For those of you who followed my previous posts, I thought you would be interested to know that i have arrived in Korea. My flight went well - if not relatively long and boring. When i arrived i was rushed from the airport straight to dinner. The meal was a seafood spread - including shellfish (of a myriad type), squid - live and wriggling, raw fish, fish soup!!!!!! I was impressed with myself, because i ate the lot - including putting the squid into my mouth while it was wriggling.
Some of the group involved in the discussion are pictured with our conference banner: Front row, left to right – Dong Soo Kim, Kim Sunghae Cho (President Hansei), David Kwon Back row, left to right – Ki-Seong Lee, Hung Geun Im, Gwi Sam Cho, Bruce Stephens, Shane Clifton, Hanna Kwon, Jennie Stephens, Mun Chul Shin
Anyway, as you know i am here to present a paper to the Hansei University / Southern Cross College theological symposium, on pentecostals and ecology. As part of my responsibilities, i am responding to a couple of papers written by Hansei faculty. In the process of reading the paper by Dr Hyung Geun IM ("Some Thoughts for an Ecological Pentecostal Theology"), i came accross a transcript of a sermon by Dr Yonggi Cho (pastor of the worlds largest church - the Full Gospel Church). I thought it might interest you, and have set it out below (ps - sorry to interrupt Jacqui's discussion of princess theology - i am sure we shall hear more from her)
The Bible tells us, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” I've been misinterpreting this verse. Until now I restricted the world into humanity. But what is world? The world consists of people, society, sky, earth, sea, plants, insects, animals, and everything else. The Bible says “for God so loved the world,” not “for God so loved the people.” Also, in 1 John, it says that the world is under the control of evil one. I thought evil one only controlled people, never the whole world. This is why my message of salvation has been restricted to people until now.
The fall of Adam and Eve influenced the whole world. The animals perished and the earth grew thorns and thistles. In Romans, it is said that the whole creation is waiting for the son of God to come. Nature has been depraved and Adam's fall has become the source of the social evil. Adam's son Cain killed Abel, his own brother. Cain's sacrifice was not accepted by the Lord while Abel's was accepted. Cain felt inequality and killed Abel. This is the social evil. Thus, Adam's fall has brought upon his own unfortunate existential fall and social evil as well as the fatal fall of nature. However, I've always focused on the human fall out of these 3 falls. Because life is so pressing in a tragic environment, I always focused on human salvation. Thus I've always had a narrow interpretation of the meaning of the cross.
My five-fold gospel and three-fold blessing are a message of human salvation. It was a message of saving people in pain, a message focused on human. I've never paid attention to social evils. I've never paid attention to natural disaster. Because I was ignorant, and so persistent on human salvation, I've had limited interpretation of the Lord's work of salvation. I've been interpreting John 3:16 as “for God so loved the people,” where it should have been interpreted as “for God so loved the world.” The world is under control of the devil. The devil not only has control of people, but also of social structure. We should cast out demons not only in people, but also in social structure because the devil also has control over social structure. All such things as natural disasters, wasteful usage of natural resources, and destruction of the natural environment are the works of the devil. The devil has enough control over the world to destroy nature. Thus, salvation through Jesus Christ and the cross not only includes humanity, but also society and nature.
We have tried to cast out demons in people in the name of Jesus Christ. We should now also cast out demons in social evils, company-worker struggles, political struggles, regional struggles, and family struggles. My evangelism was focused on people until now. In the center of social class struggles, company-worker struggles, regional struggles, rich-poor struggles lies demons. The serpent is housing itself under these struggles. We have to cast out the demons in the name of Jesus Christ for all these things. We have to cast out the demons in our society that bring all the corruption and injustice. Also, we should pray for the Lord's peace to govern the society and should be mediators of peace.
Next, we should think about the influences the Lord's salvation has on nature. In Romans, the creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. Before, I laughed when I read this verse. How can nature groan? But the fact is that nature does groan. Insects and animals groan when they die. We have a responsibility for nature. When Jesus Christ died on the cross, he redeemed nature, too. Because nature's curse was brought upon by the fall of Adam, Jesus' precious blood effects the salvation of nature. We have to pray for nature. Every insect, even a single worm is made by the Lord's hands. They are suffering because they live in this cursed earth. We have to stop destroying nature. We have to bless and pray to revive nature. Thus we should stop the activities that destroy the environment and let the Lord's blessings and grace fall upon nature. For people to live, nature has to live. We have to start this kind of movements.
Nature is under the control of the devil. Think about this. Do you think the huge disaster in Southeast Asia was done by God? It's not done by God. The whole world is filled with demons. The book of Job tells us that the devil is capable of causing such disasters. They made the sky rain fire. The rain of fire burned and killed all of Job’s livestock. How can the Lord take away the lives of 150,000 people. The world is controlled by the devil. The world includes nature. Aren't catastrophic earthquakes caused by the devil? Because the devil steals, kills, and destroys the world, we have to pray to stop it. If we had foreseen the Southeast Asia's disaster and prayed hard, we might have prevented it from happening.
Because the world belongs to the evil one, it steals, kills and destroys. Jesus Christ died on the cross to save this world. With the power of his precious blood, we have to resist the devil. We have to resist it for the salvation of souls, for the elimination of social evils, and for the preservation of nature. The battlefield becomes clear.
Adam's fall is a universal one and the salvation of Jesus Christ is universal, too. The devil’s act of stealing, killing and destroying is universal, and our evangelism and prayers are also universal. Our understanding has been very narrow. On this New Year, we should open our hearts and concentrate our minds on eliminating social evils and preserving nature, as well as saving human souls.
delivered in January 4, 2005 at the YFGC, cited in Hyung Geun Im, "Some Thoughts for an Ecological Pentecostal Theology."
I don't know what Mr. Cho would think of my take on fighting demons, but I wish them Good luck. There i certainly an need for purging the world of a few demons.
Posted by: Patrik | June 07, 2006 at 12:47 AM
It does make some sense, I think the storm Jesus rebuked was a form of a demonic stirring and not just a natural occurance, though it cannot be proven to be so through the scriptures. It is interesting though the demons of legion knew Jesus was coming.
We know demons can inhabit pigs from this same passage, and so I don't see why nature can't be inflicted in this way. I think sin is the cause of it, meaning that sinfulness is what normally allows demonic strongholds in a persons life, and so I don't see why sinfull use of business or land cannot invoke a stronghold of some kind - a bit like a house can be haunted, why not the land?
Posted by: Craig Bennett | June 08, 2006 at 08:18 PM
Thanks for sharing that, Shane! I really respect Dr Cho's willingness to admit he missed something of God's vision for the world, and is now wanting to broaden his own vision (and the vision of the people under his influence) so it matches up better.
Posted by: Deborah Taggart | June 08, 2006 at 09:00 PM
Interesting.
[quote]But the fact is that nature does groan. Insects and animals groan when they die... Because nature's curse was brought upon by the fall of Adam… Every insect, even a single worm is made by the Lord's hands. They are suffering because they live in this cursed earth[/quote]
My reading is Yonggi Cho’s ‘eco-theology’ is based on a literal type understanding of a ‘literal fall’ and that nature is ‘cursed’ in the sense that creatures ‘die’ and ‘suffer’.
Clearly he believes before the fall insects and worms did not ‘die’ or ‘suffer’, and the fall effected radical changes in the natural order as we now know it.
He says :[quote] We have to pray for nature. Every insect, even a single worm is made by the Lord's hands. They are suffering because they live in this cursed earth. We have to stop destroying nature. We have to bless and pray to revive nature. Thus we should stop the activities that destroy the environment and let the Lord's blessings and grace fall upon nature.[/quote]
We understand that we (human beings) won’t be free form the physical effects of the fall until we have been given new spiritual bodies that are not ‘subject to decay’. All the praying in the world for a fellow human being will not liberate that human being from the physical effects of the curse in this sense. Why does he think we will be anymore successful when we pray for insects and worms (i.e. that they will be “blessed and revived”)?
Isn’t praying for insects and worms, for someone with his 'literal veiws', a bit of a waste of time?
Posted by: Luke P | June 10, 2006 at 08:31 PM
I should point out I think another statement Dr. Cho made is a far better rationale for protecting and maintaining the environment
“For people to live, nature has to live”.
I think this is probably the most powerful reason that can be advanced for conserving the environment. Of course this argument only justifies conserving the environment insofar as it will promote human health.
Posted by: Luke P | June 10, 2006 at 10:27 PM
Coming from a farming background, It would be interesting to see what would happen to the enviroment if farmers followed the OT laws about caring for the land, giving the land a rest every 7th year, etc?
I think the message of salvation has to effect every part of the land, and not just humans. An interesting tangent, is that in cases of revival the welsh mining pit ponies stopped working because they could not understand what the miners were saying without the swear words and the ponies had to be re-trained.
I'm thinking also of one of George Otisis video clips on Transfomation where a Latin American countries agricultural output has truly grown, the land apparantly healed...I would be interested in verifying the facts about this - though I have no reason to doubt the info on the tape.
Should we concentrate on the land, or does the healing of the land come about as a consequence of people being healed and transformed through revival?
Posted by: Craig Bennett | June 11, 2006 at 08:10 AM
Luke, i think cho's use of insects and worms is illustrative - his point is that we pray for the earth. And i certainly think that praying for the earth only for our own sake misses the fact that God created, declared the earth to be good - and creation thereby has inherent value (in addition to whether or not it helps us to eat).
Craig, you would be interested to know that a one of the Hansei scholars talked about the importance of the ot laws in relation to fallow land and the year of jubilee as a means of showing the OT concern for the health of the land.
Patrick - i enjoyed your post on demons - even if i dont completely agree. See my response.
Posted by: Shane Clifton | June 11, 2006 at 12:53 PM
Shane any possibility to a link to that paper?
I think it would make good reading, yet how does that then intergrate into our interpretation of the law and grace for Pentecostal practice and theology?
Posted by: Craig Bennett | June 11, 2006 at 09:29 PM
Craig - unfortunately the paper has not been published. The journal might come out in 6 months or so - so if your remind me then.....
Posted by: Shane Clifton | June 13, 2006 at 04:54 PM
Shane (sorry for the delay, I’ve been a little busy) - Yes, I’m sure he was attempting to illustrate his argument when speaking of worms and insects, but I’m not sure what difference that makes.
I’m interested to know what exactly so you mean when you use the words ‘nature’ and ‘creation’, which have this ‘inherent value’. Your lifestyle attests to the fact you don’t mind destroying various parts of nature (your not a vegan, confessing above to eating a wriggling animal, and even if you were a vegan you would still destroy various plants). Which parts of nature do you say we should not destroy, and why only those parts? What parts of the earth should we pray will enjoy the “Lord's blessings and grace” (and thereby somehow participate in the salvation or ‘renewal’ of Jesus Christ)?
And how do you reconcile an argument that the gospel message includes some sort of ‘redemption’ or ‘renewal’ or ‘salvation’ for all of this “nature” you are presently keen to preserve with various scriptures that indicate God is going to destroy it all? For example 2 Peter 3:7-11.
Posted by: Luke P | June 20, 2006 at 09:43 PM
Luke - you need to distinguish between preserving the environment and eating a particular plant. The protection i am referring to is the former. So, i can eat animals or plants (indeed, to survive i can do no other), and still value the earth. This means i am interested in the preservation (and flourishing) of the environment - at the same time recognising that we need to eat to live.
Your final question raises an important (and difficult) issue for Christianity. In brief, we need to recognise that the future involves both continuity and difference - destruction and restoration; and we make a mistake if we focus on only one and not the other. Indeed, the apocalyptic passages (and there are many) highlight the fact that judgement is essential if the future is to be actualised - if the future is merely a continuation of the present, then evil is not overcome. But the future is not merely destruction, but also restoration. And, as i have suggested, this restoration extends to the whole of god's good (and presently corrupted) creation.
Posted by: Shane Clifton | June 20, 2006 at 10:58 PM