Purpose for a Biblical Worldview (Jayden12)


	Purpose for a Biblical Worldview Purpose for a Biblical Worldview Site: Jayden12.com › Rock › Biblical Worldview › Purpose for BW



	This page is a single reference to help me remember what the Bible has to say about many things. Everything we can know for sure about God (especially the teachings of Jesus as recorded by eye witnesses) was told to us through the Bible. Certainly God speaks to us directly but so do demons (2 Corinthians 11:14-15, 1 Timothy 4:1) and the only way to discern the difference (1 Thessalonians 5:21-22, Matthew 7:15, 1 John 4:1, 1 John 4:5-6) is to know the true character of God that He has already revealed to us through His word. Remember that the word of the Lord will last forever (Psalm 119:89, Isaiah 40:8, Matthew 24:35) so this is the only thing you can study that is guaranteed not to become obsoleted. Our worldview shapes our perspective & presupositions on Where I came from Where I am going The nature of the universe How I should live Who God is and how we relate Everyone has a worldview, is yours based on the never-changing word of God or the ever-shifting fads of the world we live in? (Colossians 2:8) Here are two detailed reasons for my investing literally hundreds of hours into this page. I use this to make decisions in my personal life (especially useful before they need to be made). Some examples that have either right & wrong answers, or at least better & worse answers, are: How should I behave while I work? Should I give money to "alteratives" or "planned parenting", when I feel inclinded. Should I spend my weekends being a father or pursuing hobbies, or money? How should I treat & think about my wife, other women? Where is the balance between helping the poor (good) and socialism (bad)? In todays explicitly anti-Christian society (if I just lost you then you must not watch the news) it is important that we familiarize our kids (Deuteronomy 6:4-9, 11:18-22, Proverbs 22:6) with everything on this page (and more) before they get to Junior High (Already Gone). Most of the schools in the United States (not just colleges) are very liberal so our childrens' Christian faith is guaranteed to be challenged and without a deep understanding of our faith they will most likely drop it. I personally attended college with a few friends I grew up with (and met a bunch of people while there) who considered themselves Christian when they arrived, but by the end of their freshman year considered themselves and their parents "dumb" and "tricked" (direct quotes) for believing in God. I do not want my kids to end up like this, instead I want them to know what we believe & why, and I want them to know it better than their spiritual adversaries do. I began this reference in February 2004 and very slowly made enhancements over the first few years. After about three years I switched my style of note taking while doing my daily reading from making pen/paper notes to using my PDA, which significantly improved my efficiency. Having our third baby in late 2007 (making 3 kids under 3 years old at the time) did not speed this up. By November 2009 I had finally finished reading through the Bible again (first time with NLT, twice before with NIV) but still only consider this to be a first draft. So just to be explicit, here are more reasons (not necessarily in any order) to *actively pursue* a Biblical Worldview. If you have accepted Jesus as your savior you are not supposed to live for yourself but for Jesus. It is illogical to claim His salvation and ignore His word (commands, will, warnings, etc.): 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 God will bless you and your land for it: Leviticus 25:18-19, Proverbs 16:7 We are commanded to have faith like a child, but that is not meant to limit our understanding to that of a child: 1 Corinthians 14:20, Proverbs 4:7 We are commanded to be able to explain to anyone why we believe what we do: 1 Peter 3:15 We will bring judgment upon ourselves if we allow ourselves to believe a skewed perspective of God: Matthew 25:14-30 God wants us to love him (Mark 12:28-34, 2 John 1:6,9) and Jesus wants us to "put our money where our mouth is" (Luke 6:46-49, Luke 12:47-48, John 15:14, James 1:22, Revelation 3:15-16) and we are called to be different (better) than those without Christ (Leviticus 19:2, Matthew 5:13, Romans 12:2) and if we aren't then we risk sharing their fate which is inherently undesirable (Malachi 3:12-4:4). Doing what simply "feels right" or "following your heart" doesn't cut it (Genesis 8:21, Jeremiah 17:9) when God has been very specific in what he wants: Genesis 4:3-7, Matthew 25:24-27 At the core, what makes something right or wrong is what God says about it (that is part of what it means to be God): Psalm 37:30-31 Obeying and teaching the commands of God will bring a greater reward in the life to come, but ignorance/disobedience and teaching/encouraging others to do the same will detract from our reward: Matthew 5:19-20, Numbers 15:31 When we take off our self-righteous blinders and look at the big picture, it just makes sense: Proverbs 21:21 Just as a business should always compete with itself to be more efficient, so we should always compete with ourselves to have the greatest character. Are you competative? If so, are you for your own glory or God's? 1 Corinthians 9:24 Strangely enough, the longest chapter in the Bible is a justification for having a Biblical worldview from many people's perspective: Psalms 119 If we are to stand, fight (spiritually) and be bold then ignorance would not be a good strategy: Philippians 1:27-28 Unfortunately, you just can't be a friend of both the world and God: James 4:4 God has an awesome plan for our lives (Jeremiah 29:11) but we must always struggle with the temptation to do evil (Jeremiah 17:9) and invisible enemys are trying to trick us (2 Corinthians 11:14-15) so we must be wise to distinguish between God's will and anyone else's (Romans 12:2, 2 Peter 2:1-3) because it's bad to confuse good and evil (Isaiah 5:20). We must keep away from people who encourage alternate truths or flat out lies. Not that we should never associate with them, otherwise how would we correct them, but we are not to enjoy their company and beliefs in such a way that they distort our relationship with God: Proverbs 12:26, Romans 16:17-18 We risk eternal condemnation if we teach others (whether from the pulpit or from the sports bleacher) an incorrect understanding of who Jesus Christ is. So we must understand our Bible in order to not be led astray ourselves before we keep our neighbors on the straight and narrow: Galatians 1:6-9 Scripture says it is supremely important (2 Peter 1:20-21). No one figures out God, not even the Jews. (Deuteronomy 29:29, Job 9:10) He reveals Himself, so we need to read His word.* Of course the prophets and the apostles were close to God and they were persecuted, so be warned. Here are some cautions for advertising/ expressing/ having/ demonstrating a Biblical Worldview: If you speak the truth be prepared to be hated, persecuted and murdered: Matthew 7:6, John 9:32-34, Acts 7:51-8:1, Acts 9:22-23 Don't waste your time sharing wisdom with fools, to witness to them you must start with something else: Proverbs 23:9, Proverbs 26:7, Romans 8:7-8 Since all humans are so evil, the wiser we become the more saddness we are aware of in the world around us: Ecclesiastes 1:18 Despite those three cautions, I obviously beleive it is well worth it, so please consider my actual page: http://rock.jayden12.com/biblical-worldview.php. Also, do not miss my first spin-off page: Creation vs Evolution FAQ nor my second spin-off: The Word of God, Literally.



	By the way, there are basically 4 kinds of worldviews we can choose from: Monotheism (Single diety: Judaism, Islam, Christianity) Polytheism (Many dieties: Greek, Hindu, Taoism) Pantheism (Everything is god: Budhism?) Atheistic secularism (God may or may not exist but if so then he's irrelevant: Humanism, Marxism, Neoism, Naturalism) There are 2 fundamental questions we can ask to determine someone's worldview: What is the nature of man? What is the nature of God? Here are some basic questions answered by your worldview: What is real? (For example, Hindu's believe all is illusion, so science didn't develop in that context) How did the universe form? How did we come into existence? What are we (physical, spiritual, both, other)? What is time? What is law, marriage, government? What is death? There are 4 questions to ask someone when discussing worldview. Try to remember to use these as a crowbar rather than a sledgehammer. What do you mean? (or I don't understand? Not to feign ignorance, but to allow them to explain themselves.) How do you know? What happens when you die? (or What difference does it make?) What if you're wrong? If they ask you what you believe, then there's a fifth question: What would you accept as evidence? The above four outlines are courtesy Worldview Academy. See also Wikipedia topics on epistemology, irreligion, philosophy and theism.



	In case you are interested, here are examples of the notes I took with my PDA & eventually smart phone. (My point of sharing them is to show you how detailed, or lack of detail, my notes were, and how easy it would be for you to do something similar.) Contact me by clicking here if you care to give me any feedback or just email me at davechristy@hotmail.com.



	http://rock.jayden12.com/basics.php Last Modified: Wednesday, April 4, 2012 ( back \| top )