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Wednesday, August 22, 2012

The Far-Reaching Significance of a Christian Worldview

The Extensive Nature of the Biblical Christian Worldview
In today's blog I want to briefly cover some of the major disciplines, areas of knowledge and life that can be addressed by a Christian worldview.  We noted the beginning point of the Christian worldview as being Genesis 1-12.  From those twelve chapters, key areas of thought in not only the history of redemption, but in virtually every area of thought had their beginning.  Below is a thumb nail sketch of potential areas that a Christian worldview addresses:

1. Origin of the Universe or Cosmology, Astrophysicis, Biology, Botany, Zoology, Anthropology = Genesis 1
2. Cosmogeny or the structure of the universe = Genesis 1
3. Anthropology or the study and origins of humanity, Psychology = Genesis 1:26-28 and Genesis 2
4. Criminology, Ethics, Problem of Evil and Suffering, Family Counseling = Genesis 3-4
5. From some of Adam's descendants we see the introduction of metalurgy, music, the arts, the beginning of urbanization and human culture = Genesis 4
6. Genaeology, Philosophy of History = Genesis 5
7. Hydrological cycle, Hydro-dynamics, Geology, Earth Science, Ship building = Genesis 6-9
8. Population distributions, Statistics, Cultural Anthropology, Cultural Development = Genesis 10
9. Linguistics, Palentology, Origin of the nations = Genesis 11
10. Historical, Redemptive and Eternal Promises of God are brought to bear in the Covenant begun with Abram in Genesis 12

The Christian Worldview is the most extensive and comprehensive worldview around
These are but just a few areas.  Every field of human thought and study is addressed in its most basic form in the Biblical worldview.  A Book that does an excellent job on this subject is by Bible Believing scholar Henry Morris entitled: The Long War Again God. Sometimes you will hear such a worldview referred to as a Judeo/Christian worldview, meaning that the basis derives from the Jewish Old Testament and Christian New Testament.  For instance, the Bible may not be an Astronomy Text book, yet some of the most fundamental assumptions of science, such as the regularity of physical laws and the belief in an objective, measurable reality are assumptions scientists borrowed from a Judea/Christian worldview.

Being able to understand how God's revelation in scripture relates to such disciplines as Science, Philosophy, Ethics, Law, Culture, Government, as well as its ability to discern truth from error in other belief systems, makes the Judeo/Christian Worldview (i.e the Biblical Worldview) the most comprehensive worldview in existence. 

Why Christian Worldview Development is so crucial - some thoughts
Worldview development is crucial, since by it Christians are able to reach out to the unbelieving culture with a biblical informed, historical tested and coherent system that is God centered, Christ exalting and Biblical sound.  Worldview development aims not merely at information, but transformation.  It begins with the mind and aims to affect the conscience so as to yield transformation fo the heart.  It is critical for a person to have been Born-Again by the Spirit of God by grace through faith in their human spirit, since the Christian life is all about bringing the soul (mind, emotions, will) and body into allignment with God's Word while making and impact on the world for Jesus Christ.  Without a genuine conversion experience, the Christian Worldview cannot be appreciated, embraced and applied.