I once saw a note at a park that I visited in Trinidad that said, “Leave nothing but footprints and take nothing but pictures.” This sounds like a responsible way to treat our beautiful planet!
God created the earth and all that was in it, looked back over His work and declared that it was good. (Genesis 1:31)
God made man and put him in the garden that He had made to cultivate and keep it. (Genesis 2:15) That made man a manager over God’s handiwork. The earth is the Lord’s, but man was entrusted with a stewardship to take care of it. Now, we know that a manager doesn’t have the final say over anything concerning the owner’s property, except to follow his instructions and exercise his duties in a fiduciary manner.
Some time later the serpent entered the garden, and instead of kicking him out as a good steward would do, Adam entertained the suggestions he made to Eve, and abdicated his position as God’s manager of the earth. This is how Satan became the god of this world (2 Corinthians 4:4), and, true to his nature (See John 10:10), began to destroy it. And that destruction has been going on since this day.
We only need to do is look around us to see the destruction and pollution in areas where God is not honoured. False gods working through debased people, the greed of mammon work together with fallen man’s nature to destroy our planet.
It is said that eight million tons of plastic (some sources say 30 million tons) ends up in our oceans every year and that, by 2050, it’s virtually certain that any bird found dead will have plastic in its stomach. It is also estimated that everyone that eats a reasonable amount of seafood, will ingest approximately 11,000 plastic particles per year.
The effects on human health on this one pollutant still have to be measured. Add to that the damage done to the earth by consumerism, and the outlook becomes very grim. Is the end of the world near? At the current rate of pollution it seems so. If the Lord does not return soon, the earth’s inhabitants will destroy their only habitat themselves.
Did you know that the salt that we eat has a high content of plastic? Could that be a reason for the spike in health concerns of the last decades? Without question our addiction to plastic – like all addictions – will ultimately led to our demise.
Bearing in mind that we mention only one of many pollutants here, what does God say about all of this?
The earth is also defiled under its inhabitants, because they have transgressed the laws, Changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore the curse has devoured the earth, and those who dwell in it are desolate. Therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men are left. Isaiah 24:5,6
The KJV translates Strongs H2610 (defiled) in the following manner: pollute (4x) and defile (4x).
Man’s failed stewardship is coming to an end, if not for any other reason, then simply because we are destroying the earth. Things cannot continue this way; the end is rising above the horizon and is hastened day by day.
God is not going to allow the destruction of His work to happen with impunity.
The nations were angry, and Your wrath has come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that You should reward Your servants the prophets and the saints, and those who fear Your name, small and great, and should destroy those who destroy the earth.” Revelation 11:18
It seems that pollution is looked upon as sin. But this article is not about being ‘green;” the point that I want to make is that we are far advanced on God’s calendar. It is getting late and we need to stop thinking everything will continue as they do. There will be an end, and it seems to be closer than we think.
