Despite the abuse humans have inflicted on it, creation clearly witnesses to its Creator. God “has not left himself without testimony: He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy” (Acts 14:17). While Jesus expects his disciples to “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation” (Mark 16:15), creation itself proclaims God’s everlasting power and divinity, leaving people “without excuse” (Rom. 1:20). . . . The loud-proclaiming silent heavens give evangelical witness to God’s glory (Psalm 19:1-4) and creation pours forth praise to its Creator (Psalm 95-100). God has given us this testimony “so that [we] would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us” (Acts 17:27). (Calvin DeWitt, Earth-Wise: A Biblical Response to Environmental Issues, CRC Publications.)

The Human Role in Creation

God gave the care of his earth and its species to our first parents. That responsibility has passed into our hands. We affirm that God-given dominion is a sacred responsibility to steward the earth and not a license to abuse the creation of which we are a part. We are not the owners of creation, but its stewards, summoned by God to “watch over and care for it” (Gen 2:15).

This implies the principle of sustainability: our uses of the Earth must be designed to conserve and renew the Earth rather than to deplete or destroy it. (National Association of Evangelicals, “For the Health of the Nation: An Evangelical Call to Civic Responsibility.”(PDF))

Our God-given, stewardly talents have often been warped from their intended purpose: that we know, name, keep and delight in God's creatures; that we nourish civilization in love, creativity and obedience to God; and that we offer creation and civilization back in praise to the Creator. We have ignored our creaturely limits and have used the earth with greed, rather than care.

The earthly result of human sin has been a perverted stewardship, a patchwork of garden and wasteland in which the waste is increasing. "There is no faithfulness, no love, no acknowledgment of God in the land.... Because of this the land mourns, and all who live in it waste away" (Hosea 4:1, 3). Thus, one consequence of our misuse of the earth is an unjust denial of God's created bounty to other human beings, both now and in the future. (An Evangelical Declaration on the Care of Creation.)