ECUMENISTS CELEBRATE EARTH DAY

[Distributed by Way of Life Literature's Fundamental Baptist News Service. Copyright 1997. These articles cannot be stored on BBS or Internet sites without permission from the author. Any articles which are redistributed by e-mail must be left intact and nothing must be removed or changed, including these informational headers. This is a listing for Fundamental Baptists and other fundamentalist, Bible-believing Christians. Our primary purpose is to provide information to assist preachers in the protection of the churches in this apostate hour. If you desire to receive this type of material on a regular basis, e-mail us, tell us who you are and where you are located, and request to be placed on the list. Also include your postal address and the name of the church of which you are a member. Some of these articles are from the "Digging in the Walls" section of O Timothy magazine. David W. Cloud, Editor. O Timothy is a monthly magazine in its 14th year of publication. Subscription is $20/yr. The Way of Life web site is http://www.wayoflife.org/.]

April 28, 1997 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org) - The National Council of Churches in the U.S.A. sent a mailing to 51,000 congregations asking for active participation in Earth Day activities on April 22. Richard Killmer, director of the NCC Environmental Justice Office, stated: "Concern for the environment is a matter for people of faith, not only because we are called to be stewards of God's good creation but because we are part of God's redemption of the world." This is unscriptural. We are not a part of God's redemption of the world. The redemption which Christ purchased and which the Apostles preached is the redemption of individual men and women from eternal Hell. Christ is in the process of redeeming lost souls "by His blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation" (Rev. 5:9). The redemption we have in Christ is the forgiveness of sins (Eph. 1:7; Col. 1:14). The redemption of the creation will occur later, when Christ returns to reign in His glory. This present physical creation is awaiting this redemption (Romans 8:22-25). The task the risen Christ gave His people was not to save the world, but to save men in the world. He instructed us to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature (Matt. 28:18-19; Mark 16:15; Lk. 24:44-48; Acts 1:8). The Apostles did not teach the churches to be environmentally conscious; they taught them to be soul conscious. "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory" (Colossians 3:1-4).