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Man the title my sermon this morning is a biblical view of the environment a biblical view of the environment Of course, this is a subject that comes up a lot in our day People talk a lot about the environment, especially if you follow the news or or think about you know What's going on in the minds of kind of mainstream culture in America? And the way I see it there are two extremes about this obviously on one hand you have the environmental wackos They're just worshiping nature and worshiping and serving the creature more than the creator and They have all kinds of just bizarre Ideas that don't make any sense, but then on the other hand, you know You don't want to go to the other extreme and just start thinking that's fine to just trash the environment and just you know Polluting and and doing everything so I want to make sure that we don't go to either extreme here When we deal with the subject So we want to get a biblical view of the subject and see what the Bible has to say now the first point that I want to make this morning is that we should not worship or reverence nature We should worship the God who created nature All right, nature should never be the object of our worship now the Bible says in Romans 1 25 That these reprobates evil people they change the truth of God into a lie and Worshiped and served the creature more than the creator who is blessed forever. Amen We don't want to fall into that trap now look at you what it's psalm 8 verse 3 the Bible reads when I consider Thy heavens so this is when you're outside you look up at the stars and you see all these beautiful constellations When I consider thy heavens the work of thy fingers the moon and the stars which thou hast ordained What is man that thou art mindful of him and the son of man that thou visitest him? So as David looks up and stands in awe of nature Specifically the starry sky, but it could really be any aspect of nature You could be looking at a beautiful meadow or a mountain or a waterfall or whatever His response was to say this is the work of God. This is God's handiwork. This is God's artwork This is God's creation and he stood in awe of the Lord and was humbled by that and said What is man that thou art mindful of him and the son of man that thou visitest him? That's a right attitude toward nature. Yes admire nature marvel at nature wonder at nature Enjoy the natural beauty, but don't worship nature itself or reverence nature Worship nature's God, but number two We what we need to understand biblically is that mankind is the Lord of all nature Man is the Lord of all nature. This is what the Bible says look down at your Bible there in Psalm 8 verse 5 It says for thou hast made him talking about human beings a little lower than the angels and has crowned him with glory and honor Thou made us them to have Dominion now what does dominion mean? Well comes from a Latin word dominoes Which means Lord to have dominion of something is to be the Lord of something to be the boss of something and so it says Thou made us him to have dominion over the works of thy hands thou has put all things under his feet So human beings in this world We are the Lords of all the other things on this world whether they're animals or plants Or whatever the resources they are under our power according to the Bible And then he even gets specific when he says that was put all things under his feet It says all sheep and oxen yay, and the beasts of the field so both domesticated animals and wild animals the fowl of the air and the fish of the sea and Whatsoever passeth through the paths of the sea whatever animals on the land in the air in the water These have all been put under the foot of man man has dominion over them And this leads the psalmist to say in verse 9. Oh Lord our Lord How excellent is thy name in all the earth so number one we shouldn't worship nature We should worship the God who created nature number two Man is the Lord of all nature God has put all things under our power number three though if you would turn to Deuteronomy chapter 22 The concept of Conservation is biblical and what do I mean by conservation? What I mean is not using up all of a resource to where it's gone Or you know hunting animals to extinction or something like that right because again We don't want to go to an extreme just because we've got a bunch of pagans out there Worshipping nature and a bunch of people chaining themselves to rocks and chaining themselves to trees and so forth We don't want to then just go to another extreme and just say well I'm just gonna destroy the environment even harder You know just to show you guys or something like that because the concept of conservation is a biblical concept Look at Deuteronomy chapter 22 verse 6 the Bible reads if a bird's nest Chance to be before thee in the way in any tree or on the ground Whether they be young ones or eggs and the dam sitting upon the young or upon the eggs Thou shalt not take the dam with the young But thou shalt in any wise let the dam go and take the young to thee that it may be well with thee and thou mayest Prolong by days now. What is he saying here you come upon a bird's nest and there's a bird and there's eggs He says take the eggs But don't take the bird and the eggs because that bird is gonna produce more eggs down the road So we stupid to destroy both because then you're just eliminating that resource If everybody always takes all the eggs and all the birds then there's nothing left eventually, right? So want to practice conservation Meaning that we want those resources to be there for the next person and for the next generation now notice the key thing though in verse number seven is that it says at the end there that it may be well with thee and That thou mayest prolong thy days at the end of the day. God really cares about the human being It's not that he's just really worried about that little birdie because he's totally fine with you plundering its nest of all of its eggs But what he doesn't want you to do is shoot yourself in the foot by destroying that resource Because then it's no longer going to produce in the future at the end of the day Animals are here for our benefit plants are here for our benefit But we want to be good stewards of those resources now I remember when I was growing up I'd hear people talk about how well You know the Bible does say that we need to be good stewards of the planet And that's that that always bothered me for some reason I always felt like man that doesn't sound right Or it doesn't feel biblical and something doesn't feel right about that when they would always say to me that That we should be good stewards of the planet and you know I kind of figured out what it was about that statement that I didn't like is That it makes it sound like it's our responsibility Or that we are the custodians of the planet to make sure everything runs smoothly on this planet And the thing that's wrong about that is that God has actually created this planet as sort of a self-regulating system He's the one who presides over it and really the thing runs on its own And it has all these fail safes and negative feedback systems to make sure that things stay somewhat in balance So I guess the thing that kind of bothered me about that statement was I felt like it was putting a little too much responsibility on humans like we're the ones who have to Make sure that it stays working or something like that But I mean there is some truth to that statement in the sense that we are to be the stewards of the resources That we've been given you know so we've been given birds and plants and animals And we are to take care of those things you know God told Adam and Eve in the garden to to dress it and to keep It right to take care of the garden and obviously We are to watch out for These animal species in the sense that we don't want to make them extinct and take the bird and the eggs and so forth so There is truth in that statement I guess the thing that bothered me about that statement was that maybe it could be a little misleading if you thought of it as You know like like we've got to keep intervening in order to make sure that this planet Doesn't just go all the way off the cliff or something because that's just never gonna happen Okay, and God is presiding over this planet God has created it and it's a beautiful system And we don't need to run the planet because today You got some environmental crazies out there that want to do drastic things to actually change the plant You know you think about spraying things into the atmosphere to change the temperature and everything you know that's something that we should stay away from So anyway conservation is biblical though right we see that in Deuteronomy 22 6 & 7 flip over if you would to 1st Corinthians chapter 9 So he said point number one we should not reverence or worship nature. We should reverence God and worship God Number two man is the Lord of all nature Nature exists for man's benefit number three conservation is biblical because we do want to be a good steward of the resources that God has Given us and we don't want to just be short-sighted Waste those resources spend them all up with riotous living and then we won't have them later and then other people won't have them later because we just Hunted some animal to extinction for a quick buck or whatever that isn't a biblical concept we should think about the future and prolong our days and prolong the prosperity of Our family and friends and countrymen by taking care of the resources that we have and not just wasting them all or using them all up but number four Humans should always be prioritized above animals This is because humans actually have intrinsic moral value and animals don't Okay, now according to the modern-day environmental movement vast majority of environmentalists are going to tell you that nature has its own Intrinsic moral value that animals have their own intrinsic moral value Some would even say plants even have an intrinsic moral value. Okay, that'd be a pretty extreme view But I submit to you that human beings are the only eternal creatures on this planet That actually have any intrinsic moral value And so therefore human beings with a never-dying soul should always be prioritized above Animals look at 1st Corinthians chapter 9 verse 9 It says for it is written in the law of Moses thou shalt not muzzle The mouth of the ox that treads out the corn. This is another law from the mosaic law That is seeming to take care of animals or or make animals lives better by letting them chow down While they do their job and and not muzzling the ox who treads out the corn, but then the Apostle Paul explains Why that commandment exists it says in verse 9 does God take care for oxen like do you think God cares about oxen or Sayeth he it all together for our sakes now, what does all together mean? totally He says this totally for our sakes. So it's not like well, he was doing this for the oxen's benefit and He was doing it for humans. It benefits oxen and humans. That's why he has this command You know actually according to the Word of God This commandment is a hundred percent for the sake of humans and that God doesn't really care About how pleasant of a day a cow or a bowl or a sheep or whatever bird is having that's not what he care He loves humans and cares about humans Animals are a tool Okay And Now some people get offended when I preach sermons like this I'm sure I'm gonna get a few nasty emails even from even from even from people who love our church Even from people who listen to a lot of my preaching because they just get really emotional about animals You know it look I'm glad you love your pets and that you enjoy your pets. Okay, but We deal in the Word of God here Okay, we're talking about what the Bible says human beings have value Animals are a tool, okay Now that doesn't mean that you don't love your dog and your parakeet and your cat I understand that but at the end of the day though you should never even have to hesitate if You had to choose between saving the life of a human or your dog or something like that if you have to hesitate There's something wrong with you spiritually Okay, and today you'll run into people who say that their dog is the most important person in the world to them This is a misanthropic person who has serious issues. Okay, but look look what the Bible says It says that he said it all together for our sakes. It's 100% for our sake for our sakes. No doubt There's no doubt about this in the Apostle Paul's mind that this is written that he that ploweth should plow in hope and That he that thresher than hope should be partaker of himself The point is that what this is actually referring to is how human employees should be treated And that the animal being treated that way is just a picture. It's just a metaphor It's just a symbol for how humans should be treated So if we don't muzzle the ox who treads out the corn that means if I work at roundtable pizza I should be allowed to get a free pizza while I'm eating, you know on my lunch break I shouldn't have to pay for pizza on my lunch break because that would be muzzling the ox who's trying to out the corn And I did get a free pizza. So I'm not I'm not complaining But do you see what I'm saying? And in this context the Apostle Paul's using it about ministers and pastors being paid. They work. They get paid. Don't muzzle the ox who treads out the corn That's what this commandment is about. And so Another thing that we could learn here's kind of a deeper more subtle point that we can learn here because right on the surface We learn okay God's not worried about the cows What he's really worried about is people and and he's using this as a symbol for how people should be treated But then if we even dig a little deeper and think about this What this actually shows us is that maybe we should treat animals a certain way because then it kind of Creates just an attitude of kindness in our brains where we'll then turn around and kind of treat people the same way Right, so we we treat animals kindly and then we end up treating humans kindly because we're just kind of Practicing being a kind person. This is why if someone's just torturing an animal for no reason this would be disturbing, wouldn't it? Not because it's like oh, I just can't get that cat out of my mind You know, but it's more that the person who's torturing animals is basically Messing up their own brain and basically practicing cruelty Practicing torture and hurting and then eventually that type of person could graduate to humans And so we want to teach our kids and we want to teach anyone Hey, you know, there's no reason to just inflict pain on animals because if you do that Then you could be kind of just creating an attitude that then turns around and treats other people that way as well So that's why the Bible says the righteous man regardeth the life of his beast But the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel So by treating an animal nicely if a child as an animal and they're growing up and they have a pet and they're treating their dog nicely Then that could just be practice on being a kind person in general as opposed to just picking up the puppy and throwing it at the wall You know that could be disturbing because where's this going down the road? Now again, I wouldn't jump to conclusions because let's face it kids You know tend to abuse animals, okay Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child I wouldn't just assume that they're gonna grow up and be a psycho killer just because they you know Ripped the legs off a spider one by one or whatever, okay But at the same time children need to be taught what's right I mean look every single kid if you hand them a candy or an ice cream cone or whatever They're just gonna throw the wrapper on the ground They're just litter bugs from the womb They're born with that sinful nature to just litter Let me tell you something, I hate littering I can't stand it, it drives me nuts And you know I think it's wicked It's garbage But here's the thing about that though Is that every little kid does it But the difference is that some people's parents taught them Hey, pick that wrapper up, put that in the trash If you pack it in, you gotta pack it out That's the difference When you see adults littering it's because their parents never trained them Their parents never taught them How to be a considerate person who thinks about other people And doesn't just trash their neighborhood, trash nature and so forth It always, I mean it just blows my mind to watch someone Cause you know you see trash everywhere And you wonder like who does this And then you kind of maybe tell yourself Maybe it blew, maybe the wind blew it or something You know you try to make excuses You know my son and I were hiking yesterday And you know I said what is this Cause there was this cliff bar wrapper on the ground He's like hey I think somebody dropped that by accident And you know what, that's probably the case And that's, I'm constantly, you know I'm constantly trying to figure out And you know what, that's probably the case And that's, I'm constantly hoping that that's the case But then every once in a while you actually see someone do it And you just see them and it's just so shocking Like what have you done But you know what, I think for some people it's just as natural as rain Because they're still in that little three year old mode And they never got taught the right way to act And that's why it's important that we as parents Don't allow our kids to just do whatever And when my kids throw trash at me I don't just pick it up before them I'm not just following around with a little broom and dustpan You know fixing every mess that they make You know they need to be taught hey go pick that up Put that in your pocket, put that in the trash You know we need to put that in a proper receptacle So humans should always be prioritized above animals If you would go to Matthew chapter 10 Matthew chapter 10 And this is a famous verse about the sparrows It says in verse 29 of Matthew chapter 10 I'll start reading while you get there Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing And one of them shall not fall on the ground without your father But the very hairs of your head are all numbered Fear ye not therefore Watch this end of verse 31 Matthew chapter 10 Fear ye not therefore you are of more value than many sparrows Now right there the Bible is unequivocally telling us That humans are more valuable than animals Okay You as a human are of more value than many sparrows You say well yeah but two sparrows are sold for a farthing And technically many could just be four or more So maybe I'm only worth like two or three farthings or something like that But the thing about that is That there's another wonderful Bible story Where Jesus Christ heals the demoniac And he casts the demons out of the man And he casts them into a herd of swine And two thousand swine run off a cliff and all die So Jesus literally kills two thousand pigs Just in order to heal one human Two thousand pigs get sent off the cliff So that one human being can be healed Now how much does a pig cost? Who knows the going rate on a pig right now? My wife knows How much? A couple years ago it was six hundred bucks you know But that was you know That was a couple years ago Lots happened in the last couple years okay But let's just go with that Let's just go with six hundred bucks right? Okay Let's do a little math Six hundred bucks Times two thousand One point two million dollars Somebody fix my Somebody check my math real quick Can I get a witness? All right One point two million bucks So it sounds like we're of more value than many sparrows All right You know we measure our value in sparrows Okay Anything but the metric system Amen And so he sent two thousand swine off the cliff And it was no issue to save the man But unfortunately it was an environmental town And so they besought Jesus That he would depart out of the coast So number one I would say that we should not worship nature We should worship the god of nature Number two Man is the lord of all nature Number three Conservation of resources is biblical Number four Humans should always be prioritized above animals And number five Humans are not ruining the environment by existing Humans are not ruining the environment by existing If you would flip over to Genesis chapter one I'm just going to read this one for you From Isaiah But Isaiah 45 18 says For thus saith the lord that created the heavens God himself that formed the earth and made it He hath established it He created it not in vain He formed it to be inhabited I am the lord and there is none else God created this world for us to inhabit it Otherwise it'd be created in vain If he just created it and there are no people There are just animals and no people What's the point? Right? God doesn't have a relationship with animals God has a relationship with man That is created in his own image And so God has created this world to be inhabited So humans aren't ruining the environment by existing But this is what we're often taught That any time man moves into an area That area is ruined now And they believe that everything should be kept pristine And preserved and set aside But here's the thing about that When I think of, and you know what? This is just my opinion I've given you the word of God though The word of God says God formed it to be inhabited So we're not ruining it by being here We're the reason why it's here It's here for us, okay But now let me give you my personal opinion About aesthetics Is that you know when I think of a really beautiful image To me, I find it more beautiful When you have nature and what man built Both in the image You know, hey, I enjoy going out in nature And seeing the mountains and the trees And the rivers and the waterfalls And things like that Those are all beautiful things But you know, I find it even more beautiful When I see something man-made Mixed in with what God made I like that synthesis You know, for example, you know You think of Bob Ross And he's painting these little meadows and things You know, hey, what if you were to just put A happy little log cabin in your world Right, it's your world You can put whatever you want in it See, he got it It's your world Put what you want in it And here's the thing You know, if I thought of some beautiful meadow And then what if I put a little cabin Or somebody's house or something Oh, it's just ruined You know, again, you know My son and I were on a super long hike slash run yesterday And we saw some pretty cool stuff Because we were running all around Prescott And we saw But in my opinion Some of the coolest stuff that we saw was man-made Like we saw all these weird like terraces And all these weird like concrete structures For drainage and stuff That were kind of interposed with the nature I thought it was kind of cool I didn't feel like Oh man, you know What's that concrete doing? It was kind of like Okay, that looks kind of cool You know, I think about the camping trip That Pastor Berzins puts on in May Out in Georgia He puts on like a family camp And it's beautiful I mean, nature is beautiful The trees, the lake, it's incredible But to me, what makes it even more incredible Is there are these really cool bridges Across the water And to me, the coolest thing there is the bridge I'm like, man, that is a beautiful bridge Or, you know, these lodgings are beautiful You know, don't get this attitude that just Anything man does is ugly Only nature is beautiful You know, first of all, human beings are beautiful Human beings themselves are beautiful The stuff that we build is beautiful Now obviously, yeah Human beings can make an area ugly By throwing trash everywhere Or building some eyesore of an ugly structure But you know, human beings have built A lot of beautiful things, okay Hey, I think Tempe Town Lake is beautiful Prove me wrong Talk about man-made And, you know, you might not And again, this is just my opinion Maybe you're like, I don't like it Okay, fine, but I do So, you know, I'm just saying It's a matter of opinion We don't have to just necessarily all just agree That everything man builds is ugly And everything in nature is beautiful Sometimes, you know, a nice responsible marriage Of the two can actually be quite beautiful Did I have you turn to Genesis 1? So number 5 was just that humans aren't ruining The environment by existing We are the environment We are why the environment exists It exists for us And in my personal opinion Man-made structures can be quite beautiful But in Genesis chapter 1 We have this statement about Man having dominion over all things Same thing we saw in Psalm 8 earlier in the sermon It says in verse 26 God said, let us make man in our image After our likeness And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea And over the fowl of the air And over the cattle And over all the earth And over every creeping thing That creepeth upon the earth So God created man in his own image In the image of God created he him Male and female created he them And God blessed them And God said unto them Be fruitful and multiply So it sounds like God built this thing for us And wants us to fill this thing up Because what does the word replenish mean? To fill The root word there is the plan there Which means to fill I should say that the root of that word Is the plan in the middle there And it says be fruitful and multiply And replenish the earth And subdue it And have dominion over the fish of the sea And over the fowl of the air And over every living thing That moveth upon the earth And so why is God telling us to replenish the earth? Because of the fact that human beings We are born and we live and we die And so you can't just fill the earth one time You have to replenish the earth Meaning you continually keep producing more humans And keep replenishing It's sort of like you're putting water into a bucket with a hole in it You have to keep adding water Well people are constantly leaving this world And so we are to replenish this world And so God said We are to replenish this earth We're to have dominion over the earth Subdue the earth And then it says in verse number 29 God said Behold I have given you every herb bearing seed Which is upon the face of all the earth And every tree in which is the fruit of a tree Yielding seed To you it shall be for meat And to every beast of the earth And to every fowl of the air And to everything that creepeth upon the earth Wherein there is life I have given every green herb for meat And it was so This leads me to my sixth point Veganism is not the answer Now a lot of people will point to this verse that we just read And say well God's original intent Is that we be vegetarian And that God's original intent for this planet Was that all of the animals be vegetarian And that all of the humans be vegetarian And they'll point to this verse And they'll say that It's more spiritual to be vegetarian You know the Seventh-day Adventists are like this And you'll run into even a lot of Baptists that are like this Where they'll say Hey it's more spiritual It's better It's ideal To be a vegetarian For some kind of a spiritual, biblical reason They'll point to something like this Or they'll say Well it's the healthiest way to eat Is to be vegetarian Well let's examine their claims in light of scripture Let's test their claims in light of scripture So here's my question If it's more spiritual to be vegetarian Then why wasn't Jesus a vegetarian Isn't he the ultimate person? Isn't Jesus Christ the ideal human? The perfect man was not a vegetarian Because number one, the perfect man Celebrated the Passover every year Just like all the other Israelites And celebrating the Passover Which is commanded by God Involved eating lamb So it's impossible to be a vegetarian Israelite There's not a single Israelite Who was a vegetarian Unless he was just not right with God And just disregarding the laws of God And just refusing to obey the word of God But you couldn't be a vegetarian Israelite Because you have to eat the Passover At least once a year right there The priests and the Levites Who worked for God in the tabernacle They are commanded to eat of the sacrifice In fact there's a scripture in Leviticus I believe it's the end of chapter 10 Where Moses sharply rebukes Aaron For not eating the meat that he was supposed to eat And then Aaron explains to him why And then he gives him a good answer And then Moses says Oh okay well in that case it's fine But again this was not optional For the priests and the Levites They ate the meat of the sacrifices God commanded those animal sacrifices And Jesus Christ the perfect man While he lived on this earth ate meat Not only that But when Jesus Christ had already risen from the dead And he's in his glorified body He eats fish Still not vegetarian Even after the resurrection He's still not a vegan So it's amazing how you could think That you'd be smarter or more spiritual than Jesus When Jesus himself is a meat slash fish eater And he also ate honey Which you know depending on your brand of veganism Some vegans would even be offended by that But yet Jesus Christ ate meat and fish And honey and so forth And so that really just blows that point out Jesus wasn't a vegetarian So no it's not more spiritual Because if it was more spiritual Jesus would have done it Because he's the most spiritual guy Who ever walked the face of the earth He was God in the flesh You don't get any more spiritual than that And like I said Old Testament priests, Levites and all Israelites Were commanded to eat meat So that must have been God's plan Now here's the other problem with veganism Well I'll get to the problem in a minute But first let me address this point from Genesis chapter 1 In Genesis chapter 1 God is saying that humans and all animals Are going to eat a plant based diet But this is before the fall of man This is before the curse This is before man's sins So at this point not only are humans vegetarians But so are the animals Am I right? So let's think about this The Bible prophesies of a time coming in the future During the millennial reign of Christ When the wolf and the lamb will lay down together And where the lion will eat straw like an ox So the Bible predicts that in the future As God rolls back that curse After the second coming of Christ Animals will once again be vegetarians So in the garden of Eden they're vegetarians And in the future when Christ returns And we have the millennial reign of Christ They're going to be vegetarians once again Now here's the thing about that It is possible It is scientifically possible to feed your dog A vegan diet if that's what you want to do If you want to feed your dog I mean he's not going to like it very much But if you want to feed your dog A vegan diet If you want to feed your dog Your cat will not survive Because cats cannot digest any plant food at all Plant-based foods at all They can only eat animal-based foods And so cats must Must eat meat They're carnivores A dog is an omnivore in that sense But I mean it's really more of a carnivore But I'm saying it can survive It can survive It does have the enzymes in its body To process a plant-based diet Cats cannot There have been people who have tried to feed the cat A plant-based diet And yeah I'm sure if you Google it You'll find some lying vegan telling you Oh it's not true my cat's a vegan They're lying It doesn't exist It's not humanly possible Cats must eat meat They're totally carnivorous You can give them a little plate of milk They're totally carnivorous You can give them a little plate of milk That's what always happens in comic books and stuff But you can't give them anything that's not animal-based So here's the point that I'm making In order for this prophecy to come true in the future Where the lion is going to eat straw like an ox God is going to have to change the biology of that lion In order for it to be able to eat a plant-based diet It's not like God's just going to change something in the lion's brain Where all of a sudden it's just like I'm a vegetarian now He's actually going to have to change its body He's going to have to change its DNA He's going to have to change its biology In order for it to be able to digest plant-based food Does everybody understand? Well here's the thing God has changed our biology before And will change our biology again Because if you think about it before the flood You have people living for hundreds and hundreds of years But then God says man's days are going to be 120 years And now no one lives past 120 It doesn't matter how healthy you are The best you can do is 119 And that's it You're not going to live beyond 120 years old That's like an upper limit Most of us are going to live to be Hopefully God willing about 80 years old Or hopefully 90 or something But 130 just isn't happening 175 isn't happening Obviously something changed Between the time that we read about in the Bible Of people being hundreds of years old To a time now when that can't happen Obviously something changed From when the animals are all herbivores In the Garden of Eden To now when certain animals like felines Cannot live on that kind of diet And then it's going to change again in the future When they will once again eat that diet Does everybody understand? So here's what I would derive from that Is that people who say Well since this is God's original intent It's healthier for us I would say no it was healthier For those people at that time In the Garden of Eden before the flood Yeah they just pick fruit from the tree And that's their ideal diet Is that our ideal diet? No And in fact I feel like what this is Is basically You're trying to have the millennium Without Christ returning You're skipping a step here Christ is going to return And then there's going to be A change to this world And the way things work There's going to be peace on earth The wolf is going to lay down with the lamb And so forth But Christ has to return You can't just say Well I'm just going to do it myself I'm going to have my own little millennium And I'm just going to be vegan And my animals are going to be vegan I mean That's I don't believe that a vegan diet is even healthy I think it was healthy for them back then It'll be healthy again in the future But I don't think it's the healthiest thing right now You know It's not what Jesus did It's not what the Levites did It's not what God prescribed You know I think we should just eat a balanced diet And that we should eat Bread and meat and fruits and vegetables And butter and everything else You know I'll eat all of it And so Veganism is not the answer I'll tell you the environmental problem with veganism And it always blows my mind When you hear seemingly smart people Give you these arguments for veganism Where they say Well it takes so much more Land And so much more resources And so much more Grain And it emits so many greenhouse gases To produce Meat And so if we would just only produce plant-based food And stop raising cows And stop raising the chickens And stop raising the pigs and so forth You know If we would just be vegan It would just solve so many environmental problems We'd have less carbon footprint And you know It takes 20 times as much grain to produce meat As it does to just produce the grain-based products I mean Who's heard those type of arguments that said Hey, you know This will be an environmental solution To stop raising cows They're too flatulent You know They're just passing so much gas That you know It's going into those greenhouse gases And just You know Next thing you know We're the planet Venus over here But here's why this is so misguided and ridiculous And honestly It just shows that the people who are saying this Lack understanding About how Ecology And especially agriculture Actually works And let me tell you why this is so misguided Is because One of the most valuable resources on this planet Is soil Soil Is one of the big Limiting Finite resources on this planet A lot of people don't stop and think about this As being a major resource But it is And if you actually study the history of this world Empires have risen and fallen On soil Okay When the soil in an area Gets to the point Where it doesn't grow food well That culture either has to go colonize somewhere else Or move somewhere else Or they go into a serious decline And one of the longest running Agricultural societies in the history of this planet Is Egypt Because it's very unique about the way The Nile River would transport all this sediment And dump it there In that Nile delta region And you have all this fresh soil constantly being replenished And so they were able to keep that civilization going As an agricultural civilization For thousands of years Whereas Other civilizations Not so And you think of Other places that where you read Historical accounts from thousands of years ago They're described as being lush And beautiful and fertile And now you go there and it's like nothing grows It's dead It's dry Why? Because they used up the soil The soil When you keep tilling the soil all the time And planting and using it It erodes away faster than new soil can be created It's an important resource Not only that but If you irrigate Land with water What happens is you bring in all that water And the water has salt in it It has minerals in it And what can happen is That then when the water evaporates out The salt remains And so as you keep bringing in more water More water More water The salinity of the soil goes up over time And so in the beginning They're growing wheat Because the wheat grows well Then the wheat stops growing well They have to switch to barley Because it can handle A saltier Soil And they have to keep switching crops Until eventually The soil Has so much salinity That you know Nothing grows anymore Okay And also there will be Certain areas There will be layers of topsoil That you could measure You know This is how much topsoil there is And every year it's going down Going down Okay Now what does this have to do with veganism? Here's what it has to do with veganism One of the ways that you replenish nutrients Into the soil As nutrients are being depleted By certain crops that you're growing Is animals pooping on the soil Manure Okay Manure is the fertilizer Okay So in order to conserve the soil In order to keep the soil healthy And productive You have to raise animals So that they can defecate On the soil So that you can keep the soil fertile And keep it productive So people that actually do Organic farming And actually have like Sustainable agriculture happening What they'll do is they'll rotate crops And they'll rest the land And even the Bible has this concept Of resting the land And not just tilling the land Every single year They'll rest Part of the land But what they'll do is The part that's resting They'll let the animals graze on it And that's what God said too God said Let the beasts of the field Eat of the field While it's fallow Let them eat of it And so forth And what happens is When they eat Then they go to the bathroom That way not only is it resting But animals are using the bathroom on it And it's actually putting nutrition Back into the soil So in order to have a balanced Sustainable system here Where you can keep using that soil Year after year You have to rotate You're growing plants Then you're grazing animals Growing plants Grazing animals Growing plants Grazing animals Right? Or you could just say No, no, we're all vegan now We're not going to raise any cows We're not going to raise any pigs We're not going to raise any animals For food We're just going to grow plants Well then tell me something Where is the fertilizer Going to come from? I'll tell you where it's going to come from Artificial synthetic chemical fertilizers That are made by mining Which environmentalists also hate mining So can somebody explain to me How we're going to have this vegan paradise With no cows taking a dump on the soil What are we going to fertilize it with? Chemical fertilizers that come from mining That you also hate? Do you see what I'm saying? It doesn't make any sense It's misguided Raising animals Is actually good for the environment Now obviously you could point to All kinds of factory farming of animals Or you could point to some greedy corporation That's raising chickens or cows or pigs In an irresponsible way But that is just changing the subject, isn't it? If I say, hey, veganism is not the answer Human beings are designed by God to eat meat And in fact raising cattle Helps replenish the soil Which arguably is the most limiting finite resource That we even have That needs to be conserved is the soil And then they turn around and say Well, look at this bad farming over here It's like when I tell people Hey, meat's good for you These teeth here were designed to eat meat Eyes in the front, born to hunt Eyes on the side, born to hide I don't look like a goldfish over here I got my eyes right, I'm not a horse And you point out, hey, meat's good for me I'm designed to eat meat Meat's healthy And here's what they say Oh, look at this hormone laden factory farmed meat Hormone laden factory farmed meat Of cows that are just living in their own filth But that's not Is that really criticizing meat Or just criticizing a certain meat A certain kind of meat A certain brand of meat It doesn't make meat bad It just means a certain brand of meat We should avoid But not meat in general And then the same thing You'll have people that tell you Bread is bad Even though the Bible says Give us this day our daily bread They'll say like, bread is bad And then you say Well, give us this day our daily bread Yeah, but this bread over here is bad Well, then find a good bread Find a healthy bread Find some kind of an heirloom strain Of grain that you can get behind Okay But the point is Just pointing out that this particular bread is bad Or this particular meat is bad That doesn't make all bread bad It doesn't make all meat bad Okay And the bottom line is Veganism will never work Because we need to raise animals If we're going to farm We also have to raise animals Otherwise we'd have to rely 100% On chemical fertilizers And we'd have to do even more mining And plus, personally I'd rather eat plants That were grown in a field That was fertilized with cow dung Than with chemical synthetic fertilizer Who agrees with it? Who would rather do the organic Stuff with poop on it? Amen I'll wash it before I eat it I want there to be some poop in that field I want poop all over the place He said as long as it's not human Hey, I'd rather fertilize it with human dung Than to fertilize it with some chemicals And synthetic stuff Okay, I'm getting a little extreme there Anyway So I gotta hurry up for sake of time But just quickly Number one, we shouldn't worship nature Number two, man is the lord of all nature Number three, conservation's biblical Number four, humans should always be prioritized above animals Number five, humans aren't ruining the environment by existing We live here This is our house Okay Number six, veganism's not the answer Neither spiritually nor environmentally is it the answer Okay, it's propaganda Okay, and number seven I would say this That the earth is never going to spiral Into environmental catastrophe Until the end of the world When God just starts burning it all down And we'll close on this point Genesis chapter eight Because you have a lot of alarmists out there, don't you? Environmental alarmists telling you Hey man, by the year 2050 or whatever It's all gonna be over And blah blah blah And global warming And runaway greenhouse effect Now here's the thing Well, I was gonna explain about the runaway greenhouse effect But that might take a little too long But the point is I'll talk about it another time But the point is It's never gonna happen Okay, it's never gonna go totally off the cliff Where we've just completely destroyed the environment And just can't exist Okay Because look what the Bible says in Genesis 822 While the earth remaineth Seed time and harvest And cold and heat And summer and winter And day and night shall not cease So the Bible gives us this promise That as long as the earth exists These processes And the plants are gonna be planted And all these processes are gonna continue Seasons, night and day It's all gonna be fine Because the earth is this magnificent creation by God And it has all of these self-regulating Self-correcting systems Where if there's too much CO2 in the atmosphere Other systems will kick in And deal with that You know, the reason that Venus Is experiencing runaway greenhouse effect And is, you know, so hot That the Soviets sent a spaceship there And just like melted as soon as it got there Because it was just so incredibly hot You know, the reason, there aren't, first of all There aren't any plants and animals there Okay You don't have the same kind of systems in place You know, plate tectonics and volcanism On earth Work together You've got the rock cycle The carbon cycle The water cycle You've got all these plants All these things work together In such a complicated way That's not happening on Venus Venus is a dead planet Just like all the planets other planets And so it's apples to oranges We're not going to turn into the planet Venus It's never going to be 400 degrees outside You know, the world's not going to come to an end Because we messed up the environment Okay Christ is going to return someday He's going to pour out his wrath on this earth Which is going to involve some environmental destruction Straight from the hand of the Lord But then he's going to make all things new And he's going to fix things And it's going to be fine So therefore I'm not going to spend my life As an environmental crusader Now at the same time I don't want to go to some other extreme Where I'm just into trashing the environment or something Obviously we want to be kind We want to be respectful Of our fellow man By not trashing the environment Because we all want to enjoy A clean environment We all want to enjoy nature We all want to enjoy healthy food Healthy drinking water We all want to breathe healthy air For our environment We all want to breathe healthy air For us and our families Right? So we don't want to trash the environment But at the same time we don't want to worship the environment Don't go to either of these unbiblical extremes Search the scriptures And you'll find a biblical view Of the environment Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer Father we thank you so much for your word Lord It truly has all the answers on every subject Lord And we're thankful for the beautiful Things that you've created for us in nature Lord And help us as we enjoy these beautiful things And always to give you the glory And be thankful to you For what you have created And in Jesus' name we pray, Amen