Subscribe to Decision
Get your own subscription, or renewal, or bless someone by giving Decision Magazine as a gift.
SUBSCRIBE NOW
In late January, the United States Senate failed by nine votes to pass legislation that would have banned abortions after the 20th week of pregnancy. Since Roe v. Wade made abortion legal in 1973, more than 60 million children have been murdered in their mothers’ wombs.
In New Mexico, Oregon, Colorado and Washington, a photographer, bakers and a florist have all been fined and accused of illegally discriminating against same-sex couples for not participating in a gay wedding. Businesses have been shuttered and livelihoods taken away by government authorities.
The nation’s highest court infamously ruled in 2015 that states must allow same-sex marriage.
At the University of Iowa, the school tried to ban a Christian group from campus after they refused to allow a practicing homosexual to lead in prayer.
In many European nations, especially France and the United Kingdom, fundamentalist Islam has gained a strong foothold. Despite its brutal treatment of women and complete disregard for their basic rights, opposition to it is designated as “Islamophobia.”
In Canada, the mere preaching of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and God’s authoritative Word has the potential to be branded and treated as a hate crime by provincial authorities.
In each of these scenarios, and most every aspect of personal and public life, a worldview lies at the heart of the prevailing thought, sentiment and ultimate judgments. A worldview is the way a person views the world and himself. It is the lens through which an individual sees issues and relationships, and it becomes the foundation and framework for all decision making.
For example, just recently, a tragic shooting occurred at a high school in a small Kentucky town, killing two students and injuring 18. Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin, a social conservative and strong evangelical with a clear, Biblically informed worldview, quickly responded that more gun laws were not the solution.
Gov. Bevin instead challenged Americans to “wake up,” recognize that such shootings are a “cultural problem,” and to determine their “root causes.” The governor went on to say that “we can’t celebrate death in video games, celebrate death in TV shows, celebrate death in movies, celebrate death in musical lyrics and remove any sense of morality and sense of higher authority and then expect that things like this are not going to happen. Our culture is crumbling from within.”
Courageously, last summer, Gov. Bevin proposed a bold, Bible-centered approach to address a scourge of violence that has gripped Kentucky’s largest city, Louisville. Bevin called for Christians to gather in “small groups of 3-10 people … quietly walking one block, in one troubled neighborhood at 7 p.m. several days a week for one year, praying as they walk.”
Gov. Bevin believes in the power of prayer, but as you can imagine, his comments were met with disdain from the secular media and institutions, who obviously don’t consider prayer of any particular importance or value.
An individual with a Biblical worldview looks at the world and sifts all information through the lens of God’s Word. Scripture informs his thinking and behavior, guiding his intellect and moral determinations. The Bible is the bedrock that undergirds his entire life.
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind” (Romans 12:2).
First and foremost, the Biblical worldview says emphatically there is a God who has created all things in Heaven and earth. Think about it for a moment. The evolutionist is always searching for how to describe the origin and development of life in purely quasi-scientific or materialistic terms. He completely dismisses any notion of a Creator God, and thus is forced to come to ridiculous and preposterous assumptions, unsubstantiated by proof.
An atheist communist state rejects any acknowledgment of God, and thus seeks to assert itself as the sovereign authority, leading to inevitable ruin and misery. Just a few weeks ago, Fidel Castro’s son, a nuclear physicist who studied in Russia, took his own life. With no God, there is no hope.
The secular worldview dismisses God as irrelevant in the affairs of men and government, and views critical moral issues as independent of God’s moral character and principles. Clear definitions of right and wrong are impossible to determine, having been replaced by cultural whims and situational ethics.
Over and against every competing worldview, the Bible forcefully declares, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind” (Romans 12:2). In other words, the only way to see all of life accurately is through the transforming lens of Scripture.
The Biblical worldview says there is a God—One who is personal, powerful and caring—who created the world and everything in it. It states unequivocally that man is created in God’s image, living in essence as God’s co-regent over creation. Mankind—born and unborn, rich and poor, able and disabled—has intrinsic worth. Almighty God is a sovereign God, ruler over nations, states, empires and governments. He is to be worshipped and obeyed through the precepts and principles revealed in His infallible Word. He not only exists, but He is sovereign over all of history according to His wisdom and purposes, and He is intimately involved in every aspect of life.
The Biblical worldview also asserts the existence and reality of sin and evil. “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). War, disease, violence, injustice and the myriad of problems that beset the world are the result of man’s rebellion against God. No amount of higher education, no enlightened political agenda or social program can cancel or remove the devastating consequences of sin. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick” (Jeremiah 17:9).
The Biblical perspective also recognizes the active opposition of a personal adversary, the devil, who is constantly on the prowl to tempt and destroy. The devil aggressively opposes God and His people, wreaking havoc in virtually every arena. A deceiver, a liar and a murderer, he seizes every opportunity to carry out his diabolical schemes.
Any attempt to create a utopian society, to permanently solve global problems, is doomed to fail.
For now.
But one day soon, as the Biblical worldview triumphantly proclaims, the Lord Jesus Christ will return to earth, meting out eternal judgment to those who have rebelled against Him while gathering to Himself the saints, who will rule along with Him in a new Heaven and a new Earth. There will be no more sickness, no more death, no more disease, no more violence, for our enemy will be cast into an eternal lake of fire, and sin will be no more (Revelation 20:10).
This is the only worldview that sees clearly, rightly and rejoices the heart for eternity. ©2018 BGEA
Do you have a Biblical worldview? Receive Christ today.
Give To Where Most Needed
