A Biblical Viewpoint
Dr S P Carruthers, Village Hope
Excerpt:
A Christian and biblical perspective on climate change must ultimately be framed in the context of Gospel eschatology.58 As Jesus, Paul and John warned us, before Jesus returns there will be great turbulence and upheavals in the natural world and in human society, so we should not be too surprised at what is happening just now. These are just the beginning of the ‘birth pangs’ (Matthew 24:8; Mark 13:8) of an ‘old’ creation anticipating the delivery of a ‘new’ creation liberated from corruption (Romans 8:21-22). The climate change emergency discourse offers little hope for the future of the earth or humanity, as it depends on human effort alone. But in Christ, we are not doomed and neither is the earth; certainly, we shall need give account of our stewardship of God’s earth and there is every need to take responsibility (and I would argue for Christians to take greater responsibility), but no need to panic. Instead, when we see all these things, including turbulence in nature itself, because, as Jesus said, when you see these things happening, look up for our redemption and the redemption of the earth itself draws near (Luke 21:28).
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