The Dominion Mandate

"We have only one thing to give up. Our dominion. We don't own the world. We're not kings yet. Not gods. Can we give that up? Too precious, all that control? Too tempting, being a god?" Anthony Hopkins as Ethan Powell. Instinct (1999)

I have found that Hollywood often times portrays the depravity of man correctly. However, it rarely, if ever, gets the solution right. It simply does not understand the Gospel. A few years ago, I might have somewhat agreed with Ethan Powell's statement. That is, I saw mankind as the environment's biggest problem. I did not grasp that all of creation was cracked when Adam sinned. I thought that if we would just let nature take its course, it would work itself out. Today, I see that attitude is entirely unbiblical.

Are we not given the mandate to subdue the earth?

And God blessed them. And God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth." And God said, "Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food." And it was so. And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. Genesis 1:28-31 (ESV)

Granted, we will not see a perfect earth until it is restored by our Lord, but in the interim we are in a sense the caretakers of it Mr. Powell. To give up control of it, moreover, not to actively pursue dominion over every corner of it, would cut against scripture.

I was recently given a tour of a large state farm that a good friend of mine supervises. He described the research they were doing to produce better varieties of fruits and vegetables, e.g., ones that were resistant to disease. I thought what a great example of subduing the earth. In effect, should we not be working toward restoration of the earth to its pre-fall condition?