- WHY STUDY WORLDVIEWS?
(adapted from Introductions to Worldviews by Bill Jack)
WORLDVIEW
I Chronicles 12:32 says, “Men of Issachar, who understood the times, knew what Israel should do – 200 chiefs, with all their relatives under their command.” The Issachar tribal men studied what was going on in their world at that time, understanding what was happening, so they knew how to properly respond and affect their environment and world for Jehovah.
How Many letter F’s do you find in this sentence –
Years of Difficult Research are the Foundation of Some Fifty
Different Kinds of Discoveries.
We can all be looking at the same reality and each see something different. How we perceive something and say it is truth doesn’t mean it is truth.
Everyone bases their thoughts and decisions on some kind of worldview. Though we may not readily be able to indicate what our worldview is, we do have a view of life that guides us. A worldview is like a pair of glasses. You look through the lens to see better what you are facing. Your worldview is a way of understanding the world and your place in it. It helps us begin to understanding God, the world, and people’s relationship with God and the world.
What is this?
Being a Christian does not automatically mean you have a Biblical worldview. It takes time, reading the Bible, meditating on God’s Word, discussing the Bible with other Christians and having the Holy Spirit guide us into truth, in order for a Christian to develop a renewed mind (Romans 12:1-2).
When you become a Christian, God does not pull out your old brain and replace it with a brand new one. Instead, God works with the brain He originally gave us and uses His Word to penetrate our minds, challenging the thoughts we had as an unbeliever, developing new thought patterns and ultimately changing our behavior.
God is interested in every area of our lives, and in every segment of society. He wants us, as believers in Him, to influence the world around us as salt and light (from Matthew 5:13-16). He has spoken about life in His Word and wants us to think like Him in these areas of life, being the example to the world on how to deal with life in every way.
There should be no difference between the secular world and the sacred world for a Christian (2 Corinthians 5:18-21). God has reconciled, forgiven us by the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross and as believers of that truth, we are to tell others that they, too, can be reconciled (made right) in their relationship with God. Being a representative of God, each one of us has become an ambassador for Jesus and the fact that we are spiritual, having been made in the image of God, whatever we do has spiritual ramifications. There is no separation between our “spiritual” life and other things we do in life.
Our Worldview Shapes Our Thinking.
The roots of the tree are your worldview, how you think. The trunk is the values and priorities of your life and the fruit and leaves of the tree are your lifestyle, actions and values that flow from your worldview. By your fruit you will be known. You cannot see your worldview but it comes out in your fruit.
Every idea or thought has some sort of consequence, whether positive or negative. Think of the following two men – William Wilberforce and Adolph Hitler. Each had ideas stemming from their worldviews but opposite effects on the world. Recall what the worldviews of 19 young Muslim people had on the world on September 11, 2001.
Two Questions Everyone Wants Answered
WHAT IS THE NATURE OF GOD? & WHAT IS THE NATURE OF MAN?
All worldview fall into Four Basic Categories:
Atheism (Marxism)
Pantheism (New Age, Buddhism, Hinduism, Native American, African
Traditional Religion)
Polytheism (Ancient Greeks, Mormonism)
Theism (Judaism, Islam, Christianity)
Do not be fearful , some truth will come from each category. Truth is God’s truth. If it is true, it will always be true because it comes from God.
Worldviews like Islam, Secular Humanism, Cosmic Humanism and Postmodern are working to persuade Christians to think and believe in something other than Biblical Christianity. It is a spiritual fight to capture the minds of young people for their viewpoint (2 Corinthians 10:4-5). Scripture indicates we are to think on the things from God and to believe in what God has said, with every part of our being. Satan does not want us to be thinking that way. Getting a Christian to think in something other than Biblical Christianity is a victory for the enemy.
Black Mamba
God wants us as believers in Jesus to be dangerous to Satan. If you live biblically, you will live a black mamba, a very deadly snake found in Africa. Live your life where you never are challenged spiritually or willing to live a godly life; you won’t get hurt, there will be no challenges and you will not be a courageous Christian. Rather live your life in such a way that brings glory to God and you are impacting your friends and society for Jesus so that one day He will say to you, “Well done, good and faithful servant”, when you get to heaven.
- Awesome (Black Mamba) Questions to
Use to Impact a Conversation
(from Bill Jack)
When you are having a conversation with someone and the person brings up a term or an idea that stems from their worldview perspective, ask any of the following questions. By asking these questions, you are in control of the conversation. One question leads to another question and if the person becomes angry, simply stop asking questions.
1. What do you mean by…? OR What you are saying, when you say…?
2. How do you know…?
3. What difference does… that make in your life? Or so what?
4. What if you are wrong about what you believe… and you die?
- Who Will Teach You
This story reveals that someone or something will teach you a worldview through which you will look at life potentially that way the rest of your life.
“In the 1400’s a weakened Christian culture found itself under constant attack by a growing Muslim culture. As Amurath I, ruler of the Ottoman Empire, conquered more and more territory, he decided that if one-fifth of the spoils of battle were the Emperor’s share, he should also have a right to one-fifth of the captives. “Amurath instructed his troops to choose the smartest and strongest of the sons of Christian families he had captured. These boys – as young as seven years of age – underwent training in everything from agriculture to statesmanship.
Many Christian parents voluntarily turned their sons over, treating such slavery as a ‘scholarship’ that would guarantee food, supervision and education to their children. What they didn’t seem to realize – or just ignored – was that the young men were being indoctrinated in a fanatical ideology and shaped into a brutal fighting force. They were called the Janizaries.
Over time, the power of the Ottoman Empire grew, while that of eastern Christianity declined. In 1453, hordes of Muslim Ottoman Turks surrounded Constantinople, the seat of the Eastern church. Sultan Mehmet II, a ruthless and shrewd commander just 23 years old, led the siege with 100,000 troops, including 70,000 trained infantry and cavalry, 20,000 skirmishers known for their love of raping and looting, and 10,000 Janizaries. A mere 7,000 troops rallied to the defense of Constantinople. They were well-trained and desperate to protect their families, but weeks of pounding attacks made Mehmet’s victory inevitable.
Just as the exhausted defenders steeled themselves for Mehmet’s final onslaught, they were frozen by the blood-curdling screams of thousands of young voices: Mehmet had unleashed the elite Janizaries. These young warriors swarmed against the walls, found a breach and charged through, wreaking havoc and slaughter. The Janizaries had no idea – or didn’t care – that their swords were drenched with the blood of their own families.”
“Someone will train the next generation. The questions is who, and for what purpose?”
HANDOFF – Jeff Myers
Your worldview shapes how you look at everything in life and truly affects your decision making processes. The reason why Nebuchanezzar took the young Hebrew boys (Daniel 1), the Communists pursued young people and why Muslims have built schools in Africa and Asia is your young mind is moldable, transformable and impressionable so that the ideas and viewpoints of that particular worldview will change how you think and ultimately affect how you behave in every area of your life, just like the Janizaires.
- First Three Chapter of Genesis
The Christian worldview stands or falls on the accuracy of the Bible. Actually, if you could destroy or disprove the first three chapters of Genesis, the rest of the Bible would fall apart, and be simply a good story book!
Ten disciplines or areas of study in life are found in the first chapters of Genesis. These are the areas we will discuss over the next portion of this material. In each discipline we will look at the Biblical response or view of that area, then contrast the Biblical view to the Islamic, Secular Humanism (Atheism), Cosmic Humanism (Buddhism, Hinduism, African Traditional Religion, Native American Spiritism and New Age) and Post Modernism. This study will help you to understand how Christians are to think in these areas and then also understand how and why people of other worldviews look at life. You will see the differences between Biblical thinking and the rest of worldviews and why Christianity offers hope, peace and ultimately salvation, the forgiveness of sin and the hope of eternal life.
Ten Disciplines in the First Chapters of Genesis (p11 – Thinking Like a Christian, Teaching Texbook, 2002, David Noebel)
- Genesis 1:1 – “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” – is value-laden with theological and philosophical ramifications;
- Genesis 2:9 – “the knowledge of good and evil” – contains ethical ramifications;
- Genesis 1:21 – “according to their kinds” – biological;
- Genesis 2:7 – “the man became a living being” – psychological;
- Genesis 1:28 – “be fruitful, and multiply, fill the earth” – sociological and ecological;
- Genesis 3:11 – “I had forbidden you” – legal;
- Genesis 9:6 – “Whoever sheds man’s blood” – political and legal;
- Genesis 1:29 – “This will be food for you” – economic;
- Genesis 10:1 – “These are the family records of Noah’s sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth. . .” – historical.
THE MATERIAL
ON THE FOLLOWING DISCIPLINES IS FROM “UNDERSTANDING THE TIMES” by
DAVID NOEBEL, 2006, REVISED 2ND EDITION.
THIS EXCLUDES THE MATERIAL ON BLIND FAITH BY BILL JACK.