PLAINVIEW—If God’s people take seriously their responsibility as stewards of creation and change their behavior, God still can heal damaged land with dwindling resources, an environmental scientist told students, faculty and guests at Wayland Baptist University.
David Foster, professor of biology and environmental science at Messiah College and vice chair of the Au Sable Institute of Environmental Studies board of trustees, spoke at a chapel service during Wayland’s annual Creation Care Week emphasis.
Foster labeled creation care “this ancient thing that is part of our faith that we are rediscovering.”
Dominion assumes responsibility
Citing the first chapter of Genesis in the Old Testament, Foster said God gave humankind dominion over the earth. Responsibility to care for creation comes with dominion, he insisted.
“God left us in charge, and one day he’s going to come back and ask us for it,” he said. “We serve creation, and it serves us.”
Foster compared creation care to the biblical principle of Sabbath. In the Old Testament, the Sabbath was a period of rest through which not only people, but also the land and its resources were replenished. Farmers rotated crops or did not plant them at all as the land rested.
Periods of inactivity allowed the resources and animals to replenish, he said. It also allowed time for the poor to regain some of what they had lost, as land ownership returned to its original people, families or tribes.
God establish Sabbath rest for the land as a way to bring heaven on Earth, he said.
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“We go to church and we pray, ‘Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on Earth as it is in heaven.’ Do we really mean that?” he asked.
Hope for healing
At a time when it is easy to feel hopeless about the state of creation, dwindling resources and the ways humans are hurting the earth, Foster insisted there still is hope. God promised if his people will change, he will heal that land, he noted.
“Not if everyone changes, but if his people change,” Foster clarified.
If God’s people change and care for creation, then the land will be healed and made complete through Jesus Christ, he said.
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