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The document discusses several foundational principles of a Christian theology of land:
1) Land ultimately belongs to God as the Creator, and human ownership is always secondary. Land is given to people as a gift and trust from God.
2) There is an intrinsic connection between humans and land - we are created from the dust of the earth and meant to live in relationship with a particular place.
3) As God's image-bearers, humans are called to steward the land responsibly and treat it and its inhabitants with care and respect, reflecting God's character.
The document discusses several foundational principles of a Christian theology of land:
1) Land ultimately belongs to God as the Creator, and human ownership is always secondary. Land is given to people as a gift and trust from God.
2) There is an intrinsic connection between humans and land - we are created from the dust of the earth and meant to live in relationship with a particular place.
3) As God's image-bearers, humans are called to steward the land responsibly and treat it and its inhabitants with care and respect, reflecting God's character.
The document discusses several foundational principles of a Christian theology of land:
1) Land ultimately belongs to God as the Creator, and human ownership is always secondary. Land is given to people as a gift and trust from God.
2) There is an intrinsic connection between humans and land - we are created from the dust of the earth and meant to live in relationship with a particular place.
3) As God's image-bearers, humans are called to steward the land responsibly and treat it and its inhabitants with care and respect, reflecting God's character.
land-ownership was radically different from that of other near-eastern societies, where Kings and feudal lords owned most of the land. Dr. Chris Wright states: In Israel the land was divided up as widely as possible into multiple ownership by extended families. In order to preserve this system, it could not be bought and sold commercially, but had to be retained within kinship groups [4]. The story of Naboths vineyard in 1 Kings 21 illustrates this. King Ahab desires Naboths land and tries to buy it but Naboth replies, The Lord forbid that I should give you the inheritance of my fathers (1 Kings 21.3). Naboths words reveal that in Israel, land is not a tradable commodity but an inalienable inheritance [5], in other words that there is a God-given relationship between people and land.
The theme of Land is a major one in the Bible.
In Healing Wounded History, Russ Parker estimates that the Old Testament contains 2,500 references to land, and the New Testament 250 [1]. In the story of Abraham alone, of forty-six promises God makes to Abraham, forty mention the land, and twentynine are largely or exclusively about land. Someone has commented that there are more references in the Bible to land than to justification by faith, repentance, baptism or Christs return [2]. Yet, the same could not be said of the notes of most preachers. In an era when changing land-use, scientific dilemmas, resource depletion and global ecological crises threaten stability and sometimes life itself, a robust Christian theology of the land is vital. [1] THE LAND BELONGS TO GOD
[2] WE BELONG TO THE LAND
Our starting point is: The earth is the Lords
and everything in it, the world and all who live in it (Psalm 24.1). God is the loving Creator, who made all good things from nothing, and has ownership rights over all things.
The relationship between human beings and
the land goes back to creation itself. We are created from the dust of the earth (Genesis 2.7), giving us a kinship with all living things, and with the land itself. The words human (homo sapiens), humus (soil), and humility share a common root. Our literal feet of clay should give us a true humility in terms of our place on this planet. This is not just English word play. In Genesis 2 the Hebrew word for man (Adam) is deliberately derived from the word for ground (adamah), and the parallelism of the passage means that man is referred to eighteen times, and ground / earth / soil nineteen times. Professor Eugene Peterson has jokingly suggested that we should retranslate Genesis using dust and Dusty, rather than ground and Adam! [6].
Human land-ownership is therefore always
secondary to Gods. In his book, The Land, Walter Brueggemann states, Land is not given over to any human agent but is a sign and function in covenant [3]. Thus, land is a gift not in the sense of being ours to use and abuse if we wish - but a gift in covenant, a leasehold rather than a freehold. The clearest example of this is in the gift of the Promised Land to Israel. The land is first promised, and then given to Gods people, who have to claim their inheritance with blood and toil. Yet, the land still belongs to God. In Leviticus 25, the Lord commands Israel to observe a Sabbath on the land every seven years, and a Jubilee every fifty, when land sold is returned to the its original owners family. God tells the people: The land is not to be sold permanently, because the land is mine, and you are but aliens and my tenants (Leviticus 25.23).
God has created humans to live in a physical,
geographical context, not as disembodied souls. As people, and in how we express our faith, we need to be earthed, rooted, grounded, or else we become dislocated, uprooted, displaced. As Parker says: One of the strongest and most basic needs of the whole human race is to belong, and to belong in the place or on the land where we can connect, be rooted and grow [7]. Modern societies, with increasing urbanisation, with rapid transport from one human
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environment to another, with insulation from
the cycles of the seasons and changes of weather, have lost much of their connection with place. Yet it is only in the specifics of a place that our faith can be located.
sometimes been used to excuse the unlimited
exploitation of the land and its resources, this is clearly not the intended meaning. The ultimate dominion, as we have seen, belongs to God, and our role is as Gods managers, trustees, or tenant farmers. We are to express the kind of rule God desires the rule exemplified in Christ, the Servant-King. Genesis 2.15 expands on this theme, when Adam is placed in Eden to work it and take care of it, a phrase that can be translated as to serve and preserve.
As Christians we have often over-spiritualised
our faith, thus losing our connection with place. The song, This world is not my home, Im just a passing through, (whilst written as an understandable response to the horrors of slavery) is appalling theology! The New Testament, like the Old, sees place as the context for faith. St. Paul, in speaking to the Athenians in Acts 17 speaks of how the Creator God has determined the exact places where people should live (Acts 17.26), so that they would seek and find Him (v.27). This world is our God-given home. It is a good home (although much spoilt by our disastrous disobedience to God). It contains wonderful diversity and beauty. It is a home that has been sanctified by Gods Son Jesus making it his home too. Archbishop William Temple once described Christianity as the most materialistic religion, because it affirms a good creation, and teaches God incarnate in material form. Just as Jesus worked out his relationship with God in the back streets of Nazareth, the roughness of a carpenters shop, and the deserts of Sinai, so we are to put roots down where God has placed us.
Wright further states, It is the belief that God
owns the land and demands accountability in the use of it from his tenants that generates the literal earthiness of Old Testament ethics. Nothing that you can do in, on or with the land is outside the sphere of Gods moral inspection. [9]. The detail of Old Testament law touches on every detail of farming practice, from the welfare of domestic animals, to margins at field edges, and to which crops were to be used. Although the specific laws were given for Israels particular situation and should not be transposed literally, there are underlying principles that still apply. Amongst the clearest are that God takes a lively interest in the welfare of all his creatures and of the land itself, and that humans are responsible to God for how the land is treated. These underlying principles are based not on the covenant between God and Israel, but rather taken from creation itself, and thus have universal application.
[3] WE ARE GODS IMAGE-BEARERS IN
HOW WE TREAT THE LAND Our relationship with the land starts with being created from the same raw materials, but goes far beyond. As human beings we are unique because we are also made in Gods image (Genesis 1.27). Whilst theologians have debated this endlessly, one clear pointer is given in verse 28 when we are commissioned to fill the earth and subdue it and to rule over the earths creatures. Professor Bruce Birch states: To be created in the image of God is a gift that brings with it the responsibility to care for Gods creation. [8]. We are Gods imagebearers in that God has entrusted human beings with the stewardship of his earth. Whilst the language of Genesis 1.28 (subdue, have dominion over) has
[4] THE LAND IS THE CONTEXT FOR OUR
RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD Most Christians recognise that their relationship with God is not just in individual terms Jesus and me, but also includes a corporate dimension (If anyone says I love God, yet hates his brother, he is a liar 1 John 4.20). What we have often failed to realise is that there is also a wider ecological dimension to our relationship with God. This can be pictured as a triangle of relationship, with God at the summit, and
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people and place as the two other points.
Wright first used this helpful image in order to describe the relationship between God, the people of Israel, and the Promised Land. He goes on to describe in detail how Old Testament ethics are built upon Israels understanding of who and what they were as a people, of their relationship to God, and of their physical environment their land [10].
randomly from the decay and entropy the fall
has introduced into the whole created order. [5] THE LAND ACTS AS A SPIRITUAL BAROMETER Much of the Old Testament consists of the ups and downs of Israels relationship with God, and the consequent effects on their relationship with the land. Times of rich harvest and bounty, of famine and exile are all linked to spiritual obedience and disobedience. As Wright says, in relation to Deuteronomy 28-30 The land itself will be both the arena and agent of Gods blessing or curse [12].
Throughout the Bible, in both Old Testament
and New, the land is talked of not just as the passive setting for a story, but also as an active participant in the drama. Wright states that the land, was not just a neutral stage where the drama unfolds The land, in all its dimensions promise, conquest, shared possession, use and abuse, loss and recovery was a fundamentally theological entity [11]. Thus, Adam and Eves expulsion from Eden is accompanied by environmental consequences as the ground is cursed, producing thorns and thistles, and Adam is reminded that he is no more than dust (Genesis 3.17-19). In the very next chapter, when Cain kills Abel his brothers blood cries out from the ground (Genesis 4.10) to be avenged. The land can, on the one hand, shout with joy and bow down to God (Psalm 66.1-4 and many other Psalms), and on the other hand, mourn for the peoples sins (Hosea 4.1-3), and vomit out evil inhabitants (Leviticus 18.25-28). Time and again the Bible uses active verbs, not to suggest that the land is an animate being, but to emphasise that it is the active agent of Gods blessing and curse.
Today, many are recognising that the
environmental crisis is at root a spiritual crisis [13]. At one level this is simply common sense. Greed, over-consumption, waste and pollution mean we are reaping what we have sown in terms of ecological disaster. Yet, the consistent message of the Old Testament is that it is not only poor stewardship, but also failure to keep Gods moral law that causes the land to suffer. To put it simply, and in terms of the God peopleland triangle, sinning against the earth damages the land directly, but sinning against God and neighbour also damages the land and our relationship to it, in a less obvious but equally damaging way. Some writers identify specific biblical causes of defilement with damaging environmental results. Rev. Alistair Petrie finds four [14]: 1. Idolatry Jeremiah 3.6-10, 16.18 2. Immorality Leviticus 18.24-25; Ezekiel 16.25-27; Jeremiah 23.10 3. Bloodshed Numbers 35.33-34; Isaiah 59.2-3 4. Broken Promises Isaiah 24.5-6 Petrie follows Winkey Pratney [15] in using Ezekiel 14 to find four judgements of God, to parallel the four causes of defilement, namely:
To return to the triangle of relationships, the
results of the fall and of human sin are to introduce a break in every side of the triangle. Relations between humans and God, between humans and the land and between the land and God are all distorted and broken by the entry of sin into the world. Just as breaking one thread in a spiders web may prevent the whole web functioning, so we are intimately connected to the rest of creation. Creation groans in pain (Romans 8.19-23) as humans disobey God, and reciprocally humans suffer
1. Famine Ezekiel 14.13-14
2. Ecological devastation v.15-16 3. War v. 17-18 4. Disease v.19-20 Pratney talks of these as four prophetic voices designed to get our attention when our moral madness is full [16], and Petrie rightly
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states, Whenever people sin on the land, the
land suffers the consequences and reflects the judgements God sends on His people [17].
[6] HEALING THE LAND
2 Chronicles 7.14 has become a key verse for our times, because it offers hope in a time of national and ecological disaster. It makes a clear link between repentance for moral failure (humbling ourselves, seeking God, and turning from wickedness), and God bringing healing upon the land. It fits squarely with the biblical theology of the land we have outlined. As we explore it further, we must also seek to avoid the ways in which this verse has recently been misused and misinterpreted.
Yet we must be careful. These lists should not
be seen as exhaustive, or as simple cause and effect. We cannot say, If you commit adultery then you wont get rain next year! Rather these are examples of how failure to keep to Gods ways both in terms of good stewardship and of morality - has an inevitably negative effect on the land, as well as on our relationship with God. A break in one side affects the whole triangle; a tear in one strand damages the whole web. There is further reason for caution. Whilst God continues to send judgement through natural events, there is probably more emphasis in the New Testament on Gods final judgement at the end of time. Moreover, it is very difficult in practice to distinguish between a specific act of judgement, and the random chaos introduced into the natural order through the fall. When a tower fell in Siloam, Jesus refused to blame the individuals concerned (Luke 13.45). We must resist the temptation to blame every farming crisis on specific acts of moral disobedience.
Firstly, it must be stressed that 2 Chronicles
7.14 is talking about land more in an ecological than a national or political sense. The context shows that this is not primarily about healing a nation, but about healing a place a physical geographical region from problems such as drought, disease and cropfailure (all mentioned in v.13). Petrie comments: The word for heal in this passage is rapha, a word used by ancient physicians meaning to heal, to mend, to repair or to make whole. Used of people, rapha means restoration to a place of wholeness. Yet here the word is used in relation to land. As people are healed and restored in their relationship with, and stewardship before, God, the land is subsequently healed as well. [20].
On the other hand, we cannot avoid the
conclusion that both poor stewardship and moral decay lead to environmental disaster. As Bishop James Jones has said: I believe that the various farming crises over the years may well be a judgement of God on the way we are violating creation. The Bible sees judgement not just as an event in the future, a far-off-intime Day of Judgement, but also as a present experience. Do not be under any illusion wrote St Paul You cannot make a fool of God. Because, whatever you sow is exactly what you will reap. [18].
Those who have used this verse as a call to
prayer for a nation, and interpreted the healing God brings only in terms of spiritual and moral revival, have actually missed the point. In the Biblical world-view, a peoples spiritual relationship with God and their physical relationship with the land where they live are deeply interconnected. As Parker says of Genesis 3: What we are to take from this passage is that there is an intimacy between people and the very soil from which they have come. The earth responds to us, as much as it responds to God. [21]
The basic point that the land acts as a
barometer of humanitys relationship with God is inescapable. It is not based on the lawbased covenant between God and Israel, but is written into creation itself. Thus Petries question, Is it possible that the ecological problems we find in the world today are the fruit of unresolved issues in the land that have never been dealt with properly? [19] becomes a valid, and even an urgent one.
Secondly, there has been some interest
recently in identificational repentance or representational confession, where Christians repent of or confess past sins on
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behalf of nations and groups. Such a negative
spiritual heritage or stronghold (Ephesians 6.12) in a particular place or area of land is broken and the land can be healed, when Christians and national leaders express remorse and receive forgiveness. Amongst evangelicals the jury is still out, with a consultation organised by the Evangelical Alliance UK failing to reach united conclusions [22]. Some believe that spiritual revival and the healing of the land will only take place when the power of territorial spirits is broken through confession of past sins. Others point out that Jesus and the disciples did not appear to practise identificational repentance, and that the Bible never advocates repentance by proxy. This debate will rumble on, but is actually a red herring for the subject of healing the land as discussed here. 2 Chronicles 7.14 is not about repenting for the sins of others. It is about God healing the land when we turn away from our own individual and social sins.
Yet, if some Christians have fallen into the trap
of applying 2 Chronicles 7.14 in too literal and immediate a way, there is an opposite danger that we must also avoid. The fact that God does not always bring physical healing when we pray for individuals does not stop Christians from praying with expectancy that God can and will heal the sick. We know that the world is fallen, that Gods Kingdom is not yet fully here, and that we are in an unseen spiritual battle, yet most Christians also know of times when God has brought direct and miraculous healing in answer to prayer. The same should apply to praying for the healing of the land. The creation that is groaning is also longing for liberation from its bondage to decay (Romans 8.21) a liberation that, like the rest of Gods kingdom, is both now and not yet. The promise of 2 Chronicles 7.14, whilst given to Solomon and the people of Israel in a particular place and time, does have a more general application for us today. God longs to bring healing to the land, and as people turn to him, repent and live more obedient lives both in personal morality and in their stewardship of the earth a spiritual dynamic is released which leads to a healing of the land. Gods healing grace is released when people repent and turn to Him.
Thirdly, the relationship between human
repentance and the healing of the land must not be seen as simple or automatic. There is a danger of an eco-prosperity gospel, where we believe we can guarantee bumper crops and ecological harmony, if only we repent enough. God is not a machine to be manipulated by our prayers or our righteousness. In the same way as the Bible does not promise material prosperity or physical health to all believers in this life, no more does it promise a completely restored environment here and now. The entry of sin and death into the world since the fall, have led to randomness in how nature operates. We cannot point the finger at areas of the world suffering from environmental disaster, whether it be foot and mouth, prolonged drought, or earthquakes, and accuse people in such places of directly bringing Gods judgment upon themselves by their sin. Rather it is the whole creation that has been subjected to frustration and is groaning as in the pains of childbirth (Romans 8.18-25) because of human sin. An undersea eruption in the Pacific may cause flooding in Japan, a nuclear disaster in the Ukraine may lead to irradiated sheep in Cumbria, industrial pollution from Britain may damage forests in Scandinavia. Globally we are all in this together.
There have been extraordinary stories around
the world of how the land is transformed when a community turns to God in humble repentant prayer and renewed obedience. One of the most remarkable is in Almolonga in Guatemala, where poor almost sterile land has been transformed into fertile fields yielding huge vegetables, as a local community has turned from crime and immorality to Christ [23]. We should not be any more surprised by such stories than by physical healings. The same Jesus who healed the sick showed his power over nature in calming the storm, and he can equally calm todays ecological storms, when we ask in humble obedience. He remains sovereign over his land, and whilst we may not always see instant or obvious results, that should not stop us praying.
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[7] JESUS THE HEALER OF THE LAND
workers in his Kingdom. We echo the prayer of
Jesus: Your Kingdom come, your will be done on earth as in heaven.
In the end, all true healing comes from Christ,
the one by whom and for whom all things were made (Colossians 1.16). All the broken relationships ruined by the avalanche of sin unleashed by Adam and Eve can be healed in Christ, and only in Christ. To return to the triangle of God-People-Land, the saving work of Jesus Christ on the cross has enabled reconciliation between people and God, between and within people, and also between people and land, and God and the land. The curse of Genesis 3 is undone in the saving work of Christ, in whom all things in earth and heaven find their proper place, their true home (Colossians 1.18-20). No wonder that the universe reacted to the crucifixion with an eclipse and an earthquake this was an event with cosmic consequences.
Dave Bookless, 2002
REFERENCES [1] Russ Parker, Healing Wounded History, Darton, Longman & Todd, 2001, p.8 [2] Bob Beckett in Alistair Petrie, Releasing Heaven on Earth, Chosen Books, 2000, p.31 [3] Walter Brueggemann, The Land, SCM, 1978, p.96 [4] Chris Wright, Living as the People of God, IVP, 1983, p.37-38 [5] Brueggemann, p.93 [6] Eugene Peterson, Unpublished Lecture on Creation : the Gift of Place, available on CD as part of Creation & Gospel from the Garden to the Ends of the Earth, a five CD set available from A Rocha UK. [7] Parker, p.9 [8] Professor Bruce Birch, in Petrie, p.26 [9] Wright, p.59 [10] ibid, p.19-20 [11] ibid, p.50 [12] ibid, p.48 [13] R. J. Faricy, Wind & Sea Obey Him, SCM, 1982 [14] Petrie, pp.57-64 [15] Winkie Pratney, Healing the Land, Chosen Books, 1993, pp.142-147 [16] Pratney, p.142 [17] Petrie, p.68 [18] James Jones, Bishop of Liverpool, Sunday Morning Service, April 15, 2001 [19] Petrie, p.30 [20] ibid, p.179 [21] Parker, p.9 [22] Rev Dr. David Hillborn, Long Overdue Apology, IDEA Magazine, March-April 2002 [23] Petrie, pp.202 & 231. Almolonga is also featured in the Transformations video, produced by the Sentinel Group, that has had a major impact in the UK and elsewhere.
When we pray for the healing of the land, we
apply the work of Christ on the cross to the creation, where the ultimate vision is to bring all things in heaven and on earth under one head, even Christ (Ephesians 1.10). Just as in praying for an individual to come to faith, or in asking for healing, we pray out of obedience and in the knowledge that the healing of the land is in line with Gods will. We also pray in the knowledge that we may or may not see quick results, and that all healing comes by Gods grace. Again, just as in praying for physical healing we encourage appropriate medical care alongside prayer, so in healing the land, prayer and practical action should go hand in hand. Prayer is not a substitute for good stewardship, and Christians who wish to see their local areas improved must be involved in practical conservation and environmental action as well as prayer. If we wish to see the land healed, we need to look at our own lifestyles, our recycling and purchasing, and our use of Gods resources. At a wider level we need to look at farming and environmental policies in the recognition that all land belongs to God, as do the sheep and cattle on a thousand hills, and that we are answerable to him for our use of what is his. If we are not healing the land, we are destroying it, and God promises to destroy those who destroy the earth (Revelation 11.18). To put it more positively, when we pray for the healing of the land, and when we are involved in practical creation-care, we become Gods co-
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https://www.google.com.ph/? gfe_rd=cr&ei=dUTAVb3JMKzC8Afe_JKQC w&gws_rd=ssl#q=Theology+of+the+La nd: +Foundational+Principles (accessed July 25, 2015)