The second chapter of Engaging God’s World focuses on creation and humanity’s role in God’s creation. Plantinga starts his chapter by emphasizing Jesus’ role in creation. When we learn the creation story, Jesus is never expressly mentioned, “so we find it difficult to think of him acting as the mediator of creation” (19). It is important to recognize that, through Jesus, all of God’s acts are made clearer to us. As Plantinga continues to talk about creation, he points out that “Creation is neither a necessity nor an accident” (23). God chose to create the world. He wanted us here! The reason he created us was for his glory. This means that, as much as we pretend otherwise, this world is not human centered. A good way to think of this, says Plantinga, is to imagine the world as a stage for God. We were merely secondary characters who contribute to God’s story. Because the world does not revolve of us, we have to take care of God’s creation. The creation story does not give humans the permission to destroy other parts of creation because humans are not the center. We must fight for God’s creation.
I was really interested in this last part. So often I feel that many Christians ignore God’s call to take care of the Earth. The great irony of humanity is that, while we were given a mandate to care for creation, we are often the thing that endangers creation the most. Historically, Christians are not the people who fight against oil companies or inhuman meat processing plants. Why is this? Christians should be at the front lines of protest against creation killing operations. I am not saying that all Christians should join PETA and throw paint at anyone wearing fur. This is not a way to show God’s love. We may have to start small. Maybe this means riding your bike to work once a week or buying only organic vegetables. Just because you do not agree with the Global Warming contingent does not mean that you should drive an SUV everywhere in protest. The point is that you must think of what your decisions are doing to the planet. Sure, it is nice to have a bathroom for each of the four people in your family, but the amount of damage you leave on the Earth is smaller when you buy a house with three bathrooms. Good stewardship looks different for everybody, but I challenge you to do your research and think more about how what you do changes God’s creation.
Corrie, your comment about PETA made me laugh...real hard. I can just imagine what a protest of that nature would look like on campus. But you are absolutely right about Christians failing in the environmental department. The bible talks so much of justice, and yet, Christians distance themselves from the very problems that require justice:food industry, poverty, environmental destruction,etc. Your concluding statement is well said. Nice job, Corrie.
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I found it amusing when you said as much as we want to pretend, the world does not revolve around us. We are only pretending that it does and the more we pretend the more we buy into that fact that is actually does. We become pathological liars. It is articles like Lewis' that bring us back to the right state of mind and remind us that this earth is Gods and we are simply guests here.
ReplyDeleteThe world can survive without us, but we can't survive without the world. It's Gods gift to us and we should take care of it. Littering, dumping in water systems, leaking oil etc. are more relevant environmental issues. Riding a bike to work is symbolic, not helpful even if you do believe in man made global warming. Most of automobile greenhouse gas emmisions are semi trucks anyway and even if everybody rode their bikes once a month the change would be negligible. I like your points, the example just bothers me. One forrest fire (a naturally occuring incident) has more emissions than anything we do...we should all give this a break. I call it the religion of green. It's a way people go to find happiness and consider themselves a good person if they don't have that from God. Riding your bike isn't helpful it just makes you feel better about yourself. Distressing where people turn when they don't have Christ.
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