Same Planet, Different Worlds

The Toronto Zoo has a tagline that goes: Same Planet, Different World. I find that is a very apt description for my understanding of the New Earth that Christ will usher in when he returns. It is not a new planet that God will make but a renewal of this same planet. It’s a new world order, for sure, a world of difference between our current world and God’s world order in the New Earth to come when the life of heaven becomes part and parcel of earth. But the same planet. God promised, “Behold, I make all things new”; he did not promise to make all new things (Revelation 21:5). Same planet, different worlds.

A Christian Four-Eyed Perspective on the Environment

English: photo of a green eye and glasses (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

(This is an Expanded Version of a Speech Delivered at the Faces of Faith Inter-Faith Council Day Forum “Perspectives on the Environment”, January 30, 2008 at York University.)

When I was a little kid, some of my schoolmates would tease me and call me “four eyes” because I wear eyeglasses. Well, you can say that I grew up with a ‘four-eyed’ perspective on the world. So, in my time here, I am going to present A Christian ‘Four-Eyed’ Perspective on the Environment. What are these four eyes? Well, the four eyes are four theologies: the theology of creation, the theology of evil, the theology of redemption, and the theology of ultimate renewal.