EARTH AND ENVIRONMENT
What the Bible says to Christians about our Environment
PART TWO: O.T. PROPHECIES AND PRINCIPLES
©  Orest Solyma  
The Church of God in Williamstown
WEB SITE: http://www.alphalink.com.au/~sanhub/index_.htm

In Part One of our discussion about the Bible's guidelines with respect to the environment, we began to see that man has individual and collective responsibility. We are responsible for the well-being of the brotherhood of man (Gn 4:9), and must uphold the golden rule (Mt 22:35-40). The enormity of this responsibility will be further developed. We shall see more clearly the relationships between care and respect towards God's Will and care and respect towards the entire earthly environment, which includes the other environments that encompass our lives: the intellectual, artistic, cultural, religious, economic, technological. Neglect and defiance of God's Will bring disasters in our environments! Ps 115:16 says to us that "The highest heavens belong to the LORD, but the earth He has given to man." This verse with other Scriptures establishes for us that man, individually and collectively, has responsibility for the care of the earth and for well-considered exploitation of resources.

PERSONAL AND COLLECTIVE RESPONSIBILITY
After the Noachian Flood (c. 2324 BC) there is a re-statement of God's intent for man. The Flood (Gn 6:11--8:22; 9:11) is attested to in Is 54:9; Mt 24:37-9; Lk 17:26,27; 1Pet 3:20; 2Pet 2:5; 3:5).

(It should be apparent that this is done with measured and well-researched planning. Again I feel reluctant to point out the very obvious: our educational institutions are generally inadequate for the tasks of teaching the sciences and doing far more research than is being done. God wants us to learn far more and to reason [Is 1:18-20; Job 38:2,3; 1Ki 4:32-4]). God wants proper justice for acts of murder. How well do we notice that murderers, such as Mladic, Karadzic, Kabila, and like-minded beasts, trample over people they despise, and arrogantly give reign to their bestiality in crushing the powerless and those resistant to their evils. Western political values, with "diplomacy" camouflaging cowardice, hypocrisy, ineptitude, and supposedly based on Judaeo-Christianity, stand condemned. Again it must be said: All that man does should be on the basis of Divine truth, equity, justice, mercy, love, forethought, discretion, integrity, excellence of knowledge - good words often used, but so infrequently done!

CONSEQUENCES OF MAN'S ABUSES
The prophecies in Deuteronomy 28 speak of the ultimate results of not following godly injunctions. These were written by Moses in the last two months of his life (cp. Dt 1:3 and Josh 4:19).

We are being told that not doing the will of God has a cumulative effect that finally bursts open in relentless tragedies. We will see this more blatantly as we go through other prophetic writings in this series [Is 30:12,13; Ezk 13:10-6]). Isn't this a depressing and developing description of what we observe in much of human life on this planet? About 700 years after Moses we hear from Isaiah. Notice the poetic language, the hyperbole, that describes how people will feel as such things come to pass. The poor, nor the rich, will escape the consequences. The LORD has predicted these outcomes which are the result of humanity's rejection of the true God. How unbelievably awful a description! Why will this happen?

We are left, on the basis of Scripture, with the disastrous inevitability that any of man's efforts to rectify the cultural, economic, political, religious, social, and environmental problems besetting all humanity will be quick-sanded in ineptitude, national and international policy self-interests, and inordinate lust for power. The result of denial.

Man alienated from the true God and His values produces evils (Ex 20:1-3; Dt 5:5,6; Jer 25:4-7)! This denial of the true God and His value system results inevitably in a marked decline of leadership qualities so that problems escalate. It should also be evident, as history continually reveals, that nations and empires turn to perverse and dictatorial leadership in the vain effort to brutally survive and build vain glories, e.g., pre-WW2 Germany, Iraq in modern times, Afghanistan, Zaire, Indonesia, Burma, .....

At the personal level, individuals alienated from the true God, in the midst of such perplexities and ongoing tragedies, become increasingly irrational, less inclined to heed truth, more inclined to be swayed by illusions and delusions. Market researchers know this.

Instead of naively assuming that a restricted racial group is warned here, please consider that it would be wiser to view Jerusalem and Judah as symbols for administrations and peoples who should know better. In reasonable and proper hierarchies, as in healthy family environments, godly relationships grow. In perverse hierarchies, dictatorial practices, often justified in terms of expediencies (cf. Plato, Machiavelli, Nietzsche), increasingly oppress and subvert responsible freedoms, and increasingly culture is perverted where evils are called good, and good is seen as evil - as Isaiah points out (Is 5:20; Mic 3:11).

EXTREME?  TOO PESSIMISTIC?  OR, TOO TRUE?
What will happen when such prophecies as Jer 12:1-2,5-13; 23:1-40; Is 63:4-6; 64:6,7; Ezk 13 and 34; Mic 3; Zec 11:3-17; Mal 2:1-9 continue to unravel? It should be evident that any credibility in leadership in religion, in politics, in economics, and in other spheres of influence is maintained by the rotting glue of vain and self-delusionary opinions that refuse to be questioned, will not respond with coherent answers, as politicians are trained to do, and minds that refuse to consider the challenges of the Truth of God's Word.

The meaning of these words is further developed in the prayer and events involving the NT Church in Jerusalem (Acts 4:23-31). It is those who rule over the ideologies and cultural trends in society who conspire, perhaps unwittingly, against all that is truly of God.

The Bible is overwhelming in its condemnations of 'religious' leaders (which would include philosophers, poets, writers, artists, politicians, leaders of industry) and the universal consequences their ideas, decisions, and deeds bring upon mankind.

Is it strange that the biblical text seems to assert that there is a direct link between the relationship of man and God with the relationship of man and the physical environment? God's word reveals that there is a direct relationship between the criminalities of man and the developing disasters in the earth's environment. If people are abused, driven into poverty, dispossessed, denied justice, manipulated, deceived, and treated as waste then surely the same attitudes, contrary to reason and intellect, follow through into the environment. Raping mankind with materialism, with ethnic hatreds, wars, and numerous irrationalities and inequities is father to the incestuous rape of the earth in terms of culture, economics, religion, and physical environment. Spoiling (in the sense of despoiling) religious people with "smooth" words brings blindness and creates a hollow religion (Is 30:8-11; Jer 2:8,11,13).

THE WORSENING
Alienation from God leaves no hope, except a vain hope that somehow mankind will be brought into co-operation, will reason, and will work out answers. Such hope is founded on ideas that do not comprehend the goodness of God, nor understand the nature of evil which originates in Satan (Rev 12:9; Mk 7:21-3; Is 14:12; Ezk 28:15,16).

That is, things will get worse and worse. These verses also tell us that man's attempts to "fix" things will produce further strifes. The "mad cow" disease is an example of this: strange farming methods, degenerate food, greed in maintaining exports, corrupted health regulations, unjust trade regulations, etc. Such is the nature of so much that happens in our modern, booming neo-Babylonianism [Jer 51:7; Rev 17:4,6]). Would you consider the invasion of China by Coca-Cola and McDonalds as an aspect of such a prophecy? Irresponsible trade policies of the highly industrialized nations swallow up social structures in nations. The deforestation of the Amazon and S.E. Asia are the result of the invasion and internal acceptance of rapacious policies for ignorantly perceived short-term gains. Such greed-oriented and illusory approaches, called "economic irrationalism," are already producing many intractable problems. The current economic woes of Thailand and Indonesia are a refection of those approaches. What we are seeing as we read more and more of these prophecies is that there is correlation between knowledge of the true God, wise policies and actions, and subsequent results. Cause and effect do work. What is sown is reaped. This means that the whole gamut of environmental problems is linked to human misbehaviour as measured by the Scriptures. The religious fervour of leaders seeking God's intervention will not be heeded because most are party to the system that regresses and suppresses godliness (Rom 1:18-25; Mt 23:13).

The unfruitful self-assurance of many purporting to be members of the Body of Christ will bring repercussions too harsh to contemplate now (Mt 24:4,5,24). Illusions and unfounded opinions are the bread and jam of self-delusion.

WHO WILL HEED?
Do the Scriptures give any indication that people in positions of real power, that power structures made for the supposed purpose of rectifying such enormities as we speak of - will heed what is right, will overcome inherent greeds and self-aggrandisement?

Prices for wheat, barley, oats, coffee, cocoa, palm oil, etc. seem to disregard fair prices to farmers. Policies of "the level playing field" regulate prices for agricultural products and minerals. Floating currencies [contra Lev 19:35-36; Ex 30:13,22-24; Amos 8:5-6; Mic 6:10-12], planned obsolescence, the law of the jungle in 'supply and demand' economies, rampant power, broad-ranging dishonesties - are the rule. One only has to talk to youth to realize how vast is that contempt for the broad range of leadership. Where can our youth look on this earth's stage of delusory arrogance for noble models of the best values? Where are the noble leaders (Is 63:4-6)? Here is the implication that things will get so bad that critics will find it too dangerous to criticise for fear of severe repercussions from the powers in place [Dan 4:17b; 2:21; Jer 27:5]. This also implies, prophetically, that freedom of speech will continue to be eroded. There is no joy, nor the slightest gloating from any who know the real outcomes. Like Christ, the righteous sigh and cry over the sorrows seen and felt around the world (Mt 9:36-8; 5:4,44-48; Ezk 9:4; Amos 6:3-6).

THE WRATH OF GOD
If the argument so far, as developed from the Scriptures, is correct, then surely God's vengeance must come upon the maliciousness overwhelming the world - and at the instigation of the power structures that make this world what it is (Eph 6:12).

We cannot pretend that all these things going wrong are the product of chance, or unknowns beyond the intellectual capacities of mankind. The genius of mighty men and women is often astonishing. The lacks are in integrity, in truthfulness, in godly love, in sound-minded judgment, in God-inspired discernment, and in profound wisdom which is the gift of God, not necessarily partner to genius.

The prophets are often misunderstood. Nahum, who prophesied c.660-612 BC, has much for us today. [See G. Vermes' The Dead Sea Scrolls, (Penguin, 1987; pp 279-82) for further commentary]. Nineveh, capital of the Assyrian Empire, may be viewed symbolically like Babylon and Jerusalem (Rev 17:5; 11:8). The city may represent the leading power structure in an empire (cp. USA within the company of the G8 and NATO; New York and the UNO Headquarters there in the context of its influences upon the whole earth).

In Part Three, the prophetic consistencies between OT and NT will be developed further.


Go to part 3

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