What’s Your World View?Maybe that is a question you never thought about or even realized was a question. Our world view is the set of lenses through which we comprehend the world in which we live and move and have our being.
Acts 17:28
8' For in him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.' NIV
It used be said that there were three types of world views;
The Eastern world view
The Western world view
The Biblical world view
These were defined as follows:
The Eastern world view was understood to be that world view that included the spiritual world as a part of every day life. This view would also be seen as spiritualistic as it understood the spirit world to be involved in every aspect of life. Some would say that it was superstitious or filled with myth and legend.
The Western world view was thought to be the world view that embraced knowledge and the scientific method. This world view had eliminated the need for spirits and superstitions. This was the world we could measure and understand with our five senses.
The Biblical World view is the correct understanding of the world in which we live and move and have our being. It comprehends both the spirit world and the world of our senses revealed by the One true God who created it and all that exist. It understands the proper order and nature of all that exist.
You may be wondering why the first two world views are wrong and the third one correct. The answer is that those people who see things according to the first two have had there understanding darkened by sin which in turn has separated them from God.
Rom 1:18-23
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, 19 because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. 20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. 21 For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22 Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. NASU
Those people with the Biblical world view have accepted Christ and the mind of Christ. Their understanding is no longer foolish or darkened.
1 Cor 2:14-3:1
14 The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15 The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man's judgment: 16 "For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?" But we have the mind of Christ. NIV
Col 1:12-14
12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. 13 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. NIV
We who have received Christ as our savior or Messiah no longer have our minds darkened and therefore may begin to understand the true order and workings of God’s creations, both natural and spiritual. It is His light and His Spirit that brings us into all truth and allows us to see as he sees this world in which we live and move and have our being!
This is a primary teaching on the road to understanding the spiritual realm and in exercising our authority as people of the Way, as believers are called in Acts before they were called Christians or followers of Christ.
Note: In recent history 'the way' was indeed a sect or group of people who have used this Biblical term in an unhealthy manner, and who have not accepted a complete understanding of Biblical Christianity.
Acts 24:14-16
14 However, I admit that I worship the God of our fathers as a follower of the Way, which they call a sect. I believe everything that agrees with the Law and that is written in the Prophets, 15 and I have the same hope in God as these men, that there will be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked. 16 So I strive always to keep my conscience clear before God and man. NIV
Acts 11:26
The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch. NIV
Artwork "Alpha & Omega." On page three at the link below.
http://www.allposters.com/gallery.asp?aid=1592821654&c=c&search=14071
4 comments:
The Islamic world view has been lumped in with the spiritualistic or eastern world view, as Allah was once thought to be one of the 238 spirits or gods worshipped among the people of that part of the world in the days when Islam was birthed.
Another way to separate the various worldviews that I personally like (mostly because I made my own graphic for it) delineates the worldviews based on where sovereignty lays...with the individual, something external to the individual (the state, society or law) or with God ruling internally in His people.
Would you agree that even the "Biblical worldview" of churches in a particular culture are subtley impacted by one of the other 2? It seems that much of the American church, for example, is still pretty immersed in a Western worldview, with most of the atheistic parts of scientific theory shaved off, of course. I wonder if that worldview has impacted the way the American (and even european) church has organized and stated it's theology. Particularly in how it has shaped our ecclesiology, based on what the typical evangelical church looks.
It almost sounds like your idea of the "Biblical Worldview" sets Christians up to have the "perfected worldview." I wonder if our understanding is still in process of being enlightened. Yes, we have the mind of Christ, but it surely is not wholly perfected as of yet.
The Biblical Worldview is what is laid out in scripture as it pertains to the natural and spupernatural worlds. Although our understanding of scripture may be imperfect, the Bible still is correct in its portrayal of the spirit world.
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