Pastor Says God Intended Earth As A ‘Disposable Planet’ In Climate Sermon

American pastor John MacArthur made headlines this year for his defiance of COVID restrictions, which has brought new attention to his catalog of sermons, and they contain some outrageous claims, as many would suspect. 

In one sermon where he discusses environmentalism, he claims that Earth is a “disposable planet.”

“God intended us to use this planet to fill this planet for the benefit of man. Never was intended to be a permanent planet. It is a disposable planet. Christians ought to know that,” MacArthur said

He went on to say that, “Yes its beauty can be seen. I’ve been everywhere on this planet, and I’ll tell you, it is a stunning and glorious thing to stand and look at a distance at the beauty of this planet. But the closer you get to it, the more deadly it becomes. I’ve seen the beauty of the great Alps, the Southern Alps and the Northern Alps. But I’ll tell you what, I don’t want to be up there by myself for a week. I’ve seen the beauty of the great deserts of the world, but I don’t want to be out there alone without water by myself. I want to be somewhere where there’s a building and that building has air conditioning and water. I want to go where people have subdued the creation. I’m not under any foolish assumptions that if we just let it go wild, we’ll preserve life. If you let it go, the wilder it is, the more deadly it is.”

In the same sermon, he goes on to say that he would prefer all of nature to be tamed, and even praised the De Beers diamond mines. He went on a strange rant admitting that slave labor was used to mine diamonds, but then added that “God loves jewelry.” 

“Get all the pearls you can. Dig up all the diamonds you can. Get all the natural resources you can, the replenishable resources, natural gas and oil and everything that God has put in this planet. It’s an absolutely staggering little piece that’s floating around in infinite space,” he said.

The sermon is called “The End of the Universe Part 2” and can be seen below:

The transcript can be read here.

He has been acknowledged by Christianity Today as one of the most influential preachers of his time and was a frequent guest on Larry King Live as a representative of an evangelical Christian perspective. MacArthur has written or edited more than 150 books, most notably the MacArthur Study Bible, which has sold more than 1 million copies and received a Gold Medallion Book Award. Other best-selling books include his MacArthur New Testament Commentary Series (more than 1 million copies), Twelve Ordinary Men (more than 500,000 copies), and the children’s book A Faith to Grow On, which garnered an ECPA Christian Book Award.

MacArthur has been involved with multiple controversies regarding his outspokenness on certain topics. MacArthur is very open about opposing same-sex marriage, against female pastors, and the social justice movement.