It may be that God is warning us. He lets us taste some climate change - a little taste of what is to come unless we amend our ways. Then he lets us taste a bit of economic collapse - a taste of what is to come unless we amend our ways and attitudes to life. Then he allows pandemic to spread. And now biodiversity loss is becoming more evident.
All four result from the actions, attitudes and lifestyles of the affluent nations and cultures of the world. Example: Flying (aviation) is uniquely damaging (per passenger) to the climate, it has been shielded by governments from paying its proper price, and it bears the first responsibility for spreading Covid-19 to the rest of the world.
Climate change impacts more on the poor. Economic collapse impacts more, relatively, on the rich. The pandemic impacted the wealthy first. I see a God of justice in that.
When climate change begins to appear - and it has done so more and more since I first penned this page - we reluctantly acknowledge that we must do something about it - sometime, not now, somehow, in a way that does not affect our luxurious, convenient lives. As a whole, we do indeed begin to consume less, use our cars slightly less. When a bit of economic collapse arrives, what do we do? We forget about climate change and the need to consume less, and think only about 'stimulating' the economy by more spending. And by doing this, we consume more and make more climate change emissions, which are already too high.
And biodiversity loss is mounting. The creatures we have dislodged, displaced and disinherited are God's creatures, and God has compassion on creatures [Psalm 145]. Will not God require them at our hands? Does Revelation 11:18 apply here?
The four things - climate change, economic collapse, pandemic and biodiversity loss are linked, and they all have the same root: and that root is religious in nature.
We have made an idol of convenience, pleasure, leisure, entertainment, self-interest and latest technology, and have forgotten justice and faithfulness and responsibility, and so we consume and demand more and more and more and more climate change gases are emitted and biodiversity suffers (see The Dasgupta Review). Likewise we have made an idol of money itself, wanting ever more of it and assuming it is the measure of all things, so we treat houses as 'investments' rather than living spaces, we gamble on futures, we gamble on the stock markets and even on whether they will rise or fall. Our governments are not better; they make an idol of short-term popularity, of 'energy security', or technological progress, of national prestige, and they make an idol of economic growth and trade, which is unquestioned and determines all else. As a result, the global economy is an unstable bubble, which is ready to burst when God chooses to let it burst.
In this way, the root of both problems is religious: idolatry of what should never be idolised. So we forget our responsibility to the True, Living God, to shepherd the rest of the creation and do justice to the poor. In our hearts, we turn away from this responsibility. Yes, even religious believers forget this. We think that all God wants is to be worshipped and for us to be decent people, but God has shown before that worship and religious activity are abhorrent when we ignore justice and sacrifice responsibility to self-interest.
God has been patient for 100 years. Now he is letting the structure of created things warn us - the structure of the planet warns us that the climate will change, the structure of economic realities warns us that we cannot rely on the current level of available money, and the structure of the biotic sphere allows pandemic and biodiversity loss. Both warn us that the lifestyle we idolise is unsustainable.
Either we repent now, and gain God's mercy and help to change our attitudes and our ways, or it will end of its own accord, with great suffering for us all, including all those of the poor of the earth who are not guilty.
May the Living, Just God protect the poor and pour all the suffering upon us rich of the earth!
Amen, Come Lord Jesus: Be merciful to the poor and to the rest of creation. Lead us to repent.
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About This Page
This page, URL= 'http://abxn.org/discussion/warning.html',
is on-going work, designed to stimulate discussion on various topics, as part of Andrew Basden's pages that open up various things from one of the Christian perspectives.
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Created: 20 November 2008. Last updated: 17 August 2014 dealt with all '../../'. 16 July 2021 new intro, added about pandemic; new .end, .nav, bgcolor. Some rewriting of words. 5 September 2021 'See also's. Added pandemic to title.