According to Chuck Colson and Nancy Pearcey, a “worldview” “is simply the sum total of our beliefs about the world, the ‘big picture’ that directs our daily decisions and actions” (How Now Shall We Live? (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House, 1999) 14). It is the lens in which we view and understand the world around us and which influences how we conduct ourselves. Imagine that you put on “rose colored” glasses. Everything that you saw would be tinted red. We could say that this is a good illustration of what a “worldview” is; a set of beliefs (those “rose colored” glasses) that determine how we see and interpret the world around us. There are basically only two worldviews in existence today: what we could refer to as a secular humanist view and on the other hand a biblical one. The former is a faulty way of viewing the world with the latter being the true perspective.
The secular humanist view has man as its standard. It claims that “man is the measure of all things.” Thus, humanity determines what is right and wrong and what one should and should not do. This leads to a denial of God and any concept of His design. Instead, man is said to be god and calls the shots. He can determine what marriage is, his gender, when life begins, and do whatever he thinks feels right. He can decide about what to believe and live his life accordingly. The reason why today the teaching of evolution is so predominant, marriage is redefined, dissolved, and avoided, abortion remains rampant, the transgender movement continues to grow, and sexual immorality is at a high all stems from the world operating from this secular humanist worldview. It is because they view man as being the determining factor in all of their decisions. This in essence is the view of fallen man. The view originating with Satan’s temptation in the Garden of Eden. You will be like God (Genesis 3:4).
However, with the biblical worldview, God serves as the standard for all things. He is recognized for the Creator that He is with the implication being that His creation must bow down to Him as Lord over their lives. He determines what is right and wrong and commands what one should and should not do. He designs marriage and creates someone to be male or female (and the mutilating of their body can’t change that). He is in charge of giving and taking life so that it is His choice for a child to live or not, not the choice of the mother of the child. For man to go against what God has said is nothing short of rebellion. He makes demands of man and judges him. This is the worldview of the Christian and the Church. The true view of reality that God opens our eyes to see when we have been born again. The view of Genesis 1:1. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
We need to realize that these two worldviews are in direct opposition to one another and continually clash in our world today. Christians cannot be in agreement with several things practiced in our culture today because they go against God’s intention and commands. As believers, we must be working to further develop having a biblical worldview; seeking to view the world according to the way that God has defined it, not the way we think or feel that it is. The best way to do this is to be studying our Bibles. You can’t know how the Bible describes the world in which we live unless you are reading your Bible. You can’t know how to handle certain situations according to God’s standard if you are not opening His standard daily.
The next time that we listen to the news reports of what is occurring in the world, we should ask: What does the Bible say about this? What does the Bible state that caused someone to do this? How am I to understand this according to Scripture? How does the gospel message speak to this issue? What does Scripture direct me to do in this instance? Let’s put on our “Bible colored” glasses and see the world the way that God has defined it and strive, by His grace, to live according to His Word.
Love in Christ,
Pastor Lee
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