God, the extravagant Creator. Why, for some unfathomable reason, does He see the need for somewhere between 400,000 and 8 million species of creepy, crawling beetles? Maybe there are that many different jobs for beetles to do, or maybe birds just like an endless variety in their diet. Whatever the case, God certainly has a plan and a passion for them. Long ago, when a clergyman asked British naturalist J. Haldane what can be learned of God through the study of creation, he replied, “God has an inordinate fondness for beetles.” God has an inordinate fondness for life, too, which is all around those who have eyes to see it.

Some time ago I entered Middlebury College enthusiastic about my Christian faith, ready to make it something truly my own, and also ready to embrace the stunning natural world surrounding my Vermont campus. To me, these two passions were intertwined. My love for God was strongly linked to my love for His creation, the physical landscapes as well as their diverse inhabitants. I immediately joined a Christian fellowship group, as well as the Mountain Club and another environmental group on campus.

I quickly discovered that my Christian friends were often deeply distrustful of the environmentalists, characterizing them as either leftists or pagans. My friends in the environmental community were equally suspicious of the Church, often blaming it for our current ecological crises.

While I have encountered a few Christian environmental organizations (A Rocha, Au Sable, Evangelical Environmental Network), I’ve seen this tendency of environmentalist antipathy to the Church and Christian apathy towards the environment play out again and again. Clearly, each group starts with a different worldview: Christians—God created all things and we are to be stewards of the created order. Non-believing environmentalists—all matter is eternal and equal. But the more I study both the natural world and the Bible, the more I long for an integrated Christian environmental worldview.

Secular environmentalist Lynn White is often credited with making the most plausible environmentalist critique of Christianity. His popular 1967 article in Science magazine argued that the Christian faith was the root of the modern ecological crisis. People could look to the Church and see at least apathy towards the natural world, White argued, if not a deeply utilitarian attitude to it. White’s arguments might have fallen flat had there been an active and engaged church. Unfortunately, they took root.

Understandably, Christians often distrust the environmental community’s association with big government politics and eastern, pagan philosophy. But it’s harder to understand how these legitimate political and philosophical concerns have overwhelmed the basic value of creation, which we are told “pours forth speech day after day and proclaims knowledge night after night” (Psalm 19).

Even if we are convinced that many of the ecological crises are not real, or are seriously exaggerated, we must address the apathy/antipathy gap. At the very least there are people who, because of their perception of the Church’s environmental record, turn a deaf ear toward the gospel. And it is quite possible that Christians have overlooked an important responsibility toward the rest of God’s creation.

By loosely following the main stages of the biblical story—Creation, Fall, and Redemption— we will see the prominent role of creation throughout the biblical saga. First, we begin with God’s rightful ownership of creation.

The entire creation is God’s. “To the Lord your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, the earth and everything in it” (Deuteronomy 10:14, see also Psalm 24:2 and 50:8-12). Biblically there is no ambiguity over the ownership of the entire creation. The heavens and earth and everything on it belong to God. This foundational reality is even worked into the land codes for ancient Israel. Leviticus 25 forbade the Israelites from permanently buying or selling land because the land was the Lord’s and they were but aliens and tenants upon it. The reality of God’s ownership demands a broader perspective on our property rights. In one sense my 1/8th acre property is mine to do with as I please, but in another sense, I am only a tenant responsible to the true owner.

God’s creation is good. This simple truth is repeated six times in Genesis 1. There is no indication that creation’s goodness is contingent upon its future utility to humans, though this is certainly part of its purpose. God’s creation is good by divine declaration. It is the outpouring of God’s creative genius and imagination.

We are of course entitled to legitimate use of it, but to assume that its primary purpose is to serve us is arrogant at best. We have yet to complete Adam’s task of naming the animals, and do not even know within an order of magnitude how many species that will be—estimates now range from five to 40 million.

A strict utilitarian view of creation misses its ultimate purpose, which is to bring glory to God. Psalm 148 provides a wonderful litany of things that praise God, from the Heavens to the lightning, to the flying birds and to us. As we degrade the beauty and diversity of creation, we tarnish the reflected glory of God, reducing evidence of Him, and losing knowledge of Him.

God blessed His creation. We often focus on God’s blessing to people in Genesis 1:28. Before this, however, in Genesis 1:22, the fish of the sea and the birds of the air are blessed and told to multiply and fill the sea, and increase on the earth. An almost verbatim blessing is repeated after the flood in Genesis 8:17. This blessing is a wonderful affirmation of the task of conservation biologists who are the modern arbiters of this ancient blessing.

The Bible makes it very clear that God cares and provides for His creatures. Psalm 104 offers a wonderful image of the tender care God takes of His creatures. If, as John Stott noted, “extinction is blasphemy,” what can we do in a world where the health and welfare of the creation often seems at odds with the health and welfare of humans?

Creation suffers due to human sin. The Fall represents a monumental collapse of relationships, including the relationship between humans and the rest of creation. As humans sinned, creation suffered. Genesis 3:17 states “cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil will you eat of it all the days of your life.” The Curse cuts both ways. The ground itself is cursed and suffers due to human action, and we in turn suffer and labor to make a living from the earth. The harmful impact of our sin on the land leads to the Sabbath principle as described in Leviticus 25:1-7. “When you enter the land I am going to give you, the land itself must observe a Sabbath to the Lord. For six years sow your crops, and for six years prune your vineyards and gather your crops. But the seventh year the land is to have a Sabbath Rest” (possibly the first soil conservation law in history).

Hosea 4:2-3 states that “because of this [human sin] the land mourns, and all who live in it waste away, the beasts of the field and the birds of the air and the fish of the sea are dying.” Despite the clear biblical connection between sin and creation suffering, the Church has forgotten this whole class of sins. Joseph Sittler comments, “Because of the virtual demise of a vigorous doctrine of creation, it is difficult but possible to get men to understand that pollution is biologically disastrous, aesthetically offensive, equally obviously economically self-destructive, and socially reductive of the quality of human life. But it is a very difficult job to get even Christians to see that so to deal with the creation is Christianly blasphemous.”

Human stewardship. Some environmentalists have likened humanity to a cancerous blight on the earth, exponentially growing, dangerous, and destructive. The Bible offers a completely different vision of humanity. We are created from the dust, in our finiteness similar to the rest of creation, yet we are also set apart from the rest of creation, made specifically in God’s image. Our uniqueness is expressed in the blessing in Genesis 1:28, where we are told to fill the earth and rule over it. And again in Psalm 8 where we are told that we’ve been crowned with honor and glory, made to rule over the works of God’s hands.

As Christians we must be careful to interpret this blessing within its biblical context. The blessing to fill the earth and subdue it goes hand in hand with God’s blessing of the rest of creation and is presumably not at odds with it. We must also understand this blessing in concert with Genesis 2:15. “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.” The two words describing our role are “abad” and “shamar,” translated to “serve and protect.” This suggests that an integral part of our role on earth is to be the caretaker of the garden. This has been described as the first Great Commission.

Christ offers the perfect example of integrating the seemingly contradictory roles of ruler and servant. The entire biblical story holds up the concept of servant leaders. Our role on earth has been described as stewardship. Creation stewardship implies that we are responsible for caring for something that is ultimately not ours.

In practice it is often difficult to find a balance between the rightful and just use of creation for our own needs, and our responsibility to serve and protect. Gillian Prance, a noted botanist and a Christian, argues that our approach should be one of managing rather than mining. Mining a resource uses it up while managing provides for its future. John Calvin, for example, wrote, “Let him who possesses a field, so partake of its yearly fruits that he may not suffer the ground to be injured by his negligence; but let him endeavor to hand it down to posterity as he received it. … Let everyone regard himself as the steward of God in all things which he possesses.”

Creation will be redeemed. As Christians, we often focus on Christ’s love of us and His personal sacrifice for us. This is only part of the story, however. The Bible describes a much broader and all-encompassing redemption. Christ’s blood shed on the cross is for the restoration of his entire creation. This broad view of redemption is clear in Colossians 1:15-20. “For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in Christ, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.” Biblically, it seems clear that God’s purposes in redemption are as broad as His purposes in creation.

Themes of the value of creation are woven throughout the Bible. Taken together, these biblical principles build a strong foundation for creation stewardship. When and where it’s possible I long to see the Church working alongside, and even ahead of, the environmental groups, thought the motivations for our efforts are far different than theirs. As Christians we affirm that humans not only have a rightful place here but, that the Creator Himself put us here for a reason. We therefore have a legitimate claim to use the created world to furnish our needs. Second, as Christians, our main motivation should be the love of God and His creation rather than guilt or fear.

I find comfort in the parallel blessings God gives all of His creatures and us. Psalm 104 offers a wonderful image of the tender care God Himself takes of his creatures.

There are certainly signs of hope that the apathy/antipathy gap between the Church and secular environmentalists may be closing. Many Christians are becoming more aware of environmental issues, a number of Christian environmental groups are working around the world today, and Richard Cizik of the National Association of Evangelicals recently expressed his belief in our need to care for creation.

In our striving for the health of creation, we can ultimately be guided by hope, not driven to despair. We are assured that the entire creation will eventually be redeemed, and that the Church is a living and active tool in the hands of our tender Father.

Psalm 104
10You make springs gush forth in the valleys;
they flow between the hills;
11they give drink to every beast of the field;
the wild donkeys quench their thirst.
12Beside them the birds of the heavens dwell;
they sing among the branches.
13From your lofty abode you water the mountains;
the earth is satisfied with the fruit of your work.

14You cause the grass to grow for the livestock
and plants for man to cultivate, that he may bring forth food from the earth
15and wine to gladden the heart of man,
oil to make his face shine
and bread to strengthen man's heart.

16The trees of the LORD are watered abundantly,
the cedars of Lebanon that he planted.
17In them the birds build their nests;
the stork has her home in the fir trees.
18The high mountains are for the wild goats;
the rocks are a refuge for the rock badgers.

19He made the moon to mark the seasons;
the sun knows its time for setting.
20You make darkness, and it is night,
when all the beasts of the forest creep about.
21The young lions roar for their prey,
seeking their food from God.
22When the sun rises, they steal away
and lie down in their dens.
23Man goes out to his work
and to his labor until the evening.

24O LORD, how manifold are your works!
In wisdom have you made them all;
the earth is full of your creatures.
25Here is the sea, great and wide,
which teems with creatures innumerable,
living things both small and great,
26There go the ships,
and Leviathan, which you formed to play in it.

27These all look to you,
to give them their food in due season.
28When you give it to them, they gather it up;
when you open your hand, they are filled with good things.
29When you hide your face, they are dismayed;
when you take away their breath, they die
and return to their dust.
30When you send forth your Spirit,they are created,
and you renew the face of the ground.