Mother Earth — What the Bible Says
Worship of the earth can be traced back to the Slavs’ polytheistic religion wherein Mat Zemlya — “Mother Earth” — was the oldest deity. There were no temples because rituals were performed in nature. The concept of “Mother Nature” is similar and can be traced to prehistory.
There are people today who embrace the concept of “Mother Earth” or “Mother Nature” with varying levels of devotion. To most of them it’s just a general assumption and they’re pretty casual about it. Others take it more serious.
Such people have a sense of awe of the earth that should be respected. I have a great awe toward creation and regularly seek out places to hike and explore, but the main reason I go to these places is to commune with the Almighty. Jesus did this, as shown in numerous passages (e.g. Matthew 14:23, Mark 1:35 & 6:30-32, Luke 5:16 & 6:12). There’s just something about the beauty and serenity of nature that makes it conducive to communing with the Creator.
Yet this reveals the difference between Christianity and religions that worship the earth or nature. The latter worship the earth as a divine entity whereas the former regard the planet as an awesome created thing yet reserve their highest adoration for the Creator of the created thing. Are you following?
People who worship the earth are worshipping according to their limited understanding of God (Ephesians 4:18). They mistake the created thing for the Creator because the created thing has some degree of glory since it was created by the King of Glory (see Psalm 24). Such people should be respected and regarded with compassion, but they’ve fallen into an error that Paul talked about in the Scriptures: “They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served created things rather than the Creator” (Romans 1:25).
Why worship the created thing when you can worship the Creator?
Related Topics:
Religion and Christianity — What’s the Difference?
Godliness and Religion—What’s the Difference?
Is Christianity a “Relationship with God”?
Created in the Image of God — What Does it Mean?
(Pseudo) Science is the “New God” and Dubious Scientists are the “New Gods”
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