Pollution From the Perspective of the Scriptures

One topic that has received a lot of attention from politicians in the past couple decades is pollution.  Buzzwords such as “carbon footprint” or “greenhouse gases” or “ozone depletion” or “dirty coal” abound in the political speak of today.  Whatever importance these subjects might have, the world at large misses any discussion of or actions against the pollutions that harm not just the body but the soul as well.  The scriptures are full of references to this kind of pollution.  

                Moroni spoke at length of the wickedness in the last days saying that “there shall be great pollutions upon the face of the earth.”  He defined pollutions this way: “there shall be murders, and robbing, and lying, and deceivings, and whoredoms, and all manner of abominations; when there shall be many who will say, Do this, or do that, and it mattereth not, for the Lord will uphold such at the last day” (Mormon 8:31).  He even called the wicked “ye pollutions” as he spoke to them this way: “Ye do love money, and your substance, and your fine apparel, and the adorning of your churches, more than ye love the poor and the needy, the sick and afflicted” (Mormon 8:37-38).  So for Moroni the pollutions of the last days are the murders, lying, sexual abominations, and the lust for wealth.  Our world is certainly filled with those, and only the first is still condemned by the political leaders of our day.

                Another type of pollution that we read about in the Old Testament is the desecration of the Sabbath Day.  Ezekiel recorded these words of the Lord: “But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness: they walked not in my statutes, and they despised my judgments… and my sabbaths they greatly polluted” (Ezekiel 20:13).  He mentioned this idea of the Sabbaths being “polluted” four different times in this chapter.  Isaiah likewise used the phrase, saying, “Blessed is the man that doeth this, and the son of man that layeth hold on it; that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it” (Isaiah 56:6).  In our day the pollution of the Sabbath day is one of the great sins of our society that the world is essentially blind to.

                The term “polluted” is used many other places in the scriptures to refer to similar types of wickedness.  Jeremiah spoke of the land being “polluted” with “whoredoms” (Jeremiah 3:2).  Ezekiel likewise referred to being polluted in relation to whoredoms (Ezekiel 20:30).  In our dispensation the Lord used the term this way: “Behold, I say unto you, there were jarrings, and contentions, and envyings, and strifes, and lustful and covetous desires among them; therefore by these things they polluted their inheritances” (D&C 101:6).  Several Old Testament passages refer to being “polluted with blood” (e.g. Hosea 6:8, Psalms 106:38, Lamentations 4:14). 

                In lists that look at the greatest problems facing humanity, the world will often put pollution and its believed effects (particularly global warming) near the top of the list.  But the scriptures such as these clearly teach that this is not the kind of pollution that the Lord is concerned about.  He condemns these “great pollutions upon the face of the earth”: murder, violence, whoredoms, the desecration of the Sabbath, lust after money, and covetousness.  And it is this kind of wickedness that “kill the soul” that we should be most concerned about protecting ourselves and our families against (Matt. 10:28).