Christians Can't Get Enough of That Worldview Junk

I wouldn't gripe about this stuff if freaking James Dobson wouldn't send me emails advertising for it. It's your own fault, Doc. Quit sending me unsolicited emails.

Oh, by the way, I am now thoroughly convinced that Christians need to stop selling their messages. Either that, or quit marketing them as if they have the answers that are "vital" and "necessary" for us to live a "proper" Christian life. If you really believe that you're book/seminar/dvd could mean the difference between someone's immortal soul spending eternity with God or in hell, and you withhold it because someone doesn't cough up sufficient funds,... well... maybe YOU could live with the cosmic weight of that responsibility. I couldn't.

Now, on with the show. George Barna has sent the entire evangelical world into fits over his statistic that a "dismal 9 percent" of born-again Christians have a "biblical worldview." I'm going to assume that everyone is familiar with this favorite vocabulary word of the evangelical community at this time, but what is a "biblical" worldview?

A biblical worldview is based on the infallible Word of God. When you believe the Bible is entirely true, then you allow it to be the foundation of everything you say and do. That means, for instance, you take seriously the mandate in Romans 13 to honor the governing authorities by researching the candidates and issues, making voting a priority.

And this, in itself, is a microcosm of the problem in its ENTIRETY! According to Dobson, the infallible word of God tells us we should vote! If you don't vote, you're either 1) not taking the authority of the Bible seriously enough, and thus, are a member of that 91% that is wrecking Christendom, or 2) you're in flagrant rebellion against the commands of God as stated in his infallible word. Nevermind the fact that, when Romans 13 was written, NO ONE VOTED! Voting itself would have been considered an absurdity. 1000 years later, it would have been considered heresy by the Christian church!

This exposes the fallacy of the thought. A biblical worldview means that you acknowledge the Bible's authority and that you do what it says. Problem: what if there is disagreement about what it's telling you to do? Who wins? My guess is that it's the people with established institutional power, or money. Those guys seem to win a lot.

In order to avoid the complications caused by logic and reasonable thought, Barna came up with a handy questionaire to be able to assess the "biblicalness" of your worldview.

Do you have a biblical worldview? Answer the following questions, based on claims found in the Bible and which George Barna used in his survey:
1. Do absolute moral truths exist?
2. Is absolute truth defined by the Bible?
3. Did Jesus Christ live a sinless life?
4. Is God the all-powerful and all-knowing Creator of the universe, and does He still rule it today?
5. Is salvation a gift from God that cannot be earned?
6. Is Satan real?
7. Does a Christian have a responsibility to share his or her faith in Christ with other people?
8. Is the Bible accurate in all of its teachings?

Some beliefs are obviously core. If you call yourself a follower of Christ, then the very definition of the phrase requires you to accept certain things as true. However, most of these questions, such as the "absolute moral truth" question, have become so burdened by socio/political and cultural baggage that they have ceased to mean anything. Most people don't understand the true weight of such questions, anyhow. To throw these questions around your average church's sunday school youth group and accept the answer as being valid is naive at best and manipulative at worst.

So why, according to Dobson, do we not ALL have "biblical worldviews." Could it be because everyone lives in different circumstances that inform their worldviews differently? No, you relativist!

Because we live in a selfish, fallen world, these [unbiblical] ideas seductively appeal to the desires of our flesh, and we often end up incorporating them into our personal worldview. Sadly, we often do this without even knowing it.
For example, most Christians would agree with 1 Thessalonians 4:3 and other Scriptures that command us to avoid sexual immorality, but how often do Christians fall into lust or premarital and extramarital sexual sin? Is it simply because they are weak when tempted, or did it begin much earlier, with the seductive lies from our sexualized society?

So if you sin sexually, it isn't because you are a human being who gave in to sexual temptation as humans have since the dawn of time. It's because you obviously don't give the bible the authority that it deserves.

So, why is this important?

If we don’t really believe the truth of God and live it, then our witness will be confusing and misleading. Most of us go through life not recognizing that our personal worldviews have been deeply affected by the world. Through the media and other influences, the secularized American view of history, law, politics, science, God and man affects our thinking more than we realize. We then are taken “captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ” (Colossians 2:8).

What I find immensely humorous about this is that these people probably don't realize how much this applies to them and their own worldviews. See my above comments about giving away "the message" then ask yourself why they're charging$120 a pop to attend their "training seminars."

However, by diligently learning, applying and trusting God’s truths in every area of our lives — whether it’s watching a movie, communicating with our spouses, raising our children or working at the office — we can begin to develop a deep comprehensive faith that will stand against the unrelenting tide of our culture’s nonbiblical ideas. If we capture and embrace more of God’s worldview and trust it with unwavering faith, then we begin to make the right decisions and form the appropriate responses to questions on abortion, same- sex marriage, cloning, stem-cell research and even media choices. Because, in the end, it is our decisions and actions that reveal what we really believe.

AHA! And so we find out what it's really about. If you don't have a biblical worldview, you won't vote the way WE WANT YOU TO VOTE! Remember, voting is an activity mandated by God. But that's not all! HOW you vote is also mandated by God. So get out there and mark the "R" at the top of your ballot, soldier!
posted by Stephen at 8:20 AM | |