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Yesterday, April 22, 2010, “Earth Day” celebrated its 40th anniversary.  There were celebrations around the world and all kinds of “Save the Planet!!!” messages on just about every major TV channel of every kind.  Folks were bombarded with a message of “humans are the only thing wrong with the planet” and millions bowed at the altar of Gaia, the earth goddess.

So, what would be a good position for a Christian to hold?  Should we care about the earth around us?  Of COURSE Christians care – but the difference is that we worship the Creator – not His creation.

¹⁸For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. ¹⁹For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. ²⁰For 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 they are without excuse. ²¹For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. ²² Claiming to be wise, they became fools, ²³and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

²⁴Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, ²⁵because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. Romans 1:18-25

As followers of God, we are called to worship HIM, not the universe which He entrusted into our care. However, we ARE called to serve Him and to be stewards of His creation.  When He made Adam He placed him over the birds and the beasts and the fish and was told to take care of them. The creation account tells us:

²⁶Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” ²⁷So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

²⁸And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Genesis 1:26-28

To “have dominion” implies stewardship.  The creation is not OURS, it has merely been placed in our care.  So we should use it wisely – because someday God will ask us to give an account of all our actions and an account of all that we have done with everything He has given us, our possessions, talents, gifts – all will have to be accounted for on that final day.  So we have even MORE reason to care for the earth – but not to worship it.  One of the greatest problems with the modern environmental movement is that it is backed by lies and schemes to gain control over others.  The whole “Climategate” scandal as well as the basically flawed “Inconvenient Truth” book and so many other areas  of the movement are based on grabs for power and attempts to manipulate people by twisting the truth.  If you look at the Kyoto agreement, the reduction in human generated CO2 is NOTHING in comparison to the sheer bulk of the world’s atmosphere.  But the grab for power over humankind is obvious.

As Christians we are taught to fight the battle for the mind.  First, to transform ourselves by the renewing of our minds. And then to appeal to others as well.  As we help people to understand and care for the world around them, we’ll start to see real improvements in the way people treat the planet and the resources God has given us.  And it won’t be by a grab for political power but by an appeal to the heart and mind of people everywhere to allow God to govern them according to His will.

And an interesting thing about all this is – good stewardship of the resources God has given us is good business sense.  By using wisely that which is at our disposal we can make it go further and accomplish more.

Let us worship God and care for the world He has placed under our care. But let us NOT be drawn into the eco-wacky schemes of foisting power grabs upon the world around us.