Mary, good question. I'd like to share my thoughts on the subject.
I'm currently taking classes from Covenant Theological Seminary and the very first class I took was Genesis 1-4. Our first assignment was to study the part where God told Adam to "tend and keep the garden." We were to write a short paper on what that meant to us. Then we were instructed to look up the original Hebrew words for "keep", share what they were and say if knowing what the original words meant changed our understanding of the paper we had just turned in. It did...!
There were 6-8 different Hebrew definitions for the word 'keep'. Basically they were: to protect, to care for, to look after, and to cause flourishment.
God had told Adam that He wanted him to care for the world he had given him in such a way that it would enable mankind to 'flourish'. Anything that would help man do well and flourish was obeying God's mandate, serving Him and bringing glory to Him.
I had originally thought it just meant to water the trees and scrubs, prune them and things like that. But if you created a sewage system, that helped sanitize your environment and improved the health of people, was that within the mandate? Yes...!
What if you created an educational system, a judicial system, came up with a standard unit for money that encouraged honest economic transactions; or grew food, made products that were needed and wanted, or anything else that helps man flourish? Was that within His mandate. Yes...!
When the founding fathers created the U.S. Constitution, which made way for the industrial revolution that helped bring billions of people across the world out of poverty, was that fulfilling His mandate. I think yes...
So is maintaining or improving that form of government something that God would approve of? I think He would... I believe we can serve God by serving our brothers and sisters in the maintenance and improvement of a government that provides them the freedom and liberty to use the gifts that God has given them to help themselves and others, both here in America and around the world.
One who studies medicine for 8, 10 or 12 years to be able to help people, does he not serve this world AND the kingdom of God...?
Mary, good question. I'd like to share my thoughts on the subject.
I'm currently taking classes from Covenant Theological Seminary and the very first class I took was Genesis 1-4. Our first assignment was to study the part where God told Adam to "tend and keep the garden." We were to write a short paper on what that meant to us. Then we were instructed to look up the original Hebrew words for "keep", share what they were and say if knowing what the original words meant changed our understanding of the paper we had just turned in. It did...!
There were 6-8 different Hebrew definitions for the word 'keep'. Basically they were: to protect, to care for, to look after, and to cause flourishment.
God had told Adam that He wanted him to care for the world he had given him in such a way that it would enable mankind to 'flourish'. Anything that would help man do well and flourish was obeying God's mandate, serving Him and bringing glory to Him.
I had originally thought it just meant to water the trees and scrubs, prune them and things like that. But if you created a sewage system, that helped sanitize your environment and improved the health of people, was that within the mandate? Yes...!
What if you created an educational system, a judicial system, came up with a standard unit for money that encouraged honest economic transactions; or grew food, made products that were needed and wanted, or anything else that helps man flourish? Was that within His mandate. Yes...!
When the founding fathers created the U.S. Constitution, which made way for the industrial revolution that helped bring billions of people across the world out of poverty, was that fulfilling His mandate. I think yes...
So is maintaining or improving that form of government something that God would approve of? I think He would... I believe we can serve God by serving our brothers and sisters in the maintenance and improvement of a government that provides them the freedom and liberty to use the gifts that God has given them to help themselves and others, both here in America and around the world.
One who studies medicine for 8, 10 or 12 years to be able to help people, does he not serve this world AND the kingdom of God...?
Just my thoughts...
Timothy Ramsey
Excellent points!
There is so much to unpack with this subject.
Thank you for this well-written comment.