In 2013 the Cornwall Alliance, at the request of the International Church Council Project, developed a summary, in 30 pairs of affirmations and denials, of how Biblical worldview, theology, and ethics provide a foundation for environmental stewardship. The result was The Biblical Perspective of Environmental Stewardship: Subduing and Ruling the Earth to the Glory of God and the Benefit of Our Neighbors. What follows are seventeen prayers based on that statement. We hope you’ll find them useful not only on Cornwall Alliance’s annual Day of Prayer for the Environment and the Poor but regularly throughout the year.

One

1. We affirm that the earth is the LORD’s, and the fullness thereof (Psalm 24:1).

We deny that the earth or anything else is the result of impersonal, blind chance over time.

Heavenly Father, the everlasting God, we praise You for the amazing, beautiful design of the entire universe, from the largest galaxy to the tiniest subatomic particle, from the vast oceans to our DNA, from lightning that fixes nitrogen in soils to make plants grow better to the delicate fingers of infants growing in their mothers’ wombs! All these things display Your glory, and we consciously add our voices to theirs. Thank You for life. Thank You for time. Thank You for energy. Thank You for truth and the ability to know it. Please make us good stewards of all these things, and more, to use them wisely, loving You and loving our neighbors. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.

Two

2. We affirm that the Bible—the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments—is the sole, absolute, inerrant epistemological basis for mankind for all knowledge of all things, seen and unseen, and that all claims of truth and moral duty that contradict it are false and harmful.

We deny that the physical universe and human observations of it justify truth claims contrary to those of the Bible, and that liberty, justice, and human dignity can be sustained while rejecting Biblical truth and law.

29. We affirm that truth-telling is a moral obligation and that sound environmental stewardship depends on it.

We deny that intentional exaggeration, as practiced by many environmental advocacy organizations, or minimization, as practiced by many industries, of environmental risks or of the effectiveness of various means of addressing them is righteous.

O Lord our God, You call Yourself “Lord God of truth.” Indeed, when You became a man You called Yourself the way, the truth, and the life. Forgive us, we pray, for believing other sources when they contradict Your Word. Give us ever-growing understanding of the holy Scriptures, that we might live, every day, by their light. Particularly, teach us to understand Your creation as You’ve designed it, and to use it as You intend. We confess that apart from what You reveal in Scripture we grope around in the dark. But with it as the foundation of our understanding, You offer us the delight of new discoveries in Your amazing creation. Make us diligent to embrace Your offer, in Jesus name, amen.

Three

3. We affirm that the only true God—a spirit infinite, eternal, and immutable—revealed Himself in creation (which He made out of nothing and includes both physical and spiritual things), the Bible, and His one and only Son, Jesus Christ, and that though God reveals His wisdom and power in the creation, He is, always has been, and always will be absolutely distinct from and transcendent over creation, which He rules at all times and places.

We deny atheism (there is no God), pantheism (everything is God), panentheism (God is to the universe as the human soul is to the human body), animism (there are many gods, and they indwell and animate physical objects as human souls indwell and animate human bodies), and any other view that denies the Creator/creature distinction, because those who hold them exchange the truth about God for a lie and worship and serve the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever (Romans 1:25).

Our loving God, we confess that all too easily we value created things more than we value You. That’s crazy, of course, and we know it when we stop and think about it. But we do it. We do it when we make gods out of wealth, or freedom, or food, or friends, or husband or wife or children or parents, or education. We do it when we love and adore forests and fields, oceans and streams, fish and birds, even other people more than we love and adore You. Forgive us, we pray, and help us to love all things as they ought to be loved, and to hate what is evil, we pray, in the name of our only Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, Your Son, amen.

Four

4. We affirm that human dignity, freedom, and justice can be sustained only insofar as a society affirms the Creator/creature distinction and embraces the truth of Scripture, and that those who deny it become futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts are darkened (Romans 1:21).

We deny that societies built on atheism, pantheism, panentheism, animism (also called spiritism), or any other rejection of the Creator/creature distinction can flourish intellectually, morally, aesthetically, and materially.

O God, Creator of all things visible and invisible, guard our minds against ever forgetting that You are the Potter, and we are the clay. Let us not become foolish in our thinking, dark in our hearts, by exchanging the truth of God for the lie that we might become like gods. Rather, teach us to see everything in creation as a gift from You, to be cherished and dedicated to Your service and glory, in Jesus’ name, amen.

Five

5. We affirm that the creation includes persons— conscious spirits capable of reason, moral judgment, and affection, and therefore morally accountable for their actions—and that some of these persons are bodiless (immaterial, e.g. angels and demons) and some embodied (combinations of spirit and body, e.g., humans).

We deny that the material cosmos—“nature” and its parts, the created world of time and space, matter and energy, planets and stars, energy and material elements—is personal, either in its whole or in its parts; hence we deny that forests and trees, mountains and rocks, oceans and lakes and streams, and animals are persons.

6. We affirm that God made man, male and female, in His own image (Genesis 1:26–27).

We deny that any other terrestrial life form bears the image of God or is of equal value or priority with human beings (Matthew 10:29–31).

Heavenly Father, it is so tempting to focus entirely on material things—food, clothing, shelter, and so much more! Whether we’re rich or poor, it’s easy to be preoccupied with those things and to forget that we are not only bodies but also spirits, and that our spirits need nourishment just as much as our bodies do. It’s also tempting for us to forget that when You created the world, You made only people—human beings—in Your own image and after Your likeness. Nothing else. And when we forget that, it’s easy for us to value those material things more than our neighbors. Forgive us, Lord, when we do that, and wean us away from such disordered loves. Enable us to appreciate forests and trees, mountains and rocks, oceans and lakes and streams and animals, yes. But help us to put people first, even as we seek to fulfill Your mandate for us to subdue and rule those other things to Your glory, in Jesus’ name, amen.

Six

7. We affirm that though the earth is the LORD’s, He has also given it to men (Psalm 115:16) and mandated that they be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, subdue it, and have dominion over everything that lives in it (Genesis 1:28).

We deny that human dominion over the earth is, in principle, sinful, and that the possibility of its abuse negates the righteousness of its proper use.

10. We affirm that godly human dominion over the earth means men and women, created in the image of God, laboring freely and lovingly together to enhance earth’s safety, fruitfulness, and beauty, to the glory of God and the benefit of our neighbors.

We deny that godly human dominion entails humans’ being servants rather than masters of the earth.

O Lord our God, many people around us, heavily influenced by the environmental movement, mistakenly think that Genesis 1:28 is the root of ecological crises because, so they say, Christians have used it to justify abusing Your earth, wasting its resources and polluting it with poisons. To the extent we and our brothers and sisters in Christ have done that, we ask Your forgiveness. But we also ask You to open the eyes of those who understand the verse that way to see that instead it directs us to Your example. In our subduing and ruling the earth, we should mimic You in creating it. You brought everything out of nothing, light out of darkness, order out of chaos, life out of nonlife, and abundant varieties of life—and You told each kind of life to multiply! So our dominion, Father, should be like Yours—making more from less, replacing error with truth, bringing greater order out of lesser order, and more life out of less life. Vindicate Your truth, we pray, in Jesus’ name, amen.

Seven

8. We affirm that the earth and all its physical and biological systems are the effects of God’s omniscient design, omnipotent creation and faithful sustaining, and that when God completed His creative work it was “very good” (Genesis 1:31).

We deny that an infinitely wise Designer, infinitely powerful Creator, and perfectly faithful Sustainer of the earth would have made it susceptible to catastrophic degradation from proportionally small causes, and consequently we deny that wise environmental stewardship readily embraces claims of catastrophe stemming from such causes.

9. We affirm that by God’s design earth and its physical and biological systems are robust, resilient, and self-correcting.

We deny that they are fragile.

Lord, while we want to be good stewards of Your earth, help us to apply sound reason to the claims of environmental catastrophe that come at us so constantly. In particular, when people claim that increasing carbon dioxide from 28 thousandths of 1 percent of the atmosphere to 56 thousandths of 1 percent of the atmosphere is likely to cause catastrophic global warming, help us to step back and put things in perspective. There are so many other things that affect global temperature! Indeed, the climate system You designed is among the most complex things we’ve ever studied! It has hundreds of facets! Would You, the omniscient Designer, have made it so that such a tiny change in the atmosphere would be likely to cause catastrophe? Thank You that the physical evidence supports a “No” answer to that question. Help us, we pray, to help our neighbors to think reasonably about such issues, so that they can be delivered from needless fears, even while living prudently from day to day, we pray, in Jesus’ name.

Eight

11. We affirm that when God had created Adam, He placed him in the Garden of Eden to cultivate and guard it (Genesis 2:15).

We deny that the Garden of Eden represents the whole earth and that the instruction to “cultivate and guard” the Garden ought to be reinterpreted to mean either that man is to “serve and protect” the Garden or the earth, or that man is to “worship and protect” the Garden or the earth, or that man is to “worship and hear” God either directly or through the earth or its parts.

12. We affirm that a comprehensive understanding of the relationship between God’s placing Adam in the Garden to cultivate and guard it (Genesis 2:15) and God’s commanding Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue and rule everything in it (Genesis 1:28) entails a growing population that spreads out from the Garden to till the whole earth and transform it from wilderness to garden and ultimately to garden city (Revelation 21:2; 22:1–3).

We deny that Biblical earth stewardship, or godly dominion, is limited to keeping earth in the condition in which man finds it, i.e., we deny that, as many environmentalists put it, “Nature knows best” and its transformation by humans is in principle wrong or harmful.

13. We affirm that the Bible normally associates wilderness or wildness with divine judgment and curse (Exodus 23:29; Leviticus 26:22; Deuteronomy 7:22; 1 Samuel 17:46; Isaiah 5:2–4; 13:19–22; 34:1–17; Jeremiah 50:39; Leviticus 16:21–22).

We deny that wilderness is the best state of the earth.

Our loving heavenly Father, forgive us for the ease with which we misunderstand Your Word, often bringing our prejudices to it and trying to justify them, rather than taking it for what it is. Help us to remember that we are as prone to that as those with whom we disagree, and so, when we disagree with them, to disagree agreeably—to be charitable and respectful at the same time that we seek to be persuasive. Help all of us Christians who are concerned about environmental stewardship to be careful never to set one part of Your Word off against another, as if You ever contradicted Yourself. Though some people argue that Your instruction to “cultivate and guard” the Garden really means to “worship and protect” it, help them to recognize that we must worship only You. While we protect the earth from abuse, help us not to fall into the trap of thinking we can do so only by fencing it off from human use. Rather, help us to fulfill Your instruction to fill and subdue the earth in a way that is informed also by Your instruction to cultivate and guard the garden. We pray these things in the name of Christ, who came to reconcile all things, visible and invisible, to You through His death on the cross, amen.

Nine

14. We affirm that God placed minerals, plants, and animals in and on the Earth for His pleasure, to reveal His glory and elicit man’s praise, and to serve human needs through godly use (Genesis 2:5–16; 4:22; Numbers 31:21–23; Job 38–41; Psalm 19:1–6; Psalm 104).

We deny that recognizing instrumental value in the Earth and its various physical and biological components dishonors God or is idolatrous.

15. We affirm that one way of exercising godly dominion is by transforming raw materials into resources and using them to meet human needs.

We deny that leaving everything in the Earth in its natural state is proper Biblical stewardship (Matthew 25:14–30).

Dear Lord, thank You for Your great generosity to us! What amazing gifts You have given us in the world around us! Stone and wood from which to build; soil and water, sunlight and carbon dioxide with which to grow food; coal and oil and natural gas, as well as running rivers and sunlight and wind and radioactive minerals and thermal springs from which to derive energy; abundant varieties of plants and animals for us to eat—and not only for that, but also to enjoy for their beauty and even their companionship! Even while we ask You to help us never to elevate any of those to godlike status, still we ask You to help us always to use them in ways that honor You and bless our neighbors. And help us also to remember that You have made them for Your own pleasure, too, not just for ours, and so to treat them with respect and never to waste them, and to learn from studying them more about You their great Designer, in Jesus’ name, amen. 

Ten

16. We affirm that because of man’s fall into sin, sinful human hearts often fall prey to materialism, the covetous love of money, and the selfish accumulation of possessions (Luke 12:16–21; 1 Timothy 6:10; Colossians 3:5).

We deny that the temptation to materialist idolatry entails that the production of wealth, whether material from the Earth or immaterial from the human mind, is sinful in and of itself.

17. We affirm that man is accountable to God’s judgment in all he does with the earth.

We deny that man’s accountability to God justifies abolishing private property (Exodus 20:15, 17), adopting collectivist economic institutions, or delegating to civil governments—whether local, national, or global—ownership or control of land, natural resources, or private property.

Heavenly Father, forgive us, we pray, for the ease with which we envy those who have more than we do and covet their wealth. Forgive us when we make others’ misuse of wealth a justification for blanket condemnation of all the wealthy. At the same time, Father, forgive us for being so attached to our possessions that we refuse to share them with those who are in need. Open our eyes, Father, to the poor around us, and ignite in us a passionate desire to help them in every way we can. Remind us that whatever we do to the least of Jesus’ brethren, we do to Him, and that we shall give an account to You on the last day. We pray further, Father, that not only we as private individuals but also rulers around the world would recognize and promote those things that are indispensable to lifting and keeping whole societies out of poverty—things like private property rights, entrepreneurship, free trade, limited government, and the rule of law to prevent fraud, theft, and violence, and access to the abundant, affordable, reliable energy so necessary to everything we do. Free people all over the world, we pray, from destructive, enslaving forms of government, and give them governments that respect their God-given rights to life, liberty, and property, and their duty to worship You from sincere hearts, not by compulsion, in Jesus’ name, amen.

Eleven

18. We affirm that man’s fall into sin (Genesis 3) entails the possibility and indeed the historical reality of human abuse of the earth and of fellow humans.

We deny that man’s fall into sin completely destroys the possibility of godly dominion.

19. We affirm that in response to man’s sin God cursed the ground so that it would not, as before sin, yield easily even to godly dominion/cultivation, let alone to ungodly, abusive domination (Genesis 3:17–19), and indeed subjected the whole cosmos to decay and corruption until He restores  it partially in history by obedience to the dominion mandate (Genesis 1:28), whether by the unregenerate through common grace (Matthew 7:11) or by the regenerate through special grace (Romans 8:18–24) , and fully in the New Heavens and New Earth of the eschaton (Revelation 21:1–3, 22–27; 22:1–5), all secured by the redeeming work of Christ (Colossians 1:14–20).

We deny, due to God’s faithfulness to His covenant, in which He proclaimed, after the Flood, that He would sustain the cycles on which terrestrial life depends for as long as the earth endures (Genesis 8:22), that God’s curse on the earth negates either the dominion mandate (Genesis 1:28) or the robustness and self-correcting resilience of the God-sustained earth.

Oh Lord our God, we confess that even the best of us have been poor stewards of Your earth and the things in it. We have wasted resources, carelessly littered, putting our own comfort and convenience ahead of the health and life of our neighbors and the beauty of Your world. Forgive us, we pray, and teach us to exercise a godly dominion in those parts of the world in which You give us influence. Thank You for giving wisdom and skill to many people all around us, not only those who love and honor You but even many who reject and revile You, by which they themselves exercise some of that godly dominion, blessing their fellow men and women with inventions and productions that improve our health and prolong our lives and delight us with beauty. At the same time, we thank You for the assurance that the miseries of this sin-stained world will not be permanent, that we have Your promise, confirmed in Christ Jesus, that You are going to make all things new! Even so, come, Lord Jesus! Amen!

Twelve

20. We affirm that human multiplication and filling of the earth are intrinsically good (Genesis 1:28) and that, in principle, children, lots of them, are a blessing from God to their faithful parents and the rest of the Earth (Psalm 127; 128).

We deny that the earth is overpopulated; that “overpopulation” is even a meaningful term, since it cannot be defined by demographic quantities such as population density, population growth rate, or age distribution; and that godly dominion over the earth requires population control or “family planning” to limit fertility.

O God, arise! Look upon the millions of unborn children whose lives have been snuffed out by abortion in countries all over the world! Please, Lord, bring a halt to this slaughter, by comparison with which the numbers killed in wars and genocides, ghastly as they are, pale into insignificance! Dear Lord, please restore in people everywhere wonder at the miracle of human life, honor for its sanctity, and appreciation for its value. Expose the falsehood of fears of overpopulation, and the racially driven fears that led to the eugenics movement that claims some people are somehow more deserving of life than others. Give Your people the courage, the determination, the patience, the perseverance, to fight against this scourge until, in country after country, it is outlawed, we pray in Jesus’ name, amen!

Thirteen

21. We affirm that when the Bible speaks of God’s judgment on human societies because they have “polluted the land,” the “pollution” in mind is consistently not chemical or biological but moral—the pollution of idolatry, adultery, murder, oppression of the weak, and other violations of the moral law of God expressed in the Ten Commandments (Psalm 106:38; Jeremiah 3:1–10; 16:18).

We deny that Biblical prophets’ concerns about the pollution of any land focus significantly on chemical emissions from agriculture or industry, although prudent study of the risks those pose to human and ecosystem health is a worthy task and can lead to proper efforts to balance risks and benefits.

Heavenly Father, we don’t ever want to ignore or trivialize the harm done by needless chemical and biological pollution. Enlighten people everywhere to ways to minimize that even while they seek to produce the many things everyone needs to healthy, long, and enjoyable life. Nonetheless, Lord, help people to understand that blatant contempt for Your simple and direct laws—against worshiping false gods, idolatry, dishonoring Your name, profaning Your Sabbath, murder, adultery, theft, slander, and coveting—is what truly pollutes the land, and that it is far worse than accidentally, or even negligently, polluting the land through chemical emissions and the like. As Jesus told the Pharisees, who tithed tiny things like mint and anise and cumin, while neglecting the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faithfulness, so help us, even while we labor to reduce our traditional pollutants, to strive even more to abide by Your commandments—and when we fail, in either of those, forgive us, we pray, for the sake of Christ, whose blood avails for the sin of all who trust in Him, amen.

Fourteen

22. We affirm that cost/benefit analysis (Luke 14:28) is a proper and critically important aspect of godly dominion over the earth (Proverbs 14:4).

We deny that cost/benefit analysis is unprincipled pragmatism or indicates a lack of faith in God.

23. We affirm that, pursuant to sin and the curse, risk is inherent in every human activity (Hebrews 9:27) and therefore that it is lawful in principle to balance risk against risk.

We deny that the mere existence of risk in an activity makes it immoral in principle.

24. We affirm that proper environmental prioritization will address greater risks before lesser risks and take into account the opportunity costs of fighting various risks—i.e., that it will recognize that since resources spent to reduce one risk cannot be used to reduce another, it is wise to allocate resources where they will achieve the greatest risk reduction.

We deny that spending vast resources to reduce small risks, when those resources could be spent to reduce greater risks instead, is good environmental stewardship.

25. We affirm that environmental policies that address relatively minor risks while harming the poor—such as opposition to the use of abundant, affordable, reliable energy sources like fossil fuels in the name of fighting global warming; the suppression of the use of safe, affordable, and effective insecticides like DDT to reduce malaria in the name of protecting biodiversity; and the conversion of vast amounts of corn and other agricultural products into engine fuel in the name of ecological protection—constitutes oppression of the world’s poor.

We deny that the policies named, and many others like them, are morally justified.

Oh Father, we confess, quite simply, that a whole lot of what’s involved in environmental stewardship and economic development for the poor is just plain complicated. Great minds have tried for centuries to understand it all, and no one has succeeded. Give us humility, therefore, to realize that we might be wrong about some of the things we think about it—and give those who disagree with us humility, too! Help us to come together in that humility and to learn from each other, to test all things and hold fast what is good, as You instructed us in 1 Thessalonians 5, and to remember that there is safety in a multitude of counselors. Help us to prioritize risks properly, to remember that sometimes in trying to solve one problem we can cause another—so remove our blinders so we can see more broadly. Enable us and other decision makers everywhere to learn from the past, from our mistakes and our successes, so that we can act in ways that bring the most possible benefit and the least possible harm to our neighbors, in Jesus’ name, amen.

Fifteen

26. We affirm that, because a clean, safe, healthful, beautiful environment is a costly good, wealthy societies can better afford environmental protection and restoration than poor societies.

We deny that economic development is, per se, a threat to environmental quality.

Father, people all over the world have been taught by many environmentalists that economic development cannot be reconciled with environmental conservation and health. Yet the opposite is true, and embracing that lie condemns literally millions of people to continued poverty together with the disease and premature death that come with it. Deliver people from falsehood, we pray, in Jesus’ name, amen.

Sixteen

27. We affirm that private ownership of land and other resources, because it harnesses God-given human incentives to overcome the “tragedy of the commons,” is the best institutional economic system for environmental protection.

We deny that collective economic systems are equally good at protecting or improving natural environments.

28. We affirm that local, constitutionally limited, responsive governments by the consent of the governed are better suited to environmental stewardship than central, unlimited governments without regard to the consent of the governed.

We deny that socialism, fascism, communism, and other forms of collectivist, expansionist government offer better solutions to environmental risks than limited, free, constitutional governments with market economies.

Lord, we don’t want to allow political partisanship to drive wedges between us and our brothers and sisters in Christ. Yet both the moral lessons from Your Word and the practical lessons of history seem so clear! By Your Holy Spirit, give Your people growing unity of mind over such issues—a unity of mind rooted in humility, love, and grace, and in a fervent desire to understand and apply the whole counsel of God from the whole Word of God to the whole people of God for the whole of life. We pray this in Jesus’ name, and asking for His glory, amen.

Seventeen

30. We affirm that godly dominion is a responsibility for everyone at all times.

We deny that the expectation of divine judgment, in whatever eschatological framework, negates the need for Biblical Earth stewardship.

Heavenly Father, critics of Biblical earth stewardship often claim that many Christians have the attitude, “It’s all going to burn anyway, so who cares?” Surely, Lord, that’s a slander against most, and we pray that You will expose it and vindicate those who are falsely accused. Yet in some cases, it’s true. We ask You, Father, to correct those who think that way, and enable them to grasp the truth that, regardless what You’re going to do with this earth in the future, we have a responsibility, embedded in what Jesus called the Two Great Commandments—to love You with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love our neighbors as ourselves—to use it in a way now that glorifies You and benefits others, in, and for the sake of, Jesus’ name, amen.

Photo by Greg Rakozy on Unsplash.