#creationcare

Walter Gilbert, a Nobel Prize–winning molecular biologist and co-founder of Biogen, once observed: “We are embedded in a biological world and related to the organisms around us.” Gilbert, who helped pioneer DNA sequencing, was not just a scientist of the microscopic—he was a thinker who recognized humanity’s deep and unavoidable connection to nature. Some of you may nod in agreement at his…

The launch of 'GOOD NEWS FOR ALL THE EARTH' on December 12, 2024 was a happy coming together of the global creation care community. This new document by the Lausanne Movement and the The World Evangelical Alliance complements the previous one in 2012, i.e., Jamaica Call to Action, by including a more robust theological section which outlines the biblical foundations of what it means to live well with and exercise care for all of God's creation.

I was given a few minutes to share some thoughts and I highlighted that the next curve taken by the evangelical community, at this particular season, could have been the recovery and re-affirmation of a more cosmologically-oriented missiology, one that goes beyond the too often anthropocentric orientation, and instead leading towards having all of God's creation, e.g., bees, rivers, and the trees, among others, at the very heart of Christ's redemptive work.

It is good that in the past Lausanne Congresses, there has been an increasing emphasis on addressing the holistic dimensions of what it means to be a human being, e.g., kick-started by integral mission in 1974.

The next logical turn for mission theologizing could have been to recognize that the welfare of people is closely intertwined with the wellbeing of the planet they inhabit.

In fact, if we are going to read the vision of the book of Revelations a bit more carefully, the eternal destiny of God's people in His future kingdom includes life in all its fullness surrounded by non-human beings, in a city reclaimed for the better by a thriving garden, complete with rivers, trees, etc.

Good News for All the Earth is a good step in this direction. My hope is that it inspires not only a deeper engagement in creation care among evangelicals but also a more wider, broader, and fuller missiological framework. Lest we forget that Psalmist reminds us that as far as the work of 'declaring' and 'displaying' is concerned, two catch words of the recent 4th Lausanne Congress, we have lots to learn from the non-human created order:

"The heavens PROCLAIM the glory of God. The skies DISPLAY his craftsmanship." (Psalms 19:1-2, NIV)

To end, I would just want to share my most favorite paragraph of the document which highlights the need for a 'new relationship with God’s created world':

"We recognise that our ecological crisis is at root a spiritual crisis, rooted in greed and idolatry. For many Christians, there is also an impoverished understanding of Christ’s lordship and the scope of the gospel. We call, therefore, for a renewed understanding of the inherent value of the earth and nonhuman creatures as created, sustained and redeemed by Christ. We call on Christians everywhere to study and delight in God’s world, recognising the earth as our common home, and embracing our dependence on God’s provision through the ecosystems of which we are part. We embrace our human role, made in the image of God, to give leadership within the community of creation through humble and servant-hearted care for the earth and its creatures. We call for all Christians, in our personal lives, churches, workplaces, and societies, to be engaged actively in protecting, preserving and restoring habitats and ecosystems, declaring and displaying the lordship of Christ through the flourishing of creatures and places which were made for God’s glory."

The full document is available here. Please help share the word.

Below are notes of what I shared in an online webinar on caring for the environment and the commitment of the church to this issue organized by Movement with Children and Adolescents of Latin American and the Caribbean.

Creation care is a no-brainer. What is at stake is not only the sustainability of the planet but also the very survival of the people that populate it and the future of their children as well. 

But as desperate times call for desperate measures, other options have been put forward. For example, Elon Musk flaunted the possibility of exploring life elsewhere -an extra-planetary settlement. The brain behind Tesla Motors is convinced that the only way to make sure that the next generation of human beings will survive for the future is to build a self-sustaining colony on Mars. 

Should the global climate emergency continue unabated and life on earth become a far more hazardous option, Musk’s big idea is to make human beings a multi-planetary species and save human civilization from extinction. 

While the suggestion may literally be a shot to the moon and beyond, NASA’s Perseverance rover did land on Mars in February of 2021 animating a fresh dose of curiosity toward supporting human life on another planet.

Unless something is done to halt the deterioration and increasing danger of life on earth, the idea of exploring Planet B shall more and more turn from being a mere sci-fi imaginary into an issue of realistic urgency. Building a case of hope for a sustainable life on the current planet we call ‘home’ all the more will become a pressing endeavor. 

Why salvage something (i.e., Earth) if discovering and pushing for an alternative starts to be a potential option if not actually a more plausible one? This is a question that puts the best of theology, as a discipline, to task in offering a compelling answer. 

The Original Commission

The Bible tells a story of a God who has created a beautiful dwelling place, a home, to be shared by Him, humanity, and all the other living beings. But while God’s work finished on the sixth day, human beings were given a continuous task of looking after this wonderful home. 

Created in God’s very image (Genesis 1:26-28), they were given the authority, and with it also the responsibility, to ensure that life on earth not only will flourish but also be dutifully safeguarded (Genesis 2:15). 

If we are to take the suggestion that Genesis 2 is the accompanying commentary of Genesis 1, then the language of the task “nurture and protect” in Genesis 2:15 supplies the meaning necessary to understand the mandate “to rule” in Genesis 1:26-28.

This work of carrying on where God left off is often called the "creation mandate" (A. Wolters) which basically is humankind's part in the project of filling and forming even more the beautiful home God has made." Some other theologians have suggested calling it the "ecological mandate" (Dave Bookless) or still for others, actually, the original "Great Commission." 

Suffice it to say that as far as the story that we read in Genesis is concerned, people’s wellbeing is very much closely linked to the welfare of the planet in which they live.

Both have to come together and can only be put asunder with fatal consequences tilted primarily towards humanity’s loss. 

Unfortunately, the role of Christians in ‘caring for creation’ has not always been at the front and center of the church’s preoccupation. Roderick Nash, in his book The Rights of Nature: A History of Environmental Ethics, pointed out that “Christianity has done too little to discourage and too much to encourage the exploitation of nature.” Indictments such as this paint Christianity as the exact opposite of what we read in the pages of Genesis.

How did Christians end up in such an awkward position? 

The Great ‘Omission’

I began with a reference to an escapist mentality (i.e., Elon Musk) wherein hope is pinned in abandoning earth and looking elsewhere to secure humanity’s salvation. It would be an eerie comparison but a very similar spiritual consolation has been what the church has offered in its long history. 

Part of the problem can be traced to certain versions of ‘escapist’ theologizing that developed in the history of the church. While Elon Musk had his eyes on Mars, the eyes of Christians have been turned away from the earth and tilted towards finally being ‘home’ in heaven. For a very long time, hymns were sung on how this world is not our home and we are merely passing through.

This idea is reinforced by popular appeals to selected New Testament passages such as Philippians 3:20 on citizenship in heaven; 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 on being caught up in the clouds; and 2 Peter 3:10-12 on everything on earth being burned up in the last days. 

A kind of theological thinking wherein the world is beyond saving for the exact reason that it is meant to be destroyed eventually. The only prospect of hope proclaimed is a mass migration to the heavenlies and making sure that there would be as many people as possible who would secure the ticket to join the blessed evacuation.

In some circles of the Christian community, it is even thought that the more planetary devastation happening, the better as it signals that the world is finally coming to an end with Jesus' blessed return looming closely on the horizon.

But not only that this kind of Bible teaching forms an escapist mentality, it also resulted in ‘contra-creation care’ theological convictions that results in the gross negligence of Christians to look after the earth. Convictions revealed in social media posts as the following:

“There is no reward in heaven for recycling, picking up trash, or planting trees.”

“We are called to save souls, not trees!”

“The earth will be destroyed in the end, no matter whether you polish it up or abuse it. It does not matter; it is not a church issue!”

The Broader Vision

The good news is that today, more and more theologians have been more vocal about the devastating impact such escapist and contra-creation care theologies have wrought. 

Prof. Katsuomi Shimasaki, a Japanese theologian, observed that, 

“There might be a theological reason why we Protestant Christians, especially evangelical Christians, have difficulty finding true value in everyday life and in good works. If we believe that the world around us will disappear someday, it follows that we ought not to labor to preserve the planet. If we believe that Christian salvation means the soul would fly away from the world to heaven, our attitude towards life on earth would naturally be indifference.”

In my region here in Asia, Hyunte Shin, a Korean scholar, in her research work tracing the impact of Dispensational theology to Korean Christianity, concluded with this observation, 

“The tremendous influence of certain brands of Western theology brought by Western missionaries from their home countries are the ultimate root of the apathetic stance of South Korean Christians towards environmental issues.”

And so, we see, these kinds of theologies are not just bad, they are harmful, and most of all incongruent with a more careful reading of the Bible’s teaching about the place of ‘creation care’ in the life and mission of God’s people. 

When we read the New Testament, it goes full circle to the splendid vision of a beautiful home in Genesis 1. It is quite clear that the Christian hope is not only about people’s liberation from everything that enslaves them but also the liberation of the planet from everything that has caused its pain.

Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 8:19-22 that the redemption of human beings is closely bound together with the renewal of the earth and everything in it. 

Furthermore, John the Beloved paints a beautiful portrait of the kingdom of God in a new heavens and a new earth (Revelation 21) complete with bees, rivers, and trees. 

In the end, I think Albert Wolters is on point when he said that “God does not make junk, and he does not junk what he has made.”