What is a Christian worldview? As a result of the effort to teach about culture and worldview, many Christians today are at least familiar with the idea of worldview and are conversant with the definition of a Christian worldview. A Christian worldview (or biblical worldview) is a view of the world that is shaped by the Bible and Christian teachings. Some have spoken of it like lenses through which one views the world. A Christian is called and expected to view the world through lenses that are colored and shaped by the Bible and by the teachings of the Christian church.
My concern in writing is not that Christians cannot describe the basics of a Christian worldview, but rather that many believers today unwittingly trade their Chrisitan worldview for the prevailing worldview of contemporary culture. There is an idea that being a “good Christian” means that you don’t drink too much (or at all), don’t use drugs, don’t use four-letter words, and that you avoid spending too much time with people who do the things that are forbidden. But, there is more to living according to a Christian worldview than clinging to a list of moral rules.
there is more to living according to a Christian worldview than clinging to a list of moral rules.
Mr. Rogers (yes, the guy with the cardigan) once said, “I feel so strongly that deep and simple is far more essential than shallow and complex.” I’m concerned that as Christians, we have reduced living the Chrisitan life and living according to a Christian worldview down to a set of shallow and complex ideas without seeking to live deeply in relationship with God and in the simple truth that is given to us through the God of the universe.
Divine simplicity is the theological concept that explains that God is simple. Now, simple does not mean simplistic, it means rather that, as the Westminster shorter catechism explains, “God is a spirit and does not have a body like ours.”
God is simple. He does not have hair, nerves, and eyeballs. He exists and he exists simply. God does not have potential, and he does not have ambition. He just is. How does the Son exist eternally as the Son, he just does.
As evangelicals we have a bad habit of wrestling with challenging theological concepts like divine simplicityand replying, “That’s all well and good, but really, what practical application does this have? We aren’t into theology and all that stuff; we just want to share the gospel.”
But, what if living a devoted and consistent Christian life requires us to contemplate the deep things of the Lord?
What if developing and promoting a Christian worldview is less about the four-letter words you do or don’t use and more about the way you respond to others?
The fact is the worldview we espouse is different from a secular worldview in many ways more than just our commitment to not use potty words.
When we consider the bedrocks of a Christian worldview, it is appropriate that we begin with a big word, ontology. Ontology is concerned with what is true or real. What is the basis of truth or reality.
As followers of Christ, we root our existence and the existence of all things in a transcendent, personal Creator God who has created the world with real moral order that expects and requires that we should conform to that world.
Secular worldviews (usually) hold to a materialistic worldview which, until recently, was not significantly different in lived experience from a biblical or Christian worldview. However, when materialism began to mean only that God did not (or, if he did, that he was not actually involved in and concerned with the affairs of the world) and not that the material world was real and deterministic, things got a little crazy.
No longer does the secular worldview perceive of a world that is somewhat fixed and requires our conformity, instead, the prevailing worldview of our postmodern society is one that believes the world to be a sort of raw material waiting for each individual to form the world into his or her own satisfactory reality.
We are in a war for truth in our world, but the war probably doesn’t begin where you think.
The struggle is not between left and right. The struggle is between Chrisitan and secular. There are some significant distinctions between political or cultural conservatives and political or cultural liberals, but as Christians, we can’t paint only with that brush. Our president is culturally conservative in some ways, but he is pro-choice, pro-IVF, regularly demeans others, and sometimes leans more into feelings than facts.
For Christians, truth always comes first and must always come first. A lean into feelings or personal preferences can only come after the Christian has wrestled with objective truth. Paul is clear in 1 Corinthians that love is a necessary component of speaking truth, but it is also the case that without truth, there is no real love. Feelings without facts creates a form of liberalism or even anarchy. Facts without feelings (love, care, emotion) creates legalism or fundamentalism. Both are wrong.
A Christian worldview, however, requires Christian convictions and Biblical wisdom and direction. In a polarized culture, there is a temptation to compromise on convictions for the sake of earning cultural cachet. But, the way of Christ is different.
Because we live in a sinful world, it will often be necessary to vote for sinful people who do not fully represent our worldviews, but we should do so with honesty about who they are, not as sycophants. Christians are called to be Christian. Not republican. Not democrat. Christians.
It was this single-minded devotion that set early Christians apart from their contemporaries in the Roman Empire, and it will be the same single-minded devotion that can set Christians apart today—but only if we are willing to cling to Christ.
