Revelation 5:11-14: Hear the Animals Singing: The Bible and Genetics – Day1 series: Faith and Science, part 6

There is an astonishing array of animals mentioned in the Bible. Some of them readily come to mind: sheep, goats, camels, and perhaps the most beloved animal–the donkey–one that carried Jesus to his place of birth and another that carried him closer to his death. And then there is, of course, the infamous serpent. But others may be a bit surprising: bees and buffaloes, horses, bats, lizards, pelicans, and peacocks all stand among the more than 120 species of animals, by current standards of identification, mentioned in the Bible.[1]

References to animals in the Bible clearly place them under God’s providential care:

• Genesis tells us that “living creatures of every kind” were created by God, who called them good (Gen 1:20-21, 25).
• God chose to save living creatures of every kind when, in pairs, they joined Noah and his family on the ark (Gen. 5:32-10:1).
• Animals are included in the commandment for Sabbath rest (Dt. 5:14).
• And in our passage from Revelation, we hear that at the consummation of the world, along with the angels, “every creature in heaven and on earth” sings praises to God. (Rev. 5:13).

With this kind of positive attention given to animals in the Bible, it should strike us as peculiar whenever Christians seek to maintain a great distance between ourselves as human beings and the rest of the animal world. Although there are significant exceptions, Christians have too often believed that because we are made in the image of God and have been given dominion over the earth, we stand far above the rest of the animals and can remain aloof regarding their welfare and indifferent to their suffering. But such a stance is not biblical:

• It is not biblical for Christians to deny that animals hold a significant place in God’s creation and even in God’s act of salvation.^[2]
• It is not biblical to court indifference regarding the welfare of the animals placed in our care by God.
• It is not biblical to hold ourselves in such a position of superiority that we are insulted when evolutionary science says we share a common ancestor with other animals.

The Bible, in fact, says we share a common origin with all other animals. Just as God formed Adam from the ground, “so out of the ground the Lord God formed every animal of the field and every bird of the air” (Gen. 2.19).

Science affirms this common origin by saying we all sprang from the same DNA.

Although evolution took us in different directions:

• Humans share 98.5% of our genetic makeup with the chimpanzee.
• 79% of our genetic makeup is shared with the mouse,
• and 36% with the common fruit fly.[3]

Dirt from the ground, on the one hand, DNA, on the other: How is one common origin more insulting than the other? Either way, both the Bible and science describe human beings as closely related to other animals.

None of this is to say that human beings are not unique as a species according to science, or unique in relation to God and the rest of creation according to the Bible. We only marginally resemble even our closest genetic relative–the chimpanzee–and we are vastly different from other animals. Mapping the genome, the genetic makeup of various animals–including human beings–has helped science explain why we can be so closely related genetically to other animals and yet look and function in radically different ways.[4]

• For one thing, even with the 98.5% DNA that we share with the chimpanzee, that 1.5% difference represents billions of encoded messages that we do not share.
• Also, scientists have discovered that a gene in one species combines with other genes in a vastly different way to control very different things than that same gene does when found in another species.

Science is not saying that we are anything less than human or that we are not different from other animals in significant ways.

The Bible also speaks of the difference between human beings and the rest of the animal world:

• We alone were created in the image of God (Gen. 1:26).
• We alone were made a little less than the angels (Ps. 8.5).
• We alone were given dominion over the rest of creation (Gen. 1:26).

But rather than encouraging indifference, these biblical descriptions of our distinctiveness actually put us closer to animals.

• Because God, as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is relational, being created in the image of God means we were created to relate to others, whether the wholly Other, who is God, or other human beings, or other animals who share our world.

Our encounter with animals–those very much like us and those vastly different from us–remind us of the limits God has imposed on us to make us human. And as we have been blessed by God, so we as human beings are called to be a blessing to the animals.

• And though we have dominion over the earth, (Gen. 1:26), the power we have over animals is meant to reflect God’s care for them. Not one word in the Bible gives us leave to take advantage of that power by being cruel or indifferent to the lives animals lead or to the suffering and deaths they endure sometimes at our hands. No such cruelty or indifference is found in God.

Given the responsibility God has placed upon human beings for the welfare of animals, we are called to be mindful of both the promise and the threat that genetic science poses.

Genetics is an amazing science that can sound like science fiction to some of us. For instance, since the 1970s scientists have been able to produce “transgenic animals,” where the gene from one species is incorporated into the germ cell of another. These transgenic animals carry remarkable potential for human welfare:

• When scientists in Scotland cloned Dolly the sheep, one of their goals was to clone a herd of transgenic animals that could produce milk that included a human protein that would benefit premature newborns.

But the threat of human cloning became the lead story, while the promising goal of helping premature babies was left out of the news. Both the promise and the threat of scientific possibilities demand our attention.

• Transgenic mice can help scientists track various diseases. In a “knockout mouse,” for instance, an existing gene in the mouse is “knocked out” by being replaced with foreign DNA. Scientists can see how the loss of that gene causes changes in appearance and behavior. Knockout mice have led to advances in research into cancer, heart disease, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson, and many others.[5]

But for all their promise, these experiments also carry a threat to the well-being of animals that are turned into bio-factories and sometimes suffer–not for their own benefit–but for ours. Some Christians have been quick to mock the claims of animal rights activists, who believe that all experimentation on animals should come to an end, while failing to acknowledge that God has made us responsible for animals; and even if we support genetic research, we cannot remain indifferent to their suffering.

Karl Barth warned against “our astonishing indifference and thoughtlessness” toward animals, insisting that we keep in mind:

• that killing an animal is not the same as harvesting a plant.
• that we cannot justify cruel treatment of animals by looking to nature where animals seem cruel to one another, because unlike any other animal, we alone were created in the image of God and given dominion over the earth. We do not look to nature but to God, to define our relationship with the animal world–and God has given us responsibility for them.
• Finally, Barth reminds us that animals belong not to us but to God[6]–a claim that should make Christians question the practice of filing for patents on genetically modified animals as if they were no different than machines that belong to their inventors.

Only with a sense of gratitude for the animals that God created to populate the world along with us, and only by acknowledging the limits God has placed on our power and freedom to use animals for our benefit, can we take responsibility for their welfare in a manner consistent with being made in the image of God.

The book of Revelation tells us that John heard “every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea” join the angels in singing praises to God. They sang: “To the one seated on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might for ever and ever!’ Since the Bible describes animals in this magnificent act of praising God, there is no reason for you and me to be uncomfortable when we hear how closely related we are to non-human animals, and there is no reason to be indifferent to their welfare. Since the Bible tells us:

• that non-human animals share a common origin with us,
• that God created the animals and called them good,
• that animals are protected in the commandment for Sabbath rest,
• and that animals can praise God,
• and since science confirms that we are genetically related to all the creatures of the earth and very closely related to a few of them, there is no reason for us as Christians to put distance by way of indifference between us and the other animals that belong to God.

Today is All Saint’s Day. Although I could never consider my quirky little dog as standing among the saints, some of us have pets we would recommend for sainthood because of their exemplary lives of service and love. We don’t, of course, count animals among the saints. But perhaps today we can take our lead from St. Francis, who was the patron saint of animals and extend the same kind of love and concern toward animals that he did.

Given:

• how closely related we are genetically to other animals,
• given the promise and threat posed by genetic research,
• and given that according to the psalmist God saves humans and animals alike (Ps. 36:6)

each of us as Christians can become the protecting saint of the creatures God has entrusted to our care. And together, we can join “every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea” in praising God who has created all creatures and called them good.

 

Let us pray: We thank you, God, for creating all that dwells within the world–and for calling it good. Give us the wisdom to preserve what you have created. We thank you for giving us dominion over the earth. Help us to wield the power that is ours with grace and compassion. We thank you for sending your Son to set creation free from its bondage to decay. Teach us to join all living creatures in praising your holy name, singing: “To you be blessing and honor and glory and might for ever and ever.”  In Christ’s name we pray, Amen.

 

Note: The Rev. Dr. Nancy Duff’s sermon is part 8 of 8 in a series on Faith & Science from Day1. For more information about the series and a transcription of a conversation between Rev. Duff and Peter Wallace of Day1, see this link.