Earth Day

Earth Day is tomorrow, and it is a day that I dislike very much.  Mostly because I see so many Christians caught up in the whole environmental hype.  So let's go to the source of truth and find out what the Bible says about the earth.

Gen 1:1  In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. 
Gen 1:31  And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day. 
Gen 1:26  And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
Gen 2:15  And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.
Gen 3:17-18  And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;  Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;
 
Great place to start, in the beginning God created the heaven and earth; and when He was done He said that it was very good. Then He put Adam in charge of taking care of the creation.  Unfortunately Adam sinned, so the earth that God created was cursed.

Isa 40:21-26  Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth?   It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in: That bringeth the princes to nothing; he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity. Yea, they shall not be planted; yea, they shall not be sown: yea, their stock shall not take root in the earth: and he shall also blow upon them, and they shall wither, and the whirlwind shall take them away as stubble.  To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One.  Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth.

I read these verses this morning in my devotions and thought they were appropriate for the topic.  Do we get it?  The Lord created the heavens and the earth;  we are but grasshoppers in comparison.   These verse ask the question who are we likening the Lord to?  The whole environmental movements seems to be all about making man like the Lord.  Environmentalist tell us that planting a tree, using green products, turning off all our lights for a certain amount of time, using reusable grocery bags, paying a carbon tax and the list goes on and on will "save" the environment.  I did a google search for ways to help the environment, the lists are long!  Are some of those things in and of themselves wrong?  Absolutely not, but to an environmentalist those things give man the "power" to change the environment-a power expressly belonging to God (Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth. Is. 40:26).

The trouble for Christians is the fact that we are cannot escape the hype.  From grocery store ads to food packaging to television commercials and facebook ads and emails (like the one I just got from Lowes) environmentalist ideals surround us.  Since tomorrow is earth day there will be posts all over facebook, twitter etc. with people discussing what great things they are doing to help "save" the environment.  We can't allow ourselves to be caught up in it.  We need to be good stewards of the environment that is the job man was given all the way back in the Garden, but we need to remember that if we do what we do to "save" the environment we are attempting to usurp the power that is the Lord's alone.

Rom 1:20-25  For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:  Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.  Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:   Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.