Check Your Worldview

Caution! A Virus Has Been Detected In Your Worldview.

It has been estimated that only five percent of Christian adults have a Christian worldview. 1 However, if you were to ask the remaining 95 percent of churchgoers, they would probably say something like: “There’s nothing wrong with my worldview, I believe just about the same as most other Christians.” To paraphrase Mr. Shakespeare, “Therein lies the rub,” since most other Christians have worldviews that have been seriously infected by a non-biblical virus.

Simply put, a worldview is how a person views the world. This means that every body has one! Have you ever met a Christian who

• disagreed with Jesus’ command to be “salt and light” to his community? 2 Probably not.
• disagreed that “God’s Word is truth?” 3 Probably not.

Yet, how many brothers and sisters have you heard say,

• “We shouldn’t mix religion with politics,” or
• “I’m a Christian, but I’m not going to impose my beliefs on non-Christians!”

The problem is that the last two statements completely contradict the first two statements! It is impossible to be “salt and light” to our non-Christian neighbors without “mixing our ethics with every area of life! And since we know that God’s Word is truth, by not “imposing it on others we are encouraging them to live a life built on error! Such double-mindedness brings to mind the ominous words of Jesus, “Because you are lukewarm, neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.” 4

It has been said “A fish can’t tell you what water is, because it is all the fish has ever known.” In similar fashion, the vast majority of Christians today are hard-pressed to identify the “abnormal” (ungodly) nature of every day life because it is all that they have ever known. Rarely do we receive any instruction from the pulpit on how to go about “normalizing” it. Perhaps this is why a lot of church members who are singing “Standing on the Promises,” are just “sitting on the premises.” We know we’re in trouble, but are not certain how to deal with it.

Non-Christians have positioned Christianity as a private belief system whose main value to its followers is “personal devotion.” In far too many instances our worship services center on inviting the unsaved to repent and believe, with no instruction on how to live out their faith. At most, such members have an assurance of salvation and a heart to redeem the lost, but no clue as to the necessity to redeem our culture. Yet, Jesus says to God the Father, “I do not ask that You take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one” while still in the world. 5

Non-Christians have recognized this and look upon us as being “culturally irrelevant.” Instead of focusing on our sanctification (growing in God’s grace and knowledge) whereby we apply the principles of Jesus’ parables and the lessons from the letters to the New Testament churches to our culture, we have tended to turn our Christianity INWARD to private feelings, and thoughts about the deity of Jesus, His virgin birth, miracles, His resurrection and our personal justification. An OUTWARD Christianity where we study the case laws that explain how to apply the Ten Commandments to our everyday situations and circumstances is rare for most of our brothers and sisters.

Everything! Any good, conservative moral idea, social program or law represents a concept “borrowed” from the Ten Commandments, not from “original ideas,” or “common sense.” Anyone who thinks differently only has to refer to the words of Jeremiah and Jesus:

No wonder God gave the case laws immediately following the Ten Commandments to clarify how to incorporate them into our lifestyle and worldview. Conservatives borrow liberally from the 2nd Table of the Law (Commandments 5-10). Who wouldn’t want to promote respect for parents, teachers, public officials and every one else in authority? (fifth commandment) Who wouldn’t be against killing, cheating and stealing? (sixth, seventh and eighth commandments) And who wouldn’t want to promote honesty and satisfaction with what God has blessed you with, instead of being jealous of what someone else has? (ninth and tenth commandments)

However, conservatives separate themselves from us on matters of the 1st Table of the Law. These first four commandments describe our relationship to God and provide the reasons behind the principles we promote. When conservatives disregard them, we are left with pluralism and a privatized faith that is culturally irrelevant. The result of this disregard of and lack of faith in God is that cultural issues are debated and decided upon by “majority vote,” coercion or brute force because with God out of the picture, the only opinions left are man’s.

Christians, of course, know that God is never “out of the picture,” and those who profess to be Christians, but act as though He is can only expect severe consequences.

Since God’s Word is true, Christians know who we are,6 why we are here,7 what to do,8 how to do it 9 and where we are 1 going. 10 No one should consider himself to be educated who has not been systematically taught these truths. This is only one reason why government (public) schools are not only a complete waste of taxpayer’s time, money and energy, but are blasphemous. They break the first commandment by not worshiping the only true God. The truth of the matter is that the government schools are the state’s churches, diligently teaching non-Christian dogmas to impressionable young minds. The incompatibility of the non-Christian government schools to Christian education should be obvious. They see the universe as being random, with no absolute principles by which to live. Therefore their instruction is reduced to preparing someone with vocational skills to get a job. We, on the other hand, recognize that instead of having dead-end and/or boring “jobs” we have “missions” through which we bring glory and honor to God by giving our best efforts in whatever our vocation happens to be. We have purpose and direction and live in a meaningful universe that is ruled by its Creator God. In other words, we know the who, why, what, how and where answers to life that are impossible for the government schools to address because they have no answers for them!

Any business, legislative or judicial decision that does not conform to a biblical principle is, by definition, false and should not be expected to work. This means that the only way for an educator, businessman, legislator or judge to live-out their Christianity is to conform their day-to-day decisions to biblical principles.

Someone may ask: “But what about a conservative legislator who opposes a bill by a liberal legislator?” In answering that let’s remember that David didn’t write that conservatives are true and liberals are false. He writes “God’s Word is true.” So lets say that a conservative legislator votes against a liberal’s proposed bill to raise property taxes. Since “the earth is the Lord’s and all its fullness,” 11 the state has no authority to tax property. While it would not be wrong for the conservative to oppose an increase in property taxes, if he is a Christian such a vote should be viewed as an intermediate step while he can buy time to build a coalition to eliminate all property taxes (not simply lower them).

At one time Satan ruled the entire fallen creation. Jesus’ primary mission was to “defeat Satan.” 12 His successful completion of that goal not only assured us that we could have eternal life (as He paid our sin debt through His sinless life, death and resurrection from the dead), but that we could carry out the Great Commission by “discipling the nations,” 13 (not simply evangelizing individuals) thereby bringing about “His will on earth, as it is in heaven.” 14

This means that Satan still rules over non-Christians, but all Christians have to do is “resist him” and he will leave us alone. 15 In other words, Satan can only deceive us. One of his greatest deceptions has been to convince many of our brothers and sisters that life has two realms: spiritual and physical. Satan used the non-Christian Greek philosopher Plato to popularize this idea more than 2,500 years ago. Since we can’t see the “spiritual” realm we imagine that it is perfect and private. And, since we can all too clearly see the “physical,” we notice that it is filled with crooks, dirty politicians, activist judges and anyone else you can think of that you wouldn’t want to bring home to supper. After planting this idea of two distinct realms in our brains, Satan’s tactic is for us to separate biblical principles from the “real world,” by keeping them inside our homes and churches, or of separating our “professional” life from our “religious beliefs.” The consequence of this is that anytime we bring God into a conversation, we are told that we should keep those thoughts to ourselves, because “different people have different beliefs.” What must be recognized is that since God created everything, there is no area of life that is “secular.” To act as though there are sacred and secular realms of life is blasphemous and breaks the first commandment of “having no other gods before us.” 16

Will such a zest for life and a boldness for the truth cause our neighbors to view us as “trouble-makers?” Perhaps, but remember, it is not we who are upsetting the apple cart. They have already done that. Our lifestyle will only serve to turn the apple cart (the world) rightside up.

God ordained four-self-governing spheres through which we can bring about His will on earth: the Individual, Family, Church and State. Each of these self-governing spheres has been given specific duties and is accountable to God for fulfilling them. Following is a brief look at each sphere:

Individual

The apostle Peter instructs that judgment must begin “at the household of God.”17 Before we can have any reasonable expectations of turning our culture around, we must first make certain that we turn our Churches around, and before we can expect to turn them around, we must turn ourselves and our households around. The two fundamental ingredients in successfully governing ourselves, our homes, our churches and our civil government are:

• A reverential fear of the Lord (because this is the beginning of wisdom; Proverbs 1.7; Job 28.28; Ecclesiastes 12.13), and
• Applying God’s principles to our decision-making (since only His Word is true, any plan we have to improve culture will fail unless it conforms to Biblical principles; Psalm 119.160; 2 Samuel 7.28; John 14.6; Colossians 1.5; 2 Timothy 2.25; Revelation 21.5)

Our retreat to the sidelines of the culture war is marked by an attitude that there is really nothing we can do to improve things (i.e. “there are giants in the land,” Numbers 13). Yet, God’s Word says once we come off the bench and onto the field of play by applying the biblical principles through which God enlightens others, the hearts of our non-Christian neighbors “will melt.”18

Family Government

It is in the family that one is introduced to the cornerstone of civil government. It is here we train up the next generation to respect those in authority and to work together to accomplish our goals. Teaching, leading, and guiding one’s family is also great preparation for producing Church and Civil Rulers. In the words of the apostle Paul

Church Government

When the Church limits its sphere to the spiritual realm (i.e. “let’s have the State handle it,” “politics is dirty,” etc.) God is viewed as being little more than an absentee landlord of His creation who provides no answers to us as to how to go about our daily routines. The Bible must be seen and be appreciated as God’s law-word for all spheres of life and not merely viewed as a personal devotional guide. God is “King of kings, and Lord of lords.”19 In order for us to carry out our Calling from God we must correct our misinterpretations of Scripture that allows the State to claim sovereignty over social service programs and the education of our children.

State Government

There is a dramatic difference in the way Christians and non-Christians view the world. Non-Christians, with their self- centered interests, are motivated to amass power and control while bringing honor and esteem to themselves. This was the self-expressed motivation behind the building of the Tower of Babel: “Let us make a name for ourselves,” was their rallying cry.20 Christians, however, should be motivated to build a name for God and to serve His interests. This is why we read of decentralized governing bodies throughout Scripture. Being governed by a variety of independent small governing bodies is an antidote against being tyrannized by a consolidated central government. For example:

• Moses instructs Israel to “Appoint judges and officers in all your gates [cities],” and Joshua “called twelve men...one from every tribe ...” into leadership roles. 21
• Moses’ father-in-law (Jethro) advised him to:

Clearly, the Christian view of society is one of decentralization that conforms to God’s laws and produces personal liberty.

Footnotes

1. George Barna www.barna.org
2. Matthew 5.13-16
3. Psalm 119.160
4. Revelation 3.16
5. John 17.15
6. Genesis 1.26
7. 1 Corinthians 10.31
8. Genesis 1.27-28
9. Leviticus 26, Deuteronomy 28
10. John 14.2-3
11. Psalm 24.1
12. 1 John 3.8; Galatians 4.3
13. Matthew 28.18-20
14. Matthew 6.10
15. James 4.7
16. Exodus 20.3
17. 1 Peter 4.17
18. Isaiah 13.7
19. 1 Timothy 6.15
20. Genesis 11.4
21. Joshua 4.4

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