We were created to worship God from the very beginning. Did you know
that worship requires not just our praise but also our obedience? When Adam and
Eve chose to disobey God they chose not to worship Him. To worship God means to
obey, honor, reverence, respect, praise, and give Him all the glory. God
demands worship because He and He alone is worthy. He requests that we
acknowledge His greatness, His power and His glory. John tells us in Revelation
4:11, “You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power; For You
created all things, and by Your will they exist and were created.”
Genesis 1:28 says, “Then God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be
fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the
fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that
moves on the earth.’” This verse only talks about mankind having dominion over
“every living thing that moves on the earth.” The author ends his thought, and
begins talking about how the plants were created for mankind and the animals to
eat. We were only given dominion over animals!
All of this boils down to a heart
condition. Because we were created to worship God nothing else we do in life will
fill that void. Since Lucifer fell from heaven, he has been solely focused on
turning the minds and hearts of mankind against the ways of God.
First, let’s define a religion. A religion
is a collected set of beliefs where the leader(s) promote this set of beliefs
among the followers. The followers are urged to make contributions in finances
and time. They are also urged to make a change in their lifestyle based on the
collected set of beliefs. The religious beliefs give them a total view of the
world in terms of how the world is structured between what is right and wrong.
My argument is that environmentalism is in
fact a religion that Christians need to steer away from. Consider some of
the ways in which environmental behaviors echo religious behaviors:
•
There is a holy day—Earth Day. There is also an ever growing EcoWeek. It is a
week that is set aside to give consideration to saving our planet.
•
There are food taboos. Environmentalists now eat organic foods and many are
moving towards eating only locally grown foods.
•
Environmentalism – A word ending that indicates beliefs or
prejudice.
•
There is no prayer, but there are self-sacrificing rituals such as recycling.
Recycling paper to save trees, for example, makes no sense since. Most paper is made from trees that are owned by private companies. The hope is to reduce the number of trees planted in the long run, Maine's Renewable Energy and Life Sciences sectors are using wood products for biofuel, bioplastics, and composites. If saving trees is so important, then why is Maine, the largest paper making state in America, praised for making "renewable" energy from trees? I am not saying
that it is a sin to recycle. You do need to ask yourself, “What end goal am I
seeking through recycling?”
•
Belief systems are embraced with no logical basis. For example,
environmentalists almost universally believe in the dangers of global warming
but also reject the best solution to the problem, which is nuclear power. This type of thinking is a worldview based on faith, not reason.
•
There are no temples, but there are sacred structures. I am continually
confronted with recycling bins, and instead of one trash can I am faced with
several color-coded bins for different sorts of trash. While people have
worshipped many things, we may be the first to build shrines to garbage.
• They do not necessarily believe in salvation, but they only seek one type of energy. All physics classes teach that energy is neither created nor destroyed. It simply changes from one form to another. Renewable energy is an oxymoron.
• Environmentalism is a proselytizing
religion. Skeptics are not merely people unconvinced by the evidence: They are
treated as evil sinners.
Everyone who knows me knows that I love creation and conservation. However, I am not willing to put creation above the Creator. The earth is not ours to save, so let's focus our attention on telling others about the cross of Christ.
By Luke Milam
