We have been discussing some of the general and basic distinctions between different worldviews. Our goal is the strengthening and deepening of our Christian worldview and understanding how we are to interact with the world.
However, there are as many Christian worldviews as there are movements and denominations, and actually as many as there are Christians. We all add our own life experiences and understanding to our view to some degree. This can be good or bad, often depending on whether we have had a good or bad experience in life. Even more importantly, our worldview can be affected by how we have reacted to the good and bad experiences in our life. Even so, a true Christian worldview is not from our perspective of the world based on our experiences. It is seeing the world from Christ’s perspective. It takes a great maturity in Christ to rise above our own perspective to see with His eyes, but that must be our goal if we are to see this world accurately.
How do we get Christ’s view of the world? We begin with His revelation of His view which He gave to us through the Scriptures. We will call this the biblical worldview. We will begin examining this from the following cardinal points of the worldview of Scripture:
1) Man was created for God’s pleasure and to have a special fellowship with God.
2) The fellowship between God and man was broken with man’s sin and rebellion against God.
3) God loves man and the world so much that He made a provision for the restoration of fellowship with man and this world through the atonement sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.
4) Those who believe in the atonement of the cross for their sins are born again and become a part of the “new creation.” Just as when we are born in the natural, this is not the end of what we are to become, but rather the beginning. We are then to mature into a “new man” by taking on the divine nature of Christ, which we do by growing up into Christ.
5) This age is for the purpose of helping those of the new creation to mature, so that they can rule and reign with Christ in the age to come, restoring the earth to the paradise it was originally created to be.
Basic to this worldview is that God so loves the world that He would send His own Son to provide the atonement sacrifice. There is no greater revelation of who God is than the cross. He did not condemn the world when it rebelled against Him, but rather came and laid down His own life to redeem and reconcile the world back to Him.
The cross is the great pivot point of history, the foundation that all true wisdom and understanding are built upon. The very word history comes from His-story. As we see at the end of the Book of Revelation, Jesus is called the Lamb of God in heaven, in honor of this greatest of all the acts of God and the greatest demonstration of who He is.
A truly accurate understanding of the world, as it has been, as it is, and as it will be, is founded upon the cross. Again, Jesus did not come to condemn the world—it was already condemned. He came to save it. He is not coming back to condemn the world, but to save it. For this reason, the gospel is “good news,” not bad news. It is the best news the world has ever, or will ever, hear.
Even with all of the troubles that Jesus and the apostles prophesied would come at the end of the age, there is a great dawn that will follow the darkness. The conclusion of all things will be the reconciliation of the world to God. It is from this perspective, with a redemptive purpose, that we must see the world and all that is unfolding, if we are to have understanding.
Never ever forget that God’s love for us overshadows everything. Even His judgments come because He loves us. The judgments of God are not to condemn and destroy, but to discipline those whom He loves. He loves the whole world and all who are in it. He purchased the whole world by the cross, and He will take possession of it in due time. One of our purposes for being on the earth is to prepare the way for His kingdom, which is surely coming.