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“Remember Creation - God’s World of
Wonder and Delight”
Scott Hoezee. Published Eerdmans, 1998, 105pp plus
notes & indices.
Alida Sewell
In the Introduction, Hoezee, a minister of the CRC,
draws our attention to the fact that next to the multitude of books on
the various theories of the origins of the world and the method of
creation, there is a dearth of Christian books that actually celebrate
the handiwork that God created, or that give any principled
consideration to how we should think Christianly about ecology and the
environment. Hoezee’s book is a welcome attempt to make up the
deficiency by giving a biblical and thoroughly Christian basis for
environmental care.
The chapter titles will give you a good idea of how Hoezee develops the
theme of the book’s title:
-
Delightful Theology: God’s Creation of Delight and Play
-
Let’s Play: Making God’s Delight in the Creation Our Own
-
Hearing Creation’s Chorus: The Ecology of Praise 1
-
Bearing God’s Image in the Creation: The Ecology of Praise 2
-
Preserving Creation’s Chorus: The Ecology of Praise 3
-
The Landscape of Righteousness: A Meditation
-
Epilogue: The Way It’s Supposed to Be
Hoezee develops the theme that creation is important,
quoting Aquinas: “Any error about creation also leads to an error about
God”. He discusses some very well known verses, such as John 1:1,3a,
Hebrews 1:2,10, Colossians1:16-17 and Revelation 4:11. Note that the NT
writers also start with creation. The verse from Revelation is often
sung in our circles: “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory
and honour and power, for you created all things, and by your will they
were created and have their being”. Notice that we first of all praise
God for creating the world and everything in it. Later on we praise Him
for redeeming us by the blood of the Lamb.
Hoezee regrets the present day emphasis on salvation to the neglect of
creation. He gives the example of Psalm 8. “A few years ago the popular
singer Sandi Patti recorded a hit song apparently based on Psalm 8.
Quoting directly from the first verse of the psalm, Patty’s song begins
with the refrain, ‘O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all
the earth.’ Of course, the bulk of Psalm 8 fleshes out this majesty of
God by pointing to the moon and the stars and all the wondrous works of
God’s creative hand. ‘When I consider your heavens, the work of your
fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is
man that you are mindful of him?’ But Patty’s popular song dispenses
with Psalm 8's creation celebration in favor of instead moving
immediately into the New Testament and a focus on redemption in Jesus:
‘O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. Prince of
Peace, Mighty God, O Lord God Almighty!’ Unhappily, in this song a
biblical focus on the creation drops from view in favor of thinking only
about the salvation of human beings.” (p.11-12).
Hoezee urges us to cherish creation simply because the Bible tells us
God cherishes it. We are to love the creation because God loves it and
delights in it. He made it teeming, swarming with abundance and infinite
variety. These swarming multitudes are God’s chorus of praise. If we
allow entire species to become extinct, we diminish God’s chorus of
praise. In Psalm 19:1-3 and Psalm 148 we read how all creatures praise
their Creator. God delights in them and they praise Him. God is worthy
of the full chorus of praise from His creation. In reading Hoezee’s book
I was struck by how many times before I must have read many ‘creation
passages’ in a totally human-centered way. Hoezee opens our eyes to the
meaning and significance of these. I am tempted to quote from just about
every page, the book is so good.
Hoezee does not just explain biblical passages, he also interact with
authors who have written on the subject of environmental care and
ecology, pointing out where they confirm the scriptural teaching or
depart from it. This is useful, as many environmentalists have a New Age
or Hinduistic view that is pantheistic or panentheistic. As Christians
it is important that we know the distinction between the creation and
the Creator. As we see in Psalm 19, it is God who made the heavens. God
is not to be equated with the heavens, or any other part of His
creation. In conclusion, I shall quote the blurb from the back of the
book, since it gives a good summary.
“While the creation-evolution debate continues to rage about how the
world came into existence, few people wonder what it means that the
world now exists. In Remember Creation Scott Hoezee challenges readers
to make today’s world more central to the Christian faith by enjoying
and preserving God’s cosmos as a part of daily discipleship. Solidly
grounded in a wealth of Scripture passages, this book reveals God’s
‘ecology of praise,’ which all Christians should want to explore and
preserve. Throughout the book Hoezee also offers practical suggestions
to help congregations, families, and all Christians to take more delight
in God’s world while working to keep alive the wonders that bring God
joy.”
I warmly recommend this book to people of all ages. Well, maybe 12 to
112. The young will be inspired to do the right thing by God’s creation
and the old will gain some rejuvenation from its perspective, I am sure.
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