See Dean’s “Ambling” post today about finding a bioluminescent insect larva.

When the LORD God made the earth and the heavens and no shrub of the field had yet appeared on the earth and no plant of the field had yet sprung up, for the LORD God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no man to work the ground (Genesis 2:4-5)

The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. (Genesis 2:15)

A man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh (Genesis 224).

References to mankind’s original role and responsibility as defined in Genesis 1 and 2 have often been called the “cultural mandate.” Here is the definition of that term from Wikipedia:

“The cultural mandate or creation mandate is a doctrine among some evangelical Christians which teaches that the Christian faith provides principles that are applicable not only to be to one’s personal life and the life of the church, but also to the structures and governance of society, which if appropriately comprehended can assist Christians to thereby “redeem the culture” for the good of all. It is summarized by Nancy Pearcey in her book Total Truth:”

In Genesis, God gives what we might call the first job description: “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it.” The first phrase, “be fruitful and multiply” means to develop the social world: build families, churches, schools, cities, governments, laws. The second phrase, “subdue the earth,” means to harness the natural world: plant crops, build bridges, design computers, compose music. This passage is sometimes called the Cultural Mandate because it tells us that our original purpose was to create cultures, build civilizations—nothing less.

A further understanding is this: though the earth was created “very good,” it was undeveloped. It was God’s purpose for mankind to develop all the good potentialities of His good creation. I believe Nancy Pearcey’s book is an important read for every Christian who wants to dig deep into the meaning of “cultural mandate” and its implications for our use—and abuse—of the earth. Her definition of it is based on Genesis 1:26-28:

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.

This understanding of the cultural mandate has been mine for decades—as it has for thousands, if not millions, of Christians. But I’m beginning to feel strongly that everything that has been included in the concept—and especially all that has been excluded—have created major problems for mankind.

First, as I see it, when you add all the mandates for humankind that are issued before the Fall in both chapters 1 and 2, there’s nothing there that demands the extent of culture making Nancy sees: “’Be fruitful and multiply’ means to develop the social world: build families, churches, schools, cities, governments, laws. The second phrase, ‘subdue the earth,’ means to harness the natural world: plant crops, build bridges, design computers, compose music.’”

While other Scriptures might provide a basis to reach such an inference, Genesis 1 and 2 don’t. The mandates that appear there are these: First people are to have dominion over and subdue the natural world (1:26, 28). Second, like the animals, people are to multiply and fill the earth (1:28). Third, people (pictured by Adam in the Garden) are to cultivate the soil and care for it (2:15). Fourth, people are to form families from the reproductive process of male and female in sexual union.

Clearly implied in these is that people and the other living creatures are to become abundant on the earth through natural reproduction and that while people are in stewardly dominion over the earth, their stewardship involves cultivating, protecting, and caring for the soil and knowing enough about the nature of the other creatures to name (classify) them (2:20). This qualifies the terms “subdue” and “dominion” to mean that people are responsible to their Creator for the welfare of both the land and its other creatures—as we form our cultures.

This compels me to suggest that perhaps we should go elsewhere in Scripture for some sort of cultural mandate (may I suggest the Ten Commandments?) and refer to the directives in Genesis 1 and 2 as the “natural mandate”—which is more to the point of these passages.

One wonders what might have happened in the Protestant realm in the past five centuries if the Reformers had seen in these foundational chapters the importance of simply caring for creation and not complicated it with all the trappings of human cultural institutions, most of which quickly forgot the natural implications of the Genesis account. What if they had emphasized more strongly that the Creator’s economy has precedence over and provides the model for human economies? Maybe human culture would today show more respect for and take more responsibility for the natural world—seeking more to protect, guard, conserve, and wisely use it than to abuse and consume it.

The implications of a “natural mandate” are looked at more in depth in this article from the “Articles” page.

[The paintings shown here, from Wikipedia, have been favorites of thousands of people over the years---including me.  They are done by Jean-Francois Millet in a period of his life when he wanted to honor the country folk whose simple lives and dedication to the work of "cultivating" soil needed to be acknowledged and appreciated by all.]