Living on God’s Earth (2)

Bible Readings

• Isaiah 46
• Romans 1:18-32

Introduction

My dear friends in the Lord,

How does one understand the world one lives in?  How does one answer life’s questions?  Who are we?  What are we doing here on earth?  Where do we fit in?  Do we have an influence on things around us?  

The way we answer these questions reveals our worldview.  What shapes our worldview?  What makes you think the way you think?  One’s worldview determines one’s thinking, and one’s thinking determines one’s actions.  Thoughts and actions have consequences.

Greeks 

If you were Greek and lived a thousand or more years ago, you believed that three days after your birth you would receive a visit from three sisters. They were old, ugly women, who were strict, bitter and without mercy, dressed in ragged clothing, with snakes as hair, their skin blistered and eyes bloodshot.  These sisters would decide whether and for how long you should live, weaving the web of life from a spindle into the Book of Fate. Together the sisters were called Fate.

Hinduism

If you were a Hindu, you would believe that there is one god, with a feminine aspect displayed in the mother goddess Durga.  In her one finds original energy which gave birth to time, space, and from her, the material universe progresses.  As Mother Nature, she gives birth to all life forms, and ultimately she re-absorbs all life forms back into herself, or “devours” them to sustain herself as the power of death feeding on life to produce new life.  

Atheism

If you were an atheist, you might agree with Richard Dawkins, when he remarks, “The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but blind, pitiless indifference.”

Another atheist, Mike Autrey, says, “I will live and I will die. I do not believe religion will bring peace to mankind. At the very core it seeks the end of the world. Judgment day. The end of the road for our species. And against those ideas I will fight. For my child as well as yours.” (http://www.atheistrepublic.com/gallery/i-am-atheist-because-i-sought-truth-about-reality)

The reason why I mentioned these different views is to make it clear that what one believes determines the way one thinks. Is there purpose?  Is there hope?  Is the world created, or did it just happen? Is there design? Can the earth sustain human beings?  Are our lives determined by fate? 

By and large policymakers of our age are not Christians, and their policies are determined by their worldviews.  Filmmakers choose to make movies which reflect their worldviews; so do newspaper editors and TV stations.  We are bombarded by non-Christian worldviews.  So, how do we react?

Environmentalism

One of the reasons for this short sermon series “Living on God’s earth” stems from my personal observation and study over the years concerning the perceived impact and future of mankind on the earth.  This led me to read up on the tenets of Environmentalism.

Let’s first just make a proper distinction between the environment and environmentalism.  We live on earth as part of the ecological system, also referred to as our environment.  Christians should instead refer to God’s creation, and not to a capital “E” Environment as if it is an entity.  Environmentalism goes beyond this:  it is a religion with the environment as the subject of worship.  

The worship of Mother Earth flows from pagan religions.  Humanity’s relationship and dependence on the earth for survival has existed since the beginning of time. Environmentalists claim that many cultures including Native Americans, Aborigines, Africans and South Americans have understood this interconnection with the natural world. Western cultures had a poor understanding of this relationship as they separated themselves from the land through technology and development. Mankind (more so Christians), driven by the Biblical mandate of subjecting the earth and ruling over it, must, therefore, bear the guilt of exploiting the planet, harming it, and disturbing nature’s balance.  The catch cry is the conservation of natural resources.  

The religion of Environmentalism holds that earth is a living goddess with feelings and thoughts just like any other conscious living entity.  She has quite literally sacrificed her own salvation so that we can live here.  She can literally feel the harm we do her (https://www.aetherius.org/the-mother-earth/).   One of the surest ways of harming mother earth is pollution, of which CO² emissions is the worst.

Mother Earth worship has solid connections with old pagan Mother Goddess worship.  These religions are strongly connected with some versions of feminism and Wiccan views.  Wicca, which is a form of witchcraft, emphasises the immanence of divinity within Nature (Nature is god, and god is nature), seeing the natural world as made up of both of spiritual substance as well as matter and physical energy. Since the Goddess is said to conceive and contain all life within her, all beings are held to be divine. For some Wiccans, this idea also involves elements of animism (a belief that natural objects other than humans have souls, something we find in indigenous cultures). Plants, rivers, rocks (and, importantly, ritual tools) are seen as spiritual beings, facets of a single life.  Wicca worship the Earth Goddess as Gaia.  

A thread which runs through all these religions is that, through industrial development and advancement, man is a destroyer of all things good.  Christianity is labelled as the worst, not only of its understanding for the cultural mandate but because it upholds patriarchal families.  Men are regarded as violent warlords who will do whatever is needed to enrich themselves at the cost of mother earth, while females are presented as loving and caring, and thus a continuation of the Mother Goddess.

Major bodies to promote this worldview

There is, of course, a platform needed to ensure that Environmentalism, or the protection of Mother Earth, is enforced.  

United Nations

Although not created for this purpose, activists infiltrated the United Nations to create a platform.  Very openly this international body has become the major sponsor for this religion.  One can only read the opening pages of the official environment websites.  I quote:  “A healthy environment is the foundation of human life.  But we are putting the planet under enormous pressure.  We are depleting the Earth’s natural resources, polluting its air and water, destabilising the climate, and driving many of its species to extinction.  If we work together, we can change the world.  UN Environment works with people around the globe to drive the changes that the planet needs. Together, we can build a healthier, more sustainable world for ourselves, our children and our grandchildren.”

This is a blatant display of pride humanism, declaring mankind in control of the world, with no room for the Creator God.

The operational word here is the recurring term “sustainable world.”  The UN has developed the so-called 2030 Agenda for Sustainable development.  One paragraph states: “We are determined to protect the planet from degradation, including through sustainable consumption and production, sustainably managing its natural resources and taking urgent action on climate change, so that it can support the needs of the present and future generations.”  It further states: “We are determined to mobilise the means required to implement this Agenda through a revitalised Global Partnership for Sustainable Development…”

Is this another way of promoting a one world government?

The UN talks about “our citizens”, “international law”, which, of course, will be passed by the United Nations, and the obligations of each country to these laws—all in the name of sustainable development.  This document is a neat marriage between environmentalism and Marxist socialism, with the thread of feminism running right through it.  A definition of sustainable development is “… a state of society where living conditions and resource use continue to meet human needs without undermining the integrity and stability of the natural system. Sustainable development can be classified as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations.” The premise is that we are sustained by Mother Earth, and not by the Creator God.  We need a body to control what we need, where to get it and at what price. This body will distribute what we have in abundance to other communities who lack some things. Will this body be elected?  To whom will they be responsible?  According to what standards will they make decisions?

This takes us right back to the worship of Mother Earth.  In essence, it is nothing but a religion; but the difference is that this is now pursued as a world religion.  

The World Council of Churches

The World Council of Churches states, “Climate change is thus a matter of international justice and inter-generational justice.”  The WCC makes no bones about its collaboration with the UN on climate change from 1990 to the present (https://www.oikoumene.org/en/folder/documents-pdf/Climate_Change_Brochure_2005.pdf.)  The WCC labels the promotion of the teaching about climate change discipleship.  It is no surprise that an inter-religious gathering was held during the Kyoto Climate Change Conference, with participation from Buddhists, Shintos, Christians, New Religions, Hindus, Muslims and Jews in a Catholic Cathedral in Kyoto followed by a candle-light procession to a Shinto Shrine where participants were blessed by Shinto Priests.  

How do Bible-believing Christians respond? 

• We believe God, Father Son and Holy Spirit, is the only and living true God.
• God rules sovereignly over creation, the world of his hands.
• He is most loving, gracious, merciful, long-suffering, abundant in goodness and truth, forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin; He rewards those who diligently seek him; He hates sin, including idolatry and the worship of created things. 
• Unlike other so-called Gods. He is in need of nothing any created being should bring to Him.  He is the alone fountain of all being, of whom, through whom and to whom, are all things.
• He maintains sovereign, all-wise and all-powerful dominion over all things He created. His “invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made”. So mankind is without excuse. (Romans 1:20, ESV)  
• When Adam and Eve fell into sin, they plunged with them creation which now is in bondage till the return of Christ when God will make all things new.
• Man, in his sinful rebellion against God, suppresses the truth about God, “…for although they knew God, they did not honour him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.” (Romans 1:21, ESV)

“Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.” (Romans 1:22–23, ESV)

“…because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! (Romans 1:25, ESV)

“And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness.” (Romans 1:28–29, ESV)

• This is the reason for war, envy, hatred, jealousy, cheating, and abusing God’s gifts of the earth in a spirit of increasing consuming greed and exploitation. For this, we stand condemned before God and will give account to Him.

Only God can save, not the UN or the WCC with its sustainability programs.  To this end we proclaim Christ:  

God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8, ESV)

Meaning in the chaos of worldviews is only possible if we have peace with Him through whom God created the universe.  He revealed the Father to us.  When He returns, because of Him, those who trusted in his exhaustive and comprehensive intercession between the Holy Creator and sinful human being will be made citizens of the new heavens and the new earth.

Amen.

Sermon preached by Rev D. Rudi Schwartz on Sunday 13 January 2013