Two Opposing Worldviews

Joshua 24:13-16 “I have given you a land for which you did not labor, and cities which you did not build, and you dwell in them; you eat of the vineyards and olive groves which you did not plant.’ “Now therefore, fear the Lord, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt. Serve the Lord! And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” So the people answered and said: “Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods.”

I read this week that since God created and instituted everything, He has the authority to regulate it. Yet God’s sovereignty is being abandoned today and that what is “wrong” in the eyes of the Lord is being affirmed as a public good. Our culture’s rejection of biblical thinking is based on postmodern relativism, and much of the visible church has gone down this road as well. Ultimately, the fundamental issue is God’s right to structure human society. Convince people that government, not God, lays down the rules and people will be confirmed in their relativism, believing that they determine right from wrong. Replace the foundation of human government and society, and the people will believe that might is right. They will believe that rulers of this world are not subject to a higher authority. R.C. Sproul

Isaiah 5:20 “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!”

"What had been achieved came to be regarded as a secure and imperishable possession, acquired once and for all. The eyes of the people became fixed on the new demands, the rapid satisfaction of which seemed to be barred by the adherence to the old principles. It became more and more widely accepted that further advance could be expected not along the old lines within the general framework which had made past progress possible but only by a complete remodeling of society. It was no longer a question of adding to or improving the existing machinery but of completely scrapping and replacing it. And, as the hope of the new generation came to be centered on something completely new, interest in and understanding of the functioning of the existing society rapidly declined; and, with the decline of the understanding of the way in which the free system worked, our awareness of what depended on its existence also decreased."  F.A. Hayek

Philippians 2:21 “For all seek their own, not the things which are of Christ Jesus.”

Restoring the biblical view of the world is the only answer, teaching people to apply the Bible to all of life. Someone once asked me if I could answer a debate without quoting some verse out of the Bible. Maybe the real question is “Can they back their view up with a bible verse or passage?” Sproul goes on to say that a biblical worldview is the basic beliefs that are to shape our understanding of life. We contend for a worldview that understands that human beings are creatures who are subject to their Creator. The true battle is about two irreconcilable views of reality – reality as God established it verses reality as a mere human construction.

Matthew 12:30 Jesus explained: “Anyone who isn’t with me opposes me, and anyone who isn’t working with me is actually working against me."

Knowing Christ and making Him known involves equipping people to know and defend the biblical world-view and to pass it on to friends and family. The Holy Spirit’s use of us all, proclaiming God’s love and truth, to change the hearts and minds of people one by one is how we bring lasting reformation to our society. Revival happens as people embrace Christ and His view of the world. The only antidote for restoration is a truly biblical view of God, His sovereignty, His attributes, and His mighty work of salvation from start to finish.

What has always made the state a hell on earth has been precisely that man has tried to make it his heaven. —Hölderlin

Four things I know. (1) There is a heaven and it is not on earth. & (2) There is a God and He is not me. Let's impact and affect our society for Christ.

In Christ, Brian