STUDY THEME: ADOPTING A BIBLICAL WORLD VIEW. 6-4-00
UNIT 1: WORLDVIEW? "EVERYBODY HAS ONE"
ISAIH 55: 8-9, PSALM 1:1-3, PSALM 1: 4-6, MATTHEW 7: 24-27
PLEASE OPEN YOUR BIBLE TO ISAIAH 55: 8-9.
By the time you and I become adults we have a set of beliefs and
assumptions on just abut everything. These beliefs and assumptions come
from experience, observation, and formal or informal teaching. Many
people are unaware of their beliefs and assumptions or how important
their beliefs and assumptions are in determining what they think, feel,
say, and do. Foundational presuppositions are called a worldview.
A worldview is how people look at things. In one sense, here are as many
worldviews as here ae people. In another sense, there are two basic
worldviews: the biblical view which reveals how God looks at things, and
the human view, which excludes God and looks at things from a solely
human view, which excludes God and looks at things from a solely human
point of view.
I once heard someone say that a buzzard flying over a colorful field of
beautiful roses would see only the decaying carcass of a dead rat. The
flowers have no usefulness to the scavenger bird, but the carrion
provides food. How people see life is called their worldview.
A more formal definition of worldview is this: A worldview is a set of
assumptions or presuppositions, held consciously or unconsciously, about
God and the universe, one's world and one's self. It is way of looking
at all reality. The use of the word worldview is a one-word way of
avoiding a long description what is meant. The importance of one's
worldview is that it determines what a person thinks, feels, says, and
does. Mind-set is another way to describe a worldview. A modern way of
expressing this is the question, "where are you coming from?" That is,
what belief or assumption explains your attitude on this subject.
Worldviews vary, depending on the context in which people are raised.
When cultures differ, we can expect their ways of seeing reality to
differ. Worldviews are the filters thru which people interpret life's
events and experiences. People from the same culture tend to share the
same worldviews. This is true of people from different areas of the USA
The purpose of today's lesson is to help us to consciously choose to
develop a biblical worldview. Developing a biblical worldview requires
that a person be a Christian believer who not only hears but also obeys
God's Word. Becoming a Christian believer takes place at the moment of
decision, but people often bring with them remnants of their
non-Christian worldviews. Therefore, developing a biblical worldview
takes a lifetime of studying God's Word, conscious reflection, attitude
adjustment, mental scrutiny, and lifetime changes.
In a preview of today's lesson we find that God's ways and thoughts are
different from those of humans. God's way leads to righteous, godly and
fruitful living. Man's ways lead to sinful, ungodly, and useless living.
Although humans think their ways are right, they lead to death. Building
a firm foundation for life and death requires hearing and obeying God's
word.
God's ways and thoughts are different from and higher than the ways and
thoughts of people. As finite creatures, people never will reach the
point where they have the infinite God's complete mind. Yet as His
people, Christians are to mature and are to grow toward a worldview that
is increasingly consistent with God's worldview as revealed in the
Scriptures.
Developing a biblical worldview is a lifelong process whereby the
believer's worldview is transformed into the divine or biblical
worldview. Identifying the foundaitonal convictions of a biblical
worldview and helping adults deliberately and systematically integrate
these convictions into their lives is the purpose of the l3 lessons of
this quarter.
Today's lesson focuses on introducing the concept and the language of
Worldview . We will discuss the truth that every person has a worldview
thru which that person's experience of reality is filtered. It contrasts
all humanly conceived worldviews with God's divinely revealed worldview.
This unit discusses the importance of examining our worldview and of
adopting a biblical one.
1. PLEASE READ ISAIAH 55: 8-9.
Isaiah 55 is one of the great chapters of the Bible. In Vs. 1-5 it
challenges people to cease spending their money for what doesn't satisfy
and to receive the water of life freely from God. In vs. 6-7 seeking the
Lord involves forsaking sinful ways and thoughts and receiving God's
mercy. The ways and thoughts of God are in striking contrast to the
sinful ways and thoughts of people.
In the five Scriptures used in today's lesson we will find that God's
ways and thoughts are different from those of humans. God's way leads to
righteous, godly, and fruitful living. Man's ways lead to sinful,
ungodly, and useless living. Although human's think their ways are right,
they lead to death. Building a firm foundation for life and death
requires hearing and obeying God's Word.
The word ways most often refers to the way someone thinks and acts. This
word is found in all three O.T. passages in today's lesson. In a sense,
ways and thoughts refer to worldview. God's worldview thus is not the
same as those of humans. In fact, His is as far removed from ours as the
heavens are higher than the earth.
But how are God's ways and thoughts different from ours? God's ways and
thoughts are godly and righteous in contrast to the ungodly and sinful
ways and thoughts of human beings. Human beings are fallen sinful beings
who have turned from God into their own ways., This fatal choice affects
every aspect of our lives.
The spiritual difference between people and God seems irreconcilable. How
can sinful, self- centered people enjoy and intimate relationship with a
holy God? God declares that a vast difference does exist between Him and
humanity. In fact the difference is greater than most people imagine.
God's purposes and His means for accomplishing His objectives are
dramatically different from our goals and our conduct. Hope for humanity
exists in God's ways, not our own.
Today many different ideas compete for people's minds. In decades past,
the worldview accepted by most people in America was consistent with
unchanging biblical values; it was a Christian worldview. Times have
changed! Forty years ago the drug epidemic, drive-by shootings, hard-core
pornography, gay rights, and abortion on demand were not on the social
agenda for review. Today many people refuse to control their passions,
and many influential people are trying to undermine basis institutions
such as the family and the church that in the past have helped make
society healthy, stable, efficient, and functional.
Your worldview is more important than you realize. It gives you the rules
by which you live. It influences and directs every aspect of life. It
even affects decisions about how you spend your money and your time.
For example, materialism states that matter is the only reality.
Materialism is a component of the secular worldview. If matter is the
only reality, we should try to accumulate all we can. Materialism's
popular expression is that the person who dies having accumulated the
most toys wins. Hedonism is another component of the secular worldview.
Hedonism holds that pleasure is paramount, so get all of it you can.
Christians need to be careful not to allow secularists to redefine values
and to set the cultural agenda without being challenged. We believe that
all reality is determined by and unchanging, holy God's existence and
character---a source outside humanity. If people are left to determine
values for themselves, where will we wind up? Prov. 14: 12 states "There
is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end, it leads to death."
Values that are determined apart from God's revelation have no
foundation. They even may be anti-God. For example, some argue that
abortion is right and homosexuality is normal. With no absolute standard
to determine right and wrong, society is left to drift further and
further away from decency, respect for others, and mutual trust. The glue
that once held society together is gone, and people use their freedoms
for selfish ends. Chaos erupts, and the public calls on government to
enforce order. When order comes by force, people no longer are free. Much
is at stake. Society need to return to a solid foundation.
The Bible presents a view of reality that is unified, harmonious,
logical, reasonable, and workable for all people. The biblical
interpretation of life does not sidestep life's tough questions but gives
reasonable answers to all questions people might ask. Yet the Christian
worldview provides answers to the most basic and most important
questions. It states that the human experience has genuine meaning and
explains why. Moreover, it answers foundational questions about
suffering, pain, sin, forgiveness, life, death, and life after death.
Are Christians narrow minded? No more than people who will not consider
the possibility that absolute truth exists. Yet we are narrow-minded in
the sense hat we understand accepting the Bible as truth restricts the
acceptable range of principles by which we live. This does not mean we
are bigots. It means we realize that if Christianity accurately reflects
reality we must reject all ideas that oppose what it teaches. This is the
nature of truth. On the day of judgment, major concern will not focus on
who was narrow but on who was right.
PLEASE TURN TO PSALM 1.
2. PLEASE READ PSALM 1: 1-3.
Psalm 1 stands at the beginning of the Psalter like a sign pointing to
how people ought to live. It contrasts godly and ungodly living. Blessed
introduces a beatitude of joy for those who choose God's way. This way is
contrasted with the way of humans by telling what it does not do. There
is a downward progression in the words walketh...standeth...sitteth. The
way of sin begins by listening to the advice of the ungodly...thinking as
the world thinks. This leads to sitting in fellowship with
sinners...behaving as the world behaves. Finally one arrives at the
lowest level and joins in the mocking of the scornful toward God and the
good....Becoming as the world is.
On the positive side, people who live in God's way delight....in the law
of the Lord. To righteous O.T. people of faith, the law or Torah was a
joy because it showed them how to live in away that pleased God. Meditate
day and night involves more than gaining head knowledge of the Word; it
involves letting God's Word transform us into what God wants us to be.
The end result is a fruitful life like that of a tree planted by the
rivers of water. This tree did not grow at this location by chance. God
set it in that place. Such a life bears fruit. Continuing the simile, the
psalmist stated, His leaf also shall not wither, even in the heat of the
summer. And whatsoever such a person does shall prosper. Prosper is used
here in the sense of having success in doing the will of God. The human
worldview assumes that God's way restricts joy and fulfillment. Actually
only God's way leads to true fulfillment.
Thus God's way is a way of righteousness, based on obedience to God's
Word, and leads to a full and meaningful life.
3. PLEASE READ PSALM 1: 4-6.
In Vs. 4 the psalmist used a strong adverse statement. Nothing stated
about the righteous person is true of wicked people. The wicked walk in
the counsel of the ungodly, stand in the way of sinners, and sit in the
seat of the scorners. They do not delight in or meditate on God's law,
and hey do not prosper.
The wicked "are like chaff." The chaff was worthless. Such are the
wicked. hey have no real substance and worth. They are empty and
impermanent--"the wind blows them away."
In Vs. 5 the evil people have no stable or permanent qualities. In the
judgment they will not be able to rise to the occasion; they will not be
able to stand up under God's judgment. They follow their own counsel and
congregate with like-minded people, so they will have no place in the
assembly of the righteous.
The Hebrew verb translated "watches over" in Vs. 6 describes God's
activity related to righteous people's way or lifestyle. It means "to
care for" or "to protect." God has a loving interest in righteous
peoples destiny and protects them. He cares for them and actively is
involved in their lives.
The Hebrew word translated "perish" refers to destruction, loss, and
ruin. Here it hints at loss in time and in eternity. Wicked people's
lifestyles or worldviews not only will not stand up under judgment, but
they also will not last.
The righteous are stable, fruitful, and successful--successful in living
lives that please God and are useful to Him. The wicked are unstable,
worthless, and doomed to perish. Blessedness and doom are the outcomes of
the two worldviews. Human understandings developed in isolation from God
will not bring true satisfaction and will not last. We need to
distinguish between God's way and human ways. Then we need to choose
God's way.
PROVERBS 14:12: THERE IS A WAY WHICH SEEMETH RIGHT UNTO A MAN, BUT THE
END THEREOF ARE THE WAYS OF DEATH.
The meaning of this verse is obvious. One of the aspects of a human
worldview is a false idea of how to find life. People believe the same
lie the tempter used on Eve: "God can't be trusted to give you real life
and happiness. If you want to live he good life you're going to have to
reach out and grasp it for yourselves on your own terms."
Fallen descendants of the first guilty pair deceive themselves in the
same way. To them, their way...seemeth right. The problem is that their
way is not right. At the end of this road is death, not life. "There is a
way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end theeof are the ways of
death."
There are two main reasons why your worldview is important. First of all,
it determines how you live. Your thoughts, feelings, words, and deeds are
fruits of your worldview. Many people believe that the good life consists
of having enough money and possessions, in spite of what Jesus said in
Luke 12:15 "Take heed and beware of covetousness, for ones life doesn't
consist in the abundance of the things he possesses."
This assumption of the human worldview leads to sins of all kinds, from
robbery to selfishness in the face of human need. The second reason for
the importance of your worldview, as stated earlier, is that your
worldview is a matter of life and death, not just physical life and death
but spiritual and eternal life and death.
Jesus talked in Matt. 7:13-14 about the two ways as two roads---one
broad, easy, and crowded and the other narrow, hard, and not
well-traveled. The problem is that the broad, easy road leads to
destruction and the narrow way leads to life.
A pastor and his family were driving one summer in the High Sierras. They
were surprised to see a sign that read, "This is not the road to Fresno."
they wondered who put up the sign and why. They surmised that someone or
perhaps many had taken this road, assuming it was the road to Fresno. the
sign was then designed to warn the unwary travelers that they were not
going where they thought they were going. This is a parable on he
principle stated in Prov. 14:12.
"THERE IS A WAY WHICH SEEMED RIGHT UNTO A MAN, BUT THE END THEREOF ARE
THE WAYS OF DEATH."
People who have merely a human worldview think they are on the road to
life, but it is the road to death.
PLEASE TURN IN YOUR BIBLE TO MATTHEW 7.
4. PLEASE READ MATTHEW 7: 24-27.
These are the final words of Jesus' Sermon on the mount in Matt. 5-7.
Jesus wanted to emphasize how people ought to respond to the challenging
words He had spoken. Therefore, He told a parable of a wise man and a
foolish man. Both men built a house. A casual observer probably would
have seen no difference between the two houses, because the difference
was in the foundations, which often are not seen. But one built his house
upon a rock and the other built his house upon the sand. The wise person
living in the Palestinian desert would erect a dwelling on a secure rock
to protect the house from the flash floods that sudden storms created.
The same kind of storm struck each house. The rains descended and the
floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon each house. The first
house fell not; for it was founded upon a rock. The other house fell, and
great was the fall of it. Storms come to all of us. Just as the storm
revealed the differences in the foundations of the two house, so do the
storms of life reveal the weaknesses in the foundations of our lives. If
the storms of life don't reveal those weaknesses, the storm of the final
judgment will.
What was Jesus point? Both types of men were among those who heard Him
speak these words. the difference was not in failing to hear. Both heard.
But the wise man not only hears but also does the Word of God. The
foolish man, Jesus said, heareth these saying of mine and doeth them not.
This is an important insight about one's worldview. In he the previous
passage we noted that having a biblical worldview includes delighting in
and meditating on God's Word. Such, in fact, is the basic difference
between all human worldviews and a biblical worldview. Human worldview
and God's worldview have totally different attitudes and take different
actions toward the Holy Scriptures. Some with merely human worldviews
deny the Bible to be the Word of God. Therefore, they ignore it or
sometimes even attack it and belittle people who take it seriously.
Others, however, show their human worldview not by denying the Word but
by failing to obey it. They may give lip service to the Bible as the Word
of God. They may even read it, listen to biblical preaching, and
participate in Bible study; however, the acid test is whether in daily
life they let what they think and feel, say, and do be done in obedience
to God's Word.
Keep in mind that there is a difference between professed beliefs and
actual beliefs. These should be the same, but some people give lip
service to one worldview and actually live by a different set of
nonbiblical beliefs. For example, few people in Shawnee would admit to
being atheists, but many live as if God does not exist.
Let's sum up what we have learned in this lesson. Each person has a
worldview of beliefs and assumptions that determine what he or she
thinks, feels, says, and does. There are as many worldviews as they are
people, but the two main categories are the contrasting worldviews of God
and sinful humanity. God's ways and thoughts are different from and
higher than those of sinful people.
Those who adopt His worldview turn from a sinful life, delight in God's
Word, and live fruitful lives. Those who do not follow the Lord are just
the opposite of those who live by God's way; they end up living useless
lives and facing divine judgment. Those who persist in the sinful way
think they are on the road to fulfillment and the good life, when they
are actually on the road to death. Those who adopt the biblical worldview
not only hear but also heed God's Word. Our eternal destiny is determined
by our daily choices. Whether we choose wisely or foolishly, we will live
with our consequences.
NEXT SUNDAY LET'S FIND OUT "WHAT IS THE RELATIONSHIP BEWEEN KNOWING AND
BELIEVING." "HOW DO WE KNOW WHAT WE KNOW?"
A.V. DAUGHERTY JUNE 4, 2000.