Does God really care about our environment?

Today’s reading in Revelations 11:18 God will ‘destroy those who destroy the earth.” This is a reference about the time of Judgment that will eventually come upon the earth. At that time, every human being will be held accountable to God for what they have done with their lives and there is a specific reference to those who have destroyed the earth. Since the 1960s, there has been a lot of controversy about man’s relationship to the environment and nature. A movement has developed that seeks to place the value of the environment above the needs of man. Many refer to this movement as environmentalism or some of you might be more familiar with the term “tree huggers.” I realize there is a lot of variety in this movement from the environmental terrorists to conservationist who seek to preserve wilderness areas. But I believe most environmentalists hold to similar core values. This environmental movement is primarily a reaction to businesses that have exploited the environment for man’s greedy and materialistic pursuits, by clear cutting entire forests without any effort at replanting, without any care for the damage to the wildlife, or to dumping wastes in our rivers, streams and lakes, or to strip mining mountains and leaving the remains without any concern for soil erosion, or for releasing toxic fumes into our atmosphere. There are some things being done to our environment that ought to get people upset. Do you think that God cares about people who destroy His creation or who deliberately destroy our environment by polluting our rivers, or who destroy our forests, or who pollute our air? Well according to this passage a day of judgment is coming for those who destroy the earth! We need to be careful that we are not abusing our environment. We need to be more conscientious of our consumer mentality and our continual desire for more and the lifestyle that promotes destruction to our environment. We don’t need to become environmental terrorists or fanatics, but we should be living a bit more intentional about our use of the environment and be more aware of what kind of ‘carbon footprint’ we are leaving. Man’s rule and dominion over the earth is that of a steward or a caretaker, not a reckless exploiter.