THE OLD TIME RELIGION: still good enough?
I just reread an interview with Dr. Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury from 2012-22, thus the former head of the Anglican Church. An erudite man, writer, poet: in short: a very polished person.
Why did I do this? I tried to detect a new approach to the traditional way – Jesus saves, as explained in the Scriptures – which, to me is no longer effective.
Take this text:
“Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!”, the opening words of Psalm 8. I was curious: would he mention Creation?After all, God is a total unity. Our words – my words – what I say or do, do not always complement each other. Not so with God. The Belgic confession says it better than I can phrase it:
We know God by two means:
First, by the creation, preservation, and government
of the universe,
since that universe is before our eyes
like a beautiful book
in which all creatures,
great and small,
are as letters
to make us ponder
the invisible things of God:
God’s eternal power and divinity,
as the apostle Paul says in Romans 1:20.
All these things are enough to convict humans
and to leave them without excuse.
Of course. Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
Romans 1: 20 explains that also: by us observing creation, God shows his full authority, and so reveals his majesty, affirming the lines in Psalm 8, but Dr. Williams, biblical scholar, great theologian, never mentioned this essential path to salvation.
Just look what is happening in God’s Garden, the world He gave to us to improve.
This year has just begun!
This year is exceeding 2023 – Canada’s worst wildfire season. In addition to the loss of plants and animals and poor air quality for a huge area, this illustrates a dangerous feedback loop. Estimates in the journal Nature calculate that the C02 emissions from the 2023 Canadian wildfires equals the total annual emissions of India. The CO2 released by wildfires heats the planet, which creates more drought and more wildfires, which creates more global heat, and so on.
As the Earth warms, harmful algal blooms are on the rise – even invading the polar regions. These unusual intrusions are driven by a mixture of pollution from agriculture, runoff from human waste and, increasingly, global heating – sometimes with dramatic consequences for wildlife and humans. As they spread, they are changing the colour of the world’s lakes, rivers and oceans. Remember: Creation is God’s gift to us!
I now live in suburban St. Catharines, Ontario. Daily I walk along carefully maintained lawns: beautifully manicured: not one weed, but also no bees and butterflies, and very few birds. I read this week that ”Insects are now plummeting in protected regions round the world, leading to crashing bird populations. Climate change is one of many factors, with an increasing effect. There are regions with virtually no insects left.”
I also read this week: The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. (Acts 2: 20). That is happening now, 2025! Forest Fires confirm the Finale.
To me the question arises: For what purpose is Christendom on earth?
My simple answer is: Christendom is here to establish peace: Peace on Earth!
We are here to become one with the Earth. We are here to establish intimate connections with all that lives. We are here to search for the right way, the Christ-like Way, so that we live in full harmony with God’s beloved cosmos. We are here to live in the hopeful expectation of God’s New Creation. We are here not to make people Christians, Bible believers, as Dr. Williams said in his lengthy interview. Our real purpose is to become priests in partnership with God’s creation, mediators of the God’s Covenant as outlined in Genesis 9. Yes, the Bible is essential!
John 3: 16 is at the heart of the Gospel. “God so loved the WORLD!” When God sacrificed His Son to ‘buy back’ Creation from The Evil One, should we not follow that ‘cosmos-loving’ path as well? The reward is eternal life in the New Creation!
Look at TODAY!
This weekend the heads of our ruling countries meet in Canada, in a region clouded in smog and smoke from forest fires, a sign of ‘WAR AGAINST CREATION’.
The ‘old-time religion’, still good enough?
Psalm 24 still rules: The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it. That was true 2,500 years ago: that is true today in 2025, and will be true forever on the renewed earth.
That is not a ‘religious act”: that means a ‘way of LIFE!’ That’s what I missed in Dr. Rowan William’s interview.