Mullikin addresses several hundred students at CIU

S.C. Floodwater Commission chair discussed mandate to protect the environment

By W. Thomas Smith Jr.

Global expedition leader and S.C. Floodwater Commission chairman Dr. Tom Mullikin spoke to group of several hundred students and faculty at his doctoral alma-mater Columbia International University (CIU) during the university’s Day of Prayer service which also featured Wesley Jones of Samaritan’s Purse. The service and presentations were held, Tuesday, Oct. 22, in CIU’s Shortess Chapel auditorium.

Following a period of music, prayer, and VIP speaker introductions, the event began with Jones’ presentation of the work of Samaritan’s Purse worldwide, particularly in war-torn Ukraine and in the recently hurricane-ravaged Southeastern state regions of Florida, Georgia and western North Carolina.

According to Jones, more than 18,000 Samaritan’s Purse volunteers have been on the ground serving in the aforementioned states delivering food, clean water, heaters, fuel, generators, and – best of all – saving souls: “87 salvation journeys started,” he said.

Dr. Mullikin’s address followed Jones in which Mullikin exhorted the largely young-adult audience to protect the natural environment around us, “the Lord’s Garden,” as Mullikin frequently refers to the environment. “Our responsibility to the natural world is Biblically mandated,” he said.

Following a self-prepared powerpoint presentation, Mullikin began with a series of affirming Old Testament verses, the first being Nehemiah 9:6: “You alone are the LORD. You have made the Heavens, The Heaven of Heavens with all their host, The earth and all that is on it, The seas and all that is in them. You give life to all of them And the Heavenly host bows down before You.”

According to Mullikin: “It’s crystal clear; the Lord made the Earth. Then He told us to work and keep the land.”

A BIBLICAL MANDATE

Referencing Genesis 2:15 which says: “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it,” Mullikin added, “This bifurcated burden captures the ongoing struggle concerning the Biblical mandate – to work and to care for the Garden.”

As Mullikin explained, Scripture establishes a duality of burden (the “bifurcation”) from the very first book of the Bible.

“The Hebrew word ‘avad,’ which is translated as ‘work,’ means ‘worship or serve,’” said Mullikin. “And the Hebrew word ‘shamar,’ which is translated as ‘to care,’ means ‘keep.’ So Scripture implores man to both work and keep the land.”

KAIROS MOMENT

Mullikin then rhetorically posed the question: “Are we at a Kairos moment?” He defined “Kairos” as “one of the two New Testament words used for ‘time,’ often as a brief moment in time with great significance. Kairos is an ancient Greek word meaning ‘the
right or critical moment.’”

The epistemological meaning to the meaning of Kairos is “propitious time,” said Mullikin who then explained how the climate change crisis is a decisive “kairos moment” for churches and the world and for the human race as a whole.”

Mullikin added: “We will either act in time to protect life on earth from the worst consequences of this complex phenomenon, or our state and others will deal with the manifestations of it.”

Kairos indeed. According to figures from the World Economic Forum, the global cost of amplified climate change damage is “estimated to be between $1.7 trillion increasing to $3.1-trillion per year by 2050.” This cost said Mullikin, includes the cost of damage to infrastructure, property, agriculture, and human health. “This cost is expected to increase over time as the impacts of climate change become more severe,” he said.

“The great 16th-century theologian and protestant reformer John Calvin reminds us that ‘there is no place ‘however minute, that does not exhibit at least some sparks of beauty; while it is impossible to contemplate the vast and beautiful fabric as it extends around, without being overwhelmed by the immense weight of glory,’” said Mullikin.

JOHN CALVIN’S SENSUS DIVINITATIS

According to Mullikin, God has sown into the minds of men and women a portion of the knowledge of Himself in terms of the “knowledge of God shining forth in the fashioning of the universe and the continuing governance of it.” Therefore “sensus divinitatis.” Moreover as Calvin stated: “God sowed into men’s minds that seed of religion of which we have spoken but revealed himself and daily discloses Himself in the whole workmanship of the universe. As a consequence, men cannot open their eyes without being compelled to see him.”

Mullikin then discussed climate anthropology drawing upon the book of Nahum followed by a discussion of recorded flooding events, Biblical in scope, and how “extreme weather continues to plague the Earth, but humans have failed to respond to the underlying macro atmospheric issues and are now faced to confront the micro manifestations of this global phenomenon including sea level rise, extreme weather desertification and other calamities,” he said.

Mullikin concluded with how his own Mullikin-founded Global Eco Adventures (which his son Thomas Mullikin Jr. serves as president), the annual statewide SC7 expedition from the mountains to the sea, and the S.C. Floodwater Commission, founded by S.C. Governor Henry McMaster in 2018 and since chaired by Mullikin, have been leading the charge in terms of protecting the environment and its increasingly fragile natural ecosystems here in the Palmetto State.

MULLIKIN-LED EXAMPLES OF ENVIRONMENTAL PRESERVATION

Mullikin pointed to POWERPLANTSC in which a record 3.4-million loblolly pine seeds and saplings which were planted by schoolchildren, Boy Scouts, 4H clubs, and over 120,000 volunteers across the Palmetto State’s 46 counties in 2021 as but one example of his organizations’ work in enhancing and preserving as Mullikin says, “the Lord’s garden.”

“A second example is the ongoing Smart Reef Initiative aimed at developing an offshore artificial SMART REEF system in order to gather data for advance modeling for predicting and engineering of coastal environments to deal with issues of sea level rise, catastrophic storms, flooding, and coastal erosion,” Mullikin said.

“We can and must play a Biblical role going forward,” Mullikin added. “The climate crisis needs our best science, although it cannot be solved by science alone. It requires courageous and visionary leadership, as well as interdisciplinary dialogues between science and other disciplines. Religious studies can play an important role.”

Columbia International University is the former Columbia Bible College. For more information, please visit – https://www.ciu.edu/.

 

For more information about Global Eco Adventures, visit – https://www.globalecoadventures.org/.