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Is God Green? #3a: The Future of the World
An inconvenient truth?
Whatever you think about global warming, you can’t ignore it. It's already the subject of Hollywood blockbusters. Take the movie, The Day After Tomorrow, based on the fear of massive natural disasters caused by climate change. The Day After Tomorrow is, of course, fiction. But ex-American presidential candidate Al Gore’s movie, An Inconvenient Truth, claims to be fact. Apparently, the science shows that records are being broken all over the world. Ten of the hottest years on record were in the last 14 years. In 2003, heat in Europe killed 35,000 people. Typhoons are stronger and more frequent, powered by the warming ocean. Rainfall is changing. Lake Chad in Africa, once one of the largest lakes in the world, is almost dry. As Al Gore says, "Our ability to live is what is at stake".
How do you react to the news of this coming global catastrophe?
Are you afraid? Are you afraid about where the world is heading? Are you afraid about your "ability to live"? Your future? Your family? Your friends?
Or perhaps you are confident it's going to be OK in the long run? Australian scientist Tim Flannery is very optimistic about the potential for us to fix our environmental problems. He believes that it's easy to avoid global warming—all we need to do is make smart consumer choices. According to Tim Flannery, "If enough of us buy green power, solar panels, solar hot water systems and hybrid vehicles" we'll have a market-driven solution without having to do much about our lifestyles at all. He even reckons nuclear power is the way to go. He's confident that it's safe and clean.
Maybe you’re a skeptic on the whole issue? Only five years ago, most people doubted global warming. The scientific community was pretty convinced that global warming is happening. According to Science Magazine (Dec 2004) of all peer-reviewed scientific studies on climate change, 928 papers supported global warming and 0% denied it. But in a similar sampling of stories from the mass media, 53% suggested global warming is unproven. It's changed a little over the last five years; it seems that more people believe in global warming today. But are we right to believe in it? Who's to say that the scientists are right? They've let us down before. They're human like the rest of us They've got hidden agendas like the rest of us. Al Gore himself may have had political aspirations - he's not exactly unbiased.
Perhaps you believe global warming will happen, but you just don’t care! You're past the point of fear. You're too exhausted to be afraid. You may be saying, if our world is going to be destroyed, eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die…
In this final Is God Green? article, we're looking at the future of the world. It's obvious from watching the nightly news or reading the paper that our world hasn't been fixed yet, it's still broken. It is still subject to death, decay, tsunamis, bushfires, earthquakes and storms. Our world is still mourning because its rulers have turned, and continue to turn, their backs on their maker.
So, what will happen to our world? How will it be fixed? And when?
The future of the world
The Bible describes what will happen to our world in two ways: judgement and renewal.
Judgement
The first way the Bible speaks about what will happen to our world is 'judgement'. As Peter writes,
First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, "Where is this 'coming' he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation." But they deliberately forget that long ago by God's word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water. By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgement and destruction of ungodly men … the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare. (2 Pet 3:3-7, 10)
God made the world, he cares about the world, and, because of this, he is going to do something about the world. God won't let this world go on forever the way it is. He has set a day when he will judge the world. That 'day' is called the 'day of the Lord'. It’s the day of reckoning, the day of judgement.
Judgement isn't a very popular idea nowadays. Perhaps you think a God who will judge the world isn’t worth following. But which would you rather have: judgement or catastrophe? There is a big difference between judgement and catastrophe. If global warming does cause huge storms and rising sea levels, that would be a catastrophe. It would be nature out of control. There would be indiscriminate death, especially for the poor and disadvantaged. It would be a catastrophe.
But judgement is different to catastrophe. Judgement is when the God who made the world takes firm and complete control of the world he has made. In judgement, God is firmly in control; in a catastrophe, things just happen. Judgement is deliberate; catastrophes are random. Judgement is fair, right, and just; catastrophes are unfair, wrong, and accidental.
Judgement will happen when God decides. The day of judgement will not come before God is ready for it to come. In 2 Peter 3:7 (above), the heavens and earth are being 'kept', 'reserved' by God for destruction. That means God will judge when he is ready. It means that the judgement day will not come before God is ready. So if you think that the human race will wipe itself off the face of the map through environmental disasters, then that is actually an arrogant attitude. Final judgement is God's job. Right now, God is keeping the world until he is ready to judge. We can’t wipe ourselves out because God will not let that happen until he is ready to judge us!
Renewal
The second way the Bible describes what will happen to the world is 'renewal'. As John describes his vision of the renewed creation:
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" Then he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true." (Rev 21:1-5)
After judgement, comes renewal. The picture here is of a new heaven and a new earth. That doesn’t mean two different places, but it's a way of saying a whole new creation. It's a place where relationships are made right again; God living with his people. No death, no curse. God will wipe the tears from our eyes—isn’t that a beautiful picture?
But that's not all. John continues to describe the new creation and what our experience will be of it:
Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever. (Rev 22:1-5)
Here we see that the new creation is not completely different from the old creation; rather it is the completion and perfection of what God began in this creation. Genesis 1 is incomplete. In Genesis 1, the human beings are told to fill the earth and subdue it. But here in Revelation 22, we see human beings actually filling the earth and subduing it. A large number of people in a city, not two people in a garden. Reigning forever and ever.
Of course, it’s not a city like we know them; not just steel and concrete. It's a city with a river and trees—a garden city. It's a picture of humans, many human, living in harmony with their environment. Revelation 22 is the fulfillment of God’s original purposes in Genesis 1. When God renews the world, the earth will be filled and subdued, and God's servants will rule and look after his good world as servant kings.
Notice that our hope is in a new creation, not an eternal boring fluffiness. Our future as Christians is not to float around playing harps in an endless Philadelphia Cream Cheese commercial. Our future is a deeply physical existence in a renewed, joyful world; eating really good food; living in a relationship with God himself. Our future is in a place where God’s servants reign, where the image of God is restored, where we will be occupied in joyful service, where we will look after the world perfectly; where there is no curse, no death, no sin.
Doesn’t this fill you with hope and longing? Don’t you yearn to be there, rather than here in this cursed and futile world? If it does, know that you’re not alone. As Paul writes in his letter to the Romans:
I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. (Rom 8:18-23)
Our world itself is groaning, waiting, yearning, for us to be set free. In one sense, Jesus has already set us free. By his death on the cross he has forgiven our sins, given us new life and made us right with God. We are even now renewed in the image of God—rulers of God’s creation. But physically, our bodies are still rotting. We’re still under the sentence of death. As I grow older, I have to keep seeing more and more doctors to fix all the problems with my body — and I'm relatively healthy! The same is true of the world. It is still under the curse, still subject to decay, still out of order.
When Jesus returns, our bodies will be redeemed, resurrected. We will be remade as new physical people. We will be rulers of creation, the image of God in both body and soul! When the image of God is back in action, when the rulers are redeemed, the world will be finally, and visibly, complete. Liberated from its bondage to decay. Death will not have the victory, and neither will global warming!
By Lionel Windsor
Lionel Windsor is an assistant minister at St Michael’s Anglican Cathedral, Wollongong. Lionel is planning to study further for the sake of theological education in Australia and Malaysia – he’d love your prayers and support!
This article is based on a talk that Lionel gave at the Wollongong ECU Reload Conference in 2009. To read the full text of the talk click here.
