Biblical Mandates
Let’s go back to a time before the internet, before the Industrial Revolution, before the Renaissance, before Christ and before Abraham. Let’s go back to a time when four rivers winded across miles of untouched wilderness, formed by the hand of God, and met in a garden called Eden. This garden was home to many wonderful plants and animals including “trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food” (Gen 2:9). God placed his most important creation, a man named Adam, in the garden to “work it and take care of it” (Gen 2:15). God also placed two trees in the middle of the garden, the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. After a while, the Lord decided to give Adam a helper suitable for him. Her name was Eve. It all started out great. There was no sin, no shame and to guilt. Everything was in fact perfect. That is, until the Fall.
The Fall is perhaps the single most important event in the history of the earth, outside of creation and the life of Christ. In one moment, mankind went from being in a perfect and sinless relationship with God, to a relationship scarred by disobedience and sin. Adam and Eve’s eating of the forbidden fruit causes God to curse both of them for their disobedience. While they gained the knowledge of good and evil, they lost the utopian garden experience forever.
As with any ethical issue, such as many environmental issues have become, there needs to be some basis for what is morally “right and wrong”. According to Genesis 3, the Lord gives Adam and Eve a sense of right and wrong when they eat the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge. However, it is clear today that there are many issues that people cannot come to agreement on whether it is “morally right” or not. ...