There is a new religion growing. Maybe not so new, but growing to unexpected proportions, and embraced by people who ought to know better.

It is another form of nature worship and those who accept it seem to forget that the environment was placed here for man. Nature worship has never made sense, but people who remove God from their lives cause a vacuum that will be filled by almost anything.

The Bible gives few details of the creation process. But brevity only increases the significance of what is said. After finishing the solar system, plants and animals, God makes an important statement. The animals are made after their kind but by contrast man is made in the image of God. The ramifications of that are far reaching. To begin with, God didn't create nature to serve it. Nor should the object made in His image serve nature. And second, God has power and man is created to become like God.

In Genesis 1:26 God says that man is made in "our image, after our likeness" and this is immediately followed by "let them have dominion." One of God's chief characteristics is power so it stands to reason that man will need to be given authority if he is going to become like God.

Man should not abuse the earth, but the apostles of global warming and environmental protection often place more importance on creation than on man for whom the earth was made. Man has a way of turning things upside down. Even with the Sabbath, the Pharisees, who became sort of the self-appointed custodians of the Sabbath, corrupted God's law so that it became a burden. Rather than the Sabbath serving man, they required man to serve the Sabbath. If man suffered or died in the process, so what? Man was low on their scale of priorities. Jesus, however, healed lowly human beings on the Sabbath and condemned the Pharisees for their heresy.

Environmentalists are becoming modern day Pharisees of nature worship. God made the earth for man's benefit but they twist the plan. The loss of human life and for some, human civilization seems an acceptable sacrifice to their nature gods.

God planned from the beginning for the human population to grow. "Be fruitful, and multiply" said God (Gen. 1:28). He made a promise to Abraham to "multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore." (Gen. 22:17) God doesn't seem too concerned about over population or a carbon footprint. In Gen. 1:28 God instructs man to "subdue (the earth): and have dominion" (there's that word again) "over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth..." Okay, having "dominion over all the earth" is an overwhelming concept. As King David said, "What is man that you are mindful of him?" But that's the way God made it and losing sight of that concept can only lead to chaos. Man was given authority, from the Creator of the earth, over the earth.

Since God expected the human population to increase, He must have planned for it. He deposited enough natural resources in the ground to provide for the needs of a large population. How could God chastise a man for laying a foundation without sufficient resources to complete the building, (Luke 14:29) and then not make sufficient preparation for population growth? Man ought to be wise in using natural resources and have faith in what God has created. But the key words are "God has created." When humans lose sight of God as creator, there is little else left but fear.

There will always be fear mongers. And there will always be those who use fear to enslave foolish people. Smart people will worship God with a grateful heart for the good earth He has made for our benefit.

Until next time,