Paradise, Paradise Lost, Paradise to Be Restored: An Old Testament Biblical Perspective on the Environmental Crisis
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What should be a proper Biblical response to the environmental crisis? This paper investigates a Biblical perspective on the relationship between humans and living creatures. The creation account in Genesis has often been viewed by environmentalists to be “environmentally destructive anthropocentric.” In this paper, we challenge the validity of this view by the examination of key Old Testament texts which present the relationship between God, humans, and the created world (Gen 1:26-30; 2:18-22; 3:1-19; Genesis 8-9; Exod 23:10-11; Hos 2:16-23; Amos 9:11-15; Isa 11:6-9). Through the exegesis of these texts, we evaluate their contribution to the Biblical perspective of the environmental crisis. This article advocates a view of harmonic coexistence between humans and the rest of creation with the benevolent stewardship of humans being the function of humans. We present our argument that humans, at the time of the creation, were in a harmonious and peaceful relationship with the rest of creation. However, this relationship would soon be broken. It brought about the changed relational status between humans and nature. Genesis 3 and 8 portray how the separation happened, humans from God and humans from nature. The harmony and peace in the creation order existed no longer. However, a God-initiated restoration effort is given in the Sabbath laws (Exod 23:10-11). Prophets are looking forward to seeing the day of restoration finalized. The prophetic visions (in the selected texts from Hosea, Amos, and Isaiah) present an eschatological picture of the complete restoration of the environment to the original harmonious coexistence among the members of creation, as designated at the time of creation (Genesis 1 and 2). Facing environmental crisis, we should be concerned with man’s exploitation of nature or of God’s creation. Nature is not a mere object of exploitation for human greed. The destruction of nature eventually will affect humans. The fate of humans and nature is, in the end, inseparable in the creation order.
Abstract
What should be a proper Biblical response to the environmental crisis? This paper investigates a Biblical perspective on the relationship between humans and living creatures. The creation account in Genesis has often been viewed by environmentalists to be “environmentally destructive anthropocentric.” In this paper, we challenge the validity of this view by the examination of key Old Testament texts which present the relationship between God, humans, and the created world (Gen 1:26-30; 2:18-22; 3:1-19; Genesis 8-9; Exod 23:10-11; Hos 2:16-23; Amos 9:11-15; Isa 11:6-9). Through the exegesis of these texts, we evaluate their contribution to the Biblical perspective of the environmental crisis. This article advocates a view of harmonic coexistence between humans and the rest of creation with the benevolent stewardship of humans being the function of humans. We present our argument that humans, at the time of the creation, were in a harmonious and peaceful relationship with the rest of creation. However, this relationship would soon be broken. It brought about the changed relational status between humans and nature. Genesis 3 and 8 portray how the separation happened, humans from God and humans from nature. The harmony and peace in the creation order existed no longer. However, a God-initiated restoration effort is given in the Sabbath laws (Exod 23:10-11). Prophets are looking forward to seeing the day of restoration finalized. The prophetic visions (in the selected texts from Hosea, Amos, and Isaiah) present an eschatological picture of the complete restoration of the environment to the original harmonious coexistence among the members of creation, as designated at the time of creation (Genesis 1 and 2). Facing environmental crisis, we should be concerned with man’s exploitation of nature or of God’s creation. Nature is not a mere object of exploitation for human greed. The destruction of nature eventually will affect humans. The fate of humans and nature is, in the end, inseparable in the creation order.
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