Abortion. Euthanasia. Pornography. Same-sex marriage. Transgender rights. Embryonic research. Genetic enhancement. [You can add to this mix COVID, mandated vaccines, out of control government spending, etc.] Christians surveying the cultural landscape in the West have a clear sense that things are headed in a destructive direction. While most believers can easily identify the symptoms of decline, few feel competent to diagnose and address the root causes. There are many complex factors behind these developments, but one invaluable tool for better understanding and engaging with our culture is the concept of worldview.[1]
What is a worldview. The fact is, everyone has a worldview. It is how we see the world around us and interpret and react to events. A worldview is the core of what we truly believe (not just give lip service to). It answers the basic questions of life:
How did we get here (creation and the universe)?
Where are we going (the meaning of history)?
What is the nature of reality (physical or spiritual or both)?
What is the nature of God, or transcendent reality? (is there a higher power?)
What is the nature of truth (objective or subjective)?
What is the nature of human beings? (who are we and how did we get here?)
What happens to human beings when they die? (is there eternal life?)
What guidelines determine human behavior? (ethics and morals, who decides?)
Where did we (human kind) go wrong? (or have we gone wrong?)
Is there a fix? [2]
How these questions are answered determines our outlook on the world. These are just a few of the questions that define our worldview. For example, if we have a naturalist or humanistic worldview where we are just a comic accident and there is a natural explanation to all that there is, then humans are just highly developed, evolved animals. If that is the case then, so what is the big deal about abortion, euthanasia, homosexuality and the like? If we are here by accident, then who are you to tell me what my morals should be? You are you to tell me what is right and wrong?
The fact is, our worldview matters. It matter in how re react, in a God honoring way to the world around us. The worldviews of others in our culture explains why we as a people, a nation, a culture, is headed in a destructive direction. Over the next coming weeks, we will explore our worldview and the contrast it with the worldviews of our culture. We need to critically examine our own view of the world. Paul tells us:
2 Corinthians 13:5 Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test?
Do we have a true Biblical Worldview? Notice I did not say a Christian worldview. I will be deliberately avoiding that term because the very word “Christian” has been so altered, misused, deliberately misapplied, and distorted over time. But I will use the term “Biblical Worldview” meaning, does our view of the world measure up to what the Word of God tells us, not someone’s concept of what a Christian ought to believe or ought to live.
The message this morning will start with warning from the Word about being influence by the world.
Colossians 2:8 and 1 Timothy 6:20–21
Here’s the problem. According to recent survey (May 2021) commissioned by the Family Research Council under the direction of George Barna:
* 80 percent of born-again Christians claim to have a biblical worldview, but only 19 percent have one.
* 74 percent of conservatives claim to have a biblical worldview, but only 16 percent do.
* 44 percent of millennials (ages 25-40) claim a biblical worldview; only 4 percent have one.
As I read the report of the statistics for mainline Protestant churches and evangelical churches, the numbers were just about as dire:
* 69% of adults who attend a mainline Protestant church (Presbyterian, Lutheran, Episcopal, etc.) claim they have a biblical worldview, but only 8% actually have one.
* 81% who attend an evangelical church (many non-denominational and most Baptist) claim they have a biblical worldview, but only 21% actually have one.[3]
No wonder the church is in trouble today. Most of the so-called “born-again” believers do not know what they believe, or they do not realize that their beliefs are corrupted by the world.
This corruption of beliefs didn’t happen by accident. We are exposed to the philosophies of the world every day, through the culture we live in, through TV shows piped into our living rooms, through our news sources, through the internet and let us not speak about social media and its effect on our world.
Very little of what we are exposed to in the world reflect the Judeo-Christian principles which formed and guided this nation for many years. Since WW2, we have seen a marked moral decline in our culture. America is quickly going the way of Europe, which has virtually been godless for many years, where now most churches and cathedrals there are merely museums of an era gone by.
You do not need me to tell you how worldly and godless our government has grown, being very intolerant of anything Christian. Our Christian foundations are being systematically destroyed. King David asked the question in his day:
Psalm 11:3 If the foundations are destroyed, What can the righteous do?”
Paul realized that some professed Christians had been taken up with these false teachings and had strayed concerning the faith. These closing verses (in 1 Timothy 6) brings before us the great dangers of so-called intellectualism, rationalism, modernism, liberalism, and every other “ism” which disregards or waters down Christ.[4]
The worldview of those in our modern culture has invaded the church. In our postmodern culture, truth itself has been lost and is now relative. What is true for you may not be what is true for me and vise-versa. Whereas formally a difference of opinion was tolerated, now anything that does not agree with the current worldview, what is considered politically correct, or the current cultural norms, are now labeled as bigoted and intolerant, and other negative adjectives.
In our current “woke” and “cancel culture” we can no longer even say 2+2=4. Even the truth of mathematics is now subjective to whatever you want 2+2 to equal.
“A young man who had recently graduated from high school, where a mathematics teacher had labeled him a “bigot” for thinking it was important to get the right answer. As long as students worked together in a group and achieved consensus, the teacher insisted, the outcome was acceptable.” [5]
Here is a fact that we can and must live with. There is absolute truth in the universe. And He can be known.
John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me.
Jesus also said that:
John 8:32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
But what the world calls the truth and Bible calls the truth are often two different things. When we see the world with spiritual eyes guided by the Holy Spirit, we see the world differently from others.
1 Corinthians 2:14 But a natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.
But the problem in the church is we are surrounded by the world and are daily being bombarded by the philosophies of the world. There are slick talking politicians and others who can sell a drowning man water. And we, being ignorant of the Scriptures will accept human reasoning and the arguments of why the world is the way it is. This is nothing new. The has always been those who will raise doubt in our minds since the Garden of Eden.
Genesis 3:1b “Has God really said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?”
Satan raise doubt in their minds. Then Adam and Eve made a moral choice to believe “The Father of Lies” (John 8:44). And so it has been since the very beginning.
Romans 1:25 For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
Most of the letters in the New Testament, those of Paul, Peter, James and John, spend a great deal of time warning the early church about the deception of false teachers and about heresies that creep into the fellowship. Today’s verses are typical of these warnings.
Colossians 2:8 See to it that there is no one who takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception in accordance with human tradition, in accordance with the elementary principles of the world, rather than in accordance with Christ.
We are warned not be taken captive from “philosophy and empty deception in accordance with human tradition.” Philosophy means the “love of wisdom.” Seeking wisdom is not evil in and of itself, for the book of Proverbs has a fair amount to say about seeking wisdom. But seeking human wisdom, wisdom that is apart for Jesus is evil.
Colossians 2:2–3 that their hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together in love, and that they would attain to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God’s mystery, that is, Christ Himself, 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
When we realize that all truth, knowledge, and wisdom resides in Jesus, we know not to look anywhere else. But the rest of the world? They are:
2 Timothy 3:7 always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
Seeking after human wisdom and saying that through human reasoning all can be answered, is evil because that is the core of the humanist worldview. Humanist view is the humans are the end of all things intellectually. So we are warned about human reasoning and philosophy, because: human reasoning is “in accordance with the elementary principles of the world, rather than in accordance with Christ.”
The term “elementary principles of the world” has been debated by scholars for years. But those things of the “natural world” like “earth, fire, wind, and water,” what the ancients thought everything was composed of. Today, our elementary things of the world consist of the “big bang” and millions and billions of years of random chance (evolution) as the explanation as to why of where we are here today, and this naturalism worldview has been taught in our school for almost 100 years. No wonder the kids today think the things of the Bible are mere fairy tales. None of these things are from Christ, Who is more than the Author of Truth, He is Truth. Paul also warned Timothy:
1 Timothy 6:20–21a Timothy, protect what has been entrusted to you, avoiding worldly, empty chatter and the opposing arguments of what is falsely called “knowledge”—21 which some have professed and thereby have gone astray from the faith.
We need to hold tight to what we have been given. Paul says to “protect,” other translations has “guard.” This is a command. Hold these close, the truth of the Scriptures. Do we understand it all. No, but our lack of understanding does not change the truth. If anything, it should encourage us to study all the more. We need to avoid “worldly, empty chatter and the opposing arguments.” This is also a command in the form of a participle. We are to avoid these things.
Does today’s science and the Word from the Bible conflict? Today’s current scientific thought and today’s school textbooks are heavily politicized, conforming to a naturalistic worldview. So the answer is yes. These two are very much in conflict. But time does not permit me to go into how science has been politicized, but even current naturalistic science ignores their own evidences. The biblical worldview in science is actively ignored and discredited.
Pick up any high school science book or biology book and right from the beginning they will tell you about how all evolved over the millions and billions of years which runs contrary to the Word of God. The naturalistic and humanist worldviews are taught and proclaimed from our public schools. Paul very plainly tells us these things in the world of today’s science and public education is "worldly, empty chatter and the opposing arguments of what is falsely called “knowledge."
It has been shown over the centuries that science has been wrong on a number of things that the Bible has been right about all along. I personally made a conscious choice a long time ago, that I would believe the Bible in all that it says, and wait for science to catch up. (I have a science undergrad degree from a secular university)
Paul tells us that many Christians have fallen for these false knowledge (or outright lies) and by doing so “have gone astray from the faith.” The Bible is true in all that is says, whether of history, of science, or of the things and nature of God. If we have a true Biblical worldview, we would be vastly different from the world around us and we need to be ready for the world to label us as backward, bigoted, homophobic, and a host of other negative terms.
But Jesus is returning soon. When He returns, will he find us believing Him,obeying Him, reacting to the world based on his truth, or will we be found with the rest the world? Will he find us doing His will or our will and the will of the world?
Luke 18:8b However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?”
In the end, is our worldview all about Jesus? The word of God, the Bible, points us to Jesus (John 5:39). Do we believe the Word of God, the Bible, or do we go along with the rest of the world?
Today’s invitation is come to Jesus. It is all about him. We wants our all, our brokenness, our lack of understanding, our hurts. He does not want us to wait till we have it all figured out. He wants us to trust Him.
[1] “On Worldviews” by James Anderson, https://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/worldviews
[2] James P. Eckman, The Truth about Worldviews: A Biblical Understanding of Worldview Alternatives (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2004), 13. (Note-I've added to this list based on other sources)
[3] Perceptions about Biblical Worldview and Its Application. A National Survey from the Center for Biblical Worldview. May 2021. https://www.frc.org/worldviewsurvey
[4] William MacDonald, Believer’s Bible Commentary: Old and New Testaments, ed. Arthur Farstad (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1995), 2103.
[5] Rod Parsley, Culturally Incorrect: How Clashing Worldviews Affect Your Future (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2009).
