Our dominion over the earth should never be confused as permission to abuse or abandon it. But we need to realize that we have a responsibility to the earth now. We must trust that God can handle the long term and rejoice in the fact that one day there will be a new earth. Ignoring our duty to the earth based on that reasoning is a misguided attempt at passing off our apathy as faith. Sitting back and doing nothing because one day Christ will return and make all things new is the antithesis of the gospel. Therefore, our stewardship and upkeep of the earth is one of the greatest offerings of worship we can give. Scripture is clear that all of God’s creation, not just mankind, brings him glory. We are stewards of the earth, and we have a responsibility to care for it. Likewise, there are examples in Jeremiah 2:7 and Deuteronomy 11:12 of how God looks over his creation. It’s one of the first things God asked of us in Genesis 2:15, after the creation of mankind. Scripture is permeated with examples of God commanding us to tend to his creation. The New York Times reported that 31 percent of Republicans recognize climate change as caused by humans. Genesis 2:15 says, Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend dress, KJV and keep it. By comparison, 60 percent of the general population believe that human activity causes climate change, according to the Morning Call. Yet despite these studies, only 28 percent of evangelicals acknowledge that human activity is the primary cause of climate change. As a result: the gasses get trapped in the atmosphere, creating an enhanced greenhouse effect and increasing global temperature averages. These emissions are caused by buildup from burning fossil fuels such as coal and oil. The implications of such a drastic rise in temperature all but guarantees the risk of wildfires, extreme drought, rising sea levels and food shortagesĬlimate change on this scale is nearly universally agreed upon by scientists as the result of human induced greenhouse gas emissions, according to NASA. “A 5-degree drop was enough to bury a large part of North America under a towering mass of ice.”

“A 1-degree global change is significant because it takes a vast amount of heat to warm all the oceans, atmosphere, and land by that much,” a NASA report details. If that human effects on climate change continues, the global temperature will have risen by an average of 7 degrees by 2100. By then, the average surface temperature will have risen almost 3 degrees Fahrenheit. As Christians, we have a sacred calling to protect creation and mitigate the harmful effects of humans.Ī report from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, made up of more than 1,300 independent scientific experts, predicts 20 years before the planet reaches a crucial breaking point in 2030. Titus 1:7-9 - For a bishop must be blameless, as the steward of God not selfwilled, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy. To address climate change, we need to change our greenhouse effects on the world, and we need to do it now. As each one has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of Gods varied grace (1 Pt 4:10). But according to recent reports on the effects of climate change, it’s clear that there is no longer an option to deny the human contribution to climate change.

Rarely do we think of such disaster happening in our own lifetime. How are you doing caring for the small portion of God’s creation that He has entrusted you to manage? Think about it.A barren, suffocating world where life as we know it is over is often the premise of Hollywood’s latest sci-fi blockbuster or the setting of a novel that’s soared to the top of the bestseller list. This three-pronged directive provides us with a solid biblical foundation and basis for a responsible, God-centered, approach to creation care. And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth (ESV).’ In this short verse God gives us three earth stewardship directives: (1) Fill the earth with people (2) Subdue the earth or bring it under control (3) Have dominion over all living creatures.

In Genesis 1:28 God gives mankind its first stewardship assignment. And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.

Be a good steward verse