Should We Not Care for Planet Earth?

Some readers of my previous two posts might assume that Christians need not take care of God's creation. After all, and as many believers have said, it's all going to burn. This is an irresponsible idea at best and it also flies in the face of God's command to humanity.

In the beginning, the Lord placed Adam and Eve in the garden to care for it. As Genesis 1:26 (KJV)reads, "And God said, 'Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.'"

This doesn't mean we should foul it with noxious chemicals and wanton destruction, as some critics of Christianity suppose we believe. Genesis 1:28 (KJV) states, "And God blessed them, and God said unto them, 'Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.'" That doesn't sound like we should trash the creation to me.

Additionally, some misguided believers assume that we don't need to care for the planet because God will destroy the old heavens and the earth. Nowhere does it say in the Bible that we should destroy his creation. That will be his job when he makes way for the new heavens and earth.

Meanwhile, we aren't slaves to the planet, as atheistic environmentalists want us to be, but caretakers. Until Christ returns, we should care for this wondrous world he made for us to live in.