PANTHEISM

Posted 1/30/16; Updated 6/2018; Updated 8/10/21

 

 

Question: “What is pantheism?”
Answer: Pantheism is the view that God is everything and everyone and that everyone and everything is God. Pantheism is similar to polytheism (the belief in many gods), but goes beyond polytheism to teach that everything is God. A tree is God, a rock is God, an animal is God, the sky is God, the sun is God, you are God, etc. Pantheism is the supposition behind many cults and false religions (e.g., Hinduism and Buddhism to an extent, the various unity and unification cults, and “mother nature” worshipers).

Pantheism: The New World Religion (Pantheism Part I) 

Pantheism is fast becoming the moving force behind the Environmentalist Movement. Now, certainly, I am all for caring for the world in which we live. God’s creation is a gift to us and it needs to be protected and appreciated. However, we must be very, very careful not to worship the creation. The Creator God, Our Heavenly Father, gave us very clear commandments regarding that very thing. First of all, we are to put nothing/no-one before Him. He will not share his Glory with anyone. Secondly, He clearly commands us not to make any graven image of the likeness of anything in the earth or on the earth or in the heaven’s above.

There is real danger in believing that ALL is GOD. That we are all equally endowed with divinity. If we believe that human beings are no greater, and deserve no greater reverence than the rocks, or bugs, or any animals… than human life has no intrinsic value. There is no reason to think that killing a human is any different than cutting down a tree, or shooting a wild bear, or cutting the throat of a chicken so that you can eat. If all life is of the same value. What would you eat? If even dirt and rocks are divine, bugs, plants and animals. Mankind would find themselves starving to death in very short order. This I find absurd!

Pantheism and paganism: A symbiosis?

Many pagans have already embraced pantheism, and most would benefit by realizing that a nature-inspired pantheism probably underlies their attraction to paganism, and exploring pantheism further. Pantheism is the “deep theology” of paganism.
But perhaps pantheists should also accept aspects of pagan seasonal ceremony and ritual. Paganism and pantheism are soul-sisters. Let everyone take what they like from each, and make their own synthesis.  Source: WORLD PANTHEISM 

 

Is Pantheism a threat to Christianity? 
Pantheism is the view that God is in everything and in everyone and everything and everyone is God. Pantheism comes from the Greek word pan (all) and theos (God), so all things are God and God is all things. He is in all and all is He. That sounds a bit confusing, but if you see something in nature and see the beauty of it, Pantheists attribute the beauty of that to the glory of the Creator. For pantheists, they see the beauty as being God. God is in the butterfly and the butterfly is part of God. Whatever can be seen is not only made by God but is God Himself. In other words, God and nature is the same thing. God is nature and nature is God, so God is the stars, moons, suns, the oceans, the mountains…all matter in fact is God. They don’t separate God from matter because God is matter. This is so contrary to biblical teaching that God is spirit (John 4:24) and not composed of physical matter, therefore matter cannot be God and God cannot be matter. God is the Creator of matter, but He Himself is not that matter.

One of the biggest issues for pantheists is if God is matter or the universe or all things, then how could He be Creator of all things. He would have had to create Himself, since nothing was made that was not made by God (John 1:3). How do they explain the origin of the universe? Who was the first cause if God is matter? How can God as being matter create itself into existence? Then, God would have had to exist prior to His creating Himself. See how logic destroys Pantheism? This is part of the reason Christianity is opposed to this teaching. It not only robs God of glory but it robs God of Whom He is, and that is Holy, Holy, Holy. Physical matter is just that, matter. It is not God, but it is from God. Christianity rightly separates the Creator from His creation. God is not the world around them; God is present everywhere around them, being omnipresent (present-everywhere).

Read more: https://www.whatchristianswanttoknow.com/what-is-pantheism-is-it-a-threat-to-christianity/#ixzz5JlJ0O0tU

Does the Bible teach pantheism?

No, it does not. What many people confuse as pantheism is the doctrine of God’s omnipresence. Psalm 139:7-8 declares, “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.” God’s omnipresence means He is present everywhere. There is no place in the universe where God is not present. This is not the same thing as pantheism. God is everywhere, but He is not everything. Yes, God is “present” inside a tree and inside a person, but that does not make that tree or person God. Pantheism is not at all a biblical belief.
The clearest biblical arguments against pantheism are the countless commands against idolatry. The Bible forbids the worship of idols, angels, celestial objects, items in nature, etc. If pantheism were true, it would not be wrong to worship such an object, because that object would, in fact, be God. If pantheism were true, worshiping a rock or an animal would have just as much validity as worshiping God as an invisible and spiritual being. The Bible’s clear and consistent denunciation of idolatry is a conclusive argument against pantheism. Source

The religious aspect of the environmental movement pt.3

Pantheism, pledges and earth worship

The environmental movement has as its basis a religious perspective – mother Earth along with pantheism. This is the progressive replacement for God; deifying “Mother Earth,” and a unified theory of all creatures, teaching that we are all interdependent of each other and the earth.

Thomas Berry in his influential book “The Dream of the Earth,” the first volume in the Sierra Club’s series on nature and philosophy, explains how “a new type of religious orientation…must emerge from our new story of the universe” (Thomas Berry, The Dream of the Earth (San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1988), p.87.)

Today’s futurists and visionaries tell us that spiritual connectedness to the earth is our only hope to survive. In The Dream of the Earth, Thomas Berry summarized the world’s dilemma – and his answer:
“Human administration of the universe in any comprehensive manner is far too great a task … What we need … is the sensitivity to understand and respond to the psychic energies deep in the very structure of reality itself… This is the ultimate wisdom of tribal peoples. (Thomas Berry, The Dream of the Earth (San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1988), 48.

What exactly are these psychic energies within reality?

Shakti Gawain writes in her book Creative Visualization of how to utilize your imagination for contact to the earth. “Imagine that there is a long cord attached to the base of your spine and extending down through the floor and way down into the earth. If you wish, you can imagine that this is like the root of a tree, growing deep into the ground. This is called a “grounding cord.”

Now imagine that the energy of the earth is flowing up through this cord (and up through the soles of your feet if you are sitting in a chair) and flowing up through all parts of your body, and out through the top of your head. Picture this until you really feel the flow well established. Now imagine that the energy of the cosmos is flowing in through the top of your head, through your body and down through your grounding cord and your feet into the earth. Feel both these flows going in different directions, and mixing harmoniously in your body” (p. 64 Creative Visualization by Shakti Gawain Bantam books 1985).

New age Mysticism is synthesized with an earth based religion that has formed a new religious expression of for our age – eco-spirituality.

The Environmental Handbook was the official publication of Friends of the Earth, specifically prepared for public educators to use during the first Earth Day in 1970. “What we do about ecology depends on our ideas of the man-nature relationship. More science and more technology are not going to get us out of the present ecologic crisis until we find a new religion, or rethink our old one” (p.24)

“Since the roots of our trouble are so largely religious, the remedy must also be essentially religious, whether we call it that or not. We must rethink and refuel our nature and destiny” (p.26).

Many involved in social environmentalism are unaware of the underlying philosophy that is driving the environmental movement to preserve the earth.

“The earth is literally our mother, not only because we depend on her for nurture and shelter but even more because the human species has been shaped by her in the womb of evolution.  Our salvation depends upon our ability to create a religion of nature.” (Rene Dubos, board member Planetary Citizens)

One of the main promoters of this new religion of the earth is none other than Al Gore, he agrees with these concepts and states: “Native American religions, for instance, offer a rich tapestry of ideas about our relationship to the earth. One of the most moving and frequently quoted explanations was attributed to Chief Seattle in 1855, ‘Will you teach your children what we have taught our children? That the earth is our mother? This we know: the earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth. All things are connected like the blood that unites us all” (p. 259).

This is the pantheistic view, God is not personal, nor transcendent, but is subject to the very laws of nature he or she made, (depending on your view). This is what ancient pagan religions believed. This is why they sacrificed to the gods of nature, as in Egypt, to have their blessings.

Does the earth belong to man? According to God, he gave man this authority at first but it was removed when man sinned. Only man was told to subdue the Earth and was given authority and dominion to rule over all living things – Gen. 1:28. It is man alone that God gave the ability to think, so that he can create and improve things.

But there are those who claim that man, animals and nature, are all equals. That we are interdependent on each other and no creature is above any other. That man is worth the same as a whale, or if we take it to its logical conclusion, a fish! How is this possible when there are no ethics or morals in nature? Try talking your way out of being confronted with a bear in the woods. The next time a hurricane is coming or a volcano erupts try to reason with it to stop.

The religious views of the main promoters of the environmental movement become apparent as they offer Mother Earth to replace the true and living God.

Al Gore: “The spiritual sense of our place in nature… can be traced to the origins of human civilization…. The last vestige of organized goddess worship was eliminated by Christianity… [I]t seems obvious that a better understanding of a religious heritage preceding our own by so many thousands of years could offer us new insights . . . .” (p. 260 Earth in the Balance)

Gore’s solution, that: “We should actively search for ways to promote a new way of thinking about the current relationship between human civilization and the earth” (p. 355). This is the heart of the movement, to have a symbiotic existence with all creatures and nature. I think it would be better that we should actively seek the true ancient way God gave to man, to be in a right relationship with his creator, the one who made all creation.

Gore explains what he believes “My own faith is rooted in the unshakable belief in God a creator and sustainer, a deeply personal interpretation of and relationship with Christ, and an awareness of a constant and holy spiritual presence in all people, all life, and all things.” (p. 265) Gore is not describing Christianity but new age pantheism.

This new spirituality being promoted is based on harmonious relation to our surroundings which has an appeal to all. The argument of the interrelationship of all life (pantheism and panentheism) makes sense to those who are being influenced by the spirit of the age and have allowed the dialectic process work on them and bring them into harmony with the new paradigm taking place.

Pantheism: (Greek pan = everything – theos = God) is the belief that everything is God or, everything is in God and God is in everything (panentheism). The elements that make up the universe are divine, and the divinity is equally present in everything. God as a distinct being in the sense of classical theism is rejected. Pantheisms God is in and is all things, the universe and all life are connected. Man, animals, plants, and all physical matter are equal because of the spiritual substance that holds them together. The sum total makes up reality which is God; Pantheism (all is God) opposes Christianity. The Judaic/ Christian belief that there is only one God (monotheism), and God is transcendent, separate from his creation is being deposed for a more natural explanation.

In Former Vice President Al Gore’s book “Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit” a chapter is titled “Environmentalism of the Spirit.”  Gore States “The religious ethic of stewardship is indeed harder to accept if one believes the world is in danger of being destroyed-by either God or humankind. This point was made by the Catholic theologian Teilhard de Chardin when he said, “The fate of mankind, as well as of religion, depends upon the EMERGENCE of a new faith in the future” Armed with such a faith, we might find it possible to resanctify the earth, identify it as God’s creation, and accept our responsibility to protect and defend it” (p. 263, Earth in the Balance)

Gore is referring to Catholic theologian, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin’s new faith which is earth centered. It may contain pieces of Christian terminology but it would not be classified as Christian. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin believed in a universal Christ: “that seems to me the only possible conversion of the world, and the only form in which a religion of the future can be conceived.” (Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Christianity and Evolution (Collins, 1971), p. 130).

This Christ to Teilhard was not a person—he emphasized the spirit within all matter. The new spirituality, earth based religion of Gaia. Pierre Teilhard De Chardin was a pantheist who fused Christianity with evolution. HHe described his road to salvation: … “I can be saved only by becoming one with the universe.”

He wrote of the spirit in all living things – the same as new age movements pantheistic view. “If God can be in us as human beings then why cannot he not be in other “things”? What we call inorganic matter is certainly animate in its own way . . . Atoms, electrons, elementary particles . . . must have a spark of spirit” (Science and Christ, written 1920s, published in English in 1968).

Keep this in mind because we are hearing the same from the Emergent church movement.

Teilhard’s concept was the process of evolution that had man become conscious of who he is – “God.” Christ is incarnate in the entire universe, not just in man.

Gore’s promotion on the New Environmentalism and Goddess Worship are blatantly clear… “Our religious heritage is based on a single earth goddess who is assumed to be the foundation of all life…all men have a god within. Each man has a god within because creation is God.”

Pantheism as well as paganism is contained within his statement.

Richard Austin, one of the speakers at the Earth Care ’96 conference, agrees with the environmental religion: “Christ is fully God and fully Earth …. He came to save the world … I hear the Bible calling us to redeem from destruction the Creation” (Reported in the Calvary Contender, June 15, 1996.)

At New York’s Episcopal Cathedral of St. John the Divine, an organization called the Gaia Institute has a female “Christa” displayed on a cross. Dean, James Parks Morton, said the purpose of the Christian Church is to worship the creation, not the Creator” and declared, “We are increasingly being called to realize that the body of Christ is the earth -the biosphere-the skin that includes all of us.” (Tarrytown News (Nov. 1984).

This earth based spirituality along with eco-feminism has been at work since the 80’s and has spread its leaven for years, we are now seeing this inside the church as the environmental movement has become empowered by the government[s].

So when we see churches involved it should not surprise us, as many leaders are ill equipped too understand or are deceived themselves by this movements good intentions but lack of credibility. On the back cover of Earth in the Balance, is an endorsement from one of the more popular authors of the 90’s. M. Scott Peck. He wrote: “Earth in the Balance is a brilliantly written, prophetic, even holy book, clearly pointing the way we need to change to assure the survival of our grandchildren. I pray it will have the dramatic impact it deserves — and must have for our collective salvation” (M. Scott Peck, author of A Road Less Traveled.)

At the forefront of merging the church with the pantheistic worldview is Matthew Fox, who promotes a cosmic body of Christ. “We are all earthlings. Indeed, in the biblical view of creation human earthlings do not stand at the apex of God’s handiwork. Above us are the angels. The medieval great chain of being preserved this emphasis by placing humans at the midpoint, not at the peak. The world of nature has an identity and purpose apart from human benefit. But we constitute together a cosmic body of Christ” (Matthew Fox, The Cosmic Christ: The Coming of the Cosmic Christ: The Healing of Mother Earth and the Birth of a Global Renaissance).

We have Leonard Sweet, a leader and promoter in the Emergent Church that is merging the church into the environmental movements agenda. In his book Quantum Spirituality he states “In an ecological model of the church, the earth is not separate from us; indeed, we are in symbiotic relationship with the earth. Creation spirituality is of tremendous help here in weaning us from this homocentric warp… So woven together are the destinies of heaven and earth that it is impossible for us to sin against one part of the body without doing damage to the whole body (p.124 Quantum Spirituality.)

Sweet’s explanation[s] reads right out of the environmental movements handbooks. Endorsement of Creation spirituality of Matthew Fox and others like him show how the Emergent church lacks biblical understanding of the differences in worldviews.

The homocentric warp is that the earth is man centered which surely he sees as the Christian worldview. The fact is, it is the Bio-centric view of the environmentalists belittles mans part. The reality is that we should have a theo-centric view as the focus with the sub principle – mans Stewardship given by God over the planet. The culprit always ends up to be the Judeo – Christian values because we deny the sacred in nature. Because we are not bio-centric, and they agree to blame Christianity.

Lynn White, Jr. (Professor of History at the University of California states, “…As we now recognize, somewhat over a century ago science and technology…joined to give mankind powers which…are out of control. If so, Christianity bears a huge burden of guilt….Our science and technology have grown out of Christian attitudes toward man’s relation to nature… No new set of basic values has been accepted in our society to displace those of Christianity. Hence we shall continue to have a worsening ecological crisis until we reject the Christian axiom that nature has no reason for existence save to serve man.

“By destroying pagan animism, Christianity made it possible to exploit nature in a mood of indifference to the feelings of natural objects…The spirits in natural objects, which formerly had protected nature from man, evaporated” (Lynn White, Jr., “The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis,” Garrett de Bell, editor, The Environmental Handbook: Prepared For The First National Environmental Teach-In (New York: Ballantine/Friends of the Earth Book, 1970), pp. 21-25.

Is Earth and all things created – God, or have this universal spirit within. This Pantheism was held by mystics throughout the centuries, Christian and non – Christian alike.

“My beloved (God] is the high mountains, and the lovely valley forests, unexplored Islands; rushing rivers…” (John of the Cross Timothy Freke the spiritual canticle, the wisdom of the Christian mystics 1998 p.60)

“Here [the contemplative state] everything is God. God is everywhere and in all things” (Madam Guyon Willigis Jager, the search for the meaning of life 1995 p.125)
Many people have has a pantheistic experience and interpreted it to be the universal intelligence, God or goddess communicating to them. Whatever they understood it as, it reshaped their worldview.

Forrest Shaklee who began the Shaklee vitamin company had a spiritual experience with nature. He learned to tune in to what he called “the creative intelligence of nature,” that brought him to understand the oneness of nature. This changed his worldview in which he stated, “For I too was product of nature perhaps no better than the old cow on the hillside. Being a product of nature it behooved me to cooperate with nature.” This pantheistic revelation has been experienced by many and it always yields the same results, it diminishes mans position among the creatures and makes man equal with all other species.

Universalism –pantheism is found in the Emergent book Manifesto of Hope which calls salvation “a collective experience.” A poem in the book reads: “Not only soul, whole body! Not only whole body, all of the faithful community! Not only all of the faithful community, all of humanity! Not only all of humanity, all of God’s creation!” (pp. 82-83 Emergent Manifesto of Hope)

Pantheism is not a Christian worldview, the Bible teaches God has existed before creation and is outside his creation. He does not put himself within its confines but has expressed his mind through the things he has created. Creation bears witness to a creator but is not the creator himself.

Some Emergent church teachers are more up front on their new age synthesis, and underlying pantheistic belief. Again, Leonard Sweet states, “For people who understand the Gaia hypothesis, which posits that the earth behaves like a living system and, indeed, that living things regulate earth’s environments, it is not craziness to suggest, as some electrical engineers have argued, that scientists who like their equipment get better results than those who don’t. …–when food, plants, animals, and machines are seen as part of us, and we of them” (p.238 Quantum Spirituality).

The Gaia hypothesis is not the earth as an eco-system; all scientists recognize this to some extent. It is that the earth is alive, working with intelligence, she is interacting with all living creatures. The earth is more than man realize, she is sacred and considered to be a goddess. In their book, Spiritual Politics, Corrine McLaughlin and Gordon Davidson write “God Imminent, the Divinity within all life, is today becoming more widely recognized in the new spiritual, ecological, and feminist movements that are working to empower the individual, support human rights, and honor the sacredness of the Earth as Gaia, the ancient Mother Goddess.” (Corinne McLaughlin and Gordon Davidson, Spiritual Politics. Changing the World From the Inside Out, 162.)

LEONARD SWEET an Emerging Church leader begins his book Quantum Spirituality by calling this the Theory of Everything (a unifying principle that binds things together). This theory not only says that all creation is connected but that it is all inhabited with Divinity (God) logos. “A major New Light undertaking is the designing of newstream communities that can be “in connection” and “in-formation” with the spirit of Christ. Christ will be embodied for the postmodern church in information” (p.122) This is the new light community.

This is not an original concept but an ancient pagan one that is clearly panentheism and pantheism. The new age concept that challenges the worldview of the Bible which portrays a transcendent God and how things actually are. Sweet, as a representative of the Emergent church teaching direction is away from the God spoken of in the Bible by introducing the new age pantheistic view of god in all things and all things being god.

Spirit is in man and in all living things- the same as new age movements pantheistic view. God is no longer transcendent apart from creation but instead is creation.

Sweet makes numerous pantheistic statements revealing his worldview is not Christian: “The world of nature has an identity and purpose apart from human benefit. But we constitute together a cosmic body of Christ” (p.66 Quantum Spirituality)

Sweet also defines the “The connectedness of our breathing encompasses not simply the human order but all creatures that breathe, including persons, plants, and animals” (p.300 Quantum Spirituality)

His quotations of McFague and others show he has been influenced by another spiritual system, the emergent movement becomes a carrier of Teilhard De Chardin, Matthew Fox and other eco – spiritual advocates.

In Sweets Endnotes he writes: Books on creation spirituality include Matthew Fox, Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality Presented in Four Parts, Twenty-six Themes, and Two Questions (Santa Fe, N.M.: Bear and Company, 1983); Fox, Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth (San Francisco: Harper San Francisco, 1990); Ron Miller and Jim Kenney, Fireball and the Lotus: Emerging Spirituality from Ancient Roots, Santa Fe, N.M.: Bear and Company, 1987). See also other volumes in the Creation Spirituality Series published by Bear and Company issues of Creation. A Magazine of Earthly Spirituality for an Evolving Planet published by Friends of Creation Spirituality and other resources available from Friends of Creation Spirituality a return to earth centered religions as the basis for environmental values and self sustaining human developments.”

Sweet quotes David Bohm. “Depth is the source and unity of both energy and matter. I am spirit masquerading in matter’s form…. I cherish the illusion of being substance, yet I am as much the spatial nothingness of atoms. I am as empty and as potent as the space between stars. Electromagnetic waves slice through me; I am a specter cleft by swords” (Quantum Spirituality, p.61).

Are we masquerading as matter, is our physical life an illusion? This is Hinduism. Sweet can quote authors like these because he believes God is the Spirit of the universe, the consciousness of the cosmos: its energy, its information, its thought. This is an example of the pantheistic teaching influence from emergent leaders, it is not Christianity.

Sweet describes New Light embodiment means to be “in connection” and “information” with all of creation which is a body. “New Light communities extend the sense of connectionalism to creation and see themselves as members of an ecological community encompassing the whole of creation. “This is my body” is not an anthropocentric metaphor. Theologian/feminist critic Sallie McFague has argued persuasively for seeing Earth, in a very real sense, as much as a part of the body of Christ as humans. He is referring to Sallie McFague’s “the world as God’s body” as a primary metaphor for God’s relationship to creation in Models of God: Theology for an Ecological, Nuclear Age.

Sweets connectionalism to creation is further explained, “The world of nature has an identity and purpose apart from human benefit. But we constitute together a cosmic body of Christ. In an ecological model of the church, the earth is not separate from us; indeed, we are in symbiotic relationship with the earth” (Sweet, p.124 Quantum Spirituality). Where this can be found in the Bible would take a genius; its not there. But it is there if you are writing a new Bible with new light as your basis for revelation.

Leonard Sweet continues to uphold McFague’s Earth as a body concept by also quoting Edward T. Hall “Nothing is itself taken alone. Things are because of interrelations or interconnections.” Earth as a body What economist/theosophist Anna F. Lemkow calls “the wholeness principle” pervades all of life. Strictly speaking, there is no separate identity called “self.” One person is no person. I cannot exist alone. We take on identity only in relation to community. In fact, humans are so interconnected that one person can directly affect another person’s brain activity on an unconscious level” (p.111 Quantum Spirituality)

Sallie McFague wrote, “A Theological/Ethical Response to Agenda 21,” she has lectured on “A Christian Ecological View of Human Beings.”  Her article called for rejecting the Western model of the Earth in favor of the “ancient organic model” which “can serve to incite the needed change in perspective.”  She explained:
”The organic model, which is found in cultures and religions in Native American traditions, Goddess religions, and even in Christianity’s incarnationism, portrays Earth as a body.”

This “organic model” of McFague’s is the Gaia concept. The concept of the incarnation of Christ being present ecologically is the same we find in Teilhard De Chardin, and Matthew Fox.

Sallie McFague wrote “A Theological/Ethical Response to Agenda 21,” who has lectured on “A Christian Ecological View of Human Beings.”  Her article called for rejecting the Western model of the Earth in favor of the “ancient organic model” which “can serve to incite the needed change in perspective.”  She explained:
”The organic model, which is found in cultures and religions in Native American traditions, Goddess religions, and even in Christianity’s incarnationism, portrays Earth as a body.”

This “organic model” of McFague’s is the Gaia concept.  Sweet finally gives away his goal by defining “Fourth, New Light embodiment means to be “in connection” and “information” with other faiths. To be in-formation means to know each other’s songs almost as well as one knows them oneself, and to enlarge the community to include those whose conceptions of God differ from ours in form” (p.130)

Jesus never told us to add the other religions ways to His. In fact he spoke the opposite. Sweet has no regard for keeping Christians separated from false beliefs but instead promotes a synthesis. Where Christianity is mixed with other beliefs to forma new conclusion, this is the diaprax at work.

This same sentiment is voiced by al Gore who has morphed Christianity into an earth based religion. In his book Earth in the Balance he has the same ideology as Sweet. “The richness and diversity of our religious tradition throughout history is a spiritual resource long ignored by people of faith, who are often afraid to open their minds to teachings first offered outside their own system of belief. But the emergence of a civilization in which knowledge moves freely and almost instantaneously throughout the world has. . . spurred a renewed investigation of the wisdom distilled by all faiths. This panreligious perspective may prove especially important where our global civilization’s responsibility for the earth is concerned…. Native American religions, for instance, offer a rich tapestry of ideas about our relationship to the earth….‘All things are connected like the blood that unites us all” (pp. 258-259, Earth in the Balance)

The famous mythologist Joseph Campbell wrote, “The old gods are dead or dying and people everywhere are searching, asking: What is the new mythology to be, the mythology of this unified earth as one harmonious being? (Mythologist/metaphysician Joseph C. Campbell)

Campbell believed the ancient pagan belief of Gaia “The human woman gives birth just as the earth gives birth to the plants . . . so woman magic and earth magic are the same” (Joseph Campbell p.63)

The Bible does indicate that man has a special purpose to fulfill in expressing God, unlike any other creature. Careful reading of Genesis also reveals that God told Noah to save the animals as well as his family. Noah’s Ark demonstrates the care and love God has for all of His creatures. However we do not see the Bible put the animals or nature on equal status. Mans rightful place today is to co manage; use the Earth’s materials; we are not to abuse the earth nor are we to become sub-serviant to a planet made into a goddess by Global mystics of the United Nations.

Earth worship

The United Nations has an earth-worshiping program “The United Nations Environmental Sabbath Service.” It is a call to prayer to an unknown entity for the salvation of the earth. It describes this entity only as “the energy that moves all things.” It is a call for all people “to join with the earth and with each other” for “the healing of the earth and the renewal of all life.” It urges the earth’s inhabitants to chant, “We live in all things; all things live in us. We live by the sun; we move with the stars.” This introduction and practice to pantheism is part of the United Nations environmental agenda.

This next portion is probably some of the most disturbing influences of the environmental movement because it is affecting our children.

Pledges directed toward Gaia-

We as Americans pledge allegiance to the flag as a representation of our country and the principle of freedom, the environmentalists pledge to the earth as a living organism replacing God.

“I pledge allegiance to the Earth and all its sacred parts, Its water, land and living things and all its human hearts.” ( Earth Pledge, Global Education Associates (GEA), 552 Park Avenue, East Orange, NJ 07017.)

Many versions of a pledge of allegiance to the Earth are in use. They all basically say the same thing. Here’s one from the United Church of Canada, “Speaking to the Earth Community, we say: Brothers and Sisters in Creation, we covenant this day – with you, with all Creation yet to be, and with the Creator. With every living creature and all that contains and sustains you. All: With all that is on Earth – and with the Earth itself” (United Church of Canada, Enough for All Worship Resource, p.10.)

Gary Snyder, a poet who writes “I pledge allegiance to the soil…/one eco system/in diversity/under the sun-/with joyful interpenetration for all.” (Bill Duvall and George session Deep Ecology p.206)

Another “I pledge allegiance to the earth and all the life which it supports. One planet in our care, irreplaceable, with sustenance and respect for all.”

Whether it is from staunch environmentalists, new agers or churches that have joined the program, they all contain the same elements in them.

“I pledge allegiance to the earth on which I stand, and to the environment of which I am a part, one planet in a Process, with soil, water and air like one body, indivisible, with resources to be cherished and protected by all” (Unitarian Universalist Association)

The National Wildlife Federation Magazine wrote about Hawaii’s first certified schoolyard wildlife habitat. They even traveled to Oahu to award the certification to the school.” At the Kawaiaha’o Church School on Oahu, students recite a pledge allegiance to the earth daily:

“I pledge allegiance to the earth, and to all life that it nourishes.” promising to “protect life on our planet, to live in harmony with nature and to share our resources justly, so that all people can live with dignity, in good health and in peace.”

As a church,  how about pledging ones life to God and His ways; not his creation. Then all things will fall into its proper place.

“I pledge allegiance to the Earth and to life that it sustains. One planet, in our care, indivisible with enough sustenance for the needs of all.” (This Earth Pledge is a variation from the original created by: Janina Lamb)

Earth Pledge

“Just as Americans owe their prosperity and freedom to the founding fathers and mothers, who responded to the call of a great nation whose destiny they anticipated; future generations of our coming one world. “Become a world citizen and help spread an idea whose time has come.”

http://www.earthpledge.net/earthpledge.htm

Ken Wilber is well known new age thinker that is accepted by certain leaders in the emergent church, McLaren on his site has recommended Wilber’s A Theory of Everything by Shambala, 2000. Leonard Sweet refers to him numerous times in his eclectic work “Quantum Spirituality.”

Wilber reveals to us the future they anticipate: “We are awaiting the new global founding Fathers and Mothers who will frame an integral system of governance that will call us to our more encompassing future…”

Just as America was founded – they want a new world governance founded. Certainly this is where we are headed and the climate is being used as the vehicle.

Is caring for the earth and her creatures integral to our Christian faith? We need perspective, a reality check. Man became evil because he rebelled against God and refused to come under his care. Because of the rise of mans evil God sent a flood to destroy all that lives except for what was on the ark.

Al Gore writes: “God’s covenant, made not only with Noah, but with’ all living creatures,’ again affirms the sacredness of creation … (p.245 “Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit”)

After the flood the first thing Noah did was sacrifice, the animals were no longer friendly and this disharmony continues today. If you do not know exactly what the problem is, you cannot know the solution. Al Gore is wrong on the covenant and wrong on his facts.

Gen. 9:9-11: “And as for Me, behold, I establish My covenant with you and with your descendants after you, “and with every living creature that is with you: the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you, of all that go out of the ark, every beast of the earth.” If one stops here they may convinced at what Gore is saying, but lets read further… “Thus I establish My covenant with you: Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood; never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.”

That’s the covenant and God gave the rainbow (v.16-17) as a sign that is with us today to prove his promise of withholding judgment by water.

Man cannot reverse the earths fallen condition, only God can. This is what the Millennium is about, and ultimately a new heavens and earth where there will be no more suffering, sin or death, all will be in harmony and we will have perfect peace.

When one rejects the true God who transcends all that He made, they will worship what they see, the creation. This is the Rom.1 principle that has been at work since the beginning of the fall. The world cannot understand walking by faith not by sight– because they lack faith in the true God.

The Green earthers are nearly hysterical with saving the environment – we as Christians trust in the Lord for our safety, despite the reports. Because of their disbelief in God they cannot have peace with the things that are taking place. Nature is not intelligent. Nature is amoral, having no sense of “right or “wrong”. We have recently seen what Mother nature does. Where is the mercy from the earth if she has intelligence? Mother earth kills more people than humans do. She gives the world poisonous gas from volcanoes, floods, lightning, earthquakes, tornadoes, tsunamis.

Committed involvement, dedication, devotion to the environment can become what the bible speaks as loving the world (the goddess) but hating the Father who made it. This is a religion that would rather have you worship what you see than have faith in the true God whom you don’t see. It is man made science married to mysticism.

As Christians we can trust God to be in control and not let the environment become out of control. Neh. 9:6: “You alone are the LORD; you have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and everything on it, the seas and all that is in them, and You preserve them all.” Rev 4:11: “for You created all things, and by Your will they exist and were created.” Heb. 1:3: He, (God) not nature, upholds all things by the word of His power.”

God knows about destruction to the environment and the global warming that is coming:

Revelation 8:7: “The first angel sounded, and a third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.” The Bible says in the future the sun will get 7 times hotter in the tribulation,

Revelation 16:9: “And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God.”
heat will be used as a judgment, and most importantly, God is the one doing it, they will have to blame God, not man.

In the meantime, this does not mean we purposely neglect the environment, or abuse the earth or animals. But we should never lose sight of the great commission – where man will spend eternity after he leaves earth. 2 Cor. 4:18: “we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

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