Love Your Neighbor: Thinking Wisely About Right and Wrong by Norman L. Geisler

Author:Norman L. Geisler
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Christian, Spiritual & Religion
ISBN: 9781581349450
Publisher: Crossway Books
Published: 2007-07-09T00:00:00+00:00

Principle 2: The natural world is a revelation of God (Psalm 139; Rom. 1:19-20).

In Romans 1:19-20 the apostle Paul states that the invisible attributes of God can clearly be seen through the physical world. This is in the context of an important passage about salvation. God has revealed Himself to every human being through nature. In this sense, every human has access to God. To the extent that one chooses to embrace, ignore, or destroy this revelation of God, one is indirectly accepting, ignoring, or rejecting God. This choice may very well determine whether that person will receive additional revelation. At the very least, if one rejects this revelation of God in nature, he sets a precedent for rejecting God that may continue throughout his lifetime.

"Nature is the reflection of God. God is everywhere manifest; he is in the light and the darkness, on the land and in the sea, in the height and in the deep (cf. Ps. 139:7-12). The observing eye can see evidences of God everywhere."26 To destroy nature is to destroy an important testimony of God. Doing so contributes to a distorted view of God; it has the potential to hinder evangelism; it is irresponsible and irreverent.

Wendell Berry uses more poignant words: "Our destruction of nature is not just bad stewardship, or stupid economics, or a betrayal of family responsibility; it is the most horrid blasphemy. It is flinging God's gifts into His face, as if they were of no worth beyond that assigned to them by our destruction of them."27 Of all people, Christians should have a respect for the natural world of which we are an integral part. Yet this is too rarely the case.

An irony can be found in man's tendency to label a cathedral sacred but to diminish the reality of God's presence in a forest or a field. A house of worship can be a sacred place to the extent that worshipers acknowledge the presence of God. The art of stained glass windows or paintings can be an interpretation of and tribute to God's work. They can serve as an aid to worshipers in their quest to glorify God. Yet every "sacred" work of man is just an imitation or an interpretation or an extension of God's original design.

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