In the Bible, in the Book of Revelation, chapter four, the Apostle John describes a scene in heaven. It is a picture of Christ sitting on the throne, ruling over all things. There is no question - He is God. Christ reigns in glory and majesty and John tries to describe the scene, the colors, the brilliance, the sounds and the splendor, which words cannot begin to express.
Around the throne are twenty-four smaller thrones: smaller rulers - but important enough to be seated next to God. There are four creatures awesome in description - they are great, powerful and fearsome. The picture is of an awesome, indescribable, powerful God surrounded by twenty-four kings and four fearsome creatures full of eyes and wings, crying out in praise to God. The creatures never stop saying, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come." [Rev 4:8] And John wrote whenever the living creatures give Christ glory, the twenty-four kings fall on their faces before Him, submitting their authority to Him and they worship Him.
The Bible tells us God raises kings and topples them (Dan 2:21) and Jesus said all power, or authority to rule, is given by God above (Joh 19:11). The kings in heaven understand this and they submit to Christ in worship saying, "You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being." [Rev 4:11]
One day, we will witness the majesty of God and we will be repeating these words. We will praise God - God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit - because He alone is worthy of praise, He alone is God - He is the creator of all things and all things were created because He planned it (Isa 25:1). It is only through Him that all things exist and that life is sustained (Heb 1:3). And the Bible tells us, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess Jesus Christ is Lord. All mankind will declare Him King of kings, to the glory of God the Father (Php 2:10-11).
Christ created all things (Joh 1:3). Psalm 33:6 tells us God made the heavens by His word and all the stars and planets were made by His breath. Hebrews 1:3 tells us that Christ keeps everything in its place by His word. God is in control. There is no man, nor is there a conspiracy of men, who can defeat His will, or His plan. It takes a great imagination to think the created could overturn, or defeat, the Creator. Logic and reason will tell you that it is impossible.
There is a lot of talk about "global warming" and environmental crises and it seems as the mantra is drummed into the mainstream culture by an unrelenting "news" media, education system and politicians more and more professing Christians are being won over to the argument that we must work to preserve the earth, or at least save it from human destruction. Few Christians take the time to analyze the arguments from Scripture. Few Christians understand the Bible has anything to say about the matter.
What does the Bible say about our responsibility to the earth? Let's start with what God instructed Adam: He said, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground." [Gen 1:28 NIV] Breaking this down, we find God told man to have a lot of babies, live all over the land and learn to use all the resources of the earth, mastering the fish, birds and animals.
Look at this Scripture closer: God gave man dominion over the earth and the authority to rule over every living creature. He did not make man equal to or less than the earth He said "fill it up with people and use up the resources." He did not make man equal to or less than the animals. He gave man wisdom and knowledge to rule over the animals. We have permission - the authority - to use animals for food, as equipment, for research and even tell them where to live. Contrary to what we are taught in our schools, man is not blight upon the earth - we cannot destroy it. We do not owe the animals our choice habitat. Man has been endowed with authority from God to fill the earth and use it up. "The earth He has given to man." [Psa 115:16 NIV]
God told man He did not create the earth to be empty, or preserved, but to be inhabited all over the face of it. That means "urban sprawl" is God's choice. "For this is what the LORD says - He who created . . . He did not create [the earth] to be empty, but formed it to be inhabited." [Isaiah 45:18 NIV]. When God speaks of a city or nation being empty, destroyed or not inhabited, He speaks of a curse. So, unless we are under God's curse, we are to fill up the land. Even when God dispersed the nation of Judah under the captivity of the Babylonians, He instructed them, even under those circumstances, to increase in number and not to decrease. Read this for yourself in Jeremiah 29:6.
God told the first man to fill up the earth with people. However, man was filled with evil and God soon destroyed the earth with a flood (Gen 6-8). Only Noah and his family of eight were saved from the flood. When God brought Noah out of the ark, God instructed man again to "increase in number and fill the earth." [Gen 9:1 NIV] God affirms man is not blight upon the earth, we are not a hazard to it - we are instructed to fill the earth with people. The earth was made for man, not the other way around (Psa 115:16).
At that time, God also made a special promise to Noah, "As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease." [Gen 8:22 NIV] God gave no caution or instruction for responsible or sustainable use because man cannot destroy the earth - it is under God's authority.
There are many verses in the Bible that instruct us the earth is firmly established, it cannot be moved, or destroyed by man (Psa 93:1; 78:69; 95:4,5; 96:10; 104:5; 119:90; Ecc 1:4). The earth is not fragile - in fact, it has proven to be very hardy. Even environmental disasters that we throw billions of dollars into cleaning up, we find the bulk of the cleaning was performed by the earth. Forty years ago, when I was in high school, Lake Erie was the known as the most polluted body of water in the world. We were told it would take two hundred to four hundred years to clean up. But when the pollution stopped, it took only a few short years and the work of the earth far out-paced the billions of dollars we sunk into the project. Today, Lake Erie is one of the cleanest lakes in the world. Man may impact local environments, but he cannot destroy the earth.
Peter was a disciple of Christ. He was with the Lord all day long, evenings and weekends, eating, talking, laughing and listening to everything Christ heard from His Father and revealed to them. With all that, neither Peter nor any other disciple ever mentioned the need to help the earth. It is safe to assume, this subject was not on the mind of Christ at all - not for that time, nor for the future.
Quite the opposite, in fact, Peter reminds us that God destroyed the world by water, and in the future, He intends to destroy it by fire. "Long ago by God's word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water. By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men." [2 Peter 3:5-7 NIV] (See Gen 7:17-24; Job 22:15-20; 2Pe 2:5)
Man was created in the image of God (Gen 1:27). We reflect this image in many ways. One way we reflect God's image is production. By living in obedience to God and producing useful products from the resources of the earth, we reflect God's image as Creator. He creates out of nothing and we create using the resources He has given us.
But Satan has set out to deceive man from the start - and he is aided by man's rebellious heart. We now live in a culture of victim hood where no man is responsible for his own actions. We have come a long way from God's mandate to be productive and reproduce. We now look at ways to punish the producers and limit our reproduction - even to the killing of our children in the womb. We are deceived - and even professing Christians are aiding the enemy in this war.
God has no love for the earth - in the end He will have destroyed it twice. The Bible tells us the earth was destroyed by water because of the wickedness of man and it will be destroyed again and finally for the same reason - the next time by fire. Because man wants nothing to do with God; he rejects accountability to the One who created all things and wrote the rules; and he will not receive Jesus Christ who came to earth to die for mans' sin.
"They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator - who is forever praised. Amen." [Rom 1:25 NIV]
When we "go green" we adopt the pagan priority of saving the planet, which God tells us He (and He alone) is going to destroy. God's priority is to save mankind's souls - that should be our priority. Man's first commission was and still is to produce. Christ's commission to His followers is to broadcast the salvation message. When we focus on saving the earth, we violate both commissions and surrender ground to Satan and his pagan demons.
The most important thing to God is mans' relationship to his Creator and Savior. What is the most important thing to you?
See also this chapter from the book, Under The Tower Of Babel.
[NEXT] Read this poem from Isaiah -- It is a Warning!