“Is it all right for believers to use the term ‘Mother Nature’?”

July/August 2023 – Grace & Truth Magazine

QUESTION: Is it all right for a believer to use the term “Mother Nature”? What about other phrases people commonly understand but are not necessarily found in the Bible?

ANSWER: To begin with, let’s remind ourselves that the Christian is not under law. This does not merely mean that the Christian is not under the Ten Commandments as a rule of life, but he is also not under any part of the law God gave Israel. Nor is he under law of any kind as a principle by which to live his life. This we find in repeatedly in Romans 6–8. Romans 6:14 (nkjv) is explicit, or very clear: “For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.” But this does not tell us that we can do whatever we please, for the very next verse goes on to say, “What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not!”

Christ is our model and the standard for our conduct. Can we picture Him, the Creator, speaking about “Mother Nature”? While 1 Corinthians 11:14 tells us that nature teaches us, and illustrations of this are found throughout the Bible, we never find God’s Word personifying nature. The heathen made gods – idols – of many things they found in nature and worshiped them. They “changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man – and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things” (Rom. 1:23).

Ephesians 4:25, quoting from Zechariah 8:16, exhorts us: “Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor.” First Corinthians 10:31 concludes an important area of teaching on another question of what is right or wrong for a Christian by saying, “Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” Let us truly emphasize the second half of that verse, for it impacts every part of our lives: “Whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” As to the subject at hand, can we as Christians speak of “Mother Nature” to the glory of God?

It would be well to weigh many other expressions commonly used in the world around us, and things we say, in the light of this clear instruction God gives us in His Holy Word. Our Lord Jesus Himself said, “I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment” (Mt 12:36).

Let us speak simply and truthfully. Our “yes” is to be “yes” and our “no,” “no” (5:37). Our words should be “what is good for necessary edification, that [they] may impart grace to the hearers” (Eph. 4:29). James devotes the third chapter of his epistle to the tongue, that very vital little member we use in speaking, and the book of Proverbs sheds much more divine light on this whole subject area as well. May the Lord help us to please Him!

Answered by Eugene P. Vedder, Jr.

Take my voice and let me sing
Always, only, for my King. Take my lips and let them be Filled with messages from Thee. —Frances R. Havergal (1836–1879)

The term “Mother Nature” is an effort of natural man to eliminate God from the equation of the natural realm. It is a direct affront to God, and undermines His sovereignty over creation, coinciding with the falsehood of evolution. We know that the triune God is the Creator: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1 nkjv). Jesus Christ was involved: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God … All things were made by Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made” (Jn. 1:1,3); “God … has in these last days spoken to us by His Son … through whom also He made the worlds” (Heb. 1:1-2); “For by Him [the Son] all things were created … All things were created through Him and for Him” (Col. 1:16). The Son upholds “all things by the word of His power” (Heb. 1:1-3), “and in Him all things consist” (Col. 1:17). Man wrongly assigns the attributes of God to “Mother Nature,” since he rejects his responsibility to God. “Mother Nature” is then an impersonal force that makes no demands of us, to which we are not responsible, and which has no control over the destiny of our souls.  As believers, we know that God alone is sovereign, maintains and controls all of His creation, and cares so much about our destiny that He sacrificed His Son for our redemption! His actions on this earth are simply to bring us to a relationship with Himself. —Tim van Ryn