2. about women’s equality? - March 5
about the environment? - March 12
about race issues? – March 19
*Theology Forum 6:30 PM – Slavery in the Bible
about all the suffering in the
world? – March 26
about people of other faiths? – April 2

3. Does God care about the environment?

4. What is Gods plan for our environment?
Is this just a PC topic because we live in Santa Cruz?
Why did Jesus say so little regarding environmental welfare during his time as a human? Biblically does the earth exist but for humans?

5. How do we practically apply being stewards of His creation?
Does God support peoples choices to be a vegetarian or vegan?
Should we eat meat (beef, pork, chicken etc.) or does God want us to protect all life that He created?

6. Where does balance lie between working the ground (earth) and consuming the fruits of it? Stewardship and protection of the environment?
Do animals get into heaven?

7. Does the church have an environmental obligation?
If God created all creatures and we are to care for his creation, is it wrong to kill a 2” spider when you see it crawling in your bedroom near your pillow?

8. Does God care about the environment?

11. God created the earth and it was good
Genesis 1-2

12.  Genesis 1:1
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

13.  Genesis 1:31
God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.

15. If plants were created on Day 3, how did they exist without photosynthesis since the sun wasn’t created until Day 4?

16. If the earth was created on Day 1 but the sun and stars created on Day 4, how did the earth stay rotating and suspended? How was there day and evening if the sun wasn’t created yet?

17. If the earth was created on Day 1 and the sun created on Day 4, how could there be morning and evening on Days 1, 2 and 3?

18. You see a strategic pattern of God creating and separating forms and then filling what He created.

19. God created the heavens and the earth and it was good
In the beginning
(Genesis 1-2)
God created the heavens and the earth and it was good

20. The earth belongs to God

21.  Psalm 24:11
The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it;

22.  Psalm 115:16
The highest heavens belong to the Lord,     but the earth he has given to mankind.

23. God created human beings to care for His earth
Genesis 1-2

24. harmony with God, His creation and each other
In the beginning
(Genesis 1-2)
harmony with God, His creation and each other

25.  Genesis 1:26-29
Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.

26. 28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” .

27. 29  Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food.”

28. Is it out of God’s will and direction to eat meat? It clearly says that humans were to eat plants not animals.

29. to “rule” over is from the Hebrew verb radah, is that it grants humans the right and responsibility to rule, to govern the rest of creation. It establishes a hierarchy of power and authority in which the human race is positioned above the rest of the natural world.

30. However - how we rule is to be patterned after God’s ‘rule’ – that is, a rule that protects and nurtures, not a rule that exploits. Our rule over the creation is a delegated rule: a trust given to us under God’s authority, to care and nurture what He has given us responsibility over.

31. to “subdue” is from the Hebrew kavash, depicts a hierarchical relationship in which humans are positioned above the earth and are granted power and control over it.

32. God has delegated to us a responsibility to protect the creation and care for it.

33.  Genesis 2:15
 The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.

34. harmony with God and each other
In the beginning
(Genesis 1-2)
harmony with God and each other

35. The Fall: sin enters the world
Genesis 3+

36. harmony with God and each other sin alters God’s original design
In the beginning
(Genesis 1-2)
harmony with God and each other
sin alters God’s original design

38. The Effects of The Fall:
Selfishness, consumerism, neglect of the responsibility that God gave us to care for His creation

39. After “the Fall” (Genesis 3)
In the beginning
(Genesis 1-2)
After “the Fall”
(Genesis 3)
harmony with God and each other
sin alters God’s original design
patriarchal culture, polygamy, slavery

40. Jesus moves us away from the effects of the Fall

41. Redemptive trajectory of Jesus
In the beginning
(Genesis 1-2)
After “the Fall”
(Genesis 3)
harmony with God and each other
sin alters God’s original design
patriarchal culture, slavery, consumerism
community changing through Jesus to be what God intended in the beginning

42. Responsibly using the Earth’s resources such as coal, oil, iron and mineral wealth, without exploitation, harming or polluting the environment.
Looking after our oceans, using it’s resources while preventing pollution and preserving fish stocks.

43. Dealing with the domesticated and wild animals and protecting threatened species.
Caring for the diversity of plant-life and rain-forests while understanding that possible cures for diseases in plants could be destroyed by our actions.

44. Finding ways of ensuring that everyone benefits in a fair and just way by eliminating extreme poverty throughout the world.
Be aware that greed and fear produce injustice, poverty and conflict. These things have a negative effect on the aim of subduing the Earth.

45. Finding ways of ensuring that everyone benefits in a fair and just way by eliminating extreme poverty throughout the world.
Be aware that greed and fear produce injustice, poverty and conflict. These things have a negative effect on the aim of subduing the Earth.

46. Finding more efficient ways of growing food to feed an expanding population without exploiting the land in an irresponsible manner.
Using the sciences to find ways to better care for people and all of creation.

47. Day to day awareness of the importance of recycling and other ways we can daily be “stewarding” what God has entrusted us with.

48. We don’t worship the creation – but we take care of the creation
We don’t worship the creation – but we take care of the creation. We worship the Creator. The beauty of the creation points to the Creator.

49.  Psalm 19:1-4
The heavens declare the glory of God;  the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge. They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them.

50. 4 Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,     their words to the ends of the world.

51. 4 Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,     their words to the ends of the world.

52. 4 Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,     their words to the ends of the world.

53. 4 Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,     their words to the ends of the world.

54. 4 Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,     their words to the ends of the world.

55. One day God will recreate a new heaven and earth:
Revelation 22

56. Redemptive trajectory of Jesus New Heavens/New Earth:
back to the beginning
(Revelation 21-22)
In the beginning
(Genesis 1-2)
After “the Fall”
(Genesis 3)
harmony with God and each other
sin alters God’s original design
patriarchal culture, polygamy, slavery
community changing through Jesus to be what God intended in the beginning
restoration to God’s original design

58. Jesus’ redemptive work includes the earth.
Romans 8:19-21
For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed.

59. 20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.

60.  Genesis 1:26-28 calls on us to recognize God as the ruler of this world, who has put us in charge of this creation as his stewards, to tend and care for it, and to whom we will one day give an account..

61. Is it out of God’s will and direction to eat meat? It clearly says that humans were to eat plants not animals.

62. Genesis 9:3
Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.

63. about women’s equality? - March 5
about the environment? - March 12
about race issues? – March 19
*Theology Forum 6:30 PM – Slavery in the Bible
about all the suffering in the
world? – March 26
about people of other faiths? – April 2