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1 2Who owns the earth?
"The earth is the Lord's and the fullness
thereof." Psalms 241
3 Psalms 10425,30. In wisdom you made them all,
the earth is full of your creatures. There is
the sea, vast and spacious, teeming with
creatures beyond number - living things both
large and small... When you send your Spirit,
they are created and you renew the earth.
God Created the Earth and All of Nature in it
4John 13. Through Him all things were made
without Him nothing was made that has been made.
5 Colossians 116-17. All things were created by
Him and for Him. He is before all things and
in Him all things hold together.
founded the earth to endure (Ps. 11990-91).
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7What kind of world did God create?
8What kind of world did God create?
Laws of the Physical World
Everything follows the law.
9What kind of world did God create?
The laws reflects the faithfulness of
God. Without the laws there would not be any
certainity. Life would not have been possible
without it. maintained by your rulings (Ps.
11990-91).
10 Things coexist in intricate and regulated
harmony. This is the basic postulate of science
and reason.
code written by God
11The Intelligent design
It is a world of bounty and harmony. Every
constant is adjusted to create a coherent
universe to support life. while the earth
remains, seed-time and harvest shall not cease
(Gen. 822).
12The Intelligent design
No physical hypothesis founded on any
indisputable fact has yet explained the origin of
the primordial protoplasm, and, above all, of its
marvellous properties, which render evolution
possiblein heredity and in adaptability, for
these properties are the cause and not the effect
of evolution. For the cause of this cause we
have sought in vain among the physical forces
which surround us, until we are at last compelled
to rest upon an independent volition, a
far-seeing intelligent design
13Gen 124-25 And God said, "Let the earth bring
forth living creatures according to their kinds
cattle and creeping things and beasts of the
earth according to their kinds." And it was so.
And God made the beasts of the earth according
to their kinds and the cattle according to their
kinds, and everything that creeps upon the ground
according to its kind.
14Sentient beings which can use the law to
their purposehaving a higher law within
them They are in a different dimension Each
dimension has its own law.
15Sixth day
16Gen 27 then the LORD God formed man of dust
from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils
the breath of life and man became a living
being.
Gen 127 So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him male and
female he created them.
17Judaeo-Christian World View
Four dimensions of life
Jewish mystic philosophy of how God Creates,
Forms, and Sustains this world,with its
perceived multiplicity of objects
consciousnesses out of His Pure Unity.
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22Spirit beings
Animals Birds
Inorganic Microbes Vegetation
All these four dimensions form one unit
organism. They are interdependent. Forms the
extension of God
Sons of God
23All these dimensions penetrate one into other to
form one unity.
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25Jaganath The Indian representation of The God of
Creation
Eastern churches considers all the cosmos as part
of Gods body. God himself is unknowable
(Blackness) and beyond understanding
26Adam Son of God
27Gen 126 Then God said, "Let us make man in our
image, after our likeness and let them have
dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the
birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over
all the earth, and over every creeping thing
that creeps upon the earth."
28Gen 215 The LORD God took the man and put him
in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it.
"master it"
29"The heavens are the Lord's heavens, but the
earth he has given to mankind." (Psalm 11516)
30This is dominion?
maim, kill, destroy
31In the name of progress, the greed of man has
destroyed the balance of nature. water, land,
air, and the wildlife they support have been
despoiled and depleted.
32Sons of Adam redeemed
33Fallen man says
You can do what you like with it?
Worldly Kingship
Dominion
Till and keep
Stewardship
Children of God says
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38Dominion
to till and to keep
39Renewing the earth
40In Genesis 98-17, God directly includes the
earth and all the animals as participants in the
covenant. Gen 99 "Behold, I establish my
covenant with you and your descendants after you,
and with every living creature that is with you,
the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the
earth with you, as many as came out of the ark.
41All creation is one organic unity
When greed comes in, it destroys the world
42 Genesis 130, he takes care specifically to
grant the plant life of the earth to the
creatures who possess breath of life.
before the sin
Gen 93-4 Every moving thing that lives shall
be food for you and as I gave you the green
plants, I give you everything. Only you shall
not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood.
After flood
Animals became wild
43The sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth
centuries the rise of science and technology
44Rise of Rationalism Mechanical View of
Nature Anthropocentric Philosophy
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46Newtonian Mechanistic World
47Industrial revolution
48Three points of views
1. Many Christians believed that the whole
creation was meant for the use of Man. So we
need not care about the environment.
Anti-environmentalism
492. Due to the belief that creation could and
thus should be under human control, many
Christians felt justified in exploiting and
degrading the environment for the sake of
progress.
Human need justifies it all
50 3. These beliefs about the importance of
creation has caused many Christians to look for
ways in which they can care for and protect the
environment today.
extreme environmentalism
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53What will you do to repair the world?
54 God Expects Humans to be His Stewards with
Nature
55Earth is part of you.
56isavasyam idam sarvam yat kiñca jagatyam jagat
tena tyaktena bhuñjitha ma grdhah kasya svid
dhanam
Isavasya Upanishad
All this (idam sarvam)
is pervaded by Jesus
(Isavasyam)
whatsoever, (yat kiñcha) the created world
(jagatyam jagat).
What is given by him (tena tyaktena) do enjoy
(bhuñjitha),
do not covet (ma grdhah) anyone else's
(kasyasvid) wealth (dhanam)
57Dont let this happen to our children
58Pass on the gift of life to our
children.
59We are in this together with the earth, the
vegetation and the animals.
60The Turning Point
61Behold I make all things new
62I want to make
63Will the Sons please help?Daughters included
64Then
"The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and
the lion shall eat straw like the bullock . . .
they shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy
mountain, says the Lord." (Isaiah 6525)
65Christian Stewardship of THE CREATION Â God's
Creation includes people (sons of God ) and
our environment (till and keep).
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67This is the blood of the new covenant in my
blood.
This is my body.