"A recent nationwide survey completed by the Barna Research Group determined that only 4 percent of Americans had a "biblical" worldview. When George Barna, who has researched cultural trends and the Christian Church since 1984, looked at the "born- again" believers in America, the results were a dismal 9 percent."
- Del Tackett
What is a "Worldview" anyway?
Well the answer to that question is really pretty simple: It sounds like what it means. At it's most basic form, a worldview is just the lens through which someone looks at the world around them. David Noebel states it this way: "It's any ideology, philosophy, theology, movement or religion that provides an overarching approach to understanding God, the world and man's relations to God and the world." (emphasis mine) Every single person in the universe has a worldview, because every single person views the world. But not everyone has the same worldview because the lenses they look at the world through are different.
As Christians we are called to look through the lenses of the Bible's teaching (the ultimate source of truth) in order to interpret what happens around us properly. The more familiar one is with the word of God, the more they will look at the world through what God says about His world. As Romans 12:2 commands, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect."
What are some of the aspects of a Christian worldview?
1. God is Triune (God is three and one)- This means the Christian God is a relational God. Therefore we ought to value relationship (more on this in the future).
2. God is Creator- He created the universe (s) and everything in it/them. Therefore, He rules all. Nothing is outside His sphere of power.
3. Man is created in the image of God - No other creature on earth has this distinction. Therefore we believe man is more significant than any other created thing in God's order (definitely more on this topic to come in the future)
4. Man is fallen- Mankind chose to rebel against God. This rebellion is called sin. Therefore, we are not surprised at men doing unspeakable evil towards one another.
5. Absolute truth exists- Being that God is the final authority for truth, whatever He reveals to be true is true. Therefore, certain thoughts, words and deeds are right and others are wrong.
6. Jesus Christ is God/God's Son- Jesus Christ is God come in the flesh.He suffered and died for our sins, but triumphantly rose from the grave. This same tension is found in the Christian's life as well. Therefore, we know that God is not high above our problems, but knows firsthand exactly what they're like.
7. Salvation is a gift- God graciously saves sinners who trust in Jesus' life, death and resurrection. Therefore, we see God through the lens of "perfect love which casts out all fear."
8. The Bible is the Word of God- As the word of God, the Bible must be true (properly interpreted in it's historical/ grammatical context). Therefore, we find out what we believe is true and false, right and wrong about the world from this Bible. Where the Bible is silent on an issue we look to the Bible's overarching principles for understanding on how to think about an issue (for example the Bible doesn't say anything about bio-technology, but can we still think about the subject from a Christian/Biblical perspective?).
All of this world is God's world. There is none of it about which God does not have a say. What is He saying?
Next week on Tuesday, we'll take up the issue of why so many Christians don't tend to have a Christian Worldview and maybe, just maybe dive into our first topic....
Grace and Peace,
Pastor Erick
No comments:
Post a Comment