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About us

Theological Statement on Creation Care

What We Believe

We believe in:

What We Believe

We believe in:

  1. God’s act of creation. God created all creation (i.e., the whole cosmos, including humanity) as His kingdom for His glory.1 Creation was not primarily created for humanity’s pleasure or purposes.2 Creation has inherent goodness and value, ascribed to it by its Creator, apart from humanity’s perceived instrumental value of the rest of creation.3

  2. Humanity’s role. God created humanity in His image to steward all creation as His kingly representative (“have dominion”), not as creation’s owner.4 Therefore, humanity’s dominion over creation is supposed to be a reflection of God’s own kingly rule over creation.5 We call this task “the Creation Mandate”.

  3. Effects of human sin. Due to human sin, the created order was broken and fallen, which continues to this day.6 The relationship between humanity and the rest of creation has also been broken.7 Creation groans, subjected to futility, ultimately because of the sin of humanity.8 So sin is the fundamental reason for the ecological crisis that we find ourselves in today.

  4. The mission of God is to reconcile and renew all creation under the rule of Christ Jesus. This reconciliation and renewal were accomplished through Christ’s sacrifice upon the cross, His resurrection from the dead, and His ascension as King of kings over all creation.9 God’s redemptive mission encompasses all aspects of creation, not just humanity.10

  5. The renewal of creation. Throughout Scripture, we see that God’s nature is to redeem and renew.11 The present earth will be refined, revealed, and cleansed, not destroyed or annihilated.12 The new creation will be a renewed creation, not a complete replacement of the current creation.13 God’s renewal of creation is not just a spiritual or metaphorical restoration, but a tangible, physical reordering of it towards God’s desired order.14 Like Jesus’ resurrected body, all Christians also will have a future renewed embodied existence, living upon the new earth—full of life, light, and peace, and in the presence of God.15

  6. The Church’s Mission. Since God is reconciling all of creation to Himself and has commissioned Christians to be His ambassadors of reconciliation, creation care is an integral and essential element in the Church’s mission.16

  7. Four Affirmations. Therefore, we affirm that:

    a. To care for creation is to love God through obedience to His Creation Mandate. This mandate extends beyond the book of Genesis: Scripture is consistently clear about God’s love and concern for His creation, and His desire for God’s people to live in a way that reflects this love and concern.

    b. To care for creation is to love others. Humanity is a part of an integrated, interdependent created order. The flourishing of humanity and the natural world cannot be separated. Social and environmental ills exacerbate each other. Creation care is a crucial way of fulfilling the greatest commandment to love God through loving our neighbour.

    c. To care for creation is to make disciples of Jesus. God’s intended primary agents of creation care are disciples of Jesus. The act of caring for creation develops the disciple to grow in the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.


    d. To care for creation is to witness for Christ. “For by him, all things were created … and in him, all things hold together” (Col. 1.16–17). When we care for creation, we declare Christ’s love and present the eschatological vision of Christ’s peace for all creation. This is true regardless of the precise state of creation, but is currently ever more urgent and pronounced because of the present ecological crisis that threatens our communities and future generations.

  1. Genesis 1:1; Job 12:7-10; Psalm 24:1; Isaiah 6:3, 43:7; John 1:1-3; Revelation 4:11
  2. Psalm 19:1-4; Colossians 1:16
  3. Genesis 1:1-2:2, 9:8-17; Jonah 4:11; Psalm 104; Matthew 6:26-30; 1 Timothy 4:4
  4. Genesis 1:26-28; 2:15
  5. ⁠Gen 1:26-27, Proverbs 8; 31:4-9, 1 John 2:3-6
  6. Genesis 3:17-19; Romans 5:12; 8:20
  7. Genesis 3:17-19
  8. Isaiah 24:5-6; Hosea 4:1-3; Romans 8:20-22
  9. Colossians 1:19-20
  10. Mark 16:15; Romans 8:19-21; Revelation 21:5
  11. Genesis 3:15, 21; Isaiah 49:8-26; 65:17-25; Revelation 21:1-22:5
  12. Romans 8:21. 2 Peter 3:10-13 is aligned with this, describing a cosmic judgment resulting in a new heavens and new earth that will be made new (and perfect) in quality, not origin.
  13. Isaiah 65:17-25. The “new heavens and a new earth” mentioned in v.17 are not a completely new creation (i.e., not absolute discontinuity) but a renewed creation. It is clear from vv.17-25 that there are elements of continuity with the old creation order (e.g., the renewal of Jerusalem in vv.18-19, the renewal of animals in v.25).
  14. Isaiah 11:1-9; Revelation 21:1-22:5. Just like n.13, the “new heaven and … new earth” in these verses are not a completely new creation but a renewed creation. In the eschaton, there continues to be elements of continuity with the old creation order, most notably in humankind ourselves (who are not completely destroyed and replaced, but rather renewed at the resurrection).
  15. John 20:25-27; Philippians 3:21; 1 Corinthians 15:42-44; Revelation 21:1-4; 22:1-5
  16. Micah 6:8; Mark 16:15; Romans 8:19-21; 2 Corinthians 5:18-20