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HARMONY WITH THE CREATION

Salam-Shalom is harmony with Creation. 

This is economic-ecological transformation.  Creation, from salam-shalom perspective, is seen as an organic-relational world, not merely as a mechanical-utilitarian world.  In a mechanical-utilitarian view of the world, the emphasis is exploitation.  If one of the parts of the machine-world is not functioning, the tendency is to replace it.  Hence, in an unjust system, the natural resources can be exploited for the present, and then later, it can be substituted with synthetic products and artificial solutions.

In an organic-relational world, the emphasis is stewardship and loving care of creation.  The biblical story of Creation tells us that “the Lord God formed the mortal (adam) from the dust of the ground (adamah) and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and the mortal became a living being” (Gen. 2:7).  These are the dynamic imageries used to give us a grasp of the beginning of the human race.  We all came from the ground.  We were named after the ground.  We are one with Creation.  We are one humanity!  We are all carbon-based material.  We are all breathed with the same breath of God.  That is the story of our Being Alive!  When the Creator-God commanded us to subdue the Earth (Gen. 1:28), it has the idea of l’shamrah—to care for, to keep, to watch, and to preserve it (Gen. 2:15).  Earth-destruction is listed by the Prophet John as a sin (Rev. 11:18).  We are all called by the Creator-God to be stewards of Planet Earth!  Christians must apply the salam-shalom lifestyle in the stewardship of their resources.

Creation, from shalom perspective, is seen as an organic-relational world, not merely as a mechanical-utilitarian world.  In a mechanical-utilitarian view of the world, the emphasis is exploitation.  If one of the parts of the machine-world is not functioning, the tendency is to replace it.  Hence, in globalism, the natural resources can be exploited for the present, and then later, it can be substituted with technological products and solutions.

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