Great Saturday morning for the island! Now here’s a devo that will leave you thinking…’was that a devo?’ Yet I feel it is important to be aware of the dangers around us.
The quote in the image is by Sylvia Plath, American poet from Boston. These words are seen many a time quoted as a banner for pantheistic thought. Apparently though, nature was just not enough happiness for her…
“Plath suffered from depression for much of her adult life, and in 1963 she committed suicide. Controversy continues to surround the events of her life and death, as well as her writing and legacy.” [1]
Pantheism is a view of God’s nature. The term is derived from two Greek words pan and theos. Pan means “all or everything” and theos means “God.” Pantheism, therefore, means god is everything.[2]
Pantheism is about revering the universe, caring for nature and celebrating life. Sounds great right, but before you sign up, give me a minute.
Pantheism is rooted in ancient paganism from around the 3000’s B.C..Later, this belief would be behind the ideology of the Nazi movement that led to the atrocities committed. A German in 1938 was asked what the religion of Hitler was. “If anything he is a pantheist.”
Picture the scene. At the edge of a forest, German soldiers point their guns at rows of naked people who follow the Jewish religion. Among them are young mothers clutching their babies. The shots echo through the woods and the dead bodies fall into the ground. Down the road, while this is happening, their German army comrades are busy establishing nature walks and bird sanctuaries and planting trees. [3]
It was Ernst Haeckel, a zoologist of all things, who opened the door wide open to path of Nazism when he propounded a holistic, racist Social Darwinism based on ‘science’ called Monism in those days. Haeckel was in fact the very man who coined the term ‘ecology’ in 1866. Thus Haeckel will help provide the Nazis the missing link between nationalism, socialism, ecology, race and nature protection. – Mark Musser, ‘Nazi Oaks Green Offering’
A more powerful race will drive off the weak, because the pressing impulse to live, in its ultimate form, will burst asunder all the ridiculous fetters of a so-called humanitarian feeling for the individual, and will replace it with the humanitarianism of Nature, which destroys what is weak to give place to strength. – Adolf Hitler ‘Mein Kampf’
This totalitarian mentality carries over to eco-fascism today which is fuelled by pantheism and political agenda same as it did in Nazi Germany.
Most deep ecologists . . . trace their perspective to personal experiences of connection to and wholeness in wild nature, experiences which are the ground of their intuitive, affective perception of the sacredness and interconnection of all life. Those who have experienced such a transformation of consciousness (experiencing what is sometimes called one’s “ecological self” in these movements) view the self not as separate from and superior to all else, but rather as a small part of the entire cosmos. From such experience flows the conclusion that all life and even ecosystems themselves have inherent or intrinsic value–that is, value independently of whether they are useful to humans. – Bron Taylor
Are we against taking care of nature? No. In fact we do need to take care of the earth more seriously, yet that is not what pantheism is about. In order to properly take care of things we need to get back to the original design. God created the universe, He is not of it. We need to make this distinction clear:
“You alone are the LORD You have made the heavens, The heaven of heavens with all their host, The earth and all that is on it, The seas and all that is in them You give life to all of them And the heavenly host bows down before You. Nehemiah 9:6
He placed man on earth to care FOR the it NOT to be cared, mothered or ruled by it:
Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Genesis 1:26-28
There is a lot going on in our world today that is driven by pantheism. Events are held; so-called awareness of the ‘issues’, ecological events, conferences, global warming (or should we say climate change), movies, regulations, and everything else ‘green’ that comes with a high price tag.
Pantheism confuses the creature with the Creator. It makes everything god and misses the God of everything. So while the world is looking at creation as a god, let’s see things as they are and while the creation is beautiful, it simply points to the Creator and owner of the universe:
For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. Romans 1:20
“But ask the beasts, and they will teach you; the birds of the heavens, and they will tell you; or the bushes of the earth, and they will teach you; and the fish of the sea will declare to you. Who among all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this? In his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind. Job 12:7-10
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