Questions about God: 8. Is God bothered about our ‘carbon-footprint’?

Is God bothered about our ‘carbon-footprint’?

God, the creator of all things, is totally concerned with the world. The book of Genesis (in the Bible) describes how God intentionally and specifically designed and formed the world. After creating our world He paused and described it as ‘good’. On completion of it all with the ultimate in creation, the first man and woman, God described it as ‘very good’. God is concerned for His creation.

When creating humans He commanded them to take care of the earth and tend to its needs. However, Adam and Eve rejected God’s plans and commands and lived for their own pleasure instead. In short, they sinned. As a result God cursed the earth, so that thorns were to grow and we humans would only live by the sweat of our brow. Farming and agriculture became hard work. Death entered the world, and the paradise that God made became a paradise lost.

As tenants of God’s earth, we are to look after it. There is no excuse for abusing it. The Bible gives specific instructions concerning these issues. For example, it teaches that in war and in peace the land, vegetation and trees are to be cared for and protected. Animals are not to be cruelly treated. Each generation has a responsibility to care for itself and for future generations.

However, the overwhelming teaching of the Bible is that people matter to God much more than things, even things He has created. When a prophet in the Bible, called Jonah, was more concerned about a plant withering away than for the people living in the city of Nineveh, God spoke to him and said, ‘You have been concerned about this vine, though you did not tend it or make it grow…But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people…Should I not be concerned about that great city?’ (Jonah 4 v.10) The Bible’s teaching gives no place for animal rights activists who would kill or maim people for the sake of pursuing their own agenda.

Principles and trends need to be kept in line with God’s priorities and truths. It cannot be right for parts of the world to so indulge themselves squandering the world’s resources, while others suffer from sickness, starvation or want of basic needs. There has to be responsible and selfless use of the world’s resources.

God shows His concern for the world to be righteous by promising one day to destroy this earth, with its corruption, disease and death, by fire. He will make a new heaven and a new earth. Meanwhile, this earth, cursed because of sin, can and should be a place where God is honoured by people who love and obey Him.

It is essential that we get our priorities right and our principles in order. Jesus Himself said, ‘What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?’ (Mark 8 v.36) It is proper that we look after the world, and everything in it, but we must first ensure our lives are in a right condition with God before we worry about other things.

Go to: Why do you believe the Bible?

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