This topic is adapted from the BiolaUniversity YouTube Channel.
Christians should understand our responsibility toward the earth biblically, not from the perspective of any political position or ecological crisis. God originally created human beings to have dominion over nature. This means that our responsibility and privilege is to manage the world he created.
The environmental challenges our world faces are an opportunity to exercise the role for which God created us. Christians should engage the environmental issues, not avoid them just because of the liberal political stance of many environmentalists.
Human beings are the one species uniquely gifted to exercise dominion. That’s why humans alone have a responsibility for creation care. As Christians, we should re-examine the gifts of the Spirit as they might be applied not only to ministry within the churches, but to management of the environment on God’s behalf.
Only the biblical world view that can support the ethical and moral obligations that drive environmental care. Christianity offers a real basis for caring about the environment – a Creator. The moral intuition people feel about caring for nature only makes sense in light of a Creator. The very idea that nature has a purpose is essentially a Christian notion borrowed by environmentalists because it is appealing.
[Related: Do Christians Need to Care About the Environment?]
Discussion Questions:
- Watch the video together or invite someone to summarize the topic.
- What is your initial reaction to this video? Do you disagree with any of it? What jumped out at you?
- Read Genesis 1:26-28. What does this say about humanity’s responsibility toward the environment?
- How has the problem of sin affected how humanity cares for God’s creation?
- Why do you suppose Christians have often resisted environmentalism in recent decades?
- What do you think it means to re-examine the gifts of the Spirit to see how they apply to creation care?
- What specific steps can Christians take to better care for God’s creation?
- Write a personal action step based on this conversation.
