Developing a Biblical Worldview

Seeing Things God’s Way

C. Fred Smith

• Publisher: B&H Academic
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9781433674464
• eBook ISBN: 9781433685774
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Theology

Developing a Biblical Worldview equips readers to think biblically about the world in which we live. Four questions that everyone asks, at least implicitly, about life and reality are used as a rubric for analyzing worldviews: Who are we? Where are we? What is wrong? What is the answer? Professor C. Fred Smith answers these questions from a biblical perspective, enabling readers to discern how they have been influenced by false worldviews and where they need to grow in their biblical understanding.
 
As readers consider what it means to be human beings made in the image of God, to live in the world God created, to experience sin and its consequences, and to believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ, they will be encouraged to immerse themselves intentionally in the totality of Scripture and see the world God’s way.

Chapter 1

Who Are We?

Introduction

No question is closer to us than the question of our own identity. Who are we; what does it mean to be a human being? Are we just complex biochemical machines? The highest animal? Are we spirit beings trapped in the prison of the human body? Are we something more? The question goes right to the heart of our world­view, and every person has some understanding of their self-identity.

Who are we? God’s Word says we are created in the image of God (Gen 1:26–27) and that we are fallen beings (Rom 3:23). As Christians we are also new creatures in Christ (2 Cor 5:17). All human beings live in the tension between who we are as created in God’s image and who we are as fallen, sinful people. All Christians have the added dimension of the indwelling Spirit for power and guidance in living as people in whom the image of God is progressively being restored.

The larger culture has quite different answers to these questions. Basically, it says two things about who we are: first, that we are the highest stage of evolution, and therefore one among different kinds of animals,1 and second, that we are essentially very sophisticated computers, different from other computers only in degree.2 One of these views makes us a part of nature—a product of the natural world—and denies the spiritual dimension completely. The other view denies the importance of nature, and the spiritual, making us nothing more than carbon-based machines. Who are we, then, and how should our answer to this question affect the way we live?

God says that we are created in his image, and we are all sinners, fallen creatures, corrupted and in need of redemption and a new life. This is a very different answer from the world’s answer. It acknowledges that we are part of the creation—therefore beings who participate in nature—but this view affirms also that we transcend nature. We are “in his image” and therefore partake of something beyond creation. There is something within all of us that is not part of the natural world. And yet, as Scripture affirms, we are corrupted. This affects all of us too. It is one reason that people can eagerly embrace false ideas about who we are.

These false ideas can have profound ramifications for life. If we believe that we are simply advanced animals, we will acknowledge no higher moral law than our own desires and lusts. If we are nothing more than machines, then we have no moral responsibility to God or to others. On the other hand, if we really understand and embrace the biblical answer to the “Who are we?” question, we find motivation to live a godly life.

Because most people embrace worldviews foreign to the Bible, the way we should answer this question will be different from the way “most people” answer it. We must be prepared to live very differently from those around us in light of who we really are according to the Bible. Living a life of faith and obedience to Jesus Christ is much easier if we see ourselves and other people as God sees us.3 This is why it is so important that we develop a biblical answer to the “Who are we?” question, one that is deeply imbedded in our way of thinking, and not just a “doctrine” to which we give lip service.

People begin to answer the “Who are we?” question in very early childhood, although it certainly changes as we mature, especially as we grow in Christ. We receive our sense of who we are from our parents initially. Cultural assumptions about what it means to be a person, and what life is about, are passed on from parent to child, beginning before we even know how to speak.4 Therefore, if we are to challenge our own already deeply embedded worldview assumptions with what God says, we must work toward developing our self-identity from the Scriptures.

Answers to the “Who are we?” question go far beyond the surface level of “we are creatures in God’s image” or even “we are fallen and sinful creatures, in which the image of God is marred.” These are universal answers, ones that apply to the whole human race. We must begin with these truths but include others derived from them. Also, there is a more restricted sense of the universal answer that applies only to Christians. Here the question is, “Who are we in Christ?” What do we mean by the words “I am a Christian” or “I am redeemed” or “I am a new creature in Christ?” This second level, while true of all Christians, is not true of all people. If we are to live according to the biblical worldview, we must live in light of the answers at this level as well.

There are lower levels at which we answer this question—a third level where we may say, “I am an American” or “I am a Southern Baptist” or “. . . a Southerner,” etc. A fourth level has to do with our occupation, lifestyle, and specific circumstances—“I am a student at Liberty University” or “at Oklahoma Baptist University,” and “I am a non-smoker” or “I am a bookish person,” “a member of First Baptist Church,” and “a part-time stocker in a grocery store.” Even at these levels, the way we answer the top-level questions should affect the way we live at these more personal levels.

It is our universal answers, the ones we assume to be true, that really determine our worldview. This is then lived out in the ways we answer the lower-level particular questions. Often, we hear of people whose lifestyle is very different from their profession of faith in Jesus Christ. Often the disconnect between one’s claim to believe the Bible and the kinds of answers one lives out related to these lower-level questions demonstrates an actual worldview that is not as biblical as we think. For example if we say we believe that moral and spiritual commitments are most important but then focus on material things, such as looking stylish, then it is possible that our actual worldview is more shaped by Madison Avenue’s materialistic values than by biblical ones. This is the case even if we say on Sundays, “I am a creation of God in his image.” One goal of this book is to help readers connect the religious truths they know and repeat in church to the way they answer the third- and fourth-level questions. We will not treat these lower levels much in this chapter although future chapters will offer the reader help in answering those questions. These third and fourth levels, in fact, also relate very much to the “Where are we?” question in chapter 2. This chapter will examine closely the biblical answer to...

Table of contents

• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Who Are We?
• Chapter 2: Where Are We?
• Chapter 3: What Is Wrong?
• Chapter 4: What Is the Answer?
• Chapter 5: Understanding Worldview through Scriptural Examples
• Chapter 6: The Four Worldview Questions from America’s Perspective
• Chapter 7: Applying the Biblical Worldview to Popular Culture
• Chapter 8: Barriers to Developing a Biblical Mind-Set
• Chapter 9: Developing a Biblical Worldview
• Name Index
• Subject Index
• Scripture Index