Saturday morning I drove to Lytton Springs to pick up a friend and go shopping. It was an emotional trek ~~ sadness for the fact that a landfill is going to be taking up much of the area I was passing, and yet joy for seeing all the No Landfill signs in a majority of yards. To succinctly summarize my position and empower you to make a decision to either continue reading or go bathe the dog, the landfill is unnecessary, unhealthy, and irresponsible; it is a power-play by greedy, ambitious corporate lackeys to out-smart, out-maneuver, and out-legislate sycophant politicians and a gullible, impotent, uninformed public. Notwithstanding that Green Group Holdings (GGH) is the embodiment of every bully from Goliath to Biff Tannen, what do we do with our trash? Do we keep on consuming, using, buying, tossing – until we have an Idiocracy Moment and the last Pepsi can triggers our end? A Scripture came to my mind that we had read when our family studied another topic, the Biblical doctrine of war. Deuteronomy 20:19 tells us, “When you besiege a city for a long time, making war against it in order to take it, you shall not destroy its trees by wielding an axe against them. You may eat from them, but you shall not cut them down. Are the trees in the field human, that they should be besieged by you? The principle here is that man is not to harm creation in wartime. (We will resist the temptation to digress with the subject of nuclear war and depleted uranium that utterly destroys man, beast, and earth in utter violation of this command.) If man is to respect creation during wartime, what about during peace? Shouldnt we be good stewards ALL the time? So that evening I began to search out the topic, Environment and the Bible. Just putting those two words together on paper, I had a mental flash of two north pole magnets, foreseeing the political polarizing this topic has created: One party is known to be the friend of corporations that have enough money to buy legislators and anti-environment legislation; and one party is famous / infamous for being wacko tree-huggers. The former is quite handy with quoting Scripture to justify invading foreign nations and seizing their resources but hesitates when it comes to Things Ecological; the latter would like to keep Scripture out of every discussion – generally speaking. It is these political preconceived ideas of how we should think based on the R or D on our voter card that keeps us from honestly asking, What did Noah do with his trash? and “Should Christians recycle?” For one thing, old Noah did not have a lot of plastic bags, old bottles of out-dated Rx pills, paper, glass, aluminum or even industrial waste and chemicals that poisoned sky, land, and water. He probably did have a huge pile of scrap lumber from the Ark, or maybe he stored that onboard to use for making shelters post-Deluge? I found this perspective from one site that talks about the Christian’s duty to the planet. Basically, the thought is that it’s all going to aych-ee-double-toothpicks anyway, so why bother about this place called Earth? And I quote: No amount of recycling or “thinking green” will forestall the end that God has planned for the earth. Despite all the best plans of men to preserve the planet, there will come a time when the earth and all He has created will be destroyed. “The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare” (2 Peter 3:10). The earth itself is winding down in preparation for that cataclysmic event, one that will cause man’s destructive behaviors toward the environment to pale in comparison. Romans 8:20-22 speaks of a creation which groans in anticipation of the time when it will be set free from the bondage to the principle of decay. This is the end we should be looking to and planning for and which should make our evangelistic efforts all the more urgent. Soda cans can be recycled; people cannot. Therefore, our greatest efforts should be toward saving souls, not the planet. Source: gotquestions.org/recycling-Christian.html (end quote) Did you catch what I did? How can the planet be BOTH destroyed and saved? Is it going to be “burned up,” or is it going to be “set free from decay”? I personally take the view with the prophet Jeremiah that God’s Law is like fire and as our hearts are changed to revere His eternal commandments, our lives and our environments are restored to perfect order. The law of Moses was a “fiery law” of the old covenant written in stone, but then there was Pentecost when tongues of heavenly fire came upon Believers, and now that fiery law is written on our hearts. If the “fiery law” was given in love (“At His right hand there was a fiery law for them; Indeed, He loves the people” Deut. 33:2-3), how much moreso are we able to overcome all obstacles because we are indwelt with the most powerful force on earth: Love. If we say we love God, doesn’t that mean that we care for what He owns? “The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it” is stated in both the Old and New Testaments. (Ps. 24:1 and 1 Cor. 10:26) If I love my husband and he really, really likes his favorite coffee cup, I am going to take efforts to make sure I handle that cup with care. How is it not so with what our Creator owns? Should we trash His place just because ‘someday’ there will be a ‘cataclysmic event’? The folks at gotquestions above are missing a couple of salient points. People get saved not just to go to heaven after physical death, but to have the power to obey God and advance the crown rights of the King of Kings here and now. Pure water, clean air, healthy flora and fauna are necessary for life and for this planet to be capable of providing life to us. There should be no more fervent champion for these essentials than the redeemed Child of God. The second thing is that the works of Christ are twofold: redemption and restoration. Sadly, many of the redeemed have already decided in their hearts that they are going to wait on Jesus to come back for them, rapture them out of the cesspool that this planet is becoming, and then let Him do the dirty work of cleaning it up -- kind of like the King of Ireland in Braveheart, The Lord says that Im going to be okeh, but you are fooked. Sorry, that’s not the way it is going to play out. We were given the explicit command to take dominion, and that has never been edited out. Last time I looked, Genesis 1:28 was still there. Another thing that we need to consider is that gluttony is not necessarily defined as eating too much food. It’s also lusting after more than we need for ourselves or for serving others. If we dealt with the crux of the matter, the condition of the heart and self-control / temperance, then we would not need to consider razing the land for more dumps. If recycling and respecting the earth seems too hard, then maybe you should consider this verse that reminds us all of the Owner and His property rights: “The nations raged, but Your wrath came, and the time for the dead to be judged, and for rewarding Your servants, the prophets and saints, and those who fear Your name, both small and great, and for destroying the destroyers of the earth.” Revelation 11:17 “What do people see when they look in their garbage can? What does it reveal about what they really believe about God, the care of the earth, and the values that are shaped by convenience, indifference and laziness? It is time Christians make a greater effort to be congruent about what they believe, say and do. They can start with the garbage,” says author John Swanson, Director of Lutheran Outdoor Ministries. Good questions there, John. Mike and I are going to assess our stewardship and see how we can improve our current waste management. Watch this video of Sweden’s efforts to use trash to provide energy. It’s quite inspiring.
Posted on: Mon, 08 Sep 2014 06:42:13 +0000
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