Any attempt to find solely human solutions to the world's problems ignores the lessons of history, writes Lyndon Weggery.
In a recent Faith and Reason article, Ian Harris (21.10.11) asserts that because no God will intervene to save us, the world is more and more in the hands of human beings and that we (including the Church) have the power to resolve our own problems.
It would seem to me that this type of thinking has been around before, and when you deliberately abandon the traditional Christian message, human beings become God rather than humans made in the image of God as the Old Testament Book of Genesis asserts.
Before World War 1, there was great optimism the advances of modern technology had the capacity to solve the world's problems. Nature could be controlled and managed and the building of the Titanic was typical of this approach. The tragic sinking of this great liner in April 1912, just over two years before the horrors of World War 1, effectively torpedoed the great hope of Edwardian times.
If human beings could resolve our global problems and lead everyone to a glorious Utopia, then realistically what is stopping this?
What is holding back our return to the Garden of Eden?
I would suggest that any attempt to find solely human solutions ignores the lessons of history.
Despite our civilised advance, we can find plenty of evidence to reaffirm man's "inhumanity to man".
Looking back on the 20th century is to see a violent century where technological advance has been marred by greed, poverty, wealth disparity and ethnic cleansing.
While it is true the Church has been preoccupied with social justice and the salvation of the individual soul, that is only part of the message.
The Bible makes it plain the God of the Universe hasn't given up on His wayward, selfish and flawed creatures.
When Jesus Christ came to Earth 2000 years ago, He started a unique process by His life, ministry, death and resurrection.
It was a process of renewal, not only of individuals, but of creation, as the Apostle Paul asserts in the Book of Romans.
For Paul, the birth of Christ (that we celebrate at Christmas) marks the end of the old age and the in-breaking of the new; Christ's death and resurrection representing the move from one to the other.
The good news is that the world will not be completely destroyed by the excesses of human beings. The consistent theme of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation is that God will transform planet Earth back to its original state and those human beings who have been renewed in the same process will assist in managing this future global garden of paradise.
While this hope reflects the Jewish expectation of the Messiah, who at the end of this age will right all wrongs and bring universal justice, the Christian view is that the Messiah has already come in the person of Jesus Christ. Therefore, we live in a dynamic tension between the arrival of the Kingdom of God and the completion of His return, and seek to demonstrate now those ethical values, which will be the universal norm in the future.
That is why the followers of Jesus are called to be "salt and light".
Christians are expected to exert a good influence in the world that tackles head-on the world's problems while recognising that ultimately these problems can only be resolved by the return to planet Earth of the Messiah (Jesus Christ) as king of the universe.
• Lyndon Weggery is lay pastor at the Teviot Union Parish/Tokomairiro Co-operating Parish.