THE LOST GOSPEL OF THE EARTH (2)

OCTOBER 14 2017

THE LOST GOSPEL OF THE EARTH. (2)

My Dutch nature compels me to be entirely truthful, which forces me to see politeness as a form of hypocrisy, consider bluntness to be an asset while insincerity and ambiguity are a no-no.

For this week’s critique I have singled out the contemporary Statements of Faith of two denominations: the Christian Reformed Church’s OUR WORLD BELONGS TO GOD, and for the Presbyterian Church in Canada its LIVING FAITH, a statement of Christian belief.

Synopsis.

I believe that the current ecclesiastical set-up is becoming unglued because of an anthropocentric reading of the Scriptures and neglect of and even disdain for The Gospel of the Earth.
This has brought us to a religious state where churches have become ineffective as their basic assumptions are wrong, those assumptions being that the church is there to proclaim personal salvation, that creation is of little or no consequence and that heaven is the ultimate destination of believers.

Let me state in advance that I am not a theologian and have not studied theology in any shape or form. I now believe that all church doctrines and denominations have become irrelevant: only one thing matters: LOVING CREATION.

I do admit to being a life-long student of the Bible and have become a great admirer of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s writings.
The same is true for J. H. Bavinck whose (1) HET RAADSEL VAN ONS LEVEN, (2) AND VOORT WENTELEN DE EEUWEN and (3) DE MENSCH EN ZIJN WERELD I have translated and now are available as (1) THE RIDDLE OF LIFE, (2) BETWEEN THE BEGINNING AND THE END, A Radical Kingdom Vision, and the yet to be published (3) ON AND ON THE AGES ROLL, an exposition of REVELATION.

My Love for creation is based on John 3: 16.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer calls John 3: 16 the most important text in the New Testament. Here it is: “For God so loved the world (COSMOS) that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Why is this text seen so important?

At a bible study session I asked what the word ‘world’ in this context meant. The general response was that it meant ‘the people’, and for a long time that too was my opinion, until I looked closer at the word ‘world’, which, in the original is ‘cosmos’.
My dictionary defines the word ‘cosmos’ as “the world or universe regarded as an orderly, harmonious system.” It cites chaos as the opposite.
In essence this means that, since God loves the cosmos so much, it is our Christian duty to do the same: it is not enough to love one’s neighbors: love for creation is even more essential because it includes everything and everybody.

Based on this premise I believe that HUMAN REDEMPTION CAN BE UNDERSTOOD ONLY AS AN INTEGRAL PART OF REDEMPTION OF THE WHOLE CREATION.

That is a statement not found in either of the religious outlines.

The Christian Reformed statement was first written in 1986 and a much improved version appeared in 2008 in which the ‘stewardship’ designation was dropped, and Climate Change was noted.

In businesslike terms John 3:16 states that God bartered his Son in exchange for the return of the COSMOS. It’s as simple as that.

Somehow the Devil, by means of the most devious act ever committed, had secured ownership of the COSMOS, a deal that took place in the Garden of Eden. There this wily evil angel hoodwinked an immature and inexperienced couple, to whom God had entrusted his creation, in transferring ownership from them to the Great Deceiver, an act which has detrimentally affected everything and everybody, until Christ returns.
Psalm 115: 16 is quite explicit about ownership: “The highest heavens belong to the LORD, but the earth he has given to humanity”.

We all agree that the world has God’s signature on it, just as the famous painting by Rembrandt THE NIGHT WATCH carries his imprint. Yes, creation is God’s work of art, but just as Rembrandt’s painting is now owned by the Amsterdam Rijksmuseum, so too, to our increasing sorrow, Creation too is no longer under divine guidance. That means that, just as THE NIGHTWATCH has undergone change of ownership, so too has the earth.

All that is confirmed in John 3: 16, where God, the Father, paid the ultimate price – the life of his one and only son – to buy the COSMOS back from The Evil One.

John 3: 16 is so important because properly understanding this text – unconditionally LOVING the COSMOS – guarantees us ETERNAL LIFE.

Here’s what I believe!! This is my conclusion:

Christ did not come into the world to save sinners: no, Christ came into the world with the SOLE purpose to wrest ownership of the cosmos away from Satan and restore it to the people of God.
The Creator-God was willing to make the ultimate sacrifice – the life of his Son – to buy back the COSMOS from the Satan. That’s what happened on Calvary. Jesus died by offering his divine body for the sole purpose of regaining ownership of the COSMOS.

As a rule churches in general give this text a pious twist and say that he died for our sins. He did that too, but that was and is an incidental matter: God’s main goal was the re-acquisition of the Cosmos which WE had sold to the Evil One and which Christ bought back with his blood.

THAT IS THE LOST GOSPEL OF THE EARTH, a message which the church must regain.

Let me repeat: somehow the cosmos, the world that God created had fallen into the wrong hands: it no longer was God’s cosmos, it no longer belonged to the creator. Ownership had changed to the great dismay of God, the creator. His beloved work of art, of which Psalm 33: 9 says that “For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm”, that wonderful world, created by and through God’s Command, had fallen into the wrong hands.

This means that today, the world in which we live, is not in God’s care, but subject to the evil influences of the Great Deceiver. This is becoming more evident by the day.
And the Bible backs that up.

Three examples point that out.

1. Matthew 4:8: Again the devil took him (Jesus) to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.

2. 1 John 5: 19: We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.

3. John 17: 15-16: My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.

These three texts indicate that not God, but the Devil, which Jesus often calls, The Evil One, is in charge of this world. It explains the Holocaust, Nuclear weapons, Climate Change and today the emergence of Trump.

In other words: The world which God created and which, at one time, “belonged to God” as the creator, no longer is his, but has fallen into the wrong hands.

When the Devil took Jesus on a high mountain and showed him all the wonders of the world, the Pyramids, the Great Wall of China, the wild-life abundance of Africa, the indigenous culture of the Americas and implied that all this –the entire world – was now the grand possession of the Devil, Jesus did not dispute that claim. He did not say, “This world belongs to God.” No, Jesus knew that the Devil spoke the truth.

He affirmed that when he prayed to his father – as recorded in John 17 – where he asked, “My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.”

That text has often been used by the Heaven adherents to prove that we don’t belong to this world. But that is incorrect: Jesus knows that the world we live in, is in the power of the evil one, and that we should have no part of such ownership. Jesus wanted nothing to do with such a world, and neither should we. We are in the world, but don’t belong to a world fully in the possession of the enemy, the evil one. We simply cannot participate in a world, totally owned by the Devil.

That situation is plainly explained by John in his letter: “We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.”

The LIVING FAITH, the 1984 “Statement of Christian Belief” of the Presbyterian Church in Canada, takes as point of departure that God is still fully in charge of creation and while the Devil plays a role in the world, creation ownership remains fully vested in the God creator.

OUR WORLD BELONGS TO GOD, a Contemporary Testimony of the Christian Reformed Church has as its Preamble:
As followers of Jesus Christ,
living in this world—
which some seek to control,
and others view with despair—
we declare with joy and trust:
Our world belongs to God!

Not a very auspicious beginning, but that is beside the point. The statement should not have said that ‘some seek to control’, but that today it is fully controlled by the evil one. That would have been the truth and would have altered the entire document.

Also neither of the Reformed testimonies even hints that there is a Created Word, which, quoting the Belgic Confession is “like a beautiful book, in which all creatures, great and small, are as letters to make us ponder the invisible things of God: his eternal power and his divinity.”
Also nowhere in these two statements is found that creation is holy and that, when we cause pollution, we sin. Also nowhere in the statements is creation seen as alive, as suffering, as burdened under the sins of the people, yet Isaiah 24 eloquently outlines how:
The world languishes and withers,
The heavens languish together with the earth,
The earth lies polluted under its inhabitants,
For they have transgressed the laws,
Violated the statutes, broken the everlasting covenant.

That points to the all-important covenant God made with humanity and Creation, as outlined in Genesis 9.

Churches are ANTHROPOCENTRIC.

Our sin, so vividly illustrated in the Book of Job, is ANTHROPOCENTRIC, the arrogant and deluded belief that the earth and the universe were designed for human benefit and control. Churches today, almost without exception, foster some sort of mindless obedience, void as it is of any creational connection, tacitly if not openly advocating that cursed heaven connection.
The Book of Job outlines more than any other book in the Bible that we ought to give ourselves whole-heartedly over to the universe, arising from humility that leads to wisdom instead of anthropocentric pride.

Just as Job is born again, converted from an EGO-centered life to an ECO-centered consciousness based on awe, we too must see that our own conversion and the redemption of creation go hand in hand.

What both statements should have emphasized is the Coming of God’s Kingdom, the New Creation, following Jesus’ plea, “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. (Matthew 6: 33)
That means that when we pursue the welfare of creation as our goal in life, everything else will fall into place, including our personal salvation.

Bavinck categorically states that “It is God’s intention to unite all fractured parts of his creation into one overarching harmony. There is no such thing as individual salvation. All salvation is of necessity universal. The goal of our life can never be that we personally may enjoy God and be saved in him. The goal of our life can only be that we again become part of the wider context of the Kingdom of God where all things are again unified under the one and only all-wise will of him who lives and rules forever.”

That’s what I really miss in both statements of faith.

P. S.
Praise the Lord: today – October 14 – I am entering my 90th year!!

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