Preservation of the Environment by Christians
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Preservation of the Environment by Christians
Environmental Studies and Fore
Environmental Conservation
Restoration of the environment and the whole argument of preservation have taken a completely new level with the inclusion of virtually all groups of persons and groups. This includes the church and the whole of Christianity in the conservation and the taking care of our environment. According to Ghosh (2008), environmental conservation should not be a preserve of specified groups such as the non-governmental organization, but should be a responsibility of everyone. To this end, the Christians are in no way immune from taking care of the environment because it benefits everyone. Furthermore, Christians are the same people who constitute the society, and therefore, the Christians in their church groupings should take up the responsibility. In this paper, the concentration is on the Environmental Concern Calls for Repentance and Holiness on how this can be done using Toulmin Model.
Environmental Concern Calls for Repentance and Holiness
Environment started with the creation of the earth when Adam and Eve were being put on this earth. As well, the first people were commanded to take care of the environmental and therefore, the descendants of the first two people should copy what was commanded by God to the first people. According to Dyke (2010), man cannot do without the physical environment, and therefore, whenever human beings become reckless with how they use the environment, the people are likely to face devastating effects out of the depletion of the environment. As well, the church should have its own kind of theological response to the crisis of environment; that is, it should not leave to the science to do so, and therefore, there is a strong call for Christian repentance and faith in environmental conservation.
Claim: Faith and Repentance Could Help in Conservation
In Christian teaching, one of the God’s stewards was to take care of the creation, and this creation meant that everything encompassing the trees, the rivers and all kind of elements that go into preserving the environment. Therefore, the destruction of the environment itself is a sin, and therefore, the only way out of this mess is to repent and have faith in God. Actually, human beings are the real cause and the predominant destructive force when it comes to the depletion of the environment and with the power of science and technology, everything covering the earth and water can be destroyed within a blink of an eye. The existence of the all types of creation is itself a challenge to the evangelical Christianity because many at times, men and women are bound to cut down a tree or kill a living animal against the principle teachings of the first book of the bible. Bakken (1995) writes that it is faith that has dwindled that our environment has been depleted to the lowest level possible.
Grounds: Clean Environment and Holiness Are the Same
In actual sense, when we have a clean environment, this facilitates good keeping of our bodies and in essence, this becomes the office of holiness. Therefore, when humans are taking care of the environment, what becomes of them is that they prepare a good ground for their soul healing, restoration of their faith and above all, they put holiness in themselves. Various churches have participated in the conservation of the environment with the realization that with good environment, a person is capable of preparing himself or herself to receive the holiness that is needed and the faith (Conradie, 2006).
Warrant: Faith, Holiness and Environment
Environment being a real creation of God, holiness and faith can be facilitated if humans take care of the environment that was created by our God. We can only claim to be doing what God wants if we are to preserve and protect what God created and commanded us to do. In equal measure, we cannot claim to be holy if we destroy continually what we are commanded to preserve. When we do what God wants, we get a kind of purity in ourselves, and are the holiness that then gets into our hearts. By doing so, we create a strong faith in ourselves and gives our lives and ourselves to the living God. Faith comes by repentance of our sins which we commit on a daily basis, and by conserving the environment, it acts as repentance to the sins we have committed all along our lives.
Backing: Clean Environment Acts As Forum for Holiness
Valantasis (2005) notes that the greatest manifesto of holiness is when everything including the environment is clean and a clean environment is a herald for holiness. From the Old Testament, it is clear that our environment is everything and it is what God had promised His people. It means that everything that was created was holy, and therefore, when humans take care of the environment the result is that they restore holiness.
Qualifier: Holiness Has Been Attested through Environmental Conservation
A number of hymns have been concentrated on conservation of the environment and even a number of denominations have taken by themselves to conserve what surrounds them. However, there has always been some antagonism between science and faith, and faith has always come stronger than science. A number of U.S Bishops and other religious leaders have concentrated on addressing the environmental concerns, and this means that there is no way that faith can be done away with when it comes to the Greening Collaboration.
Rebuttal
Conservation of environment may not be achieved easily by only taking religion and Christianity, as other factors such as the political concerns have to be taken care of. For example, it is hard to do away with the political factors when it comes to conservation of the environment, and therefore, the faith that is looked for in conservation may be hindered by failure by other factors.
Thesis Statement
Our environment is so critical to all things that happen in our lives, and therefore, if at all we are to achieve our goals; including the spiritual nourishment, holiness, and faith, we need to act quickly and save our environment, and in the whole practice, we would be essentially repenting to our sins of destroying God’s creation.
References
Bakken, P. (1995). Ecology, justice, and Christian faith: A critical guide to the literature. Westport: Greenwood Press.
Conradie, E. (2006). Christianity and ecological theology. Stellenbosch: African Sun Media Publishers.
Dyke, F. (2010). Between heaven and earth: Christian perspectives on environmental protection. California: ABC-CLIO, LLC.
Ghosh, A. (2008). Environmental conservation: Challenges & actions. New Delhi: A.P.H Publishing Corporation.
Valantasis, R. (2005). Centuries of holiness: Ancient spirituality refracted for a postmodern age. New York: The Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd.