Saturday, October 10, 2009

Accessible Eschatology: the end and the environment

Some Christians are generally unconcerned about the health of the environment. Why pay attention to dwindling resources when the God who works miracles can lovingly provide for his people whatever they need? A certain sector of dispensationalism has extra incentive for this lack of concern. Why care about global climate change when the big idea is that God will rapture us out of this earth?

Some take it one step even further, that we should welcome ecological collapse as a sign that the Apocalypse is growing ever nearer. On RaptureReady.com, they maintain a "Rapture Index," which is described as follows:
"You could say the Rapture index is a Dow Jones Industrial Average of end time activity, but I think it would be better if you viewed it as prophetic speedometer. The higher the number, the faster we're moving towards the occurrence of pre-tribulation rapture."
Among the factors they consider to be positively related to quickening the rapture (and therefore worthy of our excitement) are Wild Weather, Famine, Drought, Climate, and Food Supply.

So, what do you think? Many Christians reject these arguments and consider themselves environmentalists. They give many good reasons:
--Christians are called to be stewards of God's gifts to us, and this earth is one of those gifts, so we should take care of it rather than exploiting it.
--The creation is described as "good" throughout Genesis 1 even before human beings are mentioned, so we should honor it as good in its own right rather than merely good as something to be used for our human purposes.
--The "creation mandate" in Genesis 1:26-28, the first command ever given to human beings, instructs us to "rule over" the earth with the kind of rule that God shows over us - a rule of love and care.

These are good points, and I agree with them. I think we can add two additional factors from an eschatological perspective that would make us even more sympathetic with the environmentalist cause than with the exploitive view of creation described earlier. One factor is against welcoming environmental destruction, and another is in favor of caring for the environment.

Against Welcoming Environmental Destruction
If we look back to our post on the signs of the end, we find a number of things to expect before Jesus returns. Some are good, many are bad. But it would be ridiculous to say that Christians should cheer for the bad things to happen, let alone participate in them. Would you cheer for someone falsely claiming to be Christ merely because you knew it might be a sign of the real Christ's return? Would you assist such a person in rising to power, faking miracles, and persecuting Christians, all to rush the coming of the glorious end? Of course not. Likewise, it would be backwards to choose not to worry about the environmental impact of your decisions with an attitude of, "Hey, who cares about this world? Maybe I'll even speed the coming of Jesus!" When we apply this same logic to the martyrdom of Christians, we see its absurdity. We don't cheer for bad stuff or accelerate evil - we endure hardship and suffering of all kinds for the sake of Christ, and we work as agents of redemption in this world.

In Favor Of Caring For The Environment
Here's another thought: what about the positive destiny of this earth? If you are premillennial in your convictions, you believe that Christ will reign on this earth for a really long time. Many amillennial believers today have similar convictions, seeing the "new heavens and new earth" described in the Bible as an utter renewal of the current creation rather than a completely fresh start with all new materials. One can make an argument for this possibility from the linguistic range of the word "new" in the Hebrew and Greek, but there are logical and analogical reasons for accepting this position as well. If this creation is inherently good, why would God start over completely? Why would he annihilate everything? Wouldn't that be, in a sense, an admission of the failure of this creation? By analogy, look at Noah and the flood. When this creation needed a fresh start, God didn't obliterate everything; he cleansed this earth and used its raw materials moving forward.

So, whether you are premillennial or amillennial, you have good reason to believe that this earth will see a glorious age someday. Unless you are postmillennial (which we argued earlier is the wrong view to take), you do not think the Church will be the one to usher in the golden age. Only the return of Jesus will bring that era. But what is our work for the kingdom of God in this age, if not the establishment of foretastes of the coming kingdom? When we extend God's grace to others, when we pray for physical healing, when we live humbly and generously, when we praise God in word and deed, are we not erecting signposts on this earth of God's redemption and the coming kingdom? Though our efforts will not bring the kingdom in its fullness, we are to live our lives now to partner with God in bringing whatever corner of the kingdom into realization as is in our sphere of influence.

As pastor and author Francis Bridger points out, this should apply to our care for the environment:
The primary argument for our ecological responsibility lies in the connection between old and new creation. ... In acting to preserve and enhance the created order we are pointing to the coming rule of God in Christ. ... Ecological ethics are not, therefore, anthropocentric: they testify to the vindicating acts of God in creation and redemption. ... [T]he fact that it is God who will bring about a new order of creation at the End ... frees us from the burden of ethical and technological autonomy and makes it clear that human sovereignty is relative. The knowledge that this is God’s world, that our efforts are not directed toward the construction of an ideal utopia but that we are, under God, building bridgeheads of the kingdom serves to humble us and to bring us to the place of ethical obedience.1

So, take care of this earth, and not just for the sake of human convenience. Rejoice at its flourishing; mourn at its frustration. Remember that we are living in the already-but-not-yet kingdom of God - participate in its presence, and look forward to its glorious future consummation.

Next post: the future and the work of our hands.


1. Francis Bridger, “Ecology and Eschatology: A Neglected Dimension,” Tyndale Bulletin 41, no. 2 (1990): 301, as quoted in Christopher J. H. Wright, The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible's Grand Narrative (Downers Grove, Ill.: IVP Academic, 2006), 411.