If you looked at a lot of degree course in the USA you will often find a module on ‘Christian Worldview’. What is this subject and what is it all about?

Everyone has a worldview, whether they think it or not, we all see our world through our own eyes and we interpret what we see dependant on our world view. Each of us in this room could be watching the same video but pick out different points about it. Sometimes we talk about ‘looking at the world through rose tinted spectacles’ – by that we mean that you have a particularly positive outlook on life – worldview is like that, in the sense that we see what we see, but when you have a Christian worldview you should recognise it and harness it to help you.

Whether we realize it or not, we all carry certain presuppositions and biases that affect the way we view life. A worldview is like a set of lenses which tint our vision or alter how we perceive the world we live in. Education, our upbringing, the worldview of our parents, the culture we live in, the books we read, Hollywood or Bollywood, all of these things help form our worldview. For many of us worldview is simply absorbed from our culture and the people we mix with by something akin to osmosis. Many of us, Christian or non-Christian, have never really thought about the big picture of what we believe and we couldn’t defend those beliefs to someone else – we just sort of ‘think’ things without thinking them through.

Politics

So a worldview is a view of the world that you own, it is based on your culture or your values and beliefs or a mixture of all of these. When those values encompass Christian values and those beliefs are Christian also, then we have a Christian worldview, which may put us at odds with much of our culture, but it is still a valid point of view.

A lot of people’s worldviews are governed by their politics. Liberalism (as a philosophy, not as a particular political party) is a worldview which has huge consequences on everything we do. Socialism is another, or its sister, communism or at the other end of the spectrum we might have conservatism and even fascism. Whenever you engage with the media they will show you what they see with the pair of coloured lenses that they use – for example the BBC have a very liberal worldview and this will affect what they choose to report, how much time they give a subject and their bias in reporting. If you share their worldview, you will like their news – but it is alright to prefer other news broadcasters!

Christianity

If you believe in a creator, then you will interpret much of what you experience in a different way to someone who doesn’t. If you believe in that human problem that the Bible calls sin, then you will interpret events in a different way to non-believers. If you believe in Jesus as Son of God and Son of Man, then you will again see things in quite a different way. For some people who see church as a ‘religion’, something that you do for an hour and a half on the occasional Sunday, they don’t always understand that Christians have their own set of worldviews, but for those who see Christianity as a relationship with God through His Son Jesus, it becomes obvious that nothing will ever be quite the same again.

Worldview

A true worldview (Christian or otherwise) should really have 6 elements.

1.  A theory of origin – a sense of the building blocks of life and existence

2.  An explanation of the world we see

3.  Consideration of where this world is heading and what the future might bring

4.  Values, answers to ethical dilemmas

5.  Ideas of how we live and achieve our goals in life

6.  A theory of knowledge, perhaps a sense of right and wrong and what is true and false

I can look down this list and immediately see how this works for a Christian, and whatever you believe you can probably do the same. If for example, like me, you look at this world as ‘in a bit of a state’, as a Christian I see a world that is largely ignoring God and doing its own thing, I see the causes of trouble as being our own rebellious nature and the influences of evil spiritual forces. A non-Christian might look at the world and see the same condition of being ‘in a bit of a state’ and see widespread greed, the lack of care for our own environment, and they may see the causes, for example, as failure in education and the impact of capitalism.

This is not to say that the Christian should ignore these other ideas, but we might believe that we can handle these things by taking responsibility for our failures and mending our relationship with God.

What is also true is that not every person who identifies as being a Christian may have the same worldview – because just as people are inherently different and unique, Christians vary too! There are some things that we can say are always true about the belief and value system Christians share, but there are many things that we differ about too.

What we can really say about the worldview shared by Christians would include that we all see God as the originator of life (1), that we all see this world as ‘not in its original condition’ and that we see sin as a major issue (2), and we all see that this life is not all there is (3). We also see that God has given us boundaries for our own well-being and that in Jesus we see the exact representation of God who is good (4) and that these boundaries and the teaching of Jesus and the apostles help guide us through life and help us to deal with dilemmas (5). Finally, we see God as being the source of wisdom and Jesus being the truth itself and that whatever anyone else may think we do see that there are things that are right and wrong (6).

Important?

So whereas I do see a Christian worldview, I believe it is important because the Bible teaches so much which is up to date and relevant to 21^st century life and these things are helpful if we harness them. Basically, Christian Worldview is a view based on a relationship with God and Biblical teaching. The apostle Paul wrote:

Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God. Rom 12:2 HCSB

Paul is talking about having our worldview changed. A personal encounter with Jesus brings change. We may not think about that when we start looking into these things, but it is inevitable.

God forbid that we change into a humourless prude, a religious freak or a judgemental person (especially as the Bible doesn’t have much tolerance for these positions), but may God help us to see things from His perspective and in doing so impact our community, our city and our world in a positive and helpful way.