The Lion, the Curse, & the Evangelical: Part 3
June 18, 2008
Dean Ohlman is a writer, producer, photojournalist and frequent contributor to Creation Care.
This post originally appeared in Creation Care Magazine. You can find Part 1 and Part 2 here.
Perhaps none have missed this high calling as profoundly as we evangelicals who say we desire to live by the “whole counsel of God.” Not grasping that the gospel we preach is also good news for the other living creatures that share the earth with us, we have neglected and even abused God’s good creation. We have forgotten that the evangel is not only to be preached, but also to be lived out faithfully under the gaze of the watching world. Witnessing for Christ does not only mean sharing God’s salvation plan for man; it also means we demonstrate renewed appreciation and care for the natural world that God will also save. Simply put, nature is also going to be “born again.” Do we hold that joyous truth in our hearts as a motivation to cherish creation’s fellow worshippers who are also recipients of God’s attention and compassion?
Schaeffer asked us a significant question over 35 years ago that most of us older evangelicals never bothered to answer:
Christians, who should understand the creation principle, have a reason for respecting nature, and when they do, it results in benefits to man. Let us be clear: it is not just a pragmatic attitude; there is a basis for it. We treat it with respect because God made it. When an orthodox, evangelical Christian mistreats or is insensible to nature, at that point he is more wrong than the hippie who has no real basis for his feeling for nature and yet senses that man and nature should have a relationship beyond that of spoiler and spoiled. You may, or may not, want to walk barefoot to feel close to nature, but as a Christian what relationship have you thought of and practiced toward nature as your fellow creature, over the last ten years?
Because our theology of nature is slim and anemic, we evangelicals have simply missed the boat on this matter. By our carelessness toward the natural world, we’ve often been negative witnesses for our Savior and Creator. We’ve also failed to see that many unbelievers will refuse to listen to the good news addressed to them because they see that we have neglected to be evangelical in reference to God’s creation — to be “complete evangelicals.”
I used to backpedal when evangelicals responded to my urging, “Yes, we do have a responsibility to care for creation, but that has to be the lowest of our priorities.” I would agree far too easily. But I’m not going to do that anymore. The reason is that the majority of those who use that argument almost always demonstrate that God-honoring care for the creation does not appear anywhere on their priority list. Yes, the endangered souls of men are our major concern, but we have no justification for prioritizing our evangelical responsibilities in such a way that some of them are never attended to. The reason I feel so strongly about it is that regardless of where it appears on our priority list, when any responsibility is neglected for a long period of time, the consequences of that neglect become greater and more demanding. By our disregard for creation, the responsibility of creation stewardship is rapidly climbing toward the top of our list, because our long neglect of the non-human creation is now beginning to seriously impact the human community we say we love. Water and air pollution and other degradations of God’s good creation are killing thousands every year. The health of people depends upon the health of the earth. That’s why we must be completely pro-life, not selectively so.
Now is the time for evangelicals to speak for the dumb—the voiceless creation that is looking forward to the consummation of all things when it will by the redeeming power of Jesus’ death and resurrection be relieved of the frustration of the curse and of thoughtless human exploitation. Let Handel’s familiar melody touch your heart as you read the lyrics of praise that poured from the soul of Isaac Watts:
Joy to the world! The Lord is come;
Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare Him room,
And heaven and nature sing.
Joy to the earth! The Savior reigns;
Let men their tongues employ;
While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains
Repeat the sounding joy.
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