Welcome back to
The Creator Revealed.
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Today, we've been talking about
the beautiful relationships
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that exist between
God's creatures, and plants,
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and organisms, and ecology.
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And we see that it
isn't all about struggle
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and competition, is it?
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No.
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Actually, I would
say my observation
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is that life
itself could not exist
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unless there was
this beautiful cooperation
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that we observed between
interdependent organisms.
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In fact, I find that myself
to be possibly or arguably
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the most beautiful
thing about the creation,
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everything seems to
need to work together
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in a beautiful way
for life itself to exist.
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There's a sermon in that.
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There probably is.
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God wants from us isn't it?
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On the subject of sermons,
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during the break we
were talking about how,
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you know, people have this
idea that somehow or other,
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people with PhDs
in theology is stuffy
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and things like that.
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But we're just delighted
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right now to have Dr.
Jo Ann Davidson with us,
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somebody who is
definitely not stuffy.
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Dr. Davidson is a
Professor of Systematic Theology
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at the Seventh-day
Adventist Theological Seminary
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at my alma mater,
Andrews University.
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Praise God.
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Thank you so much for
joining us, Dr. Davidson.
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Oh, I'm glad to be
invited when you talk about.
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This subject is
one of my favorite.
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Exactly.
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I mean, who
doesn't love ecology,
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especially, when we're coming
at it from the perspective
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that the Bible gives us
on nature and the creation.
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And I like that you talked
about how this cooperation
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must be there.
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I mean, it's there.
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And you as a
biologist could have added
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down to the
cellular level even what is,
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how all works together.
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How individual cells
have parts that work together,
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cells work together
and it just no matter
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where you look,
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there's wonderful cooperation.
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And interestingly
enough, we as human beings,
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we instinctively know
that there is something
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wrong going on
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when we see a
breakdown of that cooperation,
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things like cancer,
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that's a breakdown of
cooperation between cells.
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And I believe,
we naturally wince
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when we see these
sort of terrible things
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that do
occasionally occur in nature,
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like lions killing
gazelles and stuff.
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We know in our hearts
that that's just not the way
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it's supposed to be.
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The creation is
broken in some profound way.
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Oh, yes.
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And, you know,
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when people think about heaven,
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they think about golden streets
and playing harps on a cloud
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but when God
describes heaven in Isaiah 11,
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He describes all of this
cruelty being erased away.
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The lions gonna
lie down with the lamb
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and the goat with the leopard
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and a little kid can put
his hand in a cobra's hole.
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And then it says the
reason why this is gonna happen
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is because the world will
be full of the knowledge of God
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as the waters covered sea.
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And so God is looking
forward to this day too.
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Someday His
dreams for this planet
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are gonna come true
and He's looking for...
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It's such a glorious thing.
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And it's not just that
these are kind of empty,
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unfounded promises,
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or something
that we see out there.
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These are things that
we can see foreshadowing's
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of already in the creation
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as we look at these beautiful
cooperative relationships.
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And even occasionally,
we see beautiful things
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between human
beings and creatures
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that you wouldn't expect...
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I think about
those occasional stories
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that you hear about
lions that bond in some way
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with human beings
and it's such a...
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Heartwarming. Yes.
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It's a heart-warming
and beautiful thing to see.
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However, there is an
argument that I've heard made
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that goes basically like this.
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If Jesus is coming again,
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if there's going
to be a new creation,
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and if this old
creation is broken,
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why should we care about it,
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why worry about taking
care of nature at all and,
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you know, being conservationists
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or something like that.
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This earth is going
to be destroyed by fire
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when Jesus comes, why
should we worry about it?
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Oh, that's a
question I hear so much.
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But I'm thinking then
the people aren't aware
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of the message of
Scripture because before sin,
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Adam and Eve were given
a job to tend and to care
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for the garden
and there wasn't...
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That was a privilege and a joy.
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And why aren't we thinking
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we need to work with
that special instruction
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even now, even
though things are broken?
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Why are we thinking
of caring and tending
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for this great
place that God made?
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I find it interesting in
Psalm 98 and other places.
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But it's very clear in Psalm 98
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"All nature," it says,
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"the rivers are
clapping their hands,
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the hills are joyful together,
and all nature's rejoicing."
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And then it
gives the reason why,
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it says because God is going
to come to judge the world,
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and judge the earth, and
the people's with equity,
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and it includes both
the earth and the people's,
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then God's gonna
judge and He's gonna hold us
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responsible for not
caring for this great place
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that He gave us.
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In the Book of
Revelation as the Bible closes,
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I think it refers back to that.
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Because in Revelation Chapter 7,
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it talks about the
angels holding back the winds
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of strife from the earth
and the sea and the trees
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and finally, the
elders around the throne say,
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"It's time that
you destroy those
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who destroy the earth."
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And heaven is watching
and seeing if we appreciate
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this great nest
that God has given us.
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Don't you think
that part of the reason,
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Dr. Davidson, that God
gave us when He gave us dominion
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we were to learn to
rule in covenantal love
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as He does with us?
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It was all about our
character development,
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don't you think?
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Oh, yes.
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And if we're
created in God's image,
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we should think
it'd be a natural thing
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that we want to
reflect God's loving concern
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for this or like He does.
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Yes.
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I mean, that's what it
partly means to be created
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in His image.
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Amen. Yeah.
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You know, in
thinking about this myself,
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what the analogy
that I would draw
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is something like this.
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You know, if you go
to the Louvre in Paris,
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there are lots of
fabulous works of art there,
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but the Venus de Milo is there.
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Now when you think about it,
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the Venus de Milo is an
old broken statue, right?
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But it is still so
fabulously beautiful.
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If I went into the
Louvre with a hammer
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and smash the Venus
de Milo into pieces,
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I mean, wouldn't any
reasonable rational person,
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anybody with a soul
be horrified at that?
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And yet, you
know, it's surely...
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If we go and just destroy
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this wonderful work of art
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that God created,
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it says something
profoundly evil about ourselves.
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There's something wrong
with us if we actually feel it,
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that's okay.
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And, you know, I
think the ancients were
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more in tune to
creation than we are.
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I love that passage in Job,
the oldest book in the Bible.
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Where Job says, the animals,
if you watch, will teach you,
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and they'll help
you learn about God.
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And I think
that's really important.
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If we turn away and
don't care for this earth,
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we're gonna
lose a lot of lessons
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that God is trying to
show us how wonderful He is,
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and what He's given us.
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Nature itself praises
God and it can teach us
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how wonderful the Creator is.
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So as a theologian
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and obviously a
lover of nature itself,
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tell me this in
from your perspective,
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what do you see out
there that you consider
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to be the most beautiful
thing that teaches us the most
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about God and His nature?
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I heard one person
describe it this way,
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which I've taken to
be my own that said,
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every animal can
teach us a character quality
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that God wants us to have.
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And we can't look
at each other anymore,
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we can't see Jesus
but every animal display
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some character
quality God wants us to have.
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And at that time,
we had a beloved dog
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who's recently died but...
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You know, dogs can show
you what forgiveness is like,
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they never hold a grudge,
they never hold a grudge,
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and they always
want to be with you
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and are always having a
forgiving spirit no matter.
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And I got to thinking
about that what qualities
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do animals display
that God wants me to have?
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You know, when you said
that my initial thought was,
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"Oh, no, that's
ridiculous. Insects what can..."
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And then I thought, "Go
to the ant, thou sluggard."
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Yeah, so it's
there, it's amazing.
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Yeah, so that's a
really deep point.
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And my favorite Old
Testament description
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of this is in 1 Kings 4
when it talks about Solomon
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being the
wisest man in the earth
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and if people from
all around the world
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came to see and
listen to Solomon's wisdom.
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And then it says
what he talked about.
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It says he talked
about trees, about flowers,
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about the animals.
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And people came
from all around the world
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to learn the Wisdom of Solomon.
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What does he talk about?
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Wonders of
creation. There we go.
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Well, thank you so much
for joining us, Dr. Davidson.
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I could talk about these things
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probably for
the rest of my life.
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It is a wonderful topic. Yeah.
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You know, a
thought occurred to me
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is after Jesus did the miracle
with a fish and the loaves,
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He told His
disciples to gather together
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the remnants of what was
left, He never wasted anything.
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And if we waste our
resources that God has given us,
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if we aren't
taking good care of it,
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I think we're not following
in the footsteps of Jesus.
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I have to agree with you.
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You know, there's something ugly
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about wanton wastefulness
and something beautiful
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actually about conserving
what God has given to us
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in such unbelievable
abundance in this world.
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I'm just amazed
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at the gratuitous beauty
these glorious relationships
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and just the
abundance of resources
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that we have to
support our lives
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and the lives
of other creatures.
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And that's something
that we need to keep in mind,
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it's not just for
us, it's for everything.
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Remember the first
angel's message says,
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"Worship the Creator."
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When we worship God in
the beauty of His holiness,
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we will be appreciating
what He has done for us.
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Thank you for joining us.
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