Re: Resource conservation and Christ's return

Roger Olson wrote:
>
> Folks,
>
> I don't know whether this topic has been discussed before on this forum,
> but I'd like to see what the experts have to say about it. My good
> friend and colleague is a herpetologist who is especially interested in
> the preservation of wetland ecosystems. The "frog forum" to which he
> belongs had the following excerpt posted (see following message). The
> basic question for me is how we as believers and scientists reconcile
> the doctrine of the imminent corporeal return of Christ with the idea of
> environmental conservation for the long term?
>
> I know the "stewardship of creation" concept is most often given as the
> justification for conservation behaviors, but many of the more
> fundamentalist Christian groups dismiss such behavior as ridiculous if
> the physical Earth will only be around a few more decades. It seems to
> me that this is closely related to the YEC/OE question, and can be as
> nasty a condundrum as explaining Original Sin or the origin of the
> God-conscious soul.
>
> Thanks in advance for your participation. I hope this is an appropriate
> topic for our forum. If this has been discussed in depth before, please
> refer to the appropriate archives..................................

        I see no "conundrum" here. When asked what he would do if the world would end
tomorrow, Luther said "I would plant a cherry tree today." C.S. Lewis' answer in "The
World's Last Night" was similar: When Christ returns we should be found at our posts,
doing our jobs, not standing on a hilltop waiting to blow trumpets.

        Furthemore, how imminent _is_ Christ's return? Even if it's to happen 10 years
from now (& we have no assurance that it will), we should do our jobs of caring for
creation during that 10 years - or 10 minutes for that matter.

        & the misguided attitude of the fundamentalists you refer to isn't just of
theological interest. Because of the influence of some Christians of this type in & on
the present administration it's having a disastrous impact on environmental policy.
See, e.g., Glenn Scherer, "Religious Wrong" in _E Magazine_, May/June 2003, p.35. The
article is a little shrill but shouldn't be discounted on that account.

                                                Shalom,
                                                George

George L. Murphy
gmurphy@raex.com
http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/
Received on Tue Dec 16 13:56:52 2003