Thursday, December 06, 2007

smiting or giving over?


we had a talk tonight at Wild Street, entitled "Hotter than Hell - God and Global Warming", which drew upon Genesis 1:26-31, for our mandate to care for creation, as well as 2 Peter 3, reminding us of the Christian expectation, and the way we are to live in the meanwhilst.

my question, particularly regarding global warming, is whether this is a smiting-thing, or a giving-over-thing?

Romans 2:18-32 has the logic of God letting us go, when it comes to sinfulness. that is, he says, "if that's the way you want to live, go for it. see what life looks like without me," the result being death and destruction.

there is of course the examples of God striking down sinful individuals, couples, cities and even the world, which isn't a direct cause-and-effect thing, but a punishment.

so what is global warming? simply the result of our sinfulness? or is there also an element of God smiting us because of our failure to care for his creation?

1 comment:

Aaron Plunkett said...

I think it's difficult to tie any event as a response from God in light of something we have done, unless it is specifically told to us by God. When Israel got smashed in the past God spoke through prophets to say 'you are being conquered because you have done x'.
I'd say that the degredation of our world is God telling us to turn back to him, rely on him, a general result of our sinfulness and judgement. God hasn't told us specifically why he is doing what he is doing so we shouldn't presume I think.
As and environmental science undergrad, I'm not entirely convinced of global warming but that's another story.