This three-part post was originally published in Preaching Magazine
I became an environmentalist at a Southern Baptist Seminary.
Several years ago, I was in a systematic theology class at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary when the discussion shifted to the revelation of God. My professor began sharing with us about the two primary forms in which God reveals Himself to human beings: general revelation and special revelation.
As Christians, we know these two forms of revelation are different in form and function. General revelation is found in nature and reveals God's attributes (Rom 1:18-20); special revelation is the disclosure of God's truth in the Bible (2 Pet 1:19-21). Through general revelation we can know about God, but through special revelation we can know God. General revelation is significant even though we don't often talk about it.
As John Stott has written, "The creation is a visible disclosure of the invisible God, an intelligible disclosure of the otherwise unknown God. Just as artists reveal themselves in what they draw, paint and sculpt, so the Divine Artist has revealed Himself in His creation."
Recognizing the revelatory nature of God's revelation should cause Christians to respect the media themselves. That's why the Scripture instructs us to hold the Word in such high regard. It is not to be treated like other books, for the Bible is the very revelation of God. Similarly, we should respect the natural world as the container of divine revelation.
Sitting in that theology lecture, I began to connect the dots. Curiosity began to swell inside of me. Why don't some Christians similarly hold the natural world in high regard? Does Scripture actually outline a plan for our planet and assign a role for human beings to play?
These questions drove me back to the Scripture like a journalist on assignment, and I began to comb through, watching for God's instructions about the world around us. What I discovered shocked me.
A green thread runs through the Bible; the book is replete with teachings on the earth and stewardship. In Genesis 1, God becomes the first entity to recognize the value of the creation by calling it "good." He does so more than half a dozen times. In Genesis 2, God tells humans to "work" and "take care of" the natural world. This charge has never been revoked.
In the story of Noah, we find God making a covenant between Himself and "the whole earth." Through the Old Testament laws, we find God intervening to protect the soil and give the land proper rest.
The Psalms and wisdom literature are a repository of writings about creation the depths of which are difficult to plumb. Psalm 24 reminds us that "the earth is the Lord's" not ours. In Job, we find the longest soliloquy by God in the entire Bible: five entire chapters about the glory and majesty of what God has made.
Jesus does a good job of connecting our role as stewards of earth to the people who depend on it. He asked us to love our neighbors, which includes those global neighbors who suffer at the hands of human mismanagement and waste. Christ instructed us to care for the least of these, which shifts our focus to the poor who are most effected by stewardship failures.
In fact, Jesus has a vested interest in the well-being of creation. Colossians 1 tells us, "For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rules or authorities; all things were created by him and for him" (NIV).
God has made this place as a throne room and sanctuary for the glory of God to be proclaimed. We are to respond with worshipful lives of careful stewardship in obedience to God's explicit commands in scripture. For this reason, Christianity Today brushed aside Feuerbach and White to declare, "The Bible is not the enemy of the environmental cause, but its greatest asset."
Order a copy of my new book, Green Like God: Unlocking the Divine Plan to Our Planet
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