Earth Day began on April 22, 1970, but you could say that it really began in June of 1948. You could say that it started with the Federal Water Pollution Control Act. In 1949 it was the concern over the butterflies. In 1950 a conference on air pollution was held. In 1951 The Nature Conservancy was established in Washington, D.C. as a nonprofit organization with the mission to protect ecologically important lands and waters around the world. Every year in the 50’s there was some committee meeting or organization forming or Congress passing some bill regarding the environment. This continued into the 60’s and right up through the 70’s. All we ever heard, and still today, is there are too many people on the planet. We must not have so many children. When Earth Day was declared an estimated 20 million people participated across the country, in what will ultimately be the largest demonstration ever in American history. So fast forward to today and we see that everything in life must now go green. We must save the planet. Over the decades there have been many predictions that the earth was going to end on such and such a day, but as we all know we are still here. So can one country save the planet? How about two countries? Well, maybe ten countries? No, to save the planet every country must do their equal part or else it just won’t work. You can’t have clear air here and not there, because air moves throughout the whole planet by means of the jet stream. So if one country has high pollution, that smog and chemicals will travel throughout the whole planet. It just does not make sense for a few countries to regulate and some countries not to. If we are truly destroying the planet then why aren’t all the countries concerned? It will surely affect them if the planet dies. The planet is as many say, millions of years old. If that is a fact then why now? They have found that the carbon emissions were greater before we had cars and factories and billions of people. I would think that it is a little too late for us now to restore our air and water and even our soil. Everything has been greatly damaged. Just think about how much is in waste dumps and landfills over the centuries. So in reality we really can not save the planet, or the animals, or anything, for that matter. It all sounds noble and good, but until everyone is on board it is impossible. Take the elephant, even though there are laws not to poach elephant tusks they still do it, because they can get away with it, so what good is it? This is the truth about everything. We must face the fact, but there is One who could save the planet and that is God. Remember Him? He is the one whom no one speaks about, because He is not supposed to be real, or exist, or have anything to do with us. We have to stop lying about things, like God or like we have control over the environment. Nature has come this far, and it will go as far as the One who created this earth will allow it. I think that we can believe the Bible, which was first written down over four thousand years ago by a man called Moses, and the stories he wrote were passed on for a thousand years before him, which was called Genesis. You see, back in the prehistoric times there was no written language, so one generation passed on its stories to the next. But today Archeologies are finding that these stories truly took place. So let’s look at some of these stories about the planet. The Bible begins by saying this, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was a formless and desolate emptiness, and darkness was over the surface of the deep.”
Now, we do not like to believe that God created the universe and all the stars, planets and the sun, and that He has kept all things in its place because it would take someone who was even beyond genius. He would have to know everything about everything, all knowledge in every field of life He would have to know. We say impossible, because if this was true, then God would truly be supreme. That would mean that many people today would have to surrender to God. But are we not surrendering to those people who have created their own little universe, those few in comparison to the rest, as being gods themselves, and we their servants who do their bidding? Can we say that any document that has not only survived, but has been proven to be true time and time again for over four thousand years is false? Could the people of the ages be wrong, so many people wrong?
Genesis 1:26-30 says this, “Then God said, “Let Us make mankind in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the livestock and over all the earth, and over every crawling thing that crawls on the earth.” So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 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.” Then God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you; and to every animal of the earth and to every bird of the sky and to everything that moves on the earth which has life, I have given every green plant for food”; and it was so.”
Could one big bang suddenly create an order of things that would have lasted for all these years? We came to the knowledge of some of these theories thousands of years and later by people like Di Vinci, Copernicus, Einstein, even Tesla, and so many others. God not only created the world, but He had the authority to bring the flood on the earth to destroy it, and then bring it back to life. Genesis 6:13 says this, “Then God said to Noah, “The end of humanity has come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence because of people; and behold, I am about to destroy them with the earth.”
Genesis 7:1-4 continues the story. “Then the Lord said to Noah, “Enter the ark, you and all your household, for you alone I have seen to be righteous before Me in this generation. You shall take with you seven pairs of every clean animal, a male and his female; and two of the animals that are not clean, a male and his female; also of the birds of the sky, seven pairs, male and female, to keep their offspring alive on the face of all the earth. For after seven more days, I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights; and I will wipe out from the face of the land every living thing that I have made.”
Today Noah’s Ark sits on Mt. Ararat in Eastern Turkey. God has been in control of His creation all these years, and we and the planet, and the vast universe are still here, and it will continue to be here till the day God brings it to an end.
Genesis 9:8-11 God says this, “Then God spoke to Noah and his sons: “I’m setting up my covenant with you including your children who will come after you, along with everything alive around you—birds, farm animals, wild animals—that came out of the ark with you. I’m setting up my covenant with you that never again will everything living be destroyed by floodwaters; no, never again will a flood destroy the Earth.”
God will destroy the earth and universe one day. Isaiah 51:6 tells us this, “Raise your eyes to the sky, then look to the earth beneath; for the sky will vanish like smoke, and the earth will wear out like a garment and its inhabitants will die in the same way. But My salvation will be forever, and My righteousness will not fail.” 2 Peter 3:10 also says, “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be discovered.”
So if God is in control of this world, what must we do to protect it?
Numbers 35:33-34a says, “So you will not defile the land which you are in, because blood defiles the land, and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed in it, except by the blood of him that shed it. So do not defile the land which you are dwelling in.” The murder and lawlessness on our streets are more dangerous to us than emissions from a car. God will punish us for not living by His Word. This is what brings about drought and famines and diseases, not climate change.
Isaiah 24: 5-13 says, “The earth is polluted because of its inhabitants, for they have transgressed laws, violated statutes, broken the ancient covenant. Therefore a curse devours the earth, and its inhabitants pay for their guilt; therefore they who dwell on earth have dwindled, and only a few are left. The new wine mourns, the vine languishes, all the merry-hearted groan. Stilled are the cheerful timbrels, ended the shouts of the jubilant, stilled the cheerful harp. They no longer drink wine and sing; strong brew is bitter to those who drink it. Broken down is the city of chaos, every house is shut against entry. In the streets they cry out for lack of wine; all joy has grown dim, cheer is exiled from the land. In the city nothing remains but desolation, gates battered into ruins. For thus it shall be in the midst of the earth, among the peoples, as when an olive tree has been beaten, as with a gleaning when the vintage is done.”
“Yes,” we are seeing more drought and famines and our cities are in disarray not because of coal plants, “No”, because we are not living by God’s Word. His Word which was written down thousands of years ago is now coming into being. Two thousand years ago the Apostle Paul wrote this about our time.
2 Timothy 3:1-5, “But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.”
One day God will create a new heaven and earth as Revelation 21:1 says, “Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth.” For the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no more sea.” This planet and all the rest of the universe was created by a Supreme Being, a Being way beyond our intelligence, and He is in control of all things, and He also knows when all things will end. He gave us His Words so that we would not be caught off guard. “Yes”, we are supposed to be good stewards of the planet.
But who’s saving the planet? Only the Creator of the planet…God.