“I have not yet been able to put your environmental concern into my view of eschatology [the "end times"].”

So said a good friend. He comes from the same Dispensationalist background I come from. I appreciate his candor. I know what he means: Since the earth will “wear out like a garment” (Heb. 1:11); since some of it will “melt” (2 Pet. 3:12); since Jesus will return for us; since our future home will be heaven; since man is most important to God, why should we care about the state of the earth?

My answer has to be this: We have have been looking at the wrong end of the Bible to understand our relationship to the creation. We need to look at the beginning. While how creation happened is constantly debated in Christian circles, there is seldom an argument about the early mandates found in the first two chapters of Genesis about how we use and relate to the creation: the dominion mandate in 1:28 and the marriage mandate in 2:24. Sandwiched between those two, however, is the stewardship mandate in 2:15. We seldom question the dominion mandate or the marriage mandate. But I don’t think we do well with the stewardship mandate.

Here we are told that man and woman were put into the Garden to cultivate it and to take care of it. The full sense of those infinitives in the Hebrew includes being a husbandman, or steward, of it—a task that means putting a hedge around it, protecting it, serving it, preserving it, and saving it. I feel that this command is often the forgotten mandate. If we had been heeding this divine requirement as enthusiastically as we do the dominion mandate, I think things would be significantly different—at least in the Christian community today.

So why should we care about the state of the earth?

1) We should care because it is the obedient thing to do. Nowhere in Scripture do I see that the original mandates have been rescinded. Although our dominion is often abused because of the Fall, the dominion mandate remains our ideal. Although our marriages suffer because of sin, the marriage mandate remains our ideal. Although the task of stewardship is difficult in the presence of evil and because of the curse, the creation care mandate remains our ideal. We indeed glorify God in our obedience to all three mandates.

2) We should care because it is the loving thing to do. In Psalm 145 we have this revealing verse: “The Lord is righteous in all His ways and loving toward all He has made” (Psa. 145:17). That verse follows right after the one that says God opens His hand and satisfies “the desires of every living thing.” At the very least we can understand from these verses that if God is righteous and loving toward all He has made, we can attempt to be the same. As Francis Schaeffer reminded us, “If we love the Lover, we will love that the Lover has made.” Further, when we care properly for the earth, we also demonstrate love for our neighbor and for ourselves—so that all aspects of the Great Commandment can be carried out.

Certainly there are many unanswered questions about the future state of the earth, the material final state of the believer, and the nature of heaven. Nonetheless, it is clear to me that Jesus’ promise of future bliss must never be an excuse for present carelessness regarding His creation. If the atoning sacrifice of the second Adam is going to result in the reconciliation of all things ruined by the sin of the first Adam (Col. 1:20); if all of creation is on tiptoe groaning for the day when it will be released from its bondage to decay (Rom. 8:20-22 Phillips); if Isaiah’s Messianic peaceable kingdom is yet to come, how can I be less than a loving and careful steward of God’s creation handiwork.

So since we are no doubt closer in time to the restoration than we are to the time of the curse, our outlook should be that of Isaac Watts who wrote of the coming return of Earth’s true King,

Joy to the world! The Lord is come;

Let earth receive her King;

Let every heart prepare Him room,

And heaven and nature sing. . . .

He comes to make His blessings flow

Far as the curse is found.

See you outdoors!

Dean