Theology affects Ecology? Quote to Ponder: John MacArthur (repost, 12/3/08)

Here is a quote I came across while doing research on God’s Mission. It is by: John MacArthur…

The environmental movement is consumed with trying to preserve the planet forever. But we know that isn’t in God’s plan… The earth we inhabit is not a permanent planet. It is, frankly, a disposable planet—it is going to have a very short life. It’s been around about six thousand years or so—that’s all—and it may last a few thousand more. And then the Lord is going to destroy it…. I’ve told environmentalists that if they think humanity is wrecking the planet, wait until they see what Jesus does to it. Peter says God is going to literally turn it in an atomic implosion so that the whole universe goes out of existence. (emphasis added)[http://www.gty.org/Resources/issues/594]

Brief things to think about:

1. Notice how dangerous it can be to misread texts that are written as apocalyptic and not meant to be read in a ‘plain sense.’

2. This opens the door for evangelicals to continue to impose the false polarity of Evolution/Science vs. Christian faith, by claiming a young earth.

3. It can make the Christian faith irrelevant in many ways to a culture of “millenials” that are ready to change the world.

Those are some initial thoughts… incomplete and probably needing some clarification on some points.  Nevertheless, please share some of your own thoughts on this “Quote to Ponder!”

UPDATE (3/16/10) : Something that came up in the comments is that the above quote, within the context of the article, is not anti-environment.  Jmac is not advocating that we can burn down the Amazon for fun, or anything like that; he is just against the environmental movement.  The point of the excerpt above is that the whole paradigm is driven by false theological assumptions (at least from my perspective) 🙂  The points I make above are the issues I have with the quote / article as a whole.  Hyper-literalistic, anti-scientific approaches to faith and life are a hindrance to our witness and a hindrance to faithfully reading the Holy Spirit inspired texts!

UPDATE:
Open Source Theology used this post as the basis of a conversation!

http://www.opensourcetheology.net/node/1639