A
CHRISTIAN-AGRARIAN CRITIQUE
OF TECHNOLOGICAL SOCIETY
Part 1. The Proper Calling of
Mankind
The First Gardener
Let us begin at the beginning -- the
book of Beginnings. Here the Christian finds the only
authoritative account of the origin of man, his true nature and Divine
calling. Here we learn that after the whole creation had been
completed and furnished more gloriously than any palace, populated with
magnificent creatures and decorated with an abundance of fruitful
vegetation, provided with rivers of pure water and abundant minerals,
ceiled over with a sky that never threatened -- God planted a
garden. It was not enough that God had created a whole beautiful
world for His children -- His care was so great and so personal, that
He set aside a special spot in the midst of its natural (but
uncultivated) beauty for them. Here, He Himself planted a
garden! The first gardener was God Himself!
Man's
Original Calling
The garden has been
planted. All is in readiness. What remains to be
done? What is
lacking? "There was no man to till the ground."(Gen. 2:5)
Just as the narrative in Chapter one stops to tell us that "the earth
was without form and void"(Gen.1:2) before it tells us that God imposed
order on the confused mass (vss.6-9); just as it informs us that
"darkness was upon the face of the deep"(vs.2) before the Divine
command,"Let there be light!"; just as we are shown that the man could
find no suitable helpmeet in the creation (vs. 20) before we are told
of the creation of woman -- so we are shown a "defect" (of
incompleteness) in the perfect world before the second account of man's
creation. The thoughtful reader will in each of these cases find
an indication of purpose. Just as the woman, for example was made
for the purpose of being a helpmeet to man, so the man was made for the
purpose of tilling the ground.
Not that it was the only purpose for
which God made mankind. Man was created for the purpose of
manifesting the glory of the creator in many ways. But the
specific way in which the creation of the first man is presented in
this crucial narrative is that the man was made to meet the need for
the cultivation of the garden. (Even in a perfect world, it
seems, a garden will become a jungle if it is not tended.) But
not only here (2:5) -- but in verse 15 we find the same truth --
"God... put him in the garden to tend and keep it."
From this I conclude that the
calling of the first man was the cultivation of the soil. He was
to bring out the beauty and utility of God's gift of the land for God's
glory and the benefit of mankind. In the original benediction of
the first pair, the words,"...fill the earth and subdue it.", we see
that the "wild lands" (I mean, the uncultivated lands outside the
garden) were gradually to be brought under cultivation as the human
family expanded. The garden was a God-given model or prototype
for the rest of the earth.
If this was the first man's
calling, should it also be ours? Yes and no. For God has
not limited all men to the identical task, nor given all men the same
gifts or ambitions. Godly Abel was a shepherd, and his murderer
was a tiller of the ground. The Scripture allows for many
vocations, and the division of labor is a sound principle. But
the fact remains that the task set for mankind as a whole is to make
the earth a fruitful garden. If we specialize in -- for example
-- tool-making, it should be to make tools which will help in some way
to accomplish the overall task. They may be tools to make
clothing, or to build houses, or to harvest crops. But what gives
the specialty legitimacy is that it improves the way that the whole
community does the basic task of bringing out the God-created potential
of the land.
The original dominion of
mankind was a peaceful dominion. Even the lives of the animals
were safe, for Adam and his wife were explicitly given a vegetarian
diet, as were the wild "beasts of the field". There is no reason
to assume that Adam's dominion included the right to kill, anymore than
man's headship over his family contemplates that possibility. No
doubt it included the right to breed them for desirable traits, to
restrain them (fencing), to train and work some of them and to use
their products (milk, honey, wool, horn).
Man's
Post-fall Calling
But this idyllic state was not
to endure. Sin entered in, and death by sin. The first
indication that man's relationship with the world had been sadly
altered was the curse on the ground. No more was the ground to
"bring forth abundantly" the food of man. Whereas man had had a
daily feast of rich fruits, he was to be reduced to eating the food
designed for animals:"...and you shall eat the herb of the
field."(3:18b) The ground was henceforth only to yield its
increase reluctantly.
The second indication of a
dreadful change in the fabric of the world was the covering that God
made for them -- "tunics of skins"(3:21). Animals had been
killed, sacrificed for man's sake. But not yet by man -- God was
the first shedder of blood. Permission to eat flesh was not
granted until after the deluge had wrecked the earth's productive
capacity, and that vegetable diet that the world had always known in
abundance before had become scarce.
The third indication that
man's relation to the world had changed was the ejection from
paradise. Man was not worthy to remain in the beautiful house God
had built for him. The cherubim and the flaming sword were to
remind him that there was to be no way back. Paradise was to be
left to decay, rather than house a miscreant. "...therefore the
LORD God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from
which he was taken." (Genesis 3:23) Once again, the
vocation of the man is explicitly stated. His status had altered,
his location also -- but not his basic calling.
Man's
Calling in the Restored Paradise
The great disruption had
occurred. The life of the man was no longer easy. His very
survival would often be in question. His life, though greatly
prolonged, would never reach to a thousand years. More
importantly, man now had to concern himself with the terms of his new
relationship with God. That he had such a relationship is
clear. He had a specific promise that his seed would finally
destroy the serpent. That this was a promise of redemption in
Christ is beyond doubt. It implies all that the Bible teaches
regarding the restoration of paradise for the new redeemed humanity
through the second Adam.
The covenant of grace is the
great theme of Scripture and of human history. This second
covenant has precedence over the first as the new creation is more
glorious than the old (at least as marred by sin). But we must
not let a consciousness of the differences between them obscure the
essential unity. Redemption restores creation to its original
purposes -- though ultimately in a higher and better sense. In
the prophecies of Scripture, God is depicted as reversing the curse,
restoring the fruitfulness of the ground. Man is to enjoy the
fruits of his labor, and rest in them without molestation. The
basic vocation of mankind has not changed. In paradise, he is a
gardener still.
Modern
Man in Rebellion
If as a society we have a
different goal than "subduing the earth" in this Biblical sense, then
we are in outright corporate rebellion against our Maker. If we
are employed in work that undermines this Divine plan, or we are in a
legitimate field, but using methods which work against the purpose of
God, we are also in rebellion against God. We cannot excuse
ourselves by saying,"I have to make a living!" God knows how to
provide for those who put His purposes ahead of their own earthly
interests.
In most of human history and
over most of the world, man has had no alternative to
agriculture. Only in recent times did it occur to us to abandon
the ancient norm and leave our food production in the hands of a few
specialists. The final cost of this risky experiment has not been
measured. But it is clear that we are using and destroying more
resources than any generation in history. And it is becoming more
obvious that the food produced by mass industrialized cultivation is
inferior, unwholesome and sometimes dangerous.
We have taken a detour from
the biblical plan in favor of hedonistic lifestyles and the values of
materialism. We have abandoned our calling to exercise godly
dominion over the earth, and instead are exercising an ungodly and
destructive dominion. Modern man no longer sees himself as God's
image, but as God himself! He claims autonomy and sovereignty
over the universe. He is making up his own rules as he goes along
-- he has no need for a knowledge of the past.
He that sitteth in the heavens
shall laugh!
HDK
_______________
Howard D. King is the author of the
monthly newsletter Foundations, available at his web page.