The Importance of Seeing the Big Picture, Part 2

Practical Implications

Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.
—C. S. Lewis¹—

Part 1 is available here.

A young man with limited experience but with a great deal of drive and physical strength aspired to be a woodcutter. He went to a local timber yard and applied for a job. The pay was adequate, and the boss seemed to be reasonable and fair-minded; so the man was very pleased when he was hired. The first day he cut down 18 trees. “Great!” said the supervisor, “Keep it up and you’ll do just fine.”

The second day the man worked equally hard but managed to bring in just 15 trees. The third day he gave everything he had but brought in only 10 trees. “I don’t understand what’s happening,” he said to his boss. I’ve been working harder than ever, but somehow I’m cutting down fewer and fewer trees. Am I losing my strength that quickly?”

“When did you last sharpen your axe?” asked the supervisor.

“Sharpen my axe?” replied the new woodcutter. “Why, I’ve been so busy cutting down trees I haven’t had time to sharpen my axe!”²

All too often, Christians and evangelical churches are like that woodcutter. Periodically, we need to “sharpen our axe” in order to effectively confront the increasingly secular culture in which we live. Of course, we aren’t speaking here of wielding a literal handle and blade but of having an accurate awareness of how non-Christian people think so we can challenge their most basic assumptions. We need to be like “the sons of Issachar who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do” (1 Chron. 12:32). As Abraham Lincoln once said, “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”³

What are some things we must do? These five steps provide a great place at which to start.

First, we must make sure we ourselves don’t fall prey to the lies of secularism. As Paul wrote to the Colossian believers, “Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ” (Col. 2:8).
In order to do this, we need to become familiar not only with the tenets of biblical Christianity, but also with the faith assumptions of people in the culture at large. Paul used his own understanding of the citizens of Athens when he addressed them in Acts 17 (see vv. 16-34). Not everyone believed, but some did. Not surprisingly, we’ll need some help to increase our understanding. The Colson Center for Christian Worldview⁴ produces BreakPoint,⁵ a daily radio commentary that seeks to apply biblical worldview principles to all of life. It’s a tremendous resource.
Third, using what we have come to understand about the biblical perspective and the worldviews that compete against it, we need to learn to engage the culture by asking strategic questions that challenge people’s faith assumptions. When properly timed, such questions target the philosophical and religious foundation on which false conclusions rest.⁶ Put another way, support for things like abortion, homosexuality, cohabitation, and euthanasia are byproducts of underlying faith assumptions, or presuppositions, about life, death, God, humanity, and right and wrong. We need to challenge these erroneous ideas! Certainly we also need to articulate why abortion and other practices contrary to biblical teachings are bad for society, but not without also lovingly challenging presuppositions. Here’s an example. This graphic does a great job of challenging the ideas that all religions are compatible, and even equally true.⁷

Fourth, we must teach members of the next generation, especially our own children, about worldviews and how to discern truth from error. Here are three tremendous resources for doing so: http://www.thetruthproject.org; http://impact360institute.org; http://www.summit.org.
Fifth, we have to be diligent about living according to the truth we profess to believe. If our lives aren’t consistent with what we say, we severely weaken the case we are trying to make.

As we have said, these are starting points, but they are vitally important. Once we become worldview Christians, we will consciously understand and uphold the practice of interpreting life according to biblical truth. Biblical lenses, needless to say, contrast sharply to the lenses through which everyone else around us interprets the world.

Consider the testimony of one teenager who had attended a Summit Ministries worldview training camp. He said the training had “ruined” his movie watching experiences. Now every time he saw a film, he automatically would pick up on worldview messages inherent in the movie.⁸ Good for him! If what he said was true about his watching movies, certainly he could pick up on worldview messages present in other places as well. May we, too, become that perceptive and astute!

Notes:

¹http://quotes.lifehack.org/quote/c-s-lewis/christianity-if-false-is-of-no-importance/

²http://academictips.org/blogs/the-story-of-a-woodcutter/

³http://www.artofmanliness.com/2012/07/17/how-to-restore-an-heirloom-axe/

⁴http://www.colsoncenter.org/wfp-home

⁵http://www.breakpoint.org/bp-home

⁶https://wordfoundations.com/529-2/

⁷http://steadfastlutherans.org/2012/08/contradictions-dont-coexist/

⁸http://www.breakpoint.org/bpcommentaries/entry/13/24871

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