Sharing the Gospel - More Important Than Winning Arguments; Science and Religion Can Co-exist; Creation and Evolution

 Have you heard anyone who is more worried about being friendly to the planet than to people? How do we respond while sharing Jesus’ friendship and salvation? Miami zoo expert Ron Magill said something on the radio recently that helps.

You can tell all creatures amaze him. He sidestepped a question on Noah’s Ark once by saying he wasn’t there, but God can do anything since God is all powerful; he won’t question that. He doesn’t believe in Creation, while the Bible says each animal is made after its kind. He confuses microevolution (like dog breeds are all in the wolf kind) and macroevolution (the idea that animals become different kinds.) Still, he sees a purposeful design in all animals. Maybe he called on Jesus as a child to save him from his sin & the Spirit in him helps him see that design. Or maybe his heart is just now tender. Pray Ron Magill is saved or will be.

What he said was that zoos are great: They preserve species that might die out otherwise. (2 great term paper topics: The bald eagle was endangered & being saved when I was little; and, the California condor was almost extinct till zoos helped bring it back.) But wild animals are used in ways which are bad for them, like how people swim with dolphins. He said that’s forcing wild animals to act like tthey were domesticated like dogs or horses (or cats, though if you poll 100 cats even a majority of house cats may deny being domesticated by people.😊) 

His words made me think of the Millennial Kingdom. Animals will be peaceful then. They won’t eat each other – wolves and lambs, lions and calves will all live in peace together. A little child can lead them. We can have fun with them when Jesus rules the world. We’ll hang out with hippos or ride cheetahs like motorcycles or swim with dolphins. Because the problem is we want to now, but we can’t in the wild. We’d get hurt – badly.

Lions in the London Zoo all ate grass and such during World War 2 – they’re still built to do that if they have to. That was God’s original design. But, “by one man sin entered the world, and death by sin, so that death passed unto all men, for that all have sinned.”(Rom. 5:12) Sin caused a perfect world to be cursed. People don’t always understand that God didn’t mean for all this violence to happen. You can explain that to people.

Some just see it as part of nature, though, and that’s okay. Some people will listen if you say, “Well, animals have that killer instinct when they try to protect territory or look for food, but we have free will to choose not to sin, but we sin anyway,” or something like that. Then, you can talk about how you, like they, fall short of God’s perfection. That missing the mark is sin. And, Jesus made a way to be saved from our sin through His death and Resurrection.

The key is to narrow things down when you witness. Don’t argue over secondary issues. God will work in the person’s heart on those. I sense if Mr. Magill is saved, for instance, he’s humble enough he’d be the first to say, “Oh, that’s how you did it, Lord Jesus. It wasn’t evolution after all.  I’m sorry, Jesus. I had no idea how you created things according to their kind like that. I’m just thankful you died to save me and rose again anyway.”

That’s what’s important – has the person put their trust in Jesus by calling on Him to forgive and save them from their sins through what He did on the cross.

So, when people talk about climate change, or other things about nature, remind them we have all sinned. What we do to the planet – and to animals – is part of our sin nature. If they say they always respect the planet, fine. We haven’t all committed every sin. Ask if they ever lied, for instance. They can still accept they’re not perfect, and fall short of the glory of God. You can also share about the huge natural disasters in Revelation. 

People need the Lord. Arguments distract from the simple Gospel. We can agree it is important to care for nature, but even someone like Ron Magill says we’re more important. The Bible says why – God breathed life into us. Jesus died for each of us and rose again. That’s what people need to hear, so they can be saved from the consequences of this world of sin, but also from their own sins.

And, then maybe they'll finally be sensible about some of the thigns they're doing to the environment - to what God made for us that is so beautiful.

We're each only a single, sincere prayer of repentance away - just Admit You're a sinner, Believe Jesus died for your sins and rose from the dead, and Call on Him to save you and make you new inside. (This is for benefit of readers of this in the blog, who can go to www.Godlife.com to talk to someone about this.)