wfn.org | TCN Editorial: For God so loved the cosmos

["Lydia Ma" <enews@pctpress.org>]

>      Taiwan Church News

>2988 Edition

>June 1~7, 2009

>Editorial: For God so loved the cosmos

>Translated by Lydia Ma

We see a beautiful world filled with order, harmony, and joy when  we look at

Genesis. The first chapter of Genesis declares that “in the  beginning God created

the heavens and the earth” and every creature God created got  along peacefully

with each other. Shortly after creating the world, God said,  “let us make man in our

image… and let them rule over…” This statement  highlights humankind’s

uniqueness and noble mission because not only are we bearers of  God’s image,

we have been given responsibility to rule the world.

However, ever since sin entered the world, the ground has fallen  under a curse. We

have seen a barrage of environmental problems in recent years to  illustrate this

point, including greenhouse effect, acid rain, disappearance of  rainforests, rise of

endangered species, etc. In Taiwan, air, water, soil pollution  abound as factories

pour out their wastes into the environment and harm fish,  vegetation, and animals.

The amount of trash and contamination found in this country has  transformed Illa

>Formosa into a dumpster.

Knowing that humans are created in God’s image, many people  have developed a

sense of superiority and a spirit of selfishness, resulting in  longstanding antagonism

between humankind and the environment. In the past hundreds of  years, the Church

has overlooked environmental problems in favor saving souls. Many  Christians

focus so much on going to heaven after death that they forget  their relationship with

>the environment while still here on earth.

In short, environmental problems are also “human”  problems. From a Taiwanese

and Christian standpoint, we can offer a few reasons explaining  why these

>problems persist:

1.          Lack of real peace: Due to Taiwan’s political  situation, many people lack a

sense of peace and security. Their fear propels them to earn money  by all means to

buy a sense of security. To satisfy the people’s desire for  security, the government

continually bends over backwards to create economic miracles even  if these

>pursuits result in harm for the environment.

2.          Pride: The first sin of humankind is attempting to be  like God. When God made

the universe, He repeatedly declared that what He had created was  good. Humans

throughout the ages have attempted to outsmart God and His  creation, resulting in

>contempt for the environment.

3.          Greed: “What good will it be for a man if he  gains the whole world, yet forfeits

his soul?” (Matthew 16:26). Because of our ignorance and lack  of contentment, we

have used pesticides and fertilizers without moderation to  increase the land’s yield

and in the process harmed the soil. To stimulate the economy and  the rate of

consumption, we ended up creating a lot of waste, razing forests  to the ground,

clearing mountains to make way for “development”, and  worse. These tragedies

>occurred as a result of human greed.

4.          Selfishness: People on average don’t know,  don’t care, and don’t know what to

do about the environment. In other words, we only care about  ourselves and don’t

give a hoot about others, much less the environment.

The Gospel of John tells us that God loves the “world”,  or the “cosmos” in the

original Greek language in which it was written. To translate  “world” as referring

exclusively to human beings merely accentuates our  self-centeredness. Though

God loves humans, He also loves the rest of the world –  including the

environment. Just as humans need salvation, so does the rest of  the world.

Humans have been entrusted with the care of this planet. This  means we must first

reconcile our relationship with God and return to simple  lifestyles before we can

reconcile with the rest of the world and become good caregivers  who watch over

>God’s beautiful creation.

>********************

Taiwan Church News is published weekly in Taiwan's local  languages.

You may translate and re-use the articles only if you acknowledge  the source as "Taiwan Church News" and list the names of the reporter  and writer.

Contact us before reprinting any of our articles. You may direct  comments and questions to: enews@pctpress.org

Visit our website for more news at: http://enews.pctpress.org/   (English)

>http://www.pctpress.org  (Chinese)

>********************

> 
>