I fully appreciate the problem, but I still don’t see how we can get away from the thought that eventually this creation will be replaced. This seems to be what Revelation 20-21 is saying. The fleeing away of heavens and earth and the appearance of new heavens and earth could be a metaphor for the transformation of this world, perhaps even through human or Christian agency. But it seems to me that the emphatic destruction of evil and death in this narrative takes us beyond our current ontology. We also have to take into account the resurrection of Jesus, which I think has to be understood not only in terms of a martyr theology (the vindication of one who suffers, who goes to be with God in heaven) but also as the beginning of a radically new order of creation, in which most importantly death has been defeated through the power of God. This seems to be the theological issue here: who will have the last say in creation, the Creator or death?

For that reason I’m not sure it’s correct to throw ourselves unreservedly behind the environmentalist cause. This remains a fallen world, subject to sin and death, and the calling of the church is primarily to witness to the reality of a God who is bigger than these things. That can certainly be done by pursuing an activist agenda, working alongside environmentalists, etc. But it is encumbent upon us at the same time to say that this will never be the world God intended it to be, that he will ultimately make all things new.

It helps then to recognize that this is, as I suggested earlier, on the outer edge of the biblical vision (it’s seen also in 1 Corinthians 15 and Romans 8). Closer to the centre a lot of other things are going on. By reading texts such as 2 Peter 3 in a historical sense I believe we recover the very worldly orientation of the biblical narrative and the calling of the people of God to be new creation now for the sake of the world. But we are still called apart, to be distinct, holy, redeemed in Christ; and I think that apartness must mean that we stand for something beyond this world - not heaven but creation made new.

Part of Paul’s argument in Romans 8 is that this creation itself desires to be transformed. He doesn’t merely mean that a polluted world desires to be cleaned up; he means that creation desires no longer to be subject to decay and death.