A Christian Worldview

Worldview Essay Everyone has a worldview. Some incorporate God and some rely on science. Regardless of the specifics, “A worldview is a theory of the world, used for living in the world” (American 1). Worldviews affect every area of one’s life. It answers some of the tough questions of life like “What is human?” (Dr. Henderson 4), is there a God? (American 1), “what happens when we die?” (Dr. Henderson 4) or “What is prime reality?”(Dr. Henderson 4). Worldview affects and dictates ones ethics, theology, sociology, psychology, views on biology, view of politics, and view of the role of history. Glasses can serve as an analogy for worldview. Glasses make things more clear and help you to see but you cannot see outside the parameters
of the glasses. The same goes for a worldview, like the glasses, one only sees the world around them through their worldview. A biblical worldview focuses primarily on God as the ruler of our lives (Dr.
Henderson 6). Because of this our ethics, theology, psychology, and such come from what God willed them to be and outlined in the Bible. The Bible completely outlines true Christian Worldview. It answers the tough questions. The Christian worldview is not the only one that incorporates a god in its theology. Islam, Buddhism, and Cosmic Humanism are a few of the others that incorporate a belief in a higher power. Because Christianity is not the sole worldview with a God, we must know who this God is. For Christian theology, we find this information in the texts of the Bible. The Biblical worldview’s God is one that made it possible to be redeemed to him by his son’s death on the Cross, this is found in John 3:16. This God is loving and does not judge us by our works but rather by the repentance of our sins and acceptance of his son (Eph 2:8-9). A Biblical worldview is incomplete without Christ (Dr. Henderson 7). Worldview is a mindset, a way of thinking and in Romans 12:2 it states “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” (NIV). The verse basically explains that our minds become new with the acceptance of the biblical worldview (accepting Christ), and by thinking this way, we can understand God and his will for us. Christian worldview is the only of
its kind that incorporates a God and does not require that works be done in order to be “accepted” by him. The biblical worldview acknowledges that God created all there is (Dr. Henderson 12). Most other worldviews leave it up to random chance and evolution. The debate between creation and evolution is ever raging and many arguments have been made for either side but only creation seems to stay consistent. Correct biblical worldview does not contradict itself while most other worldviews have many contradictions in their views. On Ethics, the biblical worldview acknowledges that this world is a fallen and sinful one (Dr. Henderson 12). Many other world views advocate that ethics do no matter and that absolute truth is nonexistent, thus anything goes and can be justified as “good” through self-preference. Christian ethic however come direct from biblical text. The Ten Commandments are the best example of Christian ethics. In short, a Biblical worldview is living life as Christ did, having his mindset so that we may be more like him and grow closer to God. There are many secular worldviews. As Christians we need to spread the word of God’s grace and convert others to a biblical way of thinking. In order to do this, a good knowledge of the other worldviews one is opposing is important. By knowing the mindset of others, one can argue against it easier and more affectively. Biblical worldview works side by side with the Christian faith and can arguably be considered one in the same. However having a biblical worldview does not make one better than another or perfect. No matter what ones worldview is
“We operate on the basic assumption that we exist. Likewise, we operate in a basic set of moral assumptions about what the good life is, what we are called to do, and what is right and wrong. We operate out of a certain sense of rationality, and we operate as economic people and political citizens. We function as neighbors, sons, daughters, husbands, and wives based on facts that we take for granted. The problem is that worldviews show all the marks of human sinfulness just as every human culture, civilization, and soul does”(Piper 59-60).