Imagine that scientists have finally solved climate change. Carbon emissions are completely under control. We still have occasional thunderstorms, but hurricanes, typhoons, and tornadoes are a thing of the past. In addition, there are no longer massive droughts or floods. The planet is under the control of brilliant scientists. okay; I said conceived.

For all practical purposes, we have saved the planet. Mission accomplished! Praise science and scientists! Now what? we have some other issues worthy of our attention?

Oh, how about the state of humanity? What about all the lies, thefts, cheats, scams, beatings, rapes, mutilations and murders? Saving the planet didn’t fix that, did it? Only if you imagined it. not that I couldn’t fix these problems that are within us!

May I suggest that it is humanity that needs to be saved, much more than the planet? If our planet has existed here for millions or billions of years as scientists estimate, it can surely survive climate changes even more radical than scientists predict. It can survive the pollution of the land, air and water that we cause. Yes, some of the species of life might not survive, maybe no species would survive, but the planet does. I doubt that any scientist believes that no species would survive what humans did. For those who trust in evolution, the planet would be capable of launching that string of creatures that survived in the seas. Just wait a few million, a few billion years.

Namely not the hope that I have. I don’t subscribe to the “goo-to-the-zoo” evolutionary fantasy. I believe that we were created by a Creator: the Almighty God of the Bible. Also, what is wrong with humanity is that we have abandoned it. “All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way…” said the prophet Isaiah (53:6 NIV).

Moses brought 10 Commandments directly from God. Jesus powerfully summed up all of God’s commandments in two: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind” was the first (Mt 22:37 NIV). The second was this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Mt 22:39 NIV). All hell on earth, properly attributed to humanity, can properly be related to the violation of the Ten or the Two. We do not love our Creator as we should; and we do not love our neighbor as we should.

When Jesus came to save mankind, he called us back to these basics. He loves the God who made you; love also your neighbor that He made. Okay, let’s imagine again. Imagine we all did that for a month. What would happen on earth? Wouldn’t that be sweet? We all probably subscribe to the “defund the police” movement.

However, if you have a realistic view of human nature, you would keep your distance from that movement now and even in our imaginative state of bliss. At the end of that 30-day trial, and probably sooner, someone would choose hate; and before long, many would choose him; eventually everyone would reject these loves for something less. This is how we roll. That is exactly what the Bible means when it says: “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23 KJV). The problem of our human condition goes far beyond criminal or violent behavior. We are all capable of doing hurtful things to others that we would never get fined or jailed for.

There are among us who think that education is the solution to our social ills. That is part of the answer. We need to be educated instead of ignorant. However, secular education (which now dominates the scene) is quite capable of creating smarter thieves, liars, cheats, enemies and murderers. Perhaps this is news to you: we humans don’t just need our heads changed, we need our hearts changed. The heart is the place where our views and core values ​​are stored. Addressing this warehouse is the work of biblical religion. Biblical prophets, from Noah to Moses, Isaiah, Jesus, Peter and Paul, did it consistently. We need to get right with our Maker, then get right with each other. And this work of saving mankind, I will argue, is far more necessary than saving the planet.

We could go a long way to save humanity if four attitudes and behaviors changed substantially in our culture. Consider this with me:

Have devotion to the truth

We all have problems with this. We want others to be honest and truthful with us, but we find it difficult to practice this ourselves. We separate the lies into black and white. We tend to think that ours are white, the lies of others are black. How about we all stop lying? Stop lying to others. Stop lying to ourselves. Part of this commitment is to honor our word; do what we have told others we would do.

Let us choose to live in the truth as consistently as possible. I have found it important to walk with other seekers of truth, those who live in my time and those who lived long ago. This is why Bible study has been invaluable on my journey. That Book emphasizes the importance of truth; it is, I believe, the highest value of God. More than he wants us to do the right thing all the time, he wants us to be honest all the time. Therefore, when we haven’t “done the right thing,” He wants us to be honest about it. Honestly, that goes two ways, horizontally with other people affected by our wrongdoing, and vertically with God, who defines “right and wrong” and holds us personally accountable. I pray that devotion to truth will spread among humanity faster than any infectious disease in human history. And may that devotion be appreciated.

Embrace gratitude instead of rights –

Somehow we seem to have become obsessed with the things we feel entitled to, whether we have them or not. A popular advertising practice is to tell us that we “deserve” this or that. Of course, what we “deserve” is what we don’t yet have. Have you noticed that an attitude of entitlement works against gratitude? We tend to put gratitude aside, in a holding area, until we have everything we feel entitled to have. We guess we’ll thank you later.

We are disappointed by this, imagining that we will be grateful when… Everyone can be grateful now, and it changes our disposition a lot when we choose to be grateful for what we already have, whether it is a little or a lot. Let’s be thankful and encourage each other to do the same every day. Also, let us be more aware of the entitlement attitude in us; And when we recognize it, let’s replace that attitude with gratitude.

Respect the law and those who enforce it –

This is more lacking in our culture than most people acknowledge. Our bulging prison populations bear testimony that commands the attention of most of us. Have you been driving late in traffic? We’re not very law-abiding! The majority of us we are not. I see many people who treat stop signs as if they were yield signs. Skipping red lights has become increasingly popular. Yellow lights mean stepping on the accelerator, not the brake. These are pretty low signs of disregard for the law. We create our own exceptions to laws we don’t like. As long as no law enforcement officer catches us, we will have no pangs of conscience. And when a law enforcement officer catches us and gives us a ticket, we are more likely to feel irritation with him or her than remorse for our action.

This contempt for the law and those who enforce it has grown and foundered. That a drug is illegal does not matter to many. “It makes me feel good and I want it,” they reason. Others reason that you have more stuff than I do, so I should be able to take it. The store has dozens of these items; “They won’t miss this one I put in my pocket, and I sure can’t afford to pay that excessive price for it.” Many people seem to think that “laws were made for other people, not for me.”

Let us acknowledge our own contempt for the law and those charged with enforcing it; So, let us choose respect and obedience instead.

Adopt self-control and personal responsibility.

It may seem like fun to try to control others, but self-control is what is really needed, although it is certainly less fun to do. Along with self-control comes personal responsibility. Many of us have become masters at blaming others for our failures.

Our world would surely be much more heavenly if we all focused on controlling our own words and actions to match the expectations we have of others. We all make mistakes sometimes; taking responsibility for ourselves would mean admitting it, correcting it as much as possible, and apologizing to those affected. Let us build and solidify these attitudes and actions in our lifestyles. And let’s encourage our friends to join us on the journey.

conclusion

Please don’t get me wrong: I don’t want to encourage irresponsible management of our planet and its many resources. We can avoid polluting and wasting resources without becoming obsessed with “saving the planet.” We can conserve resources and invest in technologies that improve life on the planet without living in fear of nature’s wrath. There is, however, a God of nature: the Creator, God Almighty. He has sent many prophets with corrective words, telling us where we have individually and collectively gone astray. They have also issued warnings of his wrath that he refuses to manifest. The apostle Peter said of the Lord God, “He is patient with us, not wanting anyone to perish but wanting everyone to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9 NIV).

The biblical book of Hebrews begins with an account of God’s sending messengers to us. Listen, if you will: “In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets many times and in various ways, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us through his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and by whom he made the universe.3 The Son is the brightness of the glory of God and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things with his mighty word. After having provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.4 So he became as superior to the angels as the name he inherited is superior to theirs (Hebrews 1:1-4 NIV).This Messenger par excellence in the text, identified as ” Son of God,” is the Lord Jesus Christ.

I have needed it to allow me to progress in the four aspects of character development that I shared in this article. He is more important than all of those, necessary for genuine progress in them. Secularists will continue to incite fear regarding the future of the planet and remind them of their responsibility to save it; every time you hear one of those “doomsday messages”, and every time you act on one of them, let it be a reminder of the greatest need to save humanity. This need is not only greater, it predates any hype about climate change, and you can expect it to be here if scientists ever get the planet’s climate under control as they propose.

Our biggest problem is not with the carbon footprint of human beings, but with our footprint of sin. This problem will not be solved by secular government and secular educators for very obvious reasons. Our sin problems are dealt with in the arena of religion, between us and God. I ask you to take your sin problem seriously, to seek God and his answers. Finally, imagine how much better our world would be if doing this had the same importance, received the same attention in our world as “saving the planet”.