Let's Change Our Worldview

Introduction

Welcome to this new series! Before we jump right in, I want to give us a moment to discuss a very important question:

Why did God create human beings? Can you find Scripture that backs your answer up?

Why did God create human beings?

For His glory

Romans 11:36 “36 For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.”

To reflect His image

Genesis 1:26 “26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness...”

To steward creation

Genesis 1:28 “28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.”

To love and worship Him

Deuteronomy 6:5 “5 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.”

I think that we can all agree, our culture is in a serious mess. But I also think that our church culture in the United States is in a serious mess. The mess that we find ourselves in is caused, in great part, due to one concept: secularization.

Secularization: carrying on as though Christ does not exist or is not relevant

Our study is greatly influenced by a much longer study called Eliminating the Sacred/Secular Divide: The Pedagogy of the Unoppressed by Christian Overman.

Overman posits in his study that “we have confused the idea of ‘separation of Church and State’ with the notion of ‘separation of Christianity and State.’ We have gradually been secularized since the late 1800s, and followers of Christ have retreated from their obligations to ‘the world.’ The outcome has not been good. The problem is not just out there in the ‘culture.” It is in the minds of many followers of Christ.”

We have all, to some degree or another, been infected with the problem of the Sacred/Secular Divide. Throughout this study of ours, we will discuss why the sacred/secular divide poses a problem and how to eliminate the sacred secular divide, first in our own lives, and then in the lives of our children as we disciple them at home.

Please understand that this is just an introductory study. If we were to jump into the deep study, this would likely take us 4-8 months to finish, but for our purposes now, it serves to open our eyes as to how secularization has limited the effectiveness of Christians in the areas of living to the glory of God, having a truly abundant life, and being salt and light in a dark and drab world.

A Replacement Worldview

The Biblical foundation that once existed in our nation for law, civil government, economics, marriage, family, and gender has been gradually replaced by another worldview. This worldview is one that puts humans at the center and marginalizes Christ. More and more, the voice of Christianity is being cancelled.

This replacement worldview goes by names Secular Humanism, Humanism, or Secularism. There are other worldviews that put matter or nature at the center of all things, and those worldviews are called Materialism or Naturalism. The name that we could give the the worldview that is rampant in America would be Postmodern Secular Individualism. IT can be summed up by the phrase, “You have your truth, and I have mine.”

There is an active push to move society to secularism, marginalizing God, and to privatize Christianity - keeping Christianity strictly personal and nothing more. This move is nothing new in the United States, and its beginnings can be traced back to the 1870s, peaking in the 1960s when it won major legal battles such as eliminating public prayer and Bible reading in public schools.

So how do we know when someone or something has been secularized, or when a portion of our life has become secularized? We can know that something, someone, or some area is secularized when we carry on as though Jesus Christ did not exist or is not relevant.

It is possible, and unfortunately, common to believe in Jesus Christ, that He is alive, that He is the Savior, and that He is coming back again and still have a secularized mind when it comes to civil, work, or government matters. To many Christians actively view their Christianity as a private matter that is not relevant to public policy, business, government, etc., and this is a shame.

One of the first things that we need to understand as Christians in a secularized culture is that “regardless of the current condition of the world, Christ is still Lord of all.” If this is true, and it is, then His authority is boundless. Since Jesus has authority over every realm of existence, then He is relevant to what goes on in our families, our governments, and our businesses just as much as He is relevant to what goes on in our churches.

But after 13-14 years of receiving heavy doses of secularism in schools, it is hard to think of God as relevant to anything outside of church. And though this is not a study in which I will try to convince you that you need to homeschool your kids, I hope that it does open your eyes to the fact that your children, especially ones that attend a public school, need to be very intentionally discipled by you at home in a way that combats the lies that they are being fed on a daily basis by this world’s system.

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This lie, this dualism, hinders us from making real connection between the “secular” world and God’s plans for us in the here and now. The majority of our life is spent in the “secular” world. And if we view it in an entirely different way than we view the “church” or “religious” world, then it is not surprising that there are so many ineffective Christians in the world.

Dualism is the conscious or unconscious practice that our Christianity should be private to ourselves and that Jesus is not relevant to the public life.

The Biblical Worldview

We need to return to a unique worldview that has been coined a “uniview.” A view that sees the Bible and Jesus as relevant in every aspect of life, that recognizes the Bible as the vision for the order of all things.

Why does this Biblical worldview matter? Because the view that the Bible offers is the view that everything exists in a much bigger picture. You and I, individuals, are not the big picture. Nature is not the big picture. Society is not the big picture. The government nor our nation are not the big picture. The world is not the big picture. All these things exist in the the big picture that is the honoring and glorying of God. This is why the Bible makes such a huge deal about that one day, every knee will bow and ever tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of the Father. That is the Big Picture that the Biblical worldview, this uniview, gives us. There is no separation of sacred and secular. Everything is sacred. God is relevant to every single aspect of life, and the Bible will give us exactly the right vision for God’s order of everything.

God Made All Things, Owns All Things, and Upholds All Things

This is our starting point. This is where we start to change our dualistic view into the uniview that the Bible presents.

Genesis 1:1 is very clear.

Genesis 1:1 KJV 1900

1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

Speaking of Jesus Colossians 1:16-17 says

Colossians 1:16–17 KJV 1900

16 For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: 17 And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.

I don’t think that this is a problem for us to understand, but we have been duped into thinking a lie as well. Dr. Albert E. Greene, Jr. once wrote: "There is a subtle derailment which often occurs in Christian thought at the point of the Fall. We tend to think that when man sinned, God simply relinquished the whole creation as a botched job and left Satan to do what he wanted with it. Nothing could be further from the truth.”

This world still belongs to God, and He continues to hold it all together. He owns it all, and that has huge meanings for us. That means that when we mow the grass, we are cutting His grass. When we put screws to lumber, we are manipulating and constructing things out of His metal and His wood. When we examine things under a microscope, we are looking at His creation.

And through all these things, God is speaking to us everyday. Planet Earth and all that it contains belong to God, not to Satan.

Psalm 24:1 KJV 1900

1 The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof; The world, and they that dwell therein.

Job 41:11 KJV 1900

11 Whatsoever is under the whole heaven is mine.

While the devil exerts temporary power in the earth, he doesn’t own it. Christ is upholding this world, the material and the eternal creation, by the word of His power. Hebrews 1:3

Hebrews 1:3 KJV 1900

3 Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;

Because of this verse, and others, we do not agree with the worldview expressed by Deism, that states that God created the world, set natural laws in place, wound it up like a clock, and let it go, allowing for the world to run its course until it runs out of time. The continued existence of the world is as amazing as when the world came into existence, and it is just as miraculous, being held together by the word of God.

So what should this make us realize? That while most people might think of the “natural” as being the normal operating system of nature, and the “supernatural” as being the interference of God in nature, nothing could be farther from the truth. This view contradicts the uniview, the Biblical worldview. We just read in Colossians that by Him (Jesus) all things consist, or are held together. In other words, “nature” would not exist if it were not for Jesus’ continuing supernatural, creation-sustaining voice holding it all together.

God Created Humans with a Specific Role and Function in Mind

Understanding that God made, owns, and sustains all things and understanding that He is a God of order who has a perfect will for His creation leads us to this point - that God created people with a specific role and function in mind.

Look at Genesis 1:26-28

Genesis 1:26–28 KJV 1900

26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. 28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

What role did God create man to fulfill? What purpose did He have? What was His intention for mankind? The purpose that God had in mind was the governing of His creation.

That is what subdue means. That command, subdue the earth, is fundamental command from God to people. Albert Wolters, emeritus professor of religion at Redeemer University in Ontario calls it our “First Commission.” Whereas the commission to preach the Gospel and make disciples of Jesus is the church’s Great Commission, to subdue the earth and have dominion over it is our First Commission.

He notes that in order to multiply, man is to be fruitful. He must multiply, then, in order to fill the earth (replenish it). And man must fill the earth if he is to subdue it. We were created in God’s likeness, partly in order to fulfill this command.

What does that mean for you and me? That we were created to govern over this Big Blue Planet and everything in it. This means the water, air, electricity, sound waves, light, trees, money, fish, birds, cows, copper, iron, carrots, rubber, fingers, arms, feet, real estate, peanuts, mountains, as well as digit images, smart phones, cars, ships, paper, ice cream, and brownies.

We were made to rule over systems as well, because without systems, government can’t take place: civil systems, legal systems, economic systems, etc.

I want to be clear that this is not Dominion Theology. Dominion theology is a belief that Christians or the Church is to exercise control over all areas of society and apply Biblical law to it. The idea being that until when there exists a nation like that, then the church will usher in the Kingdom of Heaven by taking dominion over the world.

This is NOT what I am advocating or teaching. We are not for some kind of Christian Sharia law to be imposed on the world by Christians, nor are we of the belief that for the Kingdom of God to come, Christians need to take exclusive control over all institutions by force.

But we do understand that Christ has told us to “occupy until He comes again.” This use of the word occupy means to be busy in an occupation. What is your occupation? We are to bring our various occupations under the rule of God as we live out our faith in the context of our daily work, whether that be at home or in our daily work. This is what it means to be the salt of the earth - to be little grains of salt sprinkled throughout society.

We are created to govern over all of creation. Psalm 8

Psalm 8 KJV 1900

1 O Lord our Lord, How excellent is thy name in all the earth! Who hast set thy glory above the heavens. 2 Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength Because of thine enemies, That thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger. 3 When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, The moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; 4 What is man, that thou art mindful of him? And the son of man, that thou visitest him? 5 For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, And hast crowned him with glory and honour. 6 Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; Thou hast put all things under his feet: 7 All sheep and oxen, Yea, and the beasts of the field; 8 The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, And whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas. 9 O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!

What is the purpose for us governing the creation? For the excellency of His name - to give Him glory. And what does it take to exercise dominion over creation? To properly exercise dominion over God’s creation in a way that glorifies Him, it takes economists, judges, legislators, inventors, educators, doctors, plumbers, mothers, fathers, construction workers, and all sorts of people that are given to God in their occupations.

Why would this though give us incentive for learning and working hard?

Satan Does Not Rule over Creation

This is something that we need to understand as well. Too many Christians fall into the trap of thinking that this world is under the dominion of Satan. But there is only one owner of this world and that is Jesus. He is the only King. Christ’s authority rests over the whole heaven and earth. If we get this wrong, then dualism is easy to fall into.

Yes, the Bible does call Satan the ruler of this world, but it does not mean over creation. He is the ruler over this world’s system. The world-system is the one that runs contrary to God’s will and ways. And though Satan exercises significant influence over mankind’s philosophies, worldviews, and cultures, the earth, creation, is the Lord’s and everything that is in it belongs to Jesus.

So God is still in control of His creation. If this is true, and it is, how do we reconcile the all-encompassing, here-and-now rule of God with all the ungodly things happening on Planet Earth every day? And why is there so much suffering in this world, if God is continuously sustaining all things? If He owns it, why does He allow things to go on that are painful or evil?

This answer may not satisfy everyone, but I really do think that it works well: God is in absolute control, but He does not control all things absolutely.

What does this mean? It means God has the power and authority to do whatever He pleases, whenever He wants. If He desires, He can make a donkey talk. He can make an axe head float. He can turn bullets into bubbles. But the God of the Bible does not control all things absolutely all the time. Gravity works the same on all of us, and is not suspended when a Christian steps off a cliff. And people are not puppets on God's strings. We can violate His will, and we do. At times we act in ways God doesn't want us to act. This is what sin is about.

Yet while we have the ability to violate God's authority, we were never given the right to do so. When people act contrary to God's will, this does not negate the fact that Christ is still Lord of all, all the time, everywhere. In this sense, He is "in total control." We don't make Christ Lord, He is Lord! It's our place to recognize His authority, accept and embrace it. If we don't, He is still Lord regardless. Christ’s authority applies to everyone, whether they recognize it or not. And His authority applies as much to what goes on in the church to what goes on in our families to what goes on in our workplaces. It applies to Christians and non-Christians alike.

Jesus is Lord whether people submit to Him or not.

Understanding this helps us to eliminate this sacred/secular divide, because it helps me to realize that he authority of Christ is over the whole of humanity. There is no public/ private split, no Christian/ non-Christian distinction when it comes to the jurisdiction of Christ's authority. No human can "impose" it on anybody. It simply is. Like gravity.

Are You a Christo-supremist?

Understanding this should lead us to a point where we recognize ourselves as “Christo-supremists.”

Let’s walk through the answer to that question together.

Do we believe that Jesus is the ultimate authority of the universe and that all other authorities in heaven and in earth are subject to Him? - Yes

Do we believe that all judges, presidents, kings, and other rulers are subject to Christ’s authority, whether they recognize it or not? - Yes

Do we believe that this is true for everyone else, and that in the end, all people, regardless of station or status, are subject to what Christ says is right and wrong? - Yes (Revelation 20:11-14)

Do we believe that Truth is embodied completely in Christ alone? - Yes (John 14:6)

Do we believe that Jesus is the only way to a relationship with God the Father? - Yes (John 14:6, Acts 4:12)

Do we believe that Christianity in its pure form under Jesus Christ is better than any other worldview, philosophy, or religion? - Yes

If these are all true, then we are Christo-supremists, at least in word, but it should be matched in practice.

And do we want other to accept Jesus’ supremacy? By force? Of course not! Voluntarily? Absolutely yes!

I hope that you realize that Christo-supremists will be hopelessly politically incorrect.

The belief that Christ was supreme is what got Christians fed to the lions in Rome. Because they recognized God as authority above the emperor. They saw Jesus as the one truth that does not change. And they believed in a universal truth that dictated to all people how we are to live.

If you and I are Cristo-supremists, if we truly hold that Jesus is supreme in all areas of living, we need to come to grips that the world may very well hate us for it. Settle it now in you mind, because some day, and in some places in the world already, people are being asked this question in court.

We have seen that the Biblical worldview tells us that God made, owns, and upholds all things; that God created people with a specific role and function in mind, and it continues by telling us that

“Secondary Creations” Glorify God when Done Well

God has commissioned us to manage all of His creation on this earth, even in its fallen and broken condition. We do not have a record of God ever retracting this command, but we do have record of God expecting us to be good stewards of all that the Lord has given us. This means that we are to continue to tend and keep the earth as God’s image bearers.

As we are made in God’s image, we are designed to make “secondary creations” out of God’s “primary creations.” This glorifies God when done well because this is a reflection of His image which all mankind bears. We may think of that initially as doing great works of art or architecture. But your creation that might not last until tomorrow, if done well, will also bring glory to God.

A good chef creates works of culinary art that might not last more than a few hours, but his secondary creation is the outworking of God’s image that that chef carries in him. The chef may be a Christian and fully understand this, or he may be an atheist, and not realize it at all. But this secondary creation of glazed salmon over a rice pilaf is a reflection of God’s creation, and I believe that God is gloried by it, whether the chef realizes it or not.

Why do we use the term “secondary creations?” Because God created things out of just His thoughts and words, we use His primary creation to make something else. They are made out of God’s primary materials. So when you go home this evening and you make yourself a sandwich and mix up a pitcher of Koolaid, you are creating something. When you get up in the morning an tend to your garden, work on your car, manage your office, take a beautiful picture, design a website, install cabinets, wash clothes, or whatever else you do, you are acting upon the very image of God that you bear.

Do it well and for good purposes and God receives glory from it.

Do it consciously and your whole perspective of the world begins to change.

Dualism comes into play when we start to think that God has disowned His creation because of sin. Dualism sets in when we fall into the trap of thinking that Satan is king of this world. Then, we see our only mission on this planet as telling others how they can go to heaven and escape this planet.

Yes, God’s good creation is broken. But God is the redeemer. He is the restorer. And He has placed us in this world to be salt and light in a world that is broken. We should work to restore it and preserve it as much as we can. The Gospel of the Kingdom is not just about personal salvation, it is about living in God’s creation the way God intended man to live in His creation until the day that Christ does come back and fully restores the earth.

The Puritans taught about a “circle of knowledge.” This circle of knowledge stated that

God initiates all things through His primary creation of everything

Humans discover what God has made

People imitate God by making secondary creation based on their discovery and understanding of God’s primary creation

God is glorified through this imitation of Him in human occupations of all kinds

As Christian Overman puts it: “the shoemaker imitates God by making beautiful and functional “secondary creations" out of God's primary creation. The shoes serve the needs of people and glorify the Prime Creator through the imitation of Him, thus bringing glory full circle from God back to God through vocation.”

One of the Puritan pastors of the mid 1600s, George Swinnock, declared, “The pious tradesman will know that his shop as well as his chapel is holy ground.”

Done in the right way, with the right attitude, and for the right reasons, any secondary creation could glorify God and bless humanity. That is what vocation should mean for Christians. Vocation = a calling. You are called to your job. We need to understand, as the early Christians did, that our jobs, our occupations, are more than just a way of surviving this life or even thriving in this life. We need to see our occupation as a calling from God. God has called you to occupy, to be busy, to make business until He returns.

Why? Because in so doing for the right reasons and with the right attitudes, God is glorified and people are blessed.

Imagine what this kind of shift in thought and action could have at your job? In your home?

Imagine what this kind of shift in thought could have for your children at school?

When students solve math problems, they are governing over that part of God's stuff we call "numbers." When they create a piece of art, they're ruling over that part of God's stuff we call "paper," "charcoal" and "water color." When they write an essay, they're governing over that part of God's stuff we call "language," and "logic." When they play a game of soccer, they're ruling over that part of God's good stuff we call "legs and feet," not to mention soccer balls and goal posts. When they do science experiments, they're taking dominion over that part of God's good stuff we call chemicals," and "electricity."

When students put all the things they learn about in school into the larger context of God's intention for human beings and His design for the world around us, education takes on remarkable meaning and purpose.

John Milton, another Puritan leader, wrote in his essay titled Of Education, that the end purpose of learning is to repair the ruins of our first parents (alluding here to the fall of Adam and Eve and the consequence of being separated from God) by regaining how to know God, and out of that knowledge to love Him, be like Him, and to serve Him. He then called for “a complete and generous education that which fits a man to perform justly, skillfully and magnanimously all the offices both private and public of peace and war."

The last thing that I want to leave us with is this fourth principle of a Biblical worldview:

Earth-Tending Is God’s Assignment for Mankind

Work is a good thing. Work was never a curse that proceeded out of sin. Work is an act of exerting dominion or governance. Those that work with metal, wood, cows, fabrics, vegetables are governing those areas. Those that work with computer keyboards, sound waves, electrical currents are governing over those things as well.

Work is not a curse; it is our great responsibility and privilege. It is our vocation, our calling. We are caretakers and shapers of God’s creations. We are made in God’s image and likeness so that we can carry out this function. The curse lies in the difficulty of our work, not the existence of our work. The ground was cursed when Adam fell, not his work.

Understanding this concept, that work is our vocation, our calling, eliminates the idea that only pastors or missionaries are in “full-time Christian service,” while the plumber is doing “secular work.” When we look at things like this, it is a sign that a dualistic worldview has trapped us again. It suggests that “plumbing is not full-time Christian service." It's not even part-time Christian service. But for the plumber who is a follower of Christ, isn't plumbing really full-time Christian service?

The uniview, the Biblical worldview tells us that the plumber, the engineer, the mechanic, the lawyer, and the homemaker that are followers of Jesus are all in full-time Christian service.

Does God really care about plumbing? Let’s answer that with this question: does God want Pete the plumber to do his work well? - Yes.

If all authorities ultimately fall under the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ, isn’t Pete the Plumber’s ultimate employer the Lord Jesus Christ?

Are we not called to do everything we do for the Lord? - Yes Colossians 3:23

Colossians 3:23 KJV 1900

23 And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men;

So if Pete the plumber is working for the Lord, doing whatever he is doing for the Lord, isn’t Pete the plumber doing the “Lord’s work?” - Yes!

The common notion among Christians that if someone is really going to serve God, then repairing a sewer system can’t be compared to the work of a pastor or missionary is a lie.

Ray Bakke wrote in his book A Theology as Big as the City that "Christians are the only people who can truly discuss the salvation of souls and the rebuilding of city sewer systems in the same sentence." That is, we ought to be able to.

We have been taught by the culture around us that the sacred and the secular are two different airplanes that cannot occupy the same airport. But there is no such divide.

The Bible says that we are created to work, and even after we are saved, God has ordained us to walk in good works. Or work should be good. It should be excellent and to the best of our abilities. Evangelism is not a separate airplane that we can hop on once our work is done. No, good work and evangelism are, as Al Erisman put it, “two wings of the same airlplane.”

We are not saved by good works, but we are saved for good works. Ephesians 2:8-10

Ephesians 2:8–10 KJV 1900

8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

Does the physical world really matter to God? Why/why not?

The Great Commission in Light of the First Commission

Earlier, we remembered that the early Christians living in Rome were fed to lions in addition to many other torturous exercises for holding and living out a Biblical worldview.

But of course, the majority of Christians were not executed. They lived their daily lives in such a way that people were amazed at how they could approach the challenges of life so differently. Athenagoras of Athens an early church father of the second century, wrote to Emperor Marcus Aurelius and his son Commodus a defense of Christianity these words:

"With us... you will find unlettered people, tradesmen and old women, who though unable to express in words the advantages of our teaching, demonstrate by acts the value of their principles. For they do not rehearse speeches, but evidence good deeds. When struck they do not strike back; when robbed, they do not sue; to those who ask, they give, and they love their neighbors as themselves. If we did not think that a God ruled over the human race, would we live in such purity? The idea is impossible. But since we are persuaded that we must give an account of all our life here to God who made us and the world, we adopt a temperate, generous, and despised way of life."

This falls right in line with Paul’s teachings to the Thessalonian church in 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12

1 Thessalonians 4:11–12 KJV 1900

11 And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you; 12 That ye may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that ye may have lack of nothing.

The last reason that Paul gives to work and be occupied in our own business is for financial gain. The primary reasons is so that we can walk honestly toward them that are outside the church. That we would be a living example of our faith in the face of the world.

Let’s Change Our Worldview

I would like to close with this explanation of what a worldview is.

What a worldview is: "A comprehensive framework of beliefs that helps us to interpret what we see and experience and also gives us direction in the choices that we make as we live out our days."

Our working definition for a worldview goes like this:

A worldview is a “big picture” of reality shaped by conscious or subconscious assumptions about God, Creation, Humanity, Moral Order, and Purpose.

Conclusion