Why We Should Care About Earth Day

April 22, 2024 Tom Creedy

The 22nd of April is Earth Day. Should we care? 

Consider a biblical perspective, and save on some key ebooks.

Earth Day might sound like a pagan festival, but it offers an opportunity to talk about deep and true things - after all, as Christians we know the faithful Creator, patient Sustainer and the one who knows everything there is to know about creation - God.

Caring about creation generally should be an aspect of our discipleship - as John Stott challenges us in The Radical Disciple, and Ruth Valerio equips us in L is for Lifestyle. But caring about creation and being aware of our cultural moment also presents evangelistic opportunities. Here are three reasons that Christians should care about 'Earth Day':

1) Because people are looking at creation and they might consider the creator.

In Luke 12:27, Jesus said:

"Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these"

Nick Perrin, in his new TNTC on Luke, writes "Jesus contrasts the hectic quality of human self-care with the seeming effortlessness with which nature preserves itself under divine providence". Creation has something to teach us about dependence on God - even as it's mysterious beauty provides opportunities for us to speak of the One who created it.

2) Because creation will not be destroyed but renewed.

With the War in Ukraine, the rising costs of living, conflicts happening around the world and the threat of missile tests from countries that seem not to particularly value human life, it is easy to feel like it is the end of the world. Yet one of the most poignant things about Scripture is that it gives us confidence that the end ofthe world will not ultimately be a cataclysm. Rather, something amazing will happen. In Revelation 21:5, God speaks from his throne, words that should give us confidence in light of the resurrection of Jesus, for the value and future of creation:

"I am making everything new".

As Sam Berry and Laura Yoder write in John Stott on Creation Care, "This is not a making of 'all new things', but a restoration and renewal of everything: a bringing to fulfilment of God's purposes for creation from the beginning... A biblical environmental ethos finds its driving vision here, in this hope for the liberation and renewal of creation itself". Again, for friends around us who may not know Jesus, this canonical capstone to the biblical story, the renewal of all things, offers a powerful conversation starter. We don't just hope for our own salvation - in Christ, we have hope for creation, and a hope that we can offer to others.

3) Because creation care is part of our calling as Christians, the people of God.

Our first ancestors, Adam and Eve, were charged with the careful stewardship and dominion over nature. In The Message of Genesis 1-11, David Atkinson writes that "Chapter 2 of Genesis will open up for us a picture of the human being as the estate manager, cultivating and protecting God's Garden. So it is as God's representaives, and in the light of God's creativity, that men and women are to have dominion... a responsible stewardship, a facilitating servanthood, which recognises that all things derive their existence from God's hands". In light of our conformation to the image of Christ, John Stott argues in The Radical Disciple that this should mean three things:

• First, we will avoid the deification of nature... We respect nature because God made it; we do not reverence nature as if it were God.
• Second, we must avoid the opposite extreme, which is the exploitation of nature... the dominion God has given should be seen as a responsible stewardship, not a destructive domination.
• The third and correct relationship between human beings and nature is that of cooperation with God... This is often called the cultural mandate. For what God has given us is nature, wheareas what we do with it is culture. We are not only to conserve the environment but also to develop its resources for the common good.

These three reasons why Christians should care about 'Earth Day' may resonate with you. If so, there are perhaps three things you could think about doing - and, obviously, we've got some books to recommend!

1) Read your Bible.

Consider the way nature and creation imagery runs through - from creation in Genesis, through the imagery of the prophets and Psalms, through the words and miracles of Jesus, and culminating in the vision of Revelation. Check out the extensive Scripture index of John Stott on Creation Care (ebook available for just £0.99 through till the 28th of April!) to see just how infused the Bible is with the work of God's hands in creation.

2) Change your lifestyle.

Consider, prayerfully, making some changes. Ruth Valerio's L is for Lifestyle is a practical little book that continues to be a real catalyst for challenge. Working through the alphabet, Ruth invites us to put practical commitments on this aspect of our discipleship. The ebook is available for just £0.99 through till the 28th of April.

3) Keep Learning.

See how your faith and care for creation can be integrated in John Stott's classic The Radical Disciple - just £0.99 through till the 28th of April as an ebook.

Consider the biblical basis for creation in The Message of Genesis 1-11, recently updated in the BST Old Testament series - just £0.99 through till the 28th of April as an ebook.

Think about ways to care for God's world with Dave Bookless's Planetwise - just £0.99 in ebook through till the 28th of April!

See how John Stott came to increasingly care for creation, in a special book packed with useful resources and meaningful reflection, in John Stott on Creation Care, just £0.99 as an ebook through till the 28th of April.