The Christian Worldview

By

Mel Blinson
Christianity
World Views

On January 17 of this year the pastor of Grace Point Church, Bentonville, Arkansas asked one of the AIG (Answers in Genesis) speakers to avoid talking about the part of Genesis where God says He made us male and female and the part that says marriage is the union of a man and a woman after the AIG speaker mentioned these things in the early morning service. And then the pastor removed the AIG presentation from the church’s website as soon as he could get to it and apologized for inviting the AIG speaker to speak the following Sunday. Whatever happened to our Christian worldview?

Please answer the following questions before you read the rest of this article:

  • Do absolute moral truths exist?
  • Is absolute truth defined by the Bible?
  • Did Jesus live a sinless life?
  • Is God the all-powerful and all-knowing Creator of the universe, and does He still rule it today?
  • Is salvation a gift from God that cannot be earned?
  • Is Satan real?
  • Does a Christian have a responsibility to share his or her faith in Christ with other people?
  • Is the Bible accurate in all of its teachings?

We all have a worldview whether we know it or not, and it almost always determines how we interpret life. Generally speaking, it is a product of what we have learned from our church, schools, friends, relatives, and life itself (either directly or indirectly) and most important of all, from our relationship with Jesus. We should have received a whole new perspective on life when we become Christians per 2 Cor. 5:17, and if we didn’t, something is definitely wrong. I know this for sure because I was a false convert for a number of years.

When I first became a born-again Christian, there was lots of baggage to get rid of because all I had ever heard was that the earth is millions of years old, and the six days mentioned in chapter 1 of Genesis couldn’t possibly be six literal days, and Noah’s flood was most likely just a local thing. The Bible had been just another book for the most part for me because had I accepted man’s view of it instead of God’s view of it. Romans 1 is right on target when it says I was suppressing the truth.

Christians who view the Bible as our final authority and spend lots of time in it develop worldview convictions that affect our career, who we marry, how we spend our money, where we choose to live, what type of candidates we vote for, etc. But unfortunately, fewer and fewer Christians accept the Bible as the infallible Word of God as the culture continues to attack its credibility.

My worldview is probably similar to that of the people in Bible account where demons were cast into a bunch of pigs. How did they respond? The Bible says:

Those tending the pigs ran into the town and reported all this, including what had happened to the demonpossessed men. Then the whole town went out to meet Jesus, and when they saw him, they pleaded with him to leave their region. (Matthew 8:33–34).

Sometimes I don’t react very differently from the way most people reacted in this story. I, too, often find myself caring more about things like the pigs than I do about the men that were no longer demon-possessed. These men were now able to spend time with Jesus, who is the best person in the universe to spend time with.

Parents who know how important a person’s worldview is often send their kids to a Christian school, or home school them, or make sure that they correct a lot of the things their kids are hearing in public schools.

I’m afraid that quite a few of us think our Christian worldview doesn’t really need to be improved when it actually does. How so? The Bible tells us to put Jesus first, others second, and self last. How many of us are really putting Jesus first?

Last year COVID-19 revealed where our real priorities are. Did you notice it? I did. For the first six months after the virus hit most of us had a lot more free time because we were spending a lot less time:

  • Stuck in traffic while traveling back and forth to the office
  • Watching sports and our favorite TV shows that were no longer available
  • Spending time with friends, neighbors, relatives, coworkers (that might be infected)

How much of this extra time was spent doing things that Jesus wants us to do, like sharing our faith, reading the Bible, prayer, etc.? Was Jesus really first in our lives like we often say that he is? I confess that sometimes I’m like the Pharisees who looked great on the outside but not so great on the inside because my time with Jesus didn’t increase nearly as much as it should have. That’s very convicting, so let’s move on.

What essentially distinguishes the Christian worldview from other worldviews? At the heart of the matter, a Christian worldview contrasts with competing worldviews in that it: (1) recognizes that God is the unique source of all truth and (2) relates all truth back to an understanding of God and His purposes for this life and the next. 1

What should be the ultimate goal of embracing the Christian worldview? Is the Christian worldview worth recovering? Please listen to Jeremiah, who passes along God’s direct answer:

Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.” Jeremiah 9:23–24

How can one tell if he or she has a Biblical worldview? The Barna Research Group asked the questions shown in the beginning of this article and discovered that only four percent of Americans answered yes to all these questions and thus had a Biblical worldview, and only nine percent of people who claim to be born again actually had a Biblical worldview. Barna says:

Although most people own a Bible and know some of its content, our research found that most Americans have little idea how to integrate core Biblical principles to form a unified and meaningful response to the challenges and opportunities of life.

Worldviews vary widely. For example: a two-year-old believes he’s the center of his world, a secular humanist believes that the material world is all that exists, and a Buddhist believes he can be liberated from suffering by self-purification. People with a true Biblical worldview believe their primary reason for existence is to love and serve God. 2

If I believe the Bible is entirely true, then I should allow it to be the foundation of more and more of what I do, and if this isn’t happening, I need to work on this ASAP. (Please note that crossexamined.org can help can restore our thinking so that the Bible becomes the foundation for what we think.)

How does our Biblical worldview get diluted? Nonbiblical worldview ideas constantly bombard us via television, film, music, newspapers, magazines, books, and academia when we often end up incorporating them into our personal worldview without even knowing it. We are taken “captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ” (Colossians 2:8).

If we’ll just read our Bibles more often, we’ll make the right decisions and form the appropriate responses to questions on abortion, same-sex marriage, cloning, stemcell research, and media choices. Please remember that our decisions and actions always reveal what we really believe.

Romans 12:2 says: “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” We cannot renew our minds without spending quality time in God’s Word, and we all desperately need this. How long has it been since you participated in a small group Bible study where people helped you when your view of Scripture needed some help?

How many worldviews are there? The Bible says there are basically only two. There is God’s way of approaching the world and there is man’s way. Man’s way of doing things was creeping back into the church way back in Paul’s day and that’s why he wrote 1 and 2 Corinthians.

Islam and Hinduism teach some of the same principles taught in Christianity, but they reject a lot of what God says in the Bible, just like the atheist does. And some of us who claim to be Christians are currently headed down this same path. How so? Some of us now think God used evolution to create us, when the Bible clearly states that we are created in the very image of God.

All of us need to be very careful because we can descend to the point where we begin to tweak the Bible instead of allowing the Bible to tweak us. So many of us either add to (or subtract from) what the Bible actually says way too often when God clearly identifies the Bible as the sole authoritative and inerrant Word of God per 2 Timothy 3:16.

The first time that I checked out Christianity, I only wanted Jesus to be my Savior so that I would go to heaven instead of hell. And that’s why I say that I was a false convert. The Bible uses the term Lord about ten times more often that it uses the term Savior because true converts give their lives to Him instead of just seeking “fire insurance.”

Please note that if all of us continue to let our Christian worldview decline, someday there will be no churches left. The following is a list of times in my own life when my worldview has not aligned with Scripture.

  • One of the first verses that I memorized when I became a Christian was Jeremiah 17:9, and it is correct when it says the heart is “deceitful above all things.” Yet I often trust in my feelings more than anything else when it is time to decide, instead of searching the Scriptures for help.
  • Proverbs 3:5 says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding,” and here again I often depend on human reasoning instead of studying God’s Word.
  • I’ve been doing essentially the same job for over 40 years now and have lots of experience, which often results in me depending on past experience, which may or may not be correct, instead of praying for wisdom when things are tough at work.
  • A former professor of Literature and Culture at Boyce College, Jim Orrick, says so many of our college professors long to have the approval of the world. 3  He continues:

So we start flirting with their ideas, and we adopt their vocabulary. We want them to think that our academic papers, sermons, and books have amazingly transcended the narrow-minded confines of our Bible-thumping seminary or denomination.

I, too, sometimes long to have to have the approval of the world.

  • I sometimes focus on entertainment rather than substance by reading fiction books instead of books that will build my faith. J.D. Greear at Summit Church is constantly asking his leaders to read books on his list that will strengthen them spiritually. May his tribe increase!
  • When I was in college, I elevated science to the point that miracles in the Bible could not possibly be true because science says a man cannot survive in a fish’s stomach for three days and virgin births are impossible. This still happens today sometimes in my life where I compare science with Scripture and choose science and then find out that the science is not correct.
  • I’ve followed the crowd in a lot of areas, when the Bible says the majority is on the road that leads to destruction. 4
  • Brooke Hempell, senior vice president of research for Barna, says:

The challenge with competing worldviews is that there are fragments of similarities to some Christian teachings, and some may recognize and latch on to these ideas, not realizing they are distortions of Biblical truths. The call for the Church, and its teachers and thinkers, is to help Christians dissect popular beliefs before allowing them to settle in their own ideology. 5

Hempell says:

Informed thinking is essential to developing and maintaining a healthy biblical worldview and faith as well as being able to have productive dialogue with those who espouse other beliefs. 5

(I needed to hear this too.)

  • George Soros stands above all others when it comes to power and influence. Soros, an atheist, has poured over 30 billion dollars into everything committed Christians stand against—destroying our nation by bringing utter chaos to society. 6  (I’m guessing that he has influenced me too.)
  • For a while I chose to listen to non-Christian radio stations, and when I finally woke up, I only listened to music on them when I could have been listening to people like Matt Slick. He says:

The Bible has much to say about the nature of man, the world, purpose, truth, morality, etc., and so does the world. More often than not, the secular worldview is in conflict with the Biblical one. For example: Where the world asserts that man evolved, the Bible says he was created and ultimately responsible to God. Where the world says that morals are relative, the Bible says they are absolute. The contrast is obvious and profound. Both cannot be true. 7

And he also says:

Television has degenerated into a bordello of violence, soft-pornography, anti-family sit-coms, commercials that appeal to immediate gratification, and senseless children’s cartoons that are full of violence, occultism, and disobedience to parents. It often portrays pastors as psychotics, priests as pedophiles, and religious people as insecure, ignorant, and bigoted. The News is extremely biased and when speaking in areas where religious and secular morals collide, it uniformly presents information with loaded words. 7

Slick goes on to say:

But lest you get discouraged, the gospel is progressing. There are more Christians in the world now than ever before. More people have heard the gospel than ever before, and Bibles are produced en masse and being sent to nations all over the world with unprecedented reception. The Gospel is preached on Television and Radio. Millions are coming to Christ in third world countries, and a new Christian awakening is working its way through Russia and Africa with China becoming the new Christian frontier. 7

Millions can come to Christ here in the US, too, if enough of us repent. We’ve been too proud too long, haven’t we? The last great revival occurred in the US way back in the early 1900s when the Spanish flu killed about 30 million people around the globe. Do we need something stronger than COVID-19 to bring us back to Him? I certainly hope not…What’s the bottom line here?

Let’s make sure that we’ve actually been born again because nothing else will really matter when we stand before the Lord. How can I know for sure? Is there any fruit? How often am I serving the Lord? Am I really trying to sin less? What did I do last week to build God’s Kingdom? How often does my life glorify God? These are just a few of the questions that we should ask ourselves.

Let’s ask the Lord to show us how far we have drifted away from Him since we were first saved, where we realized what a great treasure the Bible really is. And let’s start reading and/or listening to people like John MacArthur, Albert Mohler, David Jeremiah, and others that will restore our view of the Bible as the infallible, inerrant Word of God, that has made millions of people so much better than they used to be.

I praise God for all the men and women who have remained faithful to keep the Bible where it truly belongs in our minds. When science conflicts with the Bible, either our interpretation of Scripture is incorrect, or science is incorrect. Or science has not “caught up” with Scripture yet.

Some folks claim that scientists who submit to the Bible will not be as free to discover new things as much as those who never read the Bible. However, the opposite seems to be true because the following scientists who never doubted the Bible saved a lot of lives by their novel contributions:

  • Joseph Lister asked doctors to wash their hands between patients.
  • Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin that has saved about a billion people.
  • Cotton Mather came up with the vaccination concept.
  • Edward Jenner created the smallpox vaccine.
  • Charles Best was the co-discoverer of insulin.
  • James Young Simpson was the first to use chloroform anesthesia.
  • Louis Pasteur published his germ theory, which proved bacteria caused disease.

Please consider memorizing this verse:

“We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” 2 Corinthians 10:5