Have you stopped to think about what worldview motivates you? Is it a secular, religious, Christian, or some other philosophy of life?
Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #97 of Discerning What Is Best, a podcast applying unchanging biblical principles in a rapidly changing world, and a Christian worldview to current issues and everyday life.
I was privileged to grow up in what we call a “Christian home,” in the best sense of the term. It means my parents were believers, serious about their Christian faith, introduced me to the Word of God and salvation by faith in Christ, took me to church every time the doors were open, and invested in my spiritual upbringing.
At church, in Sunday School, summer Daily Vacation Bible School, youth groups, and of course the services, I learned more about the Bible and its teachings, and I learned biblical stories and memorized verses.
So, no question I was hugely blessed with what might be called a Christian upbringing, including most importantly me making a personal commitment to faith in Christ when I was six years old, and later make the decision to be baptized. In other words, I owned the Christian faith as my own.
I learned that one should rightly divide the Word of Truth or as other Bible versions say, “correctly handles the word of truth” (2 Tim. 2:15).
I wasn’t really encouraged to stop at memorizing verses, though a lot of churches did this, intentionally or otherwise, and thus people learned to do what we called “proof texting,” the idea that you learn a verse for a given topic and that’s it. You don’t learn much else about the Word or God’s purposes and sometimes you end up not being able to handle the more complex issues that now face us in our culture. Os Guinness called it being unprepared with “a Sunday School level faith for a university level society.”
Back in my other life as a university president, I used to talk about Christian college students who would show up on campus – good kids who knew the Lord—kids who could quote verses and tell Bible stories but many of whom could not tell you what Daniel and the Lions’ Den, for example, meant for them or us today. In other words, they knew biblical data, content, but they did not really understand how to apply it.
They did not understand theology. I called this lack of ability to go from content to application the “Christian missing link.”
One of the reasons some of these students arrived with a lot of Bible knowledge but little ability to think critically and apply it in the world around them, or even in their personal lives, is that their theologically conservative churches had offered them a form of Pietism and little more.
Pietism, especially when coupled with what’s been called Fundamentalism, emphasized the personal spiritual life over and above or separate from any real concern for the public expression of the Christian faith and living in the culture in which they live. In other words, in the vocabulary of John 17, pietistic, fundamentalist churches and adherents did a good job of being “not of the world,” but they tended to forget the other prepositional phrases in that chapter, being “in the world,” or the command to go “into the world.” By the same token, theologically liberal churches and adherents have historically done a fair job of being “in the world” while seeming to forget what it means to be “not of the world.”
I was exposed to some of this in a solid, Bible-believing, good Fundamentalist church as a kid we learned to “Don’t smoke and chew or go with girls who do.” We learned a lot of biblical teaching but did not always learn “Why” or how to connect it with other teachings in Scripture or how to apply it. I’m not biting the hand that fed me. I learned well in this home church and owe it a great deal spiritually. I’m just being honest about what I did not learn as well, and perhaps this was my doing, not the church.
When I got to Christian college, I heard the terms “Christian theistic world life view” as we called it then, what later became better known as a Christian worldview or a biblical worldview.
A worldview is a way of looking at our place in the world. Simply put, it is a philosophy of life. Whether they realize it, or whether they can identify it, everyone possesses a worldview. Our worldview is the foundation and guide for every decision we make.
Our worldview helps us answer life’s existential questions: Who is God? What is truth and moral absolutes? Who is man and what is human nature? What is man’s purpose? What is good and evil? What is sin and morality? What is time and history? What happens when we die? Is God there, and does he care? Does he know me? How can I be loved, forgiven, redeemed? What hope can I have?
Not everyone, in fact most people, can even name their worldview, and most people do not think consistently in alignment with every precept of a given worldview, including Christians.
A Christian worldview is simply a Christian philosophy of life. Theologically, it involves Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Restoration.
What we need to do, what we are commanded by God to do, what Scripture in John 17 meant when it said we are to be in the world but not of the world and go into the world, is develop and live out a consistent, God-honoring Christian philosophy of life. We are to “think Christianly.”
In James Avery White’s book A Mind for God, Os Guinness is quoted, saying, “Thinking Christianly is thinking by Christians about anything and everything in a consistently Christian way – in a manner that is shaped, directed, and restrained by the truth of God’s Word and God’s Spirit.”
Christians are to walk as Jesus did. In 1 John 2:6, John said, “Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.” Or as the late Dr. Francis A. Schaeffer put it, we need to answer the biblical question from Ezekiel, “How should we then live?”
Now how do we answer this question?
- Well, as Christians, we go to the Word of God, because,
“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” 2 Tim. 3:16-17
“His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.” 2 Pet. 1:3
- We seek to integrate our faith and life by drawing on the principles of Scripture in order to proclaim the Lordship of Christ in all of life.
1 Cor. 10:31 says, “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”
- We must work to understand biblical teaching and theology so that we can discern – that’s the point of this podcast, “Discerning what is best” as drawn from Phil. 1:9-10 – and we work to understand biblical teaching and theology so that we can avoid error as we’re commanded in Col. 2:8:
If we do not Know the Truth, we cannot Speak the Truth. Therefore, Bible study, knowledge is imperative, especially in a post-Christian culture.
“See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.”
And also Rom. 12:2: “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
For we know that God said to “keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.” Josh. 1:8
- We must speak because not to speak yields to the Devil by default.
And when we speak, i.e., define truth, we recognize that we will inevitably alienate.
Culture no longer aligns with or reinforces Christian life. The movement to stop “unacceptable views” now worldwide and popular.
- We remember that Jesus never withdrew from sinners, but neither did he ever stop proclaiming the truth.
He ate with tax collectors, spoke with prostitutes. Jesus was “full of grace and truth.” Jn 1:14. He never compromised truth to avoid alienating people or to attract converts.
- We are to walk as Jesus did.
We believe the window to speak truth is closing. Yet God said, “As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work.” Jn 9:4
“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” Gal 6:9
Well, we’ll see you again soon. This podcast is about Discerning What Is Best. If you find this thought-provoking and helpful, follow us on your favorite podcast platform. Download an episode for your friends. For more Christian commentary, check my website, r-e-x-m as in Martin, that’s rexmrogers.com.
And remember, it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm.
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2023
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