Dave argues that Christians can't ignore environmental stewardship while waiting for Jesus' return. He uses a mistranslated Marshall Islands sign about dumping to illustrate how believers neglect their responsibility to care for creation, and warns they'll face accountability when Christ returns.
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Hi, this is Dave on The Edge. When I was preparing to do this segment, I was sitting with the other Edge panelists and one of them jotted something down on my creation environment topic. She jotted these words: "Jesus is coming back. Quick, trash the place." And you know what's unfortunate? She was kidding, of course, but what's unfortunate is that it's the way a lot of Christians treat the world. It's all, "Jesus is going to fix it one day and it'll be fine, and so it doesn't really matter what we do now." But it does, because Jesus left us here as the stewards of the earth. He gave us this as our divine job, to care for this earth. When I was a missionary volunteer in the Marshall Islands, a friend of mine and I were driving down the road and we saw a sign. And every once in a while in foreign countries you see signs that are very funny because they're written in English and the native tongue isn't English, and so they write what they think they've written, but it's different. This sign was next to a rubbish tip. And it was a big sign. And on the fence, because evidently they had trouble with people dumping their rubbish by the fence, they had written, "No dumbing by the fence," rather than "No dumping by the fence." And so we, of course, had to get out and take a picture of ourselves being stupid in front of the sign, making dumb faces because we were dumbing by the fence. But you know, in life, when we ignore our job of looking after creation, we're dumbing by the fence. We're not getting involved. We're ignoring our responsibility to be stewards of the earth. And when we do just a little bit, we're just being a little bit silly by the fence. But when we actually take it seriously and get serious and help the planet, then we're literally not dumping by the fence. We're not being dumb. We're not dumping. We're doing what we've been asked to do. We're being good stewards of God's earth. And when he comes back, yes, he is going to make all things new. But he's also going to hold us accountable for what we've done. And I'd like to be able to say, "I tried to make it a better place while I was here." And I'm sure you would as well. This has been Dave by the Edge. Where do you stand?
