Christian, Defend your Worldview!
February 3, 2001
Why does it seem that Christians are always having to defend themselves, in our society and always having to answer for being Christians? Why is there so much focus on people who are Christians and on making Christian people defend who they are and why?
I’ve noticed a lot of this of late. We just had an election, here in Canada, where one of the party leaders was openly evangelical Christian. Oh, the amount of press that came from that fact! Remember the statement by another leader that he felt there was no place for religion mixed with politics. Remember the grilling this leader got from the press on such issues as abortion and what he’d do about that if he were elected, and on the idea of taking a day off each week, as is his custom?
In the United States, there is a President who is clearly Christian in his profession, and have you been aware of the amount of negative press he got and continues to get because he is? It seems he has to take heat that those who think otherwise aren’t called to account for and don’t have to take.
If someone finds out that you are Christian, you know that it will raise some eyebrows, and it will lead to either an embarrassed silence or some questions that might be adversarial. Why is this the case?
In our world, people live with many different views of the world they live in. There are many different world-views. Some live as if this is all there is. They live a very self-centred life, that is very much rooted in the here and now and in living it up now, because there is nothing beyond. Some live with a sense of something spiritual that is out there, but they’re not sure about it, but they don’t believe they are entirely alone. So, they might seek to be in contact with this spiritual in various ways. And some, practicing Christians, for instance, believe that there is a very definite spiritual world that has great influence in this world we live in, and that we are to live here and now with constant attention to the reality of the spiritual world, including God, Jesus, and the Spirit. Other people often think of those with this Christian view of the world as being quite arrogant for putting forward that there is only one correct view of the world and that no other view has much merit.
We can see people, living within their various worldviews, looking for meaning to their lives. This is quite a quest for many. All people, in one way or another, seem to be seeking for two things. First of all, they are seeking for revelation. How many people do you know who are really looking for some revelation about what their lives are all about?
Many are calling astrologers and wanting to know what the future holds for them. We can hear this on talk shows or see it on TV quite often. In Quebec, we have Jo-Jo, the astrologer, and people call her and pay a lot of money to try to get revelation about their lives. They might be told something, but a week later, as something ‘seems’ to occur, they might be back on the phone looking for more or for further confirmation of what they thought was predicted for the past week. If you’re aware of it, all that seeking for revelation costs a lot of money- big bucks. Even to go to the local palm reader costs- we had one in the coffee shop in the little mall close to our home- I don’t know the cost, but I know it’s not a free service, along with coffee and cake!
You can see young people- perhaps more in the bigger cities, but I know here, too, who are really looking for revelation about what their lives are all about. Look at their haircuts and styles- at all the colors. And the piercing, too. All this shows something about a quest for meaning and a quest for revelation about what life is for- in general and in specific in their lives. This is a quest we had when we were teens, too, we recognize, but it’s there today, nonetheless, and it’s a bit more difficult today because there is a recognized greater level of discouragement and hopelessness among youth than when many of us were youth.
You can see this quest for revelation in even the single Mom who collapses on the sofa at the end of the day. When the children are finally asleep and she’s worked outside her home all day and then made meals, cleaned up, done laundry and all- and she calls out, “What’s this all about?” she is crying for revelation and for meaning to her life.
People are seeking something else, too- a second something in life- that is healing. People want to be happy, and they don’t want to be bothered and hassled by the people who are hassling them. They want to be healthy in their bodies and their minds. We have a lot of conflict in our world and even in our nation and we seek for healing of this. We have French/English conflicts in Quebec, and we have east/west conflicts in our bigger nation. We have conflicts in Parliament and between leaders and parties and that’s part of the system, but we really long for harmony and for people not to be shouting at each other and putting each other down so much. There are people who are looking for healing of nature around them and us- called ‘tree huggers’ by those who aren’t ‘tree huggers- seeking for something great there.
In the midst of all this seeking, there’s us- Christians- and we say that there’s only one way and that’s through Jesus Christ, the only name under heaven by which we can be and must be saved! All we get for this kind of statement is an accusation of being arrogant, and people questioning how we can be so certain. In a world with so much apparent spirituality, people might wonder how we could be so certain.
So, how can we defend our world-view? How can we defend our faith? How can we say that Jesus Christ is the only way? On what grounds can we stand secure in this view of our world that we’ve shared together for decades?
It’s important for us to read the first book of the Bible in order to answer this question. If we don’t read Genesis and understand Genesis, we cannot understand the tragedy of what happened to the world and the tragedy of sin. And we can’t understand the tragedy of Genesis 3, in particular, if we don’t’ understand the beauty of the garden God created.
Let’s look back at the beginning. Well, we might wonder how we can know the beginning, but we have a little book- called the Bible-, which, for Christians, is authoritative, and which we understand gives us revelation! This book gives God’s revelation to us! Through this revelation, we can understand our beginnings!
We start with a picture of perfect harmony and unity. In the beginning, God created, and there is no picture of disharmony or disunity. From this perfect state, God created. We know that disharmony came, but that wasn’t the very beginning. At the end of the 6th day, once God had created the entire physical realm and had placed man and woman in the world, in the Garden of Eden, He looked at what he had made and declared it to be ‘very good’. Not just good- but ‘very good’! Ahead of that, in chapter 1, we read this:
v. 26- think about the way God was- to understand what this image and likeness included. We’re talking about God, here, who was the pattern for what he created in the man and woman. God was not someone who came on the scene lately. As far back as you can imagine, and farther, God was. And God was not alone. We know that God had angels that were created at some point, but for all eternity, God and the Son lived together in absolute harmony. They were perfectly together and there was no disharmony with them at all. There wasn’t even the slightest bit of disharmony between them! (I know this is hard to imagine in our world where disharmony is the norm and not the exception!)
From that picture of harmony, and from that likeness and image, God created man and woman. We were created in that image and are meant to reflect that image. God created from that perfect harmony, and the harmony continued, for awhile. We have a picture of perfect harmony in the garden for awhile. We read of man and woman together. In Genesis 2: 23- 25, we have a picture of perfect harmony and unity, reflecting the harmony and unity of God.
This is what people were created into! This was the original state of humanity! It was perfect! It was harmonious! It was wonderful! It was the image of God!
But then we come to Genesis 3!
Gen. 3. 1- 7- oh, how that image changed. In an instant, it changed! Faster than anyone could think, it changed! The image of God was left behind and the harmony and unity and beauty were shattered! Humanity left what they were to know and made a choice for something far inferior, although they thought it would be for something better.
So, what happened here? In Adam and Eve, we rejected our true identity. We rejected being in the image of God. We thought we could do it on our own and do it better.
Notice: Gen. 3. 8- 15- hiding, deceit, lying, truth twisting, blame-shifting- all these wonderful components of normal human life today and before. We can’t do it better. It’ s only when we understand this that we can understand our need for the Saviour.
Luke 14.11- God tells us that anyone who lifts himself up will be brought low- oh, how this is true right from the beginning! Oh, how this happens continually in human affairs. It’s a law. It’s all part of living outside the image of God. We’re being brought low- every day!
A realistic world-view requires understanding how wonderful humans are, from creation- how wonderful humans are supposed to be, that is.
Consider Ps. 139. 14- we are wonderfully made! We have glory that comes from God! God has high intentions for each one of us and values each one of us incredibly. When we identify ourselves with God and seek to hide ourselves in God- when we approach identifying with the image of God- we find our true identity.
However, people hide from what we really are- or from what we’ve become, at least. We have to have brand name clothes- to hide our real selves- to dress ourselves up so we don’t look so miserable- as miserable as we really know we are because we are not living in the image of God. We focus on superficial things like styles, hair, accents, education, vehicles, money- all in a quest to hide from the great emptiness we have because of living outside the image of God.
But here’s where we begin to come down to answering how we can defend our faith and our Christian world-view. Our message begins with affirming the value of humans. That is not the starting point for much faith, when you explore very far- and you can look at all the other faiths, outside of Christianity, that abound in our world and see this is true! And that is not the message, for far too many, people get from Christianity.
It’s very easy for many to begin at Romans 6.23-For the wages of sin is death. Although this is true, this is not the starting point. Sin is not the starting point for Christ’s message to us- to Cornwall- to our nation. The message must start at the beginning. This was not Jesus’ message.
John 1.14- full of grace and truth.
Mk. 1. 14, 15- our message must affirm- does affirm- the value of humans and must begin with Jesus’ approach and message. This was the beginning of human life on the earth, after all. This was where we all began!
We recognize that God took on our identity and dwelt among us. In doing this, He confirmed the value of human life.
The Christian world-view begins with understanding the value of human life. No other faith puts such value on humanity and on individual humanity! People need to know they’ve been created in God’s image and that their greatest potential is only attainable in relationship with God. The message of the gospel begins with God becoming man and identifying with us to the point of dying on the cross. God, in Jesus, lived like us for 33 years but without sin. When he was brought before Pilate, Pilate said, “Behold the man!”- in essence declaring that here is the lost man- he thought he had it together in his message, but apparently, he doesn’t- that’s what’s in Pilate’s mind anyway, seeing Jesus as an incredible failure. Pilate didn’t understand what he was a part of in that trial.
Humanity- people- wants to lift us up to God. Humanity can’t do that although there is an incredible effort in trying to do this. BUT God brought Himself down to our level. The Bible message, then, affirms the value of humans!
Col. 1.15- Jesus is the image of the invisible God. But we’ve been created to be that. Jesus came to show us what we’re meant to be.
2.9- Jesus came to reveal to us what we’re meant to be.
Ro. 8. 28, 29, 30- God’s image in us has been perverted and deformed.
1 Cor. 15.49- we’re to come full circle, when we come into the Kingdom of God, in its fullness. We’ve borne the imperfect and deformed image- but will rise, again, to the heavenly image.
2 Cor. 3. 18- this is the process that people are in- that we’re in.
The work of God in our lives is to transform us into God’s image.
Through Jesus, we have revelation- and this is one of the great quests of all humanity- revelation. This is foundational for us in our worldview and gives us great reason to be able to defend our faith. We have revelation.
But remember that there are two elements that people seek- the second is healing. Through the cross, we have healing. The result is a worldview that is based in reality, which we can defend in a world that always seems antagonistic to the Christian message.
We have every ability and ground to be able to soundly defend our Christian worldview, because we have a worldview based in reality, which has everything, that people seek- revelation and healing! May we all continue to go forward in proclaiming that wonderful message of the gospel, as has been our quest for so many years. And may people be drawn toward God because of what they continue to see in all of our lives, as we seek to live and represent God, within the revelation and healing God freely gives!
