CONTEMPORARY CHRISTIAN ESCHATOLOGIES AND THEIR RELATION TO ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP

Contemporary Protestant Christians hold differing views of the future that affect their attitudes toward the environment. Dispensationalism tends to use ecological deterioration as a gauge to predict Christ's return and the end of the present age. Postmillennialism teaches that the natural and human world will improve up to Christ's return and puts responsibility on Christians for that improvement. Amillennialism and Historic Premillennialism teach that the possibility of ecological and social improvement is limited in the present age though Christians are to attempt to heal the earth's wounds to show evidence of a future renewed earth.