Creation Care as a Catalyst for Christian Revival (suggested try)

Then I heard all the living things in creation—everything that lives in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth, and in the sea, crying:

To the One seated on the throne and to the Lamb,

be all praise, honour, glory, and power,

for ever and ever.

(Revelation 5:13 NJB)

...the whole creation is waiting with eagerness for the children of God to be revealed ... with the intention that the whole creation itself might be freed from its slavery to corruption and brought into the same glorious freedom as the children of God.

(Romans 8:19, 21)

And he (Jesus) said to them (the eleven), "Go out to the whole world; proclaim the gospel to all creation.

(Mark 16:15)

He (Jesus) is the image of the unseen God,

the first-born of all creation,

for in him were created all things

in heaven and on earth:

...all things were created through him and for him.

(Colossians 1:15, 16)

An Evangelical Calling To Creation Care

The gospel is to be proclaimed to all creation. That is, the crucified-and-resurrected Jesus Christ is, in final sum, the one good news to all creation, not only to humanity but to all that constitutes the created order. Human beings have the awesome privilege and responsibility to announce that gospel, a good news for which all of creation eagerly and desperately cries out. Through the Incarnation of the eternal Son, Jesus Christ is the foundation of all creation, the Word that gathers the created order together in holy adoration-communion to the Triune Creator.

Environmentalists on many fronts press valiantly to save the planet from ecological collapse. As we humans befoul our nests with a malignant cornucopia of pollutants, as we people strip our planet of its capacity to regenerate, as we of humanity diminish the beauty of the earth, enlightened ones have climbed the watchtowers to cry out warning. These prophets of the Earth we laud. And increasingly people of good will are "rebuilding the walls" of our crumbled planet; to these we also laud. Yet a thundering avalanche of planetary destruction drowns the din of the prophets cry; and too much the wall-builders daub with "untempered mortar."

I am in somewhat frequent contact with certain secular environmentalists whose love, commitment, and valiant personal sacrifice for the planet are undeniable. Yet they are losing the war, and down-deep they know it. I have seen them betray their despair. The battle, finally, is the Lord's to win. We cannot save ourselves or the Earth; only God, with chosen instruments at his command , can restore this planet. For the Earth is the Lord's, and it is for his good purpose and pleasure that his creation will prosper.

The EEN was birthed in response to an appeal "to the Religious Community" at the dawn of this decade by 32 internationally-acclaimed scientists, some of them atheists. "We scientists ... urgently appeal to the world religious community to commit, in word and deed, and as boldly as is required, to preserve the environment of the Earth." In 1993 when I had the privilege to work with the fledgling EEN, I dreamed of a gathering river of evangelical Christians committing themselves to honor God through intentional and selfless care of his creation. I admit that the flame of this vision now flickers low ("breathe, Holy Spirit, thy bellows this spark to flame").

Yet I truly cannot envision earth-healing of the magnitude that the wounds require without a powerful, Spirit-anointed movement within Evangelical Christians. I truly honor the witness of our mainline denomination sisters and brothers, our Roman Catholic kindred, our Jewish cousins, who bring much intelligence, innovation, and forthrightness to creation care advocacy. Yet it is when evangelicals begin to do what evangelicals do best that we will see the scope of earth healing that Romans 8:19 portends.

First of all, evangelicals proselytize. They share their faith, they actively seek converts. The majority of Christian numerical growth occuring both nationally and globally is from the wellspring of evangelicalism ( including the charismatic and pentecostal streams). When evangelicals come to understand that the gospel is for all creation (Mark 16:15), then teaching on creation care will be an accompaniment of disciple formation.

Second, evangelicals are a people who stand upon the authority of the biblical scriptures. They offer well-founded resistance to political and materialistic monisms. Evangelicals really do believe that God is alive and present like the Bible says, rather than, say, a philosophical premise for culture. Evangelicals believe the Transcendent chooses to be Immanent. Evangelicals pray, believing that God will hear and act with power and grace. And while intellectual prowess has yet to mature with consistency throughout the ranks (here thank God for our mainline and Catholic friends!), many evangelicals exude forth passionate fervor, celebratory joy, and "heart" to a world jaded and exhausted by worn-out Enlightenment positivism. As evangelicals come to embrace the biblical mandate for creation care, they will bring groundedness, faith, and enthusiastic commitment.

Third, evangelicals are a people who worship God. Many of what might be termed social movements advocating justice, peace, or for that matter, a healthy environment, are fueled by an ethic cut off from its source. Anthropologically, that source is the Biblical revelation, however transmogrified by Greek, Islamic, Eastern, and Enlightenment philosophies. Evangelicals will not worship the Earth. Rather, they will join along with all creation to worship the One who has made us all. Evangelicals know that the periphery of a circle is subordinate to its center, in contrast with a postmodern world that has jettisoned God yet foolishly believes it can sustain a societal order. Rousseau was wrong, for when humans haughtily cast off religion for liberty, they build guillotines and gulags. Evangelicals who worship God will be partisan neither to biocentric nor anthropocentric polarities and their destructive agendas. To worship God is the end of all creation. All else is subordinate. Evangelicals who worship God rejoice that others, too, worship God. As evangelicals come to see that all creation is called to praise and worship God (Rev. 5:13), they will want to nurture to health all of God's creatures that their voices sing praise to their maker. Such harmony of voice is the spiritual calling of ecology.

Thus a strategy to call evangelicals into fruitful earthkeeping is to play upon our giftings. I have discussed our predilection for evangelism, our rootage in the authority of scripture and faith in a living God, and our commitment to worship the God of Jesus Christ and none other. More could be added, but suffice to say, if we evangelicals grasp ahold the vision that the gospel is for all creation, and walk faithfully in the giftings we have been graced, then healing balm will salve the earth, and the groaning of creation will turn into rejoicing.