Equipping Members of the Next Generation of Christians to Defend Their Faith and to Embrace a Biblical Worldview, Part 10
Today’s marginalization of Christianity is a direct result of our failure to understand our faith as a total worldview.
—Charles Colson—
You can find links to all the articles in this series here.
Key points: The Bible provides a comprehensive belief system through which we can make sense of the world in which we live. Moreover, it commends this belief system to all and encourages Christians to contend for it in the marketplace of ideas.
Some years ago I attended the funeral of a prominent Christian leader. I had not known the deceased man personally but was thankful for his leadership and grateful for the opportunity to attend his funeral. At the service, the man’s son spoke highly of his dad and the leadership he’d exercised. Among several things he said in praise of his dad was that his father had made it a point to emphasize an important truth about the Bible. “Son, remember this about the Scriptures. The Bible is not a book of history, science, philosophy, or psychology, but a book of faith.”
I admit I cringed when the speaker made this statement about his father, even though I believe I knew what he meant: When we come to the Bible, we come looking for truth about God, and we find it there. Since God has established that we must come to Him in faith, our faith is strengthened and informed by the Scriptures. All of this is true.
Even so, through his statement, this Christian leader implied (however unintentionally) that the Bible has nothing significant to say about history, science, philosophy, psychology, or any other non-religious subject it addresses. This is misleading at best and downright deceptive at worst. I do not believe this gentleman was trying to deceive anyone deliberately, but I do think he was guilty of an error committed by a great many believers and church leaders today. The error is compartmentalization—walling off one’s Christianity and allowing it to affect just the “religious” part of one’s life without having any bearing at all on any other part of his or her life or experience.
On an individual level, compartmentalization is walling off one’s Christianity and allowing it to affect just the “religious” part of one’s life without having any bearing at all on any other part of his or her life or experience.
You see, the Bible doesn’t reveal truth about religious matters only. The following material has been adapted from this article.
First, we sometimes learn truth about God from historical events recorded in the Bible. For example, Exodus 1–14 tells us about Israel’s enslavement in Egypt and God’s using Moses to bring the people out of slavery. These are historical events, and the Bible accurately records them. The historical time period covered in the biblical record represents thousands of years, so we’re talking about a great many events.
Second, the Bible contains statements that relate to science. In Isaiah 40:22, Isaiah wrote this about God.
It is He who sits above the circle of the earth,
And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers,
Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain,
And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.
Remarkably, the inspired prophet referred to the earth as a circle over 700 years before Christ was born. Carol Brooks writes,
Although Aristotle provided observational evidence for the spherical Earth around 330 BC, most pre-Socratic philosophers, including Leucippus (c. 440 BC) and Democritus (c. 460-370 BC) believed in a flat earth. However, by the time of Christopher Columbus he, and most other educated people of their time, knew that the earth was round. In fact, the Greek mathematician Eratostenes accurately calculated the earth’s circumference in the third century before Christ.
Third, Proverbs 17:22 says,
A merry heart does good, like medicine,
But a broken spirit dries the bones.
This is a very insightful observation touching on both science (biology) and psychology (human emotions and behavior).
Fourth, the Bible is a book with wonderful information about human relationships as well. Here are two examples. Proverbs 27:14 says,
He who blesses his friend with a loud voice, rising early in the morning,
It will be counted a curse to him.
Verse 17 of the same chapter declares,
As iron sharpens iron,
So a man sharpens the countenance of his friend.
These are just four examples. We need to keep in mind that whenever and wherever the words of God’s revelation in the Bible speak to history, psychology, philosophy, science, or any other field of knowledge or study, it speaks accurately and reliably. The reason is because of what the Bible is. The Bible is a written record of truth God has revealed about Himself, the world, humanity, sin, life, death, eternity, and many other things.
The Bible is a written record of truth God has revealed about Himself, the world, humanity, sin, life, death, eternity, and many other things.
We should not think of God’s Word, therefore, as a book of faith, but as a book of divinely revealed truth. Of course, faith is important because we are wise to respond to God’s revelation by believing it and by acting accordingly (see Titus 1:2).
We shouldn’t think of the Bible as a book of faith, but as a book of divinely revealed truth.
This is not to say that we don’t take into account the various literary forms used in Scripture. Metaphors are used and should be understood in their context. Poetry conveys meaning in ways prose does not. Often the Bible speaks in generalities and not with scientific precision (see Luke 13:19; see the article titled “Roofs in First Century Palestine”). We should take all these things into account when interpreting the Bible, knowing they do not negate or diminish the trustworthiness of anything the Scriptures say. Here is an excellent article highlighting 17 common mistakes people make when interpreting Scripture.
Here is an article offering 13 principles for properly interpreting the Bible.
The main point here is that the Bible is accurate1 in all that it says regarding all the areas to which it speaks, including matters we think of as “religious” as well as those we think of as “non-religious.”
A Handbook for Living in Every Area of Life
With a proper understanding of what the Bible is, we are better equipped to use it as God wants us to use it. Mark it down! God did not give us His Word so we would use it only in church, or only as it applies to our relationship with Him. God’s revealed truth should affect every area of our lives.
God did not give us His Word so we would use it only in church, or only as it applies to our relationship with Him.
An often-used illustration is that of a pie. Picture in your mind a pie, with each slice representing a specific area of your life, such as your career, family life, friendships, volunteer work, recreational activities, entertainment choices, hobbies and outside interests, and church. Many Christians see biblical truth as applying only to their church experience or solely to their personal relationship with God. Rather than seeing Scripture as applicable only to that slice of life, we need to see it as relevant to the whole pie. As Paul wrote to the Corinthian Christians in 1 Corinthians 5:17,
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new (emphasis added).
Significantly, the Bible provides a “lens” through which to view all of life. Looking through that lens, life makes sense to an extent that it otherwise would not. We look around us and see an ordered world, but also a world of broken relationships. We sense intuitively that not everything is as it should be. When we turn to the Scriptures, we read an account that explains why things are as they are and how the Author of the universe and the world one day will right the wrongs that seem currently to overpower.
We also learn that we are sinners and cannot save ourselves. We need a Savior, and God sent His only Son, Jesus, into the world to live a perfect life and to be executed for human sin on a cross on the afternoon of a Passover Friday. The following Sunday morning He returned to life, demonstrating beyond doubt that God approved of His sacrifice. When we come to Jesus in humble sorrow for having broken God’s law and repent of our sins, He forgives us and makes us right with God.
Once we become Christians and are born anew into God’s family, we have all the rights and privileges of being God’s children. Moreover, we have certain responsibilities we need to fulfill, not to be saved, but because we have been saved. One privilege that has implications for us in terms of our attitudes and actions is the reality that “all things have become new” (Cor. 5:17), something we acknowledged earlier. We not only have a new life, but with that life we have a new perspective that manifests itself in every area of life.
A New Perspective, A New Way of Seeing the World
Here I would like to explore several Bible passages that relate to this new perspective, this new way of looking at the world, this biblical worldview. The Bible, remember, is a book of divinely revealed truth, and it speaks with accuracy regarding every subject it addresses. Thus, it speaks truthfully concerning how the Christian is to view an interpret life and the world around him. Let’s examine four categories of biblical truth that provide the biblical underpinnings for the Christian worldview.
First, think biblically.
- the Bible commands Christians to love God with all their minds.
- It further commands followers of Christ to avoid being conformed to the world but instead to be transformed by having their minds renewed. See Matthew 22:34-40 and Romans 12:1-2.
Second, don’t be deceived by false ideas and deliberate lies, no matter how appealing they may sound.
The Bible warns believers not to be taken in by false teachings and ideas. See Matthew 7:24-28; 1 Corinthians 1:18-25; 1 Corinthians 3:18-23; and Colossians 2:6-10.
- In Matthew 7:24-28, Jesus concluded His sermon on the mount by telling His hearers that whoever hears and heeds His words is like the man who builds his house on a foundation of bedrock, but whoever ignores or rejects His words is like the man who builds his house on a foundation of sand. When the storms come and the winds blow, the house built on rock stands, but the one built on sand comes crashing to the ground.
- In 1 Corinthians 1:18-25, Paul told the Corinthian Christians that God’s wisdom, particularly the wisdom of saving people through Christ’s death on the cross, is foolishness to those who refuse to accept it. Even so, God’s foolishness is wiser, and God’s weakness is stronger, than human wisdom and strength.
- In 1 Corinthians 3:18-23, Paul echoed the theme he’d laid out in 1 Corinthians 1:18-25.
- Colossians 2:6-10 contains this powerful warning from verse 8: “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.”
Third, contend for biblical truth.
- the Bible indicates that spiritual truths are powerful and “mighty in God for pulling down strongholds” that are based on falsehoods.
- Believers are engaged in spiritual warfare in which, armed with God’s truth, they can cast “down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself agains the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” (2 Cor. 10:1-5).
Fourth, remember your accountability to God.
Christians are accountable to God for their attitudes and conduct. See Psalm 19:12-14; Ecclesiastes 12:13-14; 1 Corinthians 3:9-17; and Hebrews 9:27-28.
- In Psalm 19:12-14, David wrote, “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my strength and my Redeemer.”
- Solomon, the writer of Ecclesiastes, concluded the account of his quest for meaning and fulfillment by telling his readers, “Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man’s all. for God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil.”
- The believer’s foundation for his or her life is Jesus Christ, and on that foundation the believer builds with thoughts and actions. “Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is. If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward.”
- “[I]t is appointed for men once to die,” wrote the inspired writer of Hebrews, “but after this the judgment.”
What Is at Stake
We should keep in mind that we’re talking about a battle for truth over falsehood. “There is a way that seems right to a man,” we’re told in Proverbs 14:12 and Proverbs 16:25, “But its end is the way of death.”
Why are the tenets of the biblical worldview difficult for non-Christians to comprehend? First, spiritual things are spiritually discerned, and second, people do not want to emerge from darkness into the light of truth because their deeds are evil, and the light of truth will expose them. We need to pray that God’s Spirit will enlighten people to help them understand that truth is their friend if they accept it and embrace the one true God, who is the source of all truth.
As we become increasingly familiar with the biblical worldview and the way it explains and enhances our understanding of reality, we are reminded that all truth is God’s truth, and that a believer is to surrender every area of his or her life to God’s authority. Moreover, we’re reminded of the urgency of helping others see truth from a biblical perspective.
Next time, we’ll examine how the biblical worldview, when properly applied, affects our perspective on relationships, priorities, and choices.
Stay tuned!
Copyright © 2018 by B. Nathaniel Sullivan. All rights reserved.
Summary
- First, think biblically.
- Second, don’t be deceived by false ideas and deliberate lies, no matter how appealing they may sound.
- Third, contend for biblical truth.
- Fourth, remember your accountability to God.
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture has been taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Note:
1Many articles reinforce this, including these: Science and the Bible; Scientific Accuracy; and How do I know the Bible is not just mythology?
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