Wednesday, July 28, 2010

What Is Green Religion?

WHAT IS GREEN RELIGION?




Many religious leaders consider environmental protection their “mission.” The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has become a rallying point for this religious movement. Walt Grazer, head of the National Religious Partnership for the Environment, said, “This is one of those rare moments when you can really focus people's attention on what's happening to God's creation.”

This movement has joined the “interfaith movement”. We see participants such as Jim Wallis of the Progressive Christian movement, Sojourners, and who is also on Obama's Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships; the National Council of Churches and the U.S. Council of Catholic Bishops getting involved with this pagan-based doctrine. Shocking is a recent resolution, passed this month, by the Southern Baptists, which declared that humanity's “God-given dominion over creation is not unlimited, as though we were gods and not creation.” The Dean of Southern Baptist Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky made the statement, “caring for creation is an extension of loving your neighbors as yourself.”

How egotistical for man to ever think he would be powerful enough or mighty enough to destroy God's creation. The need to survive provides a rationale for environmental concern within an evolutionary or naturalistic world view. This view is pragmatic.

Then there is the pantheistic or New Age worldview alternative. It is that nature is equal because all is god and god is all. Nature is respected and valued because it is a part of the essence of god. This degrades man. It teaches that man has no more value than a blade of grass. This is clearly flawed. To restrict animals or the environment would be to restrict god, so man takes second place to rats and cows. Man is a part of nature, yet is being restricted. Cleaning up the environment means eliminating “undesirable” elements. But, if god is all and in all, how can there be any undesirable elements? There is no distinction between man and nature. This seems like the “gospel” according to Al Gore.

As Christians, we are given the responsibility to be good stewards over everything God has given to us. The Old Testament documents God's law for use of the land by giving Israel the law of planting for six years and letting the land “rest” the seventh year. Exodus 23:10-11 documents this: “And six years thou shalt sow thy land, and shalt gather in the fruits thereof: But the seventh year thou shalt let it rest and lie still; that the poor of thy people may eat: and what they leave the beasts of the field shall eat. In like manner thou shalt deal with thy vineyard, and with thy oliveyard.”

Leviticus 25:1-7 also details this law: “And the LORD spake unto Moses in mount Sinai, saying,
Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a sabbath unto the LORD. Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof; But in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, a sabbath for the LORD: thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard. That which groweth of its own accord of thy harvest thou shalt not reap, neither gather the grapes of thy vine undressed: for it is a year of rest unto the land. And the sabbath of the land shall be meat for you; for thee, and for thy servant, and for thy maid, and for thy hired servant, and for thy stranger that sojourneth with thee. And for thy cattle, and for the beast that are in thy land, shall all the increase thereof be meat.”

Allowing the land to rest every seven years ensured that it rejuvenated itself and continued to provide in the future.

When the Lord gave the Israelites the Mosaic Law, He warned them if they apostatized, He would remove them from the land: Deuteronomy 28. Sadly, the children of Israel did just that and came under judgment—the Northern tribes fell to Assyria in 722 B.C., and Judah to Babylon in 605 B.C. In fact, God designated the Babylonian captivity as a seventy-year captivity to rest the land for all the Sabbath years that Israel violated: Leviticus 26:33-35; 2 Chronicles 36:17–21.

We are given the responsibility, according to God's Word, to care for our planet. But, it is not going to last forever. The environmental movement – cloaked in the word “christian” or otherwise, is about preserving the earth forever. That is not a part of God's plan. The earth we inhabit is a temporary place. It will only last a short time. It may last a little while longer and then God is going to destroy it. I wonder what the environmentalists, and “progressive” Christians have to say about that? And, if a person is, in fact, a Christian, shouldn't he/she be observing the things that our Heavenly Father tells us? As Christians, we must believe the Bible is the inerrant Word of God. If we don't believe what is written in the scriptures, or only part of them, how does God see that?

If environmentalists or “progressive” Christians think man is destroying the earth, just wait until they see what God is going to do to it! Peter tells us God is going to literally turn it in on itself in an atomic implosion so that the whole universe goes out of existence, 2 Peter 3:7-13.

Our “mission” here on this earth, as God's children, is to spread the message of salvation to a dying world. The planet on which we temporarily reside is dying as well. While we are here, we should enjoy God's beautiful blessings and the handiwork we call earth. The environment around us is beautiful – God created it. But, it is clear that it is temporary. Any teaching to the contrary is false doctrine.

We must guard ourselves continually against the ever-growing darkness that surrounds us. This environmentalist movement that more and more “christians” are embracing is another way satan is using to steal, kill and destroy. As Charles Krauthammer so “eloquently” observed, “its not easy being green.” He went on to state the obvious, which is environmentalism is the “new socialism.” He made this comment in an op-ed dated December 11, 2009.1 My, how far the movement has advanced! He went on to make this statement, “... the left was adrift until it struck upon a brilliant gambit: metamorphosis from red to green. The cultural elites went straight from the memorial service for socialism to the altar of the environment. The objective is the same: highly centralized power given to the best and the brightest, the new class of experts, managers and technocrats. This time, the alleged justification is saving the planet.”

This latest development, especially seeing the church organizations of this world embrace this false doctrine, just emphasizes the fact that we are rapidly coming to the close of the Age of Grace. Let us use the time we have left to pray for the lost, care for our families and neighbors, spread the wonderful message of salvation, and take time to enjoy the wonderful blessings God has bestowed on each of us. Maranatha





1 New York Daily News, Friday December 11, 2009 “Environmentalism-The New Socialism: Its Not Easy Being Green” Charles Krauthammer

2 comments:

Joseph said...

From "collective salvation" to this "Green religion"

Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; 2 Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron

Anonymous said...

Great Post! I think the spirit is moving a lot of Christian bloggers to point out the same thing. The time is getting close!

Jeff
http://www.GODSurfer.com/
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