This piece originally published on RelevantMagazine.com
What does the Gulf oil spill symbolize to you? Perhaps American consumerism? Maybe the incredible potential of human beings to destroy creation? What about the coming apocalypse? According to a recent Newsweek article by Lisa Miller entitled, “Blood in the Water,” some Christians see the oil spill as a sign from God that the end is near.
Numerous Christian blogs have inferred and many others have outright declared that such may be the case. One Louisiana minister named Theodore Turner told CBS he was sure this tragedy is a sign of the last days. But he’s encouraged. “The Bible prophesized hardships,” he said. “If we believe the word of God is true—and we do—we also know that in addition to prophesying hardships He promised to take care of us.”
Turner and others like him cite Revelation 8:8-11 as proof:
The second angel sounded his trumpet, and something like a huge mountain, all ablaze, was thrown into the sea. A third of the sea turned into blood, a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed. The third angel sounded his trumpet, and a great star, blazing like a torch, fell from the sky on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water—the name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters turned bitter, and many people died from the waters that had become bitter. (TNIV)
The foul water in which living creatures die that the Apostle John wrote about, they say, is the oil-ravaged Gulf of Mexico. Many have reported that the oil in the water has even given it a certain redness, which some Christians see as an allusion to the bloody water talked about here. They say this is enough to conclude that BP and the oil crisis is little more than God’s way of heralding Planet Earth’s final days.
There are many problems with such a view. First, Christians should always be careful when making rash judgments about present events based exclusively on imagery-rich apocalyptic literature. Older Christians may remember the handful of pastors over the last century who used Scripture to predict an exact date for the Earth’s demise. None of their predictions have come true.
Additionally, as Miller points out, God’s judgment in the end times is most often understood to be punishment for unrighteousness. If this were such a punishment, it might perhaps be seen as an indictment against Americans for the way we’ve consumed earth's resources, with oil as chief among them. Such an indictment would not bring comfort to many of those same Christians who’ve been chanting “Drill, Baby, Drill” at Sarah Palin rallies. Viewing the greatest environmental disaster in our nation’s history as a sign of the apocalypse turns out to be a double-edged sword.
If it’s not a sign of the end times, what should Christians make of this crisis?
The opportunities
The oil spill in the Gulf provides Christians with several opportunities. First, it should drive us to pray. Will Rogers once said, “The trouble with our praying is, we just do it as a means of last resort.” In dire situations such as this, we must collectively cry out to God for wisdom, guidance, grace and mercy. We must pray not only for the environmental crisis but also for the affected communities.
Second, we must mourn. In a recent article for The Washington Post’s “On Faith,” I asked the question, “Why Aren’t Christians Mourning the Oil Spill?” I don’t know about you, but I don’t see many Christians weeping over these events. “We are tempted to see this as merely an economic crisis, focusing on the nearly one billion dollars of oil lost and the way this might affect domestic gas prices,” I wrote. “But the Christian tradition tells of a God who is more concerned about whether or not life flourishes as he intended.”
The Scripture says God loves “all that he has made” (Psalm 145:9). When the things God loves unnecessarily suffer destruction, does it not grieve Him who made it? Surely, and it must also grieve those who claim to follow that same God. The book of Genesis tells us God has given human beings the job of stewarding creation (Genesis 1:26-28; Genesis 2:15). Have we failed our job through our insatiable oil addiction? If so, it would indeed be an occasion for mourning.
Yet, prayer and mourning are still not enough. We must also act. We must act to restore the lives of those in the Gulf region, many of whom were already suffering. We must act to restore the creation the Bible says should be declaring God’s glory but is currently only telling the story of human greed, consumption and mismanagement. We must act by rethinking the way we consume resources like oil in our own lives each day. And when all is made right, we must force our lawmakers to act to make sure such an atrocity never happens again.
As Winston Churchill beautifully said, “All men make mistakes, but only wise men learn from their mistakes.” In this critical moment, may Christians prove to be wise men and women who pray, mourn and act when necessary so when the end does come, we will be found faithful.
Order a copy of my new book, Green Like God: Unlocking the Divine Plan to Our Planet
Bill Beahan said:
What does the Gulf oil spill symbolize to you?
Stupidity and incompetence!
1. The stupidity of the so-called envirnmentalists who fought drilling in the frozen parking lot tundra called ANWR and closer to shore where these dangerous rigs are not needed and where accidents are much easier to clean up.
2. The incompetence of the Obama regime that cares more about public posturing rather than actually getting it cleaned up because it suits their purpose in pushing the economy destroying Cap & Tax & Destroy bill.
3. The stupidity and incompetence of BP which is run more with an eye to being politically correct (pushing Cap & Tax & Destroy for one example and practicing "affirmative action" for another).
As for the events foretold in Revelation we are not to know when it comes. Compared to Popmpeii, Krakatoa, earthquakes to come such as San Andreas and New Madrid, the Tsunami in SE Asia, this event is actually fairly minor.
Posted: June 16, 2010
CJ said:
While I think it’s largely pointless to look at the oil spill as a possible fulfillment of apocalyptic prophecy, my two cents-worth is “No, it’s not, but even if it is, so what. How does/would that change the response of Christians to the human and ecological needs that now exist and will exist for some time. It doesn’t”.
I would like to address the larger issue of whether this does or does not glorify God based on the destruction of His creation. I find your treatment of His glorification or lack thereof somewhat simplistic. Yes, God loves His creation and wants to see it flourish. However, if God is in fact concerned over the destruction being caused by the oil spill, is He any less concerned about the destruction caused by other natural disasters, such as the earthquake in Haiti or the Tsunamis that struck in Indonesia (it looks like Bill beat me to the issue on this to a degree)? Or, if an earthquake in the area had opened up a hole with the resulting leak, would God be any less concerned over the destruction at hand? What is it about this disaster that separates it from other crises that pit one natural resource against another at the expense of human and ecological communities? And yes, I am aware that there is a human element that was the catalyst for the spill.
And if this somehow demonstrates poor stewardship of His creation (at this point, I am not convinced), then what of the destruction of his creation from other energy sources (setting aside scale at this point--windmills and birds; solar panels and insects)? The real question is whether we can harvest any form of energy without sacrificing some part of His creation. The responsibility lies in doing what comes with being a steward of creation—harvesting energy in the various forms that He has provided in a responsible manner that takes steps to preserve and even restore as much as possible. Unfortunately, b/c we are fallen creatures who will make mistakes (some as a result of negligence), we have to learn from our failures to be responsible stewards for the longer term. With that responsibility comes the mobilization and provision to restore human life and ecosystems and then translate the knowledge we have gained from past failures into wisdom that improves (redeems?) the applicable practices at hand. Easier said than done.
CJ
Posted: June 16, 2010
Justin said:
“We don’t have an international media to cover us, so nobody cares about it,” said Mr. Mbong, in nearby Eket. “Whatever cry we cry is not heard outside of here.”
That is the final quote in a New York Times article that appeared today about Nigeria (Far From Gulf, a Spill Scourge 5 Decades Old 6/16/2010) The Niger delta is poisoned by a Valdez sized spill every year going back 50 years. (Over the course of the year, the amount spilled into the environment is equivalent to a Valdez spill.)
To even pose the question about whether the Gulf spill, as horrible as it is, is a sign of the end of days is terribly myopic and bordering on narcissism given the as bad or worse degradation in other parts of the world, or the even more catastrophic disasters that others have mentioned up-thread.
The oil spill is a sign that the end of the happy-motoring, cheap & easy energy age is coming to a close. As we take greater risks to extract oil in more challenging circumstances, we will continue to see an increase in the frequency of accidents and they will be harder to contain. I don't think we should assign God's will to these circumstances, we are in our own, man-made predicament.
In response to Bill's comment that we need to drill in ANWR instead of miles under the ocean, that misses the point as well. Once we extract that energy, without any changes to the structure of our economic development, we will eventually exhaust those resources (in about a decade in the case of ANWR) and come back to the Gulf. Within the span of a human lifetime, the end result will be the same.
Posted: June 17, 2010
jeff wilson said:
To say that the oil spill is not Biblical, one must be out of tune with reality. This is a CLEAR warning of the state of the world (spiritually). The economy is failing, and my prediction is that it will continue to worsen. ID thefts, counterfeiting, illegal immigration, credit card frauds, are on the news more frequently than ever. Another sign; These problems will progress to a level as to turn society's opinion in favor of RFID's ( radio frequency identification devices ), the size of a grain of rice, implanted in the hand. When the worlds economy fails, and the crimes I've mentioned become unbearable. A man will come that will claim he can fix all the problems, and he will. The world will love him. The mark is going to seem like an answer to these problems. Look around you, we are not far from being in a state of desperation now, his opportunity is fastly approaching. The oil platform: " something like a mountain burning with fire". The red tint the oil gives the water: "one third of the sea became blood". The devestation it is causing and will cause for years to come: "one third of the creatures in the sea died". The end is near.
Posted: June 29, 2010