What is Your Worldview?

What do you believe about God,the nature of the universe,right and wrong,the nature of man? Is your God personal? Is there a transcendent meaning to life ? What is your basis for determining whether an action is right or wrong? All of our beliefs about theology,mankind,ethics,and related subjects determine our worldview. For some, their worldview has been well thought out,for others a mishmash of conflicting ideas are believed in.

Giving the eleventh Eric Symes Abbott Memorial Lecture at Westminster Abbey in 1996, the playwright David Hare made the following statement:’Although you might feel the question of God’s nature and existence ought to be obsessively important to each and everyone of us,the simple fact of the modern world is that it is not felt to be. Most of us have little idea of what we believe,and are also extremely confused on the subject of whether we would be willing to die for it. At least until the approach of death,the majority of Westerners are willing to tick the box in which they profess that they have some generalized religious belief but they are jiggered if they can actually say what it is.’ (Does God Believe in Atheists,John Blanchard,pg.197)

If most people cannot articulate what they believe and why they believe it, one would think the subject must not be so important.Nothing could be further from the truth!Think of the questions that flow out this subject:

• Can we know God? If God is personal there is that possibility,if impersonal we cannot.
• However, if God is impersonal,than where does personality come from?We are different from the rocks are we not?
• Is the Creation different from the Creator? Is all One? Or are human beings different and above the Creation?
• If humankind can know God,why don’t they? Why is there so much evil and suffering in the world? But wait,why do we have a conception of good/evil,and is your definition of what is good or evil different from mine?

Christianity has contended that humans need a supernatural revelation about God from God to explain God’s nature, the nature of the universe,and the nature of man. The Bible purports to be God’s revelation to man,and gives us truth about who God is, the great need of mankind and God’s solution to our many problems. The ultimate revelation of God is found in Jesus Christ. As Pascal says,

Not only do we not know God except through Jesus Christ,but we do not know ourselves except through Him. Without Jesus Christ we do not know what our life is,our death,or what God is,or ourselves. Thus,without the Scriptures,the sole purpose of which is Jesus Christ,we know nothing,and see nothing but darkness and confusion in God’s nature and in our own. (The Pensees,Pascal,#729,pg.251)

All religions have a source of revelation that seeks to answer the questions of life.An atheist by definition would seek to find the answers to life’s questions from self revelation and nature. How can finite man give answers to infinite questions without an outside infinite resource?He can guess,speculate,and theorize,but ultimately is in the dark.

Fortunately,God has revealed Himself,and Christians have the privilege of offering the gospel-the “good news” to all who will listen. This gospel tells us who God is,of our great need for salvation,of the evil and sin that is in the world,and the nature of creation and reality.

When I say that God is the Gospel I mean that the highest,best,final,decisive good of the gospel,without which no other gifts would be good,is the glory of God in the face of Christ revealed for our everlasting enjoyment.The saving love of God is God’s commitment to do everything to enthrall us with what is most deeply and durably satisfying,namely Himself.(God is the Gospel,John Piper,pg.13)

There is such a thing as Truth. There is a personal God. There is a way to be reconciled to this God.And there is a way to way to know God and to understand who we are.

Yeshua said,I AM the way-the Truth and the Life;no one comes to the Father except through Me.Because you have known Me,you will also know my Father;from now on,you do know Him-in fact,you have seen Him.(John14:6-7)