The Kingdom Life by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: RELIGION / Christian Life / Spiritual Growth
ISBN: 9781617472497
Publisher: The Navigators
Published: 2014-02-27T00:00:00+00:00

Creation in Bondage: Reaping the Harvest of Sin

All creation suffers hurt, damage, erosion, death, and decay (see Romans 8:20-22) because God linked nature to the consequences of Adam and Eve’s sin, refusing to leave us as the only creatures on earth that die and decay. God allowed sin to distort His creation and cause suffering for the redemptive purpose of drawing us back to Him. The impermanent life cycle of decay and violent food chain of death that we know as integral elements of nature are in fact characteristics of a temporary, unnatural state. God put Earth under death’s reign in the hope that “the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (Romans 8:21, NRSV). Meanwhile, until its liberation the natural world suffers pain, and humans suffer with it through the wildness of nature: lightning, earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, droughts, violence of hunter on prey, and the slow degeneration that causes aging and dying.

The outcomes of sin in nature are so obviously beyond our control that we refer to them as “acts of God.” When natural forces cause suffering, we recognize that no one but a supernatural being could control nature’s power. God may use nature to carry out His plans, but He is not the source of damage and death in our world. The Bible tells us about instances where God uses nature to protect (for example, the parting of the Red Sea so the Israelites could escape from the Egyptian army) or punish (drought in the time of Elijah to remind Israel of God’s power), but we should be wisely cautious about viewing natural disasters as punishment from God. What we can be sure of is that they are a consequence of creation’s distortion by sin.

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