I've written the following to help my kids. It's not exhaustive, but covers some important questions.
Dear beloved children, I put this together for you to help give some perspective. It's long, but I tried to keep my words as few as possible and let God speak for himself.
God’s Biblical Instruction on the Environment
8 "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,"
declares the Lord.
9 "As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts. ISA 55:8-9NIV
God created the world in six literal days. He created all living things according to their kinds at that time. There have been no new species to appear since then; in fact, samples of all the kinds of animals were preserved in Noah’s ark. The kinds of animals are different classifications than our scientific classifications of phylum, genus, species, etc. These kinds were created and none added to them by any evolutionary process. This original world was perfect, sinless, and free from death; man had responsibility over the creation to study, understand, and care for the environment. Genesis 2:15 "The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. Genesis 1:28 "…Be fruitful and increase in number…."
The fall of Adam and Eve brought sin and death into the world; permanent fundamental change, increased difficulty in agriculture-though the world was all vegetarian until after the flood:
Genesis 1:29: Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food." Man’s ever-increasing wickedness brought God’s punishment and the most thorough house-cleaning in all of history-worldwide destructive flood. This flood was the greatest erosive and geologic event ever, thoroughly erasing and resculpting the face of the planet with flooding worldwide on the order of 10-30 feet per hour for 960 hours straight upon a world that had never even seen rain before.
God’s covenant with Noah brought the promise of continued seasons, a rainbow as the sign that this flooding would never happen again, and the fundamental change to the world bringing the eating of meat into the diet of man and predators. Genesis 8:22 "As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease." He continues in GE 9:
1 "Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. 2 The fear and dread of you will fall upon all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air, upon every creature that moves along the ground, and upon all the fish of the sea; they are given into your hands. 3 Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.
4 "But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it. 5 And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each man, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of his fellow man.
6 "Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man. 7 As for you, be fruitful and increase in number; multiply on the earth and increase upon it."
8 Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: 9 "I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you 10 and with every living creature that was with you—the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you—every living creature on earth. 11 I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth."
12 And God said, "This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: 13 I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14 Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, 15 I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. 16 Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth."
17 So God said to Noah, "This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all life on the earth."
As can be easily seen on a simple bar graph of the lifetimes of the people listed in Genesis, human life expectancy rapidly plummeted after the flood until it went from over 950 years down to 120, and later [as God mentions in Genesis], down to 70. Only in modern times, with the invention of modern medicine, has that expectancy returned to 70 and above-it was actually down into the 40’s before then. Rare individuals would live to be over 100, but the majority of lives have been cut short by violence and disease throughout history.
Books such as Job briefly describe Leviathan and Behemoth, enormous dinosaur-like creatures which the people of their day were obviously quite familiar with, and frequent mention of dragons both in the Bible and elsewhere indicates their existence in some form in the past.
Job, as well as Psalms and other passages, describes the work of God in personally caring for and feeding the creatures in the wild.
Job 38:41 "Who provides food for the raven when its young cry out to God and wander about for lack of food?"
PS 147:9 "He provides food for the cattle and for the young ravens when they call." Israel, the promised land for the Israelite people, was described as a land of milk and honey, but more importantly a land of giant fruit and races of giant people. Perhaps we have not only lost length of days, but the ability to grow very tall and the opportunity to eat much larger produce and enjoy the wonders of great creatures of the past as the world has declined in health since the days of Adam.
Some important scientific descriptions of our universe from the Bible:
Isaiah describes the water cycle 2,000 years before modern scientists understand it:
Isaiah 55:8-11 "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the Lord. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it."Note from the followings verse, the earth is not flat, and the apparent expansion of the universe has an explanation [this stretching of the fabric of space-time may explain what scientists believe to be the expanding universe with the appearance of billions of years in age; God perhaps was, and still is, stretching the fabric at more than the speed of light!]
Isaiah 40:22 NIV
"He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in." When the Israelites inhabited and subdued Canaan, wild animals and enemies were gradually reduced in number.
From Leviticus 26 we see a long description of how God will manage the entire environment with consequences for the Israelites if they obey or disobey him. A few relevant words from the chapter:
"If you follow my decrees and are careful to obey my commands, 4 I will send you rain in its season, and the ground will yield its crops and the trees of the field their fruit. 5 Your threshing will continue until grape harvest and the grape harvest will continue until planting, and you will eat all the food you want and live in safety in your land.
6 "‘I will grant peace in the land, and you will lie down and no one will make you afraid. I will remove savage beasts from the land, …
9 "‘I will look on you with favor and make you fruitful and increase your numbers… [may I note that God is not concerned about human overpopulation?]
14 "‘But if you will not listen to me and carry out all these commands… You will plant seed in vain… I will break down your stubborn pride and make the sky above you like iron and the ground beneath you like bronze. 20 Your strength will be spent in vain, because your soil will not yield its crops, nor will the trees of the land yield their fruit.
‘If you remain hostile toward me and refuse to listen to me,… I will send wild animals against you,…." The New Testament describes creation groaning in its agonizing wait for things to be made right and all the death, hunger, and suffering to cease: Romans 8:18 "I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 19 The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.
22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time."
Finally, the earth will be renovated by God for its cleansing, a renovation by fire:
2 Peter 3:3 "First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. 4 They will say, "Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation." 5 But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water. 6 By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. 7 By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.
8 But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.
11 Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives 12 as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. 13 But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness." This passage summed up not only the history of the creation as I’ve described, but the lesson we are to learn of it! In the end of time, God will restore creation to the state in which he created it, and all will be perfect. The environment will be forever restored.
Death will no longer be a part of the world: Isaiah 65:25 The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox, and dust will be the serpent’s food. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain," says the Lord.
We are to respect and care for the earthly environment, to be sure, but we must also remember that the spiritual environment within the human soul is eternal.
Additional information from a scientific perspective:
The law of conservation of mass/energy; essentially that mass and energy cannot be created or destroyed, only change form [essentially interchange with each other with nothing lost]. However, a Creator had to create all that mass and energy in the first place; it is utterly impossible for the universe to come into existence any other way. This law guarantees that this universe isn’t going anywhere.
The second law of thermodynamics is the idea of entropy, a fancy word for saying that if you work, you get tired, everything is winding down like a windup clock, everything is getting old and wearing out and dying. This is obvious in life, but also a matter of scientific law. Everything breaks down and becomes less useful; it is utterly impossible for something simple to evolve into something more complex. Only creative activity, by a God or a designer, can turn dirt into people or scrap metal into an airplane. Going back to the law of conservation above, God created the dirt from nothing at all! Then he formed the man out of the dirt. Evolution is impossible because that dirt will never become a living thing with its immeasurable complexity any more than you can unmix a cake mix into flour, eggs, water, etc. What is the missing piece? The Creator who made the dirt and then made it into living creatures with minds, souls, love, and the ability to turn around and worship that Creator. If we ignore the existence of the Creator, and we pretend there is no law of sin and death, we can pretend that we can do whatever we want and we don’t need a Savior to forgive our sins.
