Do We "Belong to the Earth"?
One of the “blessings” of long traffic lights is that it enables one to read and write down, if desired, the message that is on the bumper sticker of the car in front. Such an opportunity arose on October 24th of this year. Perhaps others have seen it before, but for this motorist, it was a first. The sticker said: “The earth does not belong to us, we belong to the earth.” Forget for the moment that these two independent clauses should have been connected by a semi-colon; consider the idea being advertised, which is false.
The first statement is: “The earth does not belong to us.” This is a direct violation of Genesis 1:26: “Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” Notice that man is to have dominion over all the earth. God has authorized him to exercise dominion over it. So, yes, the earth does belong to us (mankind), and we may exercise authority over it. That does not mean that we should be careless in our treatment of the earth or irresponsible, but God did give us the authority over the earth—not the earth authority over man.
“We belong to the earth” is also incorrect. Adam was created out of the dust of the ground (Gen. 2:7), but man is so much more than just animated dirt or clay. Genesis 1:27 states: “So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” So, Adam was made of the dust—from the earth (1 Cor. 15:47), as are the animals (Gen. 1:24), but none of the animals were made in the image of God. Neither was the vegetation. The earth is not God (as per Gaia); the earth came from God as part of His creation. Just because we came from the earth does not mean we belong to the earth. We belong to God, our Creator—not to the substance out of which He formed us.
The earth is not God and therefore it cannot command us to perform its wishes. It does not possess the faculty of thought; the earth does not reason logically. Man belonging to the earth implies that our planet has a will, which it does not. It does not sit around and make plans for our future. Earth is not trying to communicate with us. Some would probably have us believe that hurricanes, flooding, earthquakes, volcanoes, tornadoes, and other disasters are nature’s way of protesting. No, man brought all these things upon himself because of his excessive love of sin. All of these violent acts of nature have resulted from the Flood (Gen. 7:11) and have been occurring for thousands of years. The earth has not suddenly developed vocal cords. Let us continue to exercise responsible dominion over the earth and ignore presumptuous bumper stickers.