Apol 201: Environment Flashcards
Mandate to care for the environment
Gen 2:15
Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it.
Psalm 8:4
Yet You have made him a little lower than God, And You crown him with glory and majesty! You make him to rule over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet, All sheep and oxen, And also the beasts of the field,
Mandate to populate the earth
Gen 1:28
God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
Is the world over populatated?
No, the real issue is not over population, but over consumption, that comes from greed.
Plenty of Space for everyone:
The Economist magazine explains how if the world’s population of 7 billion were to stand shoulder to shoulder, we could fit on the island of Zanzibar. 7 BILLION
Slow Growth projected, approx 16% over the next 80 years
Population projected to grow by by only
By 2080, the world’s population is expected to peak at 10.4 billion. Then there’s a 50% chance that the population will plateau or begin to decrease by 2100. More conservative models like the one published in 2020 in the Lancet anticipate the global population would be about 8.8 billion people by 2100.
lowering birth rates leading to population collapse: From 5 in 1950 to 2.1 currently, and below 2 in developing countries, which is below the replacement rate.
Population growth is slowing down due to lower birth rates. Many countries are in fact facing population collapse, rather than over population.
In 1950, women typically had five births each; globally, last year, it was 2.3 births. By 2050, the UN projects a further global decline to 2.1 births per woman.
In some countries, it is lower. In the US the 1950s, it was 3.6 births per woman, it slipped to 1.6 in 2020, according to the World Bank. In Italy, it was 1.2; in Japan, it was 1.3; in China, 1.2. In January 2022, the country announced the birth rate fell for the fifth year in a row, even with the repeal of the one child policy, allowing couples to have up to three children as of 2021.
“Virtually every developed country is below two, and it’s been that way for 20 or 30 years,” Chamie said. Most countries have gone through what’s called a demographic transition.
God continually sustains all of creation
Psalm 147:8-9
Who covers the heavens with clouds, who provides rain for the earth,who makes grass to grow on the mountains.He gives to the beast its food, and to the young ravens which cry.
The purpose of creation is to praise and reveal God’s glory.
Psalm 69:34
Let heaven and earth praise Him, the seas and everything that moves in them.
Romans 1:20
For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.
The worship of creation (materialism, naturalism, atheism, animism, gaia hypothesis, etc) is rooted in the rejection of the Creator.
Today, the environment and environmentalism has in many ways, replaced God as our primary object of concern, our lives are no longer directed by God’s word, but by the dictates of environmentalism
Romans 1:22-23
Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.
All of creation, the environment, is subject to corruption
Rom 8:21-22
That the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.
One day the corruption of creation will end
2 Peter 3:13
But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.
2 Corinthians 4:16
We see how this [the corruption] even applies to our bodies.Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.
The earth is not forever
Revelations 21:1-5
Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,”[a] for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’[b] or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
Revelations 21:23-25
And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. In the daytime (for there will be no night there) its gates will never be closed.
The Climate alarmist narrative that we currently see is one of the signs of the “end time”.
Jesus said, that their will come people who will use the environment (earth quakes), famine, and wars, to create an alarmist narrative, by saying things like: “if we don’t act now, we are all doomed”, or “This is the end”, “global warming and rising sea levels will kill us all”.
But, this is not the end, said Christ, but rather these are the “beginning of birth pains”, meaning, that the alarmist narrative, is going to be used to create a sense of urgency and a pretext to justify the rise of a new totalitarian one world government, and people are going to accept it because of the fear that has been manufactured by this false narrative.
They are going to want a government that will keep them safe from wars and famine, and that will prevent global warming.
Christians are going to be hated and persecuted, exactly because they will not go along with this false narrative, for that they will be branded as enemies of this new world order.
Mathew 24:3-13
3 As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. “Tell us,” they said, “when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”
4 Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you. 5 For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many. 6 You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. 7 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of birth pains.
9 “Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. 10 At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, 11 and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. 12 Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, 13 but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.
