What is a True Worldview?
The purpose of apologetics is to present biblical answers to four questions:
Who are we?
That’s Origin, Ontology, & Teleology.
What is the Meaning of it all?
Epistemology, Aesthetics, Hermeneutics,
What should we do?
That’s Morality (Ethics)
Where are we going?
That’s Destiny.
If you can answer these questions have presented a worldview.
The First Question
Who are we?
Begins with
Where did we come from?
Origin (Creation)
In the context of a Sunday morning message there is not enough time/space (spacetime) to properly compare worldviews. It would be fun (for some) to examine various cosmogonies, from the Babylonian to the Mayan, to the ancient Chinese to the Sumerian to the Greek & Hindu myths of creation to the modern theoretical physicists’ myth of how the universe got started, humanity has, clearly, been a bit obsessed with thoughts of the question “How did we get here”?
The Bible addresses this issue, not from a scientific perspective (for the majority of our history, humanity simply lacked the sophistication to understand what God would have said if He had given a technical description of His work of creation).
The Genesis
The focus of the Bible
In the beginning you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands.
They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment. Like clothing you will change them and they will be discarded.
But you remain the same, and your years will never end.
Psalm 102:25-27
“Many people get the mistaken impression that the Bible is Geo-centric . . . In other words they believe the Bible is centered on the earth and mankind. And that’s partly true. But the Bible is actually “Theo-centric” . . . It’s centered on God”. –Jeff Strite
Our God is Creator
He Continues with New Creation
His creative power is reason for Praise
His pre-existence provides Him power to predict
Because He created the cosmos, He is able to keep a covenant
??????????? ?????? ???????? ??? ??????????? ????? ???????? Genesis 1:1
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??? e?µ? t? ??fa ?a? t? ?, ???e? ?????? ? ?e??, ? ?? ?a? ? ?? ?a? ? ????µe???, ? pa?t????t??.
I am the Alpha and Omega, says the Lord God, which was and is and is to come, the Almighty. Revelation 1:8
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God . . . Through Him all things were made and without him nothing was made that is made (John 1:1, 3).
“. . . and the Spirit of God hovered over the face of the deep” (Genesis 1:2)
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit creates the universe.
Our God-Father, Spirit, Son-is Creator (Genesis 1:21,27; 2:3-4;5:1-2;6:7, etc.)
He is the God of new creation.
Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Psalm 51:10
Let this be written for a future generation, that a people not yet created may praise the Lord: Psalm 102:18
When you send your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the earth. Psalm 104:30
For you created my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother’s womb. Psalm 139:13
You are His special creation.
Our God is Creator
He Continues with New Creation
His creative power is reason for Praise
“I can see how it might be possible for a man to look down upon the earth and be an atheist, but I cannot conceive how he could look up, into the heavens and say there is no God.” –Abraham Lincoln
Romans 1:25
Our God is Creator
He Continues with New Creation
His creative power is reason for Praise
His pre-existence provides Him power to predict
Because He created the cosmos, He is able to keep a covenant
Worldview Element 1-Creation
Creation is all about God and His work
And
He has created all things for US & created US with a purpose He planned since before the foundation of the world.
&
That brings us to Worldview Element 2
What is the Meaning of it all?
In order to answer the question, ‘what does it mean’ you must first answer the question ‘what is real’? Stated another way, the question is, “what is true”? I realize most people are not asking this question. But philosophers and scientists do.
Einstein said the whole universe is an illusion, though a very persistent one.
Whether it’s the Matrix trilogy, soon to be . . . what would the word be? Quadlogy? Or the more recent television programs such as one today Broken Mirror (? Black Mirror? Something to do with a mirror) Asking if our consciousness is real. This seems to be an obsession with screenwriters, whether it is with normal people i don’t know.
Many people were impressed by these shows. I’m not recommending any of these, though there are many who have seen Christ figures in some of their characters. I have no need for such Christ figures-I prefer Jesus.
But, as Ravi Zacharias has often observed, there are 3 levels of philosophy-the formal philosopher who writes philosophy books, the artists who present philosophy through art and stories, and the philosophy of the dinner table and coffee shop. One leads to the other and to the next. We need to filter all of these concepts through the Bible and not allow ourselves to be conformed to this world, but to be transformed by the renewal of our minds. . . We need to embrace a higher reality-the reality in which there is both truth and meaning.
Meaning (Reality)
The Creation as the Bible teaches it leads us to
John 1:14
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the Only Begotten, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
C.S. Lewis was a scholar of classical Greek. He translates that last phrase “full of grace and reality”.
I believe Ravi Zacharias was right-
“The ultimate pursuit should be the truth, no matter where it leads you.” Ravi Zacharias (Message given at “why Jesus” April 2012)
We are surrounded externally and internally with evidence of the Creator. He speaks to us in the gentle breezes clapping together the leaves of mighty oaks. He speaks to us in the germinating seed, from its muddy, wrinkled planeness it transforms into a living, breathing, beautiful, fruitful vine. He speaks to us in our own liveliness; our every breath is in His hand, our thought He knows before we think it, and, if we are willing, in a still small voice He speaks to us in our own minds, revealing Himself to us in peace and prophecy, in joy, and restoration.
God is, everywhere, shouting to us, yet we, with hands firmly clasped over our ears shout profanities in an attempt to drown out His mighty flood of His voice. As CS Lewis put it:
“Good beats upon the damned incessantly as sound waves beat on the ears of the deaf, but they cannot receive it. Their fists are clenched, their teeth are clenched, their eyes fast shut. First they will not, in the end they cannot, open their hands for gifts, or their mouth for food, or their eyes to see.” C. S. Lewis: The Great Divorce
Our denial of reality in no way diminishes it; it only diminishes us.
But the denial of a deeper reality to our existence, I believe, has had much more distressing consequences.
[slide 14] In 2000, Vadim Mieseges chopped up his landlady into a collection of body parts. Tonda Lynn Ansley shot her landlady in the head in July 2002, killing her instantly. Joshua Cooke in 2003 killed the couple that adopted him. What do all three of these murderers have in common? They pleaded not guilty on the grounds that they didn’t realize that what they were doing was real-they each claimed to have believed they were actually in the Matrix. Each claimed to believe they were living in a computer-generated unreality and, therefore, not committing horrific crimes in the real world. Somehow I think these extreme examples demonstrate a very real problem in our very real world. People are becoming disconnected from reality, and the more disconnected you become from reality the less connected you become with Truth, and the less connected to Truth, the more the gentle bonds of love and justice disintegrate.
When we embrace unreality and reject reality we open ourselves to enacting every form of human depravity.
The Hebrew word for truth, is emen-which finds its root in Amen. It means reliable, certain, stable. A man of truth (an ish amen) is a man who’s word can be relied on (the word is also closely related to the Hebrew term emuna-peace, which, in turn, is related to shalom. Perhaps our connection with reality is inextricable from our experience of peace, of psychological, social, and physical wholeness).
The Greek term truth (aleitheia) means literally ‘not hidden’. To the Greek mind, truth is obvious, it is evident. The term came to mean that which is associated with reality. Though cynics argued whether or not truth could be known, as demonstrated in Pilate’s infamous rhetorical flourish to Jesus, “What is truth?”, the intuition of humanity from the earliest records of our intellectual reasonings is that truth is something that is both evident and knowable (It is interesting to me is that in Hellenistic thought, the real, or true, was thought of as that which can be apprehended and understood only through the mind, and not through the physical senses, because Truth was a matter of the eternal or divine-especially, but not exclusively, in the writings of Plato. This is part of the reason that early Christian apologists liked Plato’s Hellenistic perspective concerning truth).
The Hebrew word ‘truth’, as well as the Greek word for truth, can often be translated ‘reality’. Partly for this reason, (as mentioned above, CS Lewis translates John 1:14 “we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and reality”).
What if we translated some of the many passages in the New Testament where this word is associated with the Good News of Jesus in the same way?
Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with REALITY. 1 Corinthians 13:6
All will be condemned who have not believed REALITY but have delighted in wickedness. 2 Thessalonians 2:12
Evil and wickedness are an expression of the (un)reality of hell. The reality of heaven is different.
We cannot do anything against REALITY, but only for REALITY. 2 Corinthians 13:8
Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of REALITY. 2 Timothy 2:15
Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in REALITY. This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence 1 John 3:18-19
Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and REALITY) Ephesians 5:8-9
My brothers, if one of you should wander from REALITY and someone should bring him back remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save him from death and cover over a multitude of sins. James 5:19-20
25 Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body.
Psalm 12
But living in a society where lying is so common is not very funny.
The Psalmist says it this way:
Psalm 12
For the director of music. According to sheminith. A psalm of David.
1 Help, Lord, for no one is faithful anymore; those who are loyal have vanished from the human race. 2 Everyone lies to their neighbor; they flatter with their lips but harbor deception in their hearts.
3 May the Lord silence all flattering lips and every boastful tongue— 4 those who say, “By our tongues we will prevail; our own lips will defend us—who is lord over us?”
Pilate had Truth standing in front of Him (John 14:7), Yet . . .
John 8: 31 To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
Let’s unpac that verse just a bit. Three quick points before we move on:
First,
1. This promise is quoted quite a lot. But
it is made to people who are really (the word is TRULY) disciples of Jesus.
“If you hold to my teaching (literally, if you remain, or abide, in my word), you are truly my disciples. THEN . . .”
-See the biblical connection between denying reality and sin? See the biblical connection between embracing reality and good, moral, ethical behavior?
That brings us, finally, the the Fourth Element of a Worldview:
Destiny
We live in interesting times.
We are facing the greatest challenge to humanity in the past two generations.
We must confront this with the truth.
Two Text Messages
Someone sent to a WhatsApp group i’m in forwarded the book of a false-prophet who supposedly made a possible prophecy of the current viral infection.
I answered
“Think-tanks, without the gift of prophecy, have been predicting a pandemic (i've been reading such predictions) at least the past 30 years-most likely coming out of china, with birds or bats, or some other livestock as the likely vectors of mutation to human infection.”
To that, someone in the group wrote:
“Most of the Chinese made genetic mutations are unethical and without following scientific norms.(sic)”
To which i answered:
?! These are not manufactured by humans. These are natural mutations that result from the close proximity of animals & humans in wet markets.
Even in the 1918-19 outbreak some people were theorizing some conspiracy theories that the Spanish Flu virus was a weapon of the 1st world war (!)
obviously that was impossible 100 years ago. It's not really possible today.”
Bleh.
On another WhatsApp group i’m in someone forwarded this rubbish:
“do you think Corona is dangerous?
Or
is the purpose of the media campaign to settle the trade war between China and America
or
to reduce financial markets to prepare the stage of financial markets for mergers and acquisitions
or
to sell US Treasury bonds to cover the fiscal deficit in them
Or
Is it a Panic created by Pharma companies to sell their products like sanitizer, masks, medicine etc.
One wonders of the motive”
To which I answered:
“The virus has no motive
None of those diseases overwhelms the medical system, forces doctors to choose who to treat or allow to die, doubling its infection rate every week, leaving its victims to die alone in isolation on a respirator . . .”
You probably don’t want me on your WhatsApp group.
Only in truth can we do our duty
People who are pursuing conspiracy theories, and those who are denying the realities of what is around us are, together, serving the enemy of our souls.
In contrast, one friend sent me the words of Martin Luther, as he wrote concerning the Black Death
“The difference Destiny makes
"I shall ask God mercifully to protect us. Then I shall fumigate, help purify the air, administer medicine and take it. I shall avoid places and persons where my presence is not needed in order not to become contaminated and thus perchance inflict and pollute others and so cause their death as a result of my negligence.
If God should wish to take me, he will surely find me
and I have done what he has expected of me and so I am not responsible for either my own death or the death of others.
If my neighbor needs me however I shall not avoid place or person but will go freely as stated above." Martin Luther from Letter Concerning Black Death
The Difference Destiny Makes:
A poem
Frances Angermayer wrote words which found their way into the pockets of many soldiers in World War II
Look, God, I have never spoken to You.
But now -- I want to say, "how do you do."
You see, God, they told me You didn't exist.
And like a fool -- I believed all of this.
Last night from a shell-hole I saw Your sky --
I figured right then, they had told me a lie.
Had I taken time to see the things You made,
I'd known they weren't calling a spade a spade.
I wonder, God, if You'd shake my hand.
Somehow -- I feel that You will understand.
Funny, -- I had to come to this hellish place,
Before I had the time to see Your Face.
Well, I guess there isn't much more to say.
But I'm sure glad, God, I met You today.
I guess the "zero hour" will soon be here.
But I'm not afraid since I know You're near.
The signal! -- Well, God, -- I'll have to go.
I like You lots. -- This I want You to know.
Look, now -- this will be a horrible fight.
Who knows -- I may come to Your house tonight.
Though I wasn't friendly with You before
I wonder, God -- if You'd wait at Your Door.
Look -- I'm crying! Me! -- Shedding tears!
I wish I'd known You these many years.
Well, I will have to go now, God -- goodbye.
Strange -- since I met You -- I'm not afraid to die.
A dream
When I was a child-about 8 years old, I had a dream that i went up a golden ladder above the clouds, and there was a city in the clouds, with golden domes
I was suddenly inside the city, and walked through hallways where i passed doors. In each door there was a choir singing hymns and praises to God.
Then i was back on the ladder, and slid down the ladder and into my bed, and woke up.
Since then I’ve never feared death (i honestly don’t know if there’s a connection between the dream and the lack of fear, but i’ve faced death a few times since that dream and haven’t had a moment of concern about it).
I’ve recently wondered if in the dream i was in heaven or the Bangalore Conservatory. :)
We all have a destiny, one day we’ll stand before the Lord of Glory and give an account and receive a reward for the life we lived here.
This should be an encouragement to those who are tempted to grow weary of doing good, and as a warning to those who are growing weary of doing evil.
4 Elements of a True World View
1. We are created by God for a Purpose, therefore our lives have meaning.
2. Ultimate meaning is deeper and more wondrous than the physical reality we see around us. It is grounded in the Creator Who made us for His purposes and in His image.
3. Therefore we treat each other well-seeing one another as His image and
4. We can do and be right today because we will be held accountable and rewarded in His Kingdom
God’s Truth and Person is central to each Element of our worldview
In that sense we have only ONE element in our biblical worldview.
God is before all things, created all things, created us for a purpose, and is our ultimate destination.
Therefore, we are from Him (Origin), live for Him and His creation (Reality & Ethics), and go to Him (Destiny).
