What Are We To Do?
Fear not, as our God will in His time right the wrongs and fix what’s broken.
Read Time: 6 minutes
For years there has been an ever-increasing concern being voiced in the world around us by young and old about climate change, greenhouse gasses, misuse of limited natural resources, pollution and more. Environmentalists and social activists have lobbied hard for companies and governments to change. Token changes are made here and there. There tends to be swelling words from politicians about what they are going to do to promote a better environment and a better world for all. Billions and even trillions of dollars are allocated by governments that suggest they are investing to really change things.
What see today will continue to get worse and worse and worse.
Scientific data is cited on how the earth is being destroyed. Marketing campaigns are launched, spokesperson heroes are put forward, even the very youngest are given a voice to support the campaigns. Programs get announced and new jobs are created. But the reality is, and has been, the vast majority of the money never gets to where it would affect anything. Large organizations and wealthy corporate interests and individuals, regardless of political affiliation, are the ones that benefit, not the climate, not the environment, not the people.
As followers of Christ, we should respect God’s creation, especially given the mess mankind has made of it. We should be responsible for taking diligent care of God’s gift of creation. We know there are simple opportunities in our daily lives to do this. However, we must also understand that the state of the world will not be fixed by mankind’s efforts. Not through social responsibility or environmental programs, not by throwing money at it, and not by governments or a grassroots people movement.
We need to primarily recognize and appreciate that we are what we are because, “just as sin entered the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all people because all sinned.” (Rom 5:12 NET)
What see today will continue to get worse and worse and worse.
But to Adam he said, “Because you obeyed your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’ the ground is cursed because of you; in painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, but you will eat the grain of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat food until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you will return. (Gen 3:17-19 NET)
Death, disease, and corruption took hold after Adam and Eve sinned. This not only affected them personally in that they would “surely die,” but the entire world was thereby affected. Even when God punished mankind at the time of the Flood, the reason being ““The earth was ruined in the sight of God; the earth was filled with violence. God saw the earth, and indeed it was ruined, for all living creatures on the earth were sinful.” (Gen 6:11-12 NET). The earth was ruined because all were sinful. Being ruined or “corrupted,” as the King James Version renders it, literally means to decay. This would have included the physical environment in that day, but also morally, as the context clearly expands to explain. God destroyed that world by a flood. Then God in his compassion and love for his creation, provided His rainbow as a covenant to mankind that He would never destroy the earth by a flood again. God knew that ultimately things would not change because, “every imagination of the thoughts of his (man’s) heart was only evil continually.” (Gen 6:5)
Fast forward to today. We should not be surprised about the state of the world, with its pollutions, environmental crises, global warming, disrupted weather patterns, and the like. Men and women in their selfishness and sinfulness have brought us to this point. This will continue to outpace any token effort mankind puts forward to right the wrongs that are driven by selfishness, greed, and power, along with sin that inflicts all mankind. Fear not, as our God will in His time right the wrongs and fix what’s broken.
And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever. And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.” (Rev 11:15-18)
This statement goes far beyond just fixing the environmental corruption of the earth. God’s plan calls for a complete restoration of this earth, and of those that “put on” Christ, to the beauty and goodness it had at the very beginning in Eden.
God’s word to the Prophet Isaiah declared;
For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; He hath established it, He created it not in vain, He formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else. (Isa 45:18)
Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the LORD: For the LORD shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody. (Isa 51:1-3)
Jesus connected with Isaiah’s vision by giving this revelation:
And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him: and they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads. And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever. (Rev 22:1-5)
The key to what we need to do is seen in the Isaiah 51:1 passage, “Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the LORD.” This is the message we are called to share. This is what we are called to do.
Should we be kind to the environment God has given us? Most certainly. Should we conserve resources, not litter, pick-up litter, recycle, and be thankful through our actions for this earth and our lives God has given us? Absolutely. But let us understand that following righteousness is so much more than all these things. It speaks to the core of who and what we are called to be in character.
We should reach out to let others know about God’s plan
So prepare your minds for action and exercise self-control. Put all your hope in the gracious salvation that will come to you when Jesus Christ is revealed to the world. So you must live as God’s obedient children. Don’t slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You didn’t know any better then. But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. For the Scriptures say, “You must be holy because I am holy.’ (1 Pet 1:13-16 NLT)
Mankind will continue to destroy and corrupt all that is around us. Fear not! God will realize His plan and save His creation. We should reach out to let others know about His plan. This only will give hope to the hopeless of a bright future that all can look forward to.
I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth have passed away, and the sea is no more. I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband. I heard a loud voice out of heaven saying, “Behold, God’s dwelling is with people, and he will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away from them every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; neither will there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain, any more. The first things have passed away.” He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” He said, “Write, for these words of God are faithful and true.” He said to me, “I have become the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give freely to him who is thirsty from the spring of the water of life. He who overcomes, I will give him these things. I will be his God, and he will be my son. (Rev 21:1-7 WEB)
“He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.” (Rev 22:20)
Alan Markwith