Biblical Ecology
This article will attempt to present the Biblical arguments for respecting the Earth and its creatures.
Let us begin at the moment of man’s creation, in Genesis: “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.” Genesis 1:26-28.
From the moment that we were created, we were given dominion over every living thing and over all the earth. But the biblical notion of dominion implies care taking and stewardship. Here is what is written just in the next chapter: “And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. [...] And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.” Genesis 2:8, 15. So even though the garden of Eden was already man’s, since God had already given Adam the entire Earth, Adam was supposed to “dress” and to “keep” this special garden. He was to act as a caretaker of this place that God had given him.
After the Earth was destroyed by the Flood, God once again bestowed upon man the responsibility of caretaker of the Earth: “And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth. And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered.” Genesis 9:1, 2.
It only makes sense when given such an awesome responsibility and dominion, that we do not squander it away or regard it lightly and put it to little use. The Bible makes it clear that God abhors us when we do either of these two things. We all know the parable of the wasteful son, who demanded that he be given his part of the inheritance early, only to waste it away and end up a caretaker of pigs (which was extremely dishonorable for a Jew); you can read the entire account in Luke 15:11-32. And we also know the parable of the talents, when the Master cursed the servant who did nothing with his talent, but hid it away in the earth only to dig it back up and hand it over unused. The Master cursed his servant and sent him away.
God wants to make it clear to us that we need to be good stewards of the domain he has given to us. In the end, nothing really belongs to us. It belongs to the Lord. Even our breath, which keeps us alive, is also His, for He blew into the nose of Adam the breath of life to make him life. He can it away at any time. And if everything that we have is the Lord’s, it behooves us to take good care of it, or we will be held accountable, as in this parable, also found in Luke: “And he said also unto his disciples, There was a certain rich man, which had a steward; and the same was accused unto him that he had wasted his goods. And he called him, and said unto him, How is it that I hear this of thee? Give an account of thy stewardship; for thou mayest be no longer steward.” Luke 16:1, 2. The servant in this particular parable ends up all right, for he quickly gets to work and fixes that which had put him on the wrong side of his master. But the lesson is the same. We will all be held accountable for every one of the resources that the Lord has put in our use. Let us use our common sense to figure out what we need to do. It doesn’t matter that the land is already divvied up through private ownership nowadays. We are to respect it in any way we can, we are to use its resources wisely, and we are to put every place to good use. These principles apply to any aspect of our lives. I will give a few examples below.
We should not throw garbage on the side of the road, either when we are driving, or when we are camping. It is hard enough that all civilized societies are having a problem with garbage because of expensive and non-degradable packaging materials, which will be around for decades, if not hundreds and thousands of years, leeching toxic chemicals into the ground. We all know that we are running out of landfills. Why do we need to spread our garbage all over the place? Let’s put it into trash receptacles instead.
We should not dump chemicals in bodies of waters or just anywhere. We are to dispose of them properly. This means both corporations guilty of illegal dumping of large quantities of chemicals, and people who do not recycle their used car oil or paint, and throw them away in some shrubbery.
We should not kill animals for pleasure. God said in Genesis: “And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man” Genesis 9:5. We were given power over these animals that are quite helpless when faced with our tools and cunning. We are not to murder them for sport and for their skins. We are supposed to kill them for food, and only then use their skins if we have need of them. Of course, it’s best to be vegan, in which case you have no need to kill animals, but that’s an argument to be made in another article. The Lord will hold you accountable for every animal you kill for pleasure, for fun, or for profit. I hear of people killing sperm whales just for their sperm, which is supposed to be an aphrodisiac. I hear of people killing hundreds and thousands of sea lions for their fur. They will be held accountable for the blood of every one of these creatures, and they will pay for their sins.
We should not engage in practices that endanger the environment, such as strip mining and large-scale deforestation. Strip mining renders the earth barren, and makes it entirely useless for anything else. It’s hard enough that God made land cultivation difficult after the fall from the garden of Eden, we shouldn’t make it yet even harder on ourselves: “cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” And when these corporations do not even bother to cover the place back up when they are done so the land can get a chance to heal itself, they are doubly guilty for their trespasses.
Large-scale deforestation renders countless animals and insects without a home. Many of them die because of it, and the people who do these things are held guilty for every one of their deaths, because it was caused needlessly. After the trees are removed, the land is not worked for grain. Instead, the stumps are left in the ground, and the land, until recently shaded by the branches of the trees, is now exposed to raw sunlight. It dries up completely, and soon becomes barren. These portions of land are quickly laid to waste and become useless for anything. And the corporations and the people involved in this large-scale squandering of precious resources will all be held accountable for their deeds.
Let us all examine ourselves, and find ways to respect the natural resources that the Lord has made available for our use. Even though this Earth is not permanent, and will be destroyed and re-made when our Lord Jesus Christ will come again, that does not give us the right to disrespect it. We will be held accountable for every thing that was put in our care by the Lord throughout our lives, because the Bible says so. This principle is reinforced through all its books. Let us not multiply our already large list of sins by making ourselves guilty for the death of land, plants and animals through our thoughtless behavior, oftentimes motivated purely by greed and prospects of moneymaking.
