take dominion. For this reason He wanted to make sure that everything was really beautiful.`

He was looking for glory: Each creation was apportioned a level of glory which was necessary for them to fulfill divine purpose. The master planner Himself ensured that this was so, before putting His final approval on it.

The Almighty God took time to create the earth as a perfect, beautiful and glorious abode for all His creations.

And finally…

God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good – Gen 1:31.

What is the lesson that God wants us to learn here? He wants us to appreciate the beautiful earth we inherited, and the only way we can do that is to take care of the earth. How do you think God will feel when He sees men abusing the earth with activities that lead to global warming, drought, famine and such like? It can make Him angrier because we are not fulfilling divine purpose.

To make the matter worse, many do not even believe that God exists, nor created the earth, not to talk of reverencing Him. This is sad.

How great will it be if we can all worship God for giving us a beautiful and well planned earth? This is the reason why we must all give recognition to the Creation Day. The day that had been accepted globally to celebrate the beginning of the existence of our earth, and remind people that God created the earth and all that is in it.

Let the people praise thee, O God; let all the people praise thee. Then shall the earth yield her increase; and God, even our own God, shall bless us. God shall bless us; and all the ends of the earth shall fear him. Ps 67:5-7 KJV