Returning to Nature Worship

Though few Christians are aware of it, the cry to "save the earth," "be sustainable" and "live in harmony with nature" is rooted in the ancient pantheistic religions that dominated the Egyptian, Babylonian, Grecian and Roman Empires. Vice President Gore even promotes them in his book Earth in the Balance, "...the prevailing ideology of belief in...much of the world was based on the worship of a single earth goddess, who was assumed to be the fount of all life and who radiated harmony among all living things.... It seems obvious that a better understanding of a religious heritage preceding ours... could offer us new insights into the nature of the human experience."

Diametrically opposite to Christianity, pantheistic beliefs make no allowance for a one true God who created all things of nature. Instead, pantheism holds that all earth and all of nature is god, comprised of many gods and goddesses, all of whom demand total worship and obedience from humans. Failure to do so will evoke the wrath of these gods. Over the past 30 years these pantheistic beliefs have gradually dominated the environmental policies of both the United States and the United Nations. Today, they are interwoven into every environmental international treaty, especially the Convention on Biological Diversity.

In a cliffhanger race to the wire, the Convention on Biological Diversity came within an hour of being ratified in the United States Senate on September 30, 1994. It was stopped when Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R-TX) introduced irrefutable evidence that the treaty is based on the pantheistic dogma that nature’s fragile ecosystems must be protected from human use. The evidence came in the form of a draft copy of the United Nations (UN) Global Biodiversity Assessment (GBA). The GBA was written to partially fulfill Article 25 of the treaty to help write its implementing language.

The UN GBA blames the environmental problems plaguing the world today squarely on Western civilization. The Western world view, argues the GBA, "is characteristic of large-scale societies.... It is a world view that is characterized by the denial of sacred attributes of nature...[which] became firmly established about 2000 years [ago]with the Judeo-Christian-Islamic religious traditions." Not only does the UN GBA demonize monotheistic beliefs, but specifically singles out Christianity, "Societies dominated by Islam, and especially Christianity have gone farthest in setting humans apart from nature... In the process,...nature lost its sacred qualities."

Conversely, the "traditional" or pantheistic world view is hailed as a model for the world in the 21st Century by the UN GBA, "The world view of traditional societies tends to be strikingly different from the modern world view. They tend to view themselves as members of a community that not only includes other humans, but also plants and animals as well as rocks, springs and pools. People are then members of a community of beings—living and non-living….

Since rocks are "beings" and therefore members of the human community, this theology holds that traditional societies consider "certain sites as sacred, where most human activities are prohibited. Most societies also...consider certain species sacred... or how these species are incarnations of, or in some way associated with, gods and deities…. The many restraints on the use of natural resources,... may have evolved culturally in response to the need to ensure more sustainable use of...biological diversity. Compliance…is assured through two devices: fear of the wrath of offended nature spirits and social sanctions against offenders."

Pantheistic religion calls for protecting nature from humans as depicted above. The red areas are wilderness reserves. An earlier version of this map was used to stop the ratification of the Convention on Biological Diversity in the U.S. Senate—one hour before its scheduled ratification vote.

Based on this theology, the GBA calls for the implementation of The Wildlands Project, mandating up to 50 percent of America be put into wilderness where "certain sites [are] sacred, where most human activities are prohibited."

Incredibly, the UN had just told the U.S. Senate a month earlier that the GBA did not exist, nor did the UN have any intention of writing it. When Senator Hutchinson exposed this supposedly non-existent, anti-human document on the Senate Floor, along with a map illustrating this plan, the treaty was withdrawn from consideration by the U.S. Senate — at least for the time being. Nonetheless, president Clinton is implementing the treaty without Senate Ratification (see article below).

The indisputable fact that these anti-Christian pantheistic beliefs dominate the global agenda should sound a clarion alarm to the Church. It is the responsibility of every Christian to expose this deception with truth and hope. But instead of proclaiming the hope of Jesus Christ to this troubled world, the Church is being co-opted into the very pantheistic agenda that will destroy it.

Next month, Part II; Lucifer Trust, new age/environmental movements and the Church. V mc