NetZero by 2050. That's where we're headed, so we're told.
G'day I'm Martyn Iles and this is 'The Truth of It'. Well, it
looks like in the post-pandemic world we're going to be
increasingly preoccupied with climate change. Somehow, we are
to achieve NetZero emissions by 2050. Meanwhile, everything
from a transition to eating bugs over red meat for protein,
to closing down substantial farming enterprises in the
Netherlands and perhaps other parts of the EU, these are
becoming the issues of the day. The Dutch farmers are the first
victims of this climate change juggernaut... there will be more.
But the world powers are getting this very wrong. I
understand why they are getting it wrong, because they basically
believe that human beings arose on this planet quite by chance,
and in time proceeded to go on a destructive, and a murderous,
and an exploitative, and a cancerous rampage, which must
now be stopped and we need to find the reverse gear stat,
because there is no meaning to history. There is no-one in
control of history. There is no destiny apart from that which
we do, and we are cancer. I would think the same way, if I did not
believe there was a God. I would think the same way, if I
did not believe that there was any purpose to the history of
this world. If I thought I was here by chance, and we were
one of the gazillions of planets and we're just very fortunate
to be in the position that we're in, I would think the
future was pretty uncertain, and I reckon I'd get pretty
nervous. But the truth is, that humanity is not a cancer
on the planet. Rather, the planet was made for human
beings. Notice the order is a little bit different. It was
the environment into which human beings were placed as an
act of Divine intent, not to be subservient to it, or to be
inferior to it, but to subdue it, to be legitimately and
sufficiently supplied by it. Genesis is quite clear that
what we see in the world around us was substantially put there
for human use, and enjoyment, and sustenance, including plants,
water, minerals, animals, and you can look at Genesis 1:28-30, 2:9-14, 9:1-3
to have a look at that. The modern world has got this hierarchy
completely wrong. Namely, the hierarchy of people over
planet. But they're getting another hierarchy quite wrong,
as well. Namely, that God is the greater steward of the planet
than we are. We're behaving as if the continued existence of
the planet, and the paradigms, like the climate on which it
depends for its existence.... it's all up to us. And of course,
that's deeply stressful. It totally depends on us. How
could that be anything but stressful? In fact, it is a task
so impossibly huge, and so at odds with human behaviour, which
is progress, which is dominion, which is advancement, which is
growth, which is consuming... that the only real hope for these people
who believe in this disaster... the only hope is proving to be
the prospect of totalitarian power and control to bring
humans to heel, to stop their cancerous rampage. Of course,
not the humans that are making the plan - they can
still have their private jets - the other little guys, they need
to be brought to heel. That's the way these centralised power
schemes always work. The Dutch farmers are the early victims.
They are not the last victims. But I would like to propose a
very different line of thinking. I'd like to propose
that, in fact, this matter, the fact that it is truly beyond me,
is precisely the reason why I am not stressed about it. I
don't need to get too big for my boots. Because there are
some matters which are truly, ultimately, beyond me, by design.
Because they're in God's jurisdiction, not mine. That is
why, when God renewed the command to be fruitful, and
multiply, and fill the earth, and to quote '...increase greatly in
the earth and multiply in it.' He immediately accompanies that
with a promise that He would meanwhile, sustain the earth to
that end. Quote, 'While the earth remains, seed time and harvest,
cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall not
cease.' And you can go look at Genesis 8:22 - 9:7
to see all of that played out. Oh yeah, go and do
something. Here's a job to do, and don't worry about this part
of it - the sustaining of it, in the big global sense - I'll do
that. 7.75 billion people later, all things continue, not
just because we're so clever, but because He's not finished
with it yet. These hierarchies really matter, and we're seeing
that right, with this present madness. People over planet and
God over people, over planet. And it's because we've messed them
up, that we're on the cusp of unthinkably costly,
destructive, climate action policies all around the world.
And of course, lest anybody criticise, none of this is to
say that there are not legitimate acts of creation
care. National parks, removing plastics from the ocean,
sustainable practices for fishing, for cropping, for
hunting - so you don't just pillage, and so on. But that is
not where the environmental debate is at any longer. That
is not the future of this issue at all, and to assume as much is
to be very, very naive. We are now looking at fears over an
environmental disaster of epic and final proportions. So great
that it cannot be solved, apart from rank destruction of good
things, reversal of the dominion mandate, and totalitarian
government powers. This, if it continues in this way, and
advances as so many people on the world stage would like to
see it advance, will be the beginning of sorrows. Why?
Interestingly, at its essence, because once again we forgot
God. I'm Martyn Iles and that was 'The Truth of It'.