“What does it mean for Christians to care for God’s creation?”

Steve Brown:
What does it mean for Christians to care for God’s creation? Let’s talk, on Key Life.

Matthew Porter:
This is Key Life, dedicated to the message that the only people who get any better are those who know that if they don’t get any better, God will still love them anyway. That teaching raises a lot of questions, so here’s author and seminary professor Steve Brown along with Pete Alwinson from ForgeTruth with answers from the Bible that will make you free.

Steve Brown:
Thank you Matthew. Hi Pete.

Pete Alwinson:
Hey Stephen. You doing all right?

Steve Brown:
Yeah, I’m going to go out and get in a climate march.

Pete Alwinson:
Good!

Steve Brown:
I haven’t done that before. It’s one of my bucket lists, and if you believe that, you’ll believe anything. That’s Pete Alwinson. And how’s your book coming along?

Pete Alwinson:
It’s coming. It’s coming.

Steve Brown:
I expected it to be finished by now.

Pete Alwinson:
I know, I know. I keep having other, I keep having to do other messages. People die, and I have to do funerals and things like that.

Steve Brown:
Would you tell them to stop it?

Pete Alwinson:
I know. No, you tell them. You’re the bishop here.

Steve Brown:
You know, when I was a pastor, when they died, I took it personally.

Pete Alwinson:
I know. It’s tough.

Steve Brown:
That’s Pete Alwinson, and check out the website of the ministry with which he is involved. It’s called Forge and it’s an amazing ministry and you can go to ForgeTruth.com as you know, Pete comes in and we spend Friday’s broadcast answering questions, and we love your questions. You can call 1-800-KEY-LIFE, 24 7, and just follow instructions. You can sit down and send a snail mail note.

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Pete Alwinson:
All right, let’s do that. Father, what a privilege it is today to be with Steve here in the studio and speaking to your precious people. What a joy it is to be here. Lord, thank you for calling us into your family, that you love us more than we can ever imagine. And Lord Jesus, your cross work proves your great love. Thank you for coming into this world to fulfill the law for us perfectly, to take our curse, to set us free. And so, we honor you. We thank you for being our Lord, our Savior, our Creator, our Redeemer, our Provider, and we give you great praise. And Lord Jesus, you know those things that we tend to get a little bit upset about. And Lord, you know where we need your spirit to bring your peace and joy and power into our lives. And so, we pray you would do that. And even do that this week-end, Lord. We pray for our pastors, teachers, priests, worship directors. And Lord, all of your people who will be a part of being the church this week-end. We come into your presence. And we ask that your power would be revealed and your grace revealed through what is said and sung, preached and taught. Lord, now we just thank you for a chance to look at some questions. Thank you for Steve. Thank you for Key Life. And we ask that you would bless every effort to glorify your wonderful name as we pray in Jesus’ Name. Amen.

Steve Brown:
Amen. Pete, this is an e-mail. Are we as Christians called to be stewards of nature and creation?

Pete Alwinson:
Well, yes

Steve Brown:
of course

Pete Alwinson:
of course. Now, that’s a really big subject, right?

Steve Brown:
Oh, gosh, it really is. And it’s complicated. You know, we interviewed Hugh Ross here on his book on global climate change. And I don’t know if I even understood half of what he said, but it was an interesting book. And he said there is climate change and it’s dangerous and we’re living in a good place and we may not be there forever. The question then comes, is it our fault, and can we stop climate change by making some changes in our lifestyle? And I, this is a personal opinion, it’s not one that I can do, but I don’t think a lot. I kind of feel, yes, we’re the cleanest nation on the face of the earth, along with Canada. And we’ve instituted some very wise policies about pollution, and I think we should. I think we ought to preserve environment and national forest. I think all those things are things that Christians can agree on minimally. When you start moving beyond that, it gets difficult, doesn’t it?

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah, it does. You start, really, this is a bone of contention among Christians as well as non Christians, man caused global warming. I think you can’t deny the history of the world that there has been global changes and there are global changes. But creation care is easier for us to talk about because we have to be good stewards, managers of what God created. It would be foolish to pollute or destroy wantonly His creation, he’s given, and yet on the other hand, I’m really thankful for fossil fuels. I mean, you know, and where some of these things get controversial is that he’s given them to us to use. So, we have to use the minerals and things that he’s given us to use. But we still have to be careful in how we access those things and use them.

Steve Brown:
You know, when you get into this subject, you and I, Pete and I share a common theology and a common view of the Bible and a common view of politics. That’s why we like each other, we’re so impressed with each other’s views. But when you get into this, in some places, and you have to be careful, it’s not about environment, it’s about politics. It’s not about global warming, it’s about power. It’s not about global change, it’s about money. And you have to be really, really careful.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right.

Steve Brown:
And you don’t hear this debated very much.

Pete Alwinson:
No.

Steve Brown:
You get people calling others names. An honest debate about what’s really happening very rarely takes place.

Pete Alwinson:
I think that’s where we need to come as a culture as well as Christians.

Steve Brown:
I agree.

Pete Alwinson:
And Christians can model this by talking intelligently and kindly with each other. And so, if we have a different view, we can’t just cancel each other out and call each other names, as you’ve said.

Steve Brown:
That’s so true.

Pete Alwinson:
It’s what’s happening. And I think, but for instance, on a micro level, as a Boy Scout, I was taught, whatever I took into the backcountry, I have to take out. If I use, open up a wrapper of a bar,

Steve Brown:
pick it up

Pete Alwinson:
I take it out, you don’t throw it, you don’t leave it, you don’t bury it, you take it out. And so, I learned that very early that we have to care for the creation.

Steve Brown:
And that was a Christian principle. They weren’t just teaching, they were teaching what Scripture teaches you ought to do.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right.

Steve Brown:
You know, one of the interesting things, and this is my political bias, but in terms of demonstrations by pagans, when they have nothing to do with Christian principles, it takes an army of garbage collectors to clean it up.

Pete Alwinson:
Oh, man.

Steve Brown:
When it’s people of faith, they don’t have to even bother because it’s going to be clean when it’s over. And so yeah, we’re to take care of what God has given us.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right.

Steve Brown:
Don’t go weird on it. And what you think is weird might be what I think is, but it may be that I think you’re weird. You know, we just got to be civil to each other and discuss and debate these things.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s a good point.

Steve Brown:
Yeah, it is. What are appropriate issues for leaving the church?

Pete Alwinson:
Oh, man. Well, we had this part of another discussion we had earlier.

Steve Brown:
Yeah, we talked about this before.

Pete Alwinson:
If you’re moving away from core Biblical teaching, if the church is changing, when you say you joined a church and then they begin moving away from Biblical teaching, and you can’t get them to correct their path, then I think that’s a reason to leave. That’s one.

Steve Brown:
I do too. I agree. And I also say if Christ becomes just one of many messiahs, if Christ is not lifted up and you can’t change it, then you probably ought to leave.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s so true. If the teaching of the church moves away from grace as the basis of salvation, and moves to more of a morality based, legalistic base, then you have to, or on the other hand, an antinomian, everything’s okay.

Steve Brown:
Yeah, that’s exactly true.

Pete Alwinson:
I think how the gospel works out is so important.

Steve Brown:
Yeah, I agree with you. Do you grant that some people just don’t fit in some churches?

Pete Alwinson:
I do.

Steve Brown:
I do too. I understand that.

Pete Alwinson:
I do. I think there’s a lot of different shepherds because there’s a lot of different types of sheep.

Steve Brown:
That’s true. That’s very true.

Pete Alwinson:
And I think, this often happens when a new pastor comes to a church that a lot of people say, well, he’s different and I don’t feel as connected here. And I don’t get as much from his teaching. And Phillips Brooks said.

That preaching is proclamation through personality.

So, a lot of times in the change of a pastor, you’ll find people that begin to drift away from that church and need to, maybe that’s time to reconnect at another place.

Steve Brown:
And don’t, by the way, don’t take that lightly. I mean, don’t, every time you don’t like the song or the sermon, leave the church.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right.

Steve Brown:
Really talk it out and think it out and make sure that you share it with brothers and sisters because they can see things that you can’t. But I think sometimes it’s just, there have been times when I’ve said to people, you’re not happy here. You need, I can’t leave and you can, so you’re going to have to leave. And they generally fainted dead away because pastors are supposed to hustle people to stay, not leave.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right.

Steve Brown:
And I said that sometimes.

Pete Alwinson:
And you gave them the freedom.

Steve Brown:
Yeah, to do that without

Pete Alwinson:
to be in a, but you, I love what you said though. Some people try to manipulate, I’m going to leave or I’m going to withhold my tithe if I don’t get my way. That’s not how to be a church member.

Steve Brown:
Did you call people out when they did that sort of thing?

Pete Alwinson:
You know, I sometimes, yes,

Steve Brown:
Sometimes I did too.

Pete Alwinson:
when it had to happen and just can’t give into that kind of bullying

Steve Brown:
I know you can’t.

Pete Alwinson:
if it takes place.

Steve Brown:
And if you’re a pastor, don’t do it because every time you do it, when you give into the bullying, you sell a little bit of your soul.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right.

Steve Brown:
And you don’t want to come to retirement and think, I should have done it a different way.

Pete Alwinson:
I know. That’s right.

Steve Brown:
Don’t thank us. We were glad to help. Hey, we’ve got to go. But first, Key Life is a listener supported production of Key Life Network.