1. Creation:
The doctrine of creation is fundamental for everything that
follows in Christian Theology. It is the basic assertion about the relation of
God to the world, and about humanity and the world, namely, that they are
creatures.
The testimony of the Bible is that humanity is called to be
God’s gardener and obedient agent in caring for the creation to promote the
well-being of the creation and of humanity under God (Gen.2:15;Lev.25:1-5;Deut.
22:6,25:4) “Dominion” in Gene.1:26,28 means this rather than greedy
exploitation and despoiling of creation. The rest of the creation fulfills the
divine purpose of manifesting and praising God and mutual service (plants for
animals, Gen.1:30) as well as the service of humanity. Then, the biblical
approach to the ecological issue is to ask this basic question : is humanity,
particularly the Christian, responsibly and productively managing the natural
environment? These are reasons for concern about the ecology.
