UNDERMINING

Under-mining

“Save the whales!” was a cry we began to hear in the late 70s. These magnificent sea creatures used to be hunted to death for their oil. When I lived in Tasmania my house overlooked Ralphs Bay into which the whalers would chase their prey for easy slaughter. Now that I live in sunny Queensland, I’m within easy access of Moreton Bay’s Tangalooma Island with its now defunct whaling station. What ultimately saved the whales? In the words of The Beverly Hillbillies title song, “Oil that is, black gold, Texas tea.”

But then the protests turned against drilling for oil, and drilling for coal and gas also for that matter. It wasn’t just about saving whales anymore. It went global. It has all become environ - mental! It’s now all about saving the planet. We’ve all to save the planet from climate change. But really, it’s all about stats. But what set of statistics are we to follow? The Climategate hocky schtick graphs? Or stats put out by climate change ideologues? Sorry, I think that may just be the same thing! Dogmaticians specialise in dogmatics and dogmatism. The trouble is that weather-forecasting is far from an exact science. So enough already with your climate change dogma! Away with your, the world’s going to end in ten years if we don’t do something to control the weather! As the song says,

“Oh the weather outside is frightful
But the fire is so delightful
And since we’ve no place to go
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.”      

The Global Warming religion as at enmity with the human beings that populate the planet earth, especially the frail, elderly, sick and infirm. Electricity prices are exorbitantly high because of this extreme aberration of Christian stewardship. Let the people heat their homes in winter and cool them in summer you tyrants! Socialistic subsidies on (some) people’s power bills, wind farm turbines and solar panels only serve to cause a nation to groan under the weight of the already over the top tax-burden. Stop stealing our money to fund your Greenie utopia. Get a job like the rest of us and contribute to society rather than parasitically sucking the life out of it! And, while you’re at it, stop scaring the kids with your Global Warming extremism!

True religion, which is the Christian religion, and not the Environmentalist religion, is about doing all things to the glory of God (1 Cor. 10:31). Regardless if anyone tells you anything different, “This earth is the LORD’s, and all its fullness, the world and those who dwell therein.” Psalm 24:1. Therefore, it is His planet, and so are the people who dwell on His planet. Therefore, we must treat His planet and the people on it the way God wants us to treat them.

Speaking of His planet, God intends for us to mine it and use its minerals stored therein to His glory and our use. He says, “The gold of that land is good; aromatic resin and onyx are also there.” Genesis 12:2. Deuteronomy 8:9 speaks of “a land where you will eat food without shortage, where you will lack nothing; a land whose rocks are iron and from whose hills you will mine copper.” And the following is a lengthy record of mining back in Job’s day,

“There are mines where silver is dug;
There are places where gold is refined.
We dig iron out of the ground
And melt copper out of the stones.
Miners explore the deepest darkness.
They search the depths of the earth
And dig for rocks in the darkness.
Far from where anyone lives
Or human feet ever travel,
They dig the shafts of mines.
There they work in loneliness,
Clinging to ropes in the pits.
Food grows out of the earth,
But underneath the same earth
All is torn up and crushed.
The stones of the earth contain sapphires,
And its dust contains gold.
No hawk sees the roads to the mines,
And no vulture ever flies over them.
No lion or other fierce beast
Ever travels those lonely roads.

Miners dig the hardest rocks,
Dig mountains away at their base.
As they tunnel through the rocks,
They discover precious stones.

They dig to the sources of rivers
And bring to light what is hidden.” Job 28:1-11.

So, drill baby, drill! Bring to light what is hidden. Turn the material you find into something useful for and helpful to humanity. “Tubal-Cain, [was] an instructor of every craftsman in bronze and iron.” Genesis 4:22.

Therefore, mining the earth for precious commodities is Biblical. And so is using the earth’s resources, be it oil, gas, gold, silver, copper and jewels. What is unbiblical is undermining God’s intention for His planet, which is that we use the resources He has given us to cultivate the earth to His glory.