Creation

From the creation of the very first people in the garden of Eden, human beings were called to develop the earth to create all kinds of wealth and riches that lay hidden and undeveloped in creation. This development was not and is not easy. There are three ways by which wealth can be built: hard work, inheritance, or theft.

Tracking the development of Western thought from the Reformation and forward into today, we notice that several contemporary dominant ideas that have their root in self-conscious opposition to God and His Word, and to the idea of man as the image-bearer of God. Chief among these in our own time is the modern green movement. What does a biblical approach to climate stewardship look like?

The biblical starting point for all human activity – including academic reflection – is the character of God as revealed in the Bible, the incarnate Son, and the created world. For man to begin with anything else is necessarily to respond in an idolatrous fashion.

As image-bearers of God, human beings occupy a privileged place within creation. The wonder of man is that he occupies a kingly position as the religious center of the temporal cosmos. Christ Jesus emphasized the central place of man not only by His own incarnation, but by the relative value he placed on human beings and the responsibility we have to care for and cultivate other parts of creation.

Scripture clearly connects the activities of creation and redemption as a unified totality in Jesus Christ, pointing to the ultimate destiny of redeemed humanity in resurrection life. In Colossians 1:15-20, Paul affirms that all things in the entire cosmos, visible and invisible, including all powers and authorities, both heavenly and earthly, were created through and for Christ. Nothing exists by itself or for itself – including man – but consists in an unbreakable coherence with all other things by virtue of creation.

Cal Beisner, founder of the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation, explains the relationship between biblical stewardship of the earth and care for the poor, how environmental concern got co-opted by socialism, and how Christians can improve our stewardship of creation.