This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created: 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, but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground—the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being (Genesis 2:4-7).

Excerpt from the RBC Discovery Series booklet,
“Celebrating the Wonder of Soil” by WOC Host Dean Ohlman:

Dirt is something we usually want to get rid of. To the fussy homemaker, it lurks everywhere, boldly making entrance with every child or, like Carl Sandburg’s fog, even creeping in “on little cat feet.” In terms of the cosmos, however, dirt—soil—is exceedingly scarce.

To get an idea about the extreme rarity of soil, imagine the earth as an apple. Cut it in half and examine the flat side. A tiny rim of red skin barely shows at the outer edge. That slim arc represents the soil thinly spread across the surface of our planet. What are the implications of this mental picture? Here are a few: The only life we’re aware of in the entire cosmos is what we see on earth. Billions of heavenly bodies are stretched across an expanse beyond our ability to imagine, and the only sign of life is here on our little apple!

Further, all such life is concentrated at or near the surface. There is no evidence to deny that a skimpy skin on a little planet is home to all material life that exists in the universe! Aside from what exists in the realm beyond our consciousness (the dwelling place of God and the unseen angels and spirits), all thinking, all procreation, all music and art, all hating and loving, all laughing and crying, all joy and sorrow are generally confined to within a few feet of the earth’s surface—all because of soil.

Soil is the anchor of the biosphere, the segment of the earth and its atmosphere where all life exists. The peak of Everest at 29,000 feet above sea level marks the upper limit of the sphere, and the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean at about 36,000 feet below sea level marks the extreme lower limit. So the maximum area of our planet capable of containing all life is a lean layer hardly 12 miles thick. And at the extremes there is little life at all. If you could take a core sample from the earth all the way through its 8,000-mile diameter, you’d find that the biosphere is merely the top and bottom 350th of your core sample!

I find it interesting to note that astrophysicists can provide us no earthly explanation for the existence of carbon-rich soil on this planet. That much carbon, by their assessment, could not have an earthly origin. But they can detect huge clouds of carbon-containing molecules in space that seem to be the result of star explosions. Their most recent conjecture is that this key life-giving element in soil is extraterrestrial. Simply put, they say we’re all made of stardust! These, and countless other findings, merely add more significance to the truism: Life is a miracle.

Summer Reading Suggestion:

This is an excerpt from one of the RBC Discovery Series booklets written by Dean Ohlman.  The five booklets in the “Celebrating” series can be read online here or they can be obtained from RBC at no cost.  They are booklets the same size as the “Our Daily Bread” devotional and would make ideal light reading for your summer vacation—even tucked into a backpack.

Also available for viewing online or ordering is the Day of Discovery “Wonder of Creation: Soil” three-part series, one of DOD’s most popular series.  You can watch it on the DOD website.  Available for viewing too is a four-part DOD series on the “Wonder of a Tree.”

[Woman sweeping source]

You [Nineveh] have increased the number of your merchants till they are more than the stars of the sky, but like locusts they strip the land and then fly away.  Your guards are like locusts, your officials like swarms of locusts that settle in the walls on a cold day—but when the sun appears they fly away, and no one knows where. (Nahum 3:176-17)

This the third in a series of questions that often come up in conservative Christian circles in reference to the earth’s environmental degradations—such as the current continuing Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Question: Isn’t environmental concern opposed to America’s free-market (capitalistic) economic system?

Answer: Not at all. In fact, it can be easily demonstrated that the best capitalist is the sincere and honest environmental scientist who is doing all he or she can do to preserve the ecological sources of life upon which economic systems are built (our true capital). A nation’s economy is built upon a broadly diverse, fruitful, and healthy environment.

Money, in fact, represents two things: our natural resources (goods) and the creative use of those resources by people (services). If people do not work hard to maintain the health of their nation’s environment, and if they carelessly pollute or waste their natural resources, their economy declines—unless, of course, they can extort or obtain by economic enticement the resources of other nations. That’s why the citizens of every nation must work hard to protect their natural environment and its resources (the creation) through sound and effective environmental regulation, careful conservation, and a great deal of suspicion toward multi-national corporations offering them a pittance for their natural resources.

Unfortunately, when personal profit becomes the primary focus of people, the inevitable result is environmental degradation. The area around Nineveh in Old Testament times demonstrated that according to the prophet Nahum: “Merchants, as numerous as the stars, have filled your city with vast wealth. But like a swarm of locusts, they strip the land and then fly away” (Nahum 3:16, NLT).  Nineveh simply collapsed, was covered by desert dust, and its location was forgotten until the discovery of its ruins in the mid-1800′s.

We need to understand that capitalism without Christianity can swiftly become as cold and cruel as socialism in the hands of oppressive dictators. That fact has been clear to wise leaders from the very beginning of the American nation and throughout its brief history. Woodrow Wilson, a visionary regarding the need for ethical economic behavior, said this about a free market unmarked by Christian virtues: “We are all caught in a great economic system which is heartless.”

One of the virtues lost is the understanding that we are stewards of the earth who need always to consider how its material benefits can be used in a manner that ultimately honors the Creator. Christians must supply the “heart” that guides an economy in its use of God’s creation gifts.

Western civilization takes pride in it’s “high standards of living.”  But we can’t forget that if our standards of living destroy our ecological sources of life, they should not be considered high, but sinful.  Watching grown men cry over wetlands and fisheries destroyed by “cost-cutting” pursuit of oil in the Gulf of Mexico is all the evidence we need of this fact.

They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator-who is forever praised. Amen (Romans 1:25).

This the second of a number of posts touching on questions I ‘ve received or heard from conservative evangelical Christians about issues relating to “the environment” (i.e. God’s good creation)

Question: Isn’t environmental concern primarily based on pantheistic thinking?

Answer: Because the earth is an object of worship for many of those given to New Age beliefs and other modern forms of pantheism, it’s logical for them to demonstrate devoted concern for the earth. That’s all they feel they have that is worthy of their reverence. Many of these individuals have followed the natural path of paganism illustrated by the apostle Paul: “They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen” (Rom. 1:25). There’s a world of difference, however, between those who care for creation because they believe the earth itself is divine and those who care for creation because they honor and worship its divine Creator and desire to obey Him.

It’s good to keep in mind that it’s logical for those who worship the creation to want to care for it—and to be disturbed by those who don’t care about it or for it. Pantheism (believing that God is everything or that He is the impersonal force that inhabits everything) is significant today among many who are concerned about the degradation of the earth’s environment. In fact, forty years ago Francis Schaeffer warned the evangelical community that if we did not begin to address these real crises, the philosophy of the environmental movement would come to be based on pantheism. He was already voicing that concern when the Cuyahoga River in Ohio caught fire (because of extreme pollution by flammable liquids dumped into the stream by careless industries). This shocking event sent many non-Christians into a search for a philosophy or worldview they felt would better address the abuse of our environment because, sadly, they did not find it in Christianity where it should have been evident.

Chuck Colson in his book The Body told us that, “we should be contending for truth in every area of life. Not for power or because we are taken with some trendy cause, but humbly to bring glory to God. For this reason, Christians should be the most ardent ecologists.”

Christians should be able to demonstrate to those who have fallen into neo-paganism and pantheism that the Christian faith provides ample support for creation stewardship. Fundamentally, Christians should care because earth stewardship is our responsibility of service to God (Genesis 2:15).

Many believers who are outspoken advocates of creation care—good earthkeeping—have had significant opportunities to reach non-Christians with the truth of the Gospel—providing them with the fundamental reason for environmental concern: respect for and obedience to the One who created the earth. Many so-called earth worshipers might be drawn to the message of the Gospel if more believers lived out the meaning of the Gospel in all its aspects—including respect and care for the Creator’s handiwork.

A believer is an evangelist primarily by who he is and how he lives––not by what he says. What he says is important; but unless his speaking tallies with what he is and does, he had better keep quiet. [Joseph Sittler, 1973]

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).

For the next few posts I’d like to offer my answers to some of the questions I have gotten or heard from Christians about issues related to the environment.  Today’s question involves a coined term that I like: “earthkeeping”—which is a good way to characterize our God-given responsibility to be good stewards of God’s good earth: the task mandated by Genesis 1:15.

Question:  Isn’t “earthkeeping” just another expression for “environmentalism”?

Answer: When a philosophy becomes dominant in an individual’s life, it virtually becomes a religion. When it does, we often add the suffix “ism” to the main word defining what people have given themselves over to. Many people are so given over to socialism, capitalism, scientism, creationism, libertarianism, or any one of dozens of other “isms” that these become virtual worship systems for them.

Because these philosophies and/or belief systems come to rule an individual’s behavior, they strongly affect their emotions as well as their beliefs. “Environmentalism” is an emotionally charged word that evokes images of radical activists storming the fences of nuclear power plants or chaining themselves to trees about to be cut, made in to timber, and sent to Home Depot. It can also paint mental pictures of people worshiping nature. Without question, thousands of environmental activists really do seem to have no greater object of worship than the natural world. The material world appears to have become their god because it’s the most amazing thing they know.

Christians, of course, don’t want to be associated with nature worship, so we don’t want to be characterized as “environmentalists.” However, the difference between “environmentalism” and truly biblical earthkeeping is pretty extreme. Some environmentalism tends toward worship of the creation; biblical earthkeeping, however, is centered on a personal relationship with and worship of the Creator. And as a part of our worship we respect and care for the creation that comes from God’s awesome power and gracious providence.

Caring for creation is one of the major responsibilities given by God to His people (Gen. 2:15). And there is no reason we can’t combine that responsibility with all the other responsibilities we have: care for our children, care for our neighbor, care for the lost, care for our pets and domestic animals, and the like. All the while we take great pains not to make the objects of our care the objects of our worship (Rom. 1:21-25).

Our caring concern for the environment—God’s good earth—is an obligation of our divinely ordered work, not an aspect of our worship.

[Question icon source. Environmentalism icon source.  Millet painting: The Angelus]

I will exalt you, my God the King; I will praise your name for ever and ever.  Every day I will praise you and extol your name for ever and ever. Great is the LORD and most worthy of praise; his greatness no one can fathom. One generation will commend your works to another; they will tell of your mighty acts. They will speak of the glorious splendor of your majesty, and I will meditate on your wonderful works (Psalm 145:1-5)

Poor Rachel Carson (May 27, 1907 – April 14, 1964) can’t seem to rest in peace.  Ever since her book Silent Spring virtually spawned the modern Environmental Movement, her scientific conclusions about DDT have been accepted, rejected, challenged and re-researched so often that it’s hard to know the truth about it.  Mostly, however, the issue has been an economic football kicked from post to post in a hard-fought battle between conservative libertarians and perceived “liberal” scientists.  For sure the issue has kept in everyone’s attention the advisability of spreading “cides” all over the landscape and has rightly cautioned us about using them without knowing all of the effects and side-effects of their use.

Rachel grew up in rural Pennsylvania and loved to explore and learn from the natural world as she ambled around her family’s 65-acre farm.  She was such an astute observer and good student that she had an article published when she was eleven!  Her sense of wonder in nature never left her.  In fact, it became the topic of another of her books: The Sense of Wonder.  The following quote from the book is found on the WOC page Creation Quotations and Wonder Kids.  Although Carson was not known as a follower of Christ and was probably a secular naturalist, her views on children and the sense of wonder are wise words for us to heed:

A child’s world is fresh and new and beautiful, full of wonder and excitement. It is our misfortune that for most of us that clear-eyed vision, that true instinct for what is beautiful and awe-inspiring, is dimmed and even lost before we reach adulthood. If I had influence with the good fairy who is supposed to preside over the christening of all children I should ask that her gift to each child in the world be a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life, as an unfailing antidote against the boredom and disenchantments of later years, the sterile preoccupation with things that are artificial, the alienation from the sources of our strength.

If a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder without any such gift from the fairies, he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, excitement and mystery of the world we live in. Parents often have a sense of inadequacy when confronted on the one hand with the eager, sensitive mind of a child and on the other with a world of complex physical nature, inhabited by a life so various and unfamiliar that it seems hopeless to reduce it to order and knowledge. In a mood of self-defeat, they exclaim, “How can I possibly teach my child about nature—why, I don’t even know one bird from another!”

I sincerely believe that for the child, and for the parent seeking to guide him, it is not half so important to know as to feel. If facts are the seeds that later produce knowledge and wisdom, then the emotions and the impressions of the senses are the fertile soil in which the seeds must grow. The years of early childhood are the time to prepare the soil. Once the emotions have been aroused—a sense of the beautiful, the excitement of the new and the unknown, a feeling of sympathy, pity, admiration or love—then we wish for knowledge about the object of our emotional response. Once found, it has lasting meaning. It is more important to pave the way for the child to want to know than to put him on a diet of facts he is not ready to assimilate.

[From The Sense of Wonder, by Rachel L. Carson]

[Our grandchildren---from top to bottom:  Gunnar, Elle, and Anna]