Acts and Apologetics: a Christian Worldview, part 1

Back in the 1970s, comedian Bill Cosby had a routine featuring Noah and  God. God was telling him how to build the ark by divinely revealing materials and dimensions. Finally, Noah responds with, "What's a cubit?" 

Without knowing what a cubit is, how could he build the ark to the proper dimensions that God required for the survival of mankind and the animal kingdom?

As we begin discussing "worldviews," we must first define what a Worldview is. Essentially, a worldview is how an individual looks at the world around him or her. And how that person looks at the world around them is determined or defined by an individual's personal attitudes, philosophy, background, and upbringing. We view life and interpret life through the lens of world view. 

The fact of the matter is that EVERYONE has a worldview. No matter who you are or where you live, you have a worldview. You have an idea of how the world looks or operates according to your beliefs. For example, a top-level executive living on the 49th floor of a swanky East Side Manhattan condo can have a much different worldview as compared to a  tribal chieftain in western Kenya or a successful fisherman in Hong Kong, or a teenager in Rio de Janeiro. Each has a different background,  upbringing, and economic setting. Never mind religious views and values,  language, customs, and more. And each of these factors helps to shape and determine a person's worldview.

Not to belabor the point, but even 2 students living next door to each other in suburban America can have differing worldviews. One is male, the other female. One has a stay-at-home mom, the other works the night shift. One is of a Catholic background and attends Mass every week, the other wants to go to church with another friend, but the parents don't allow it because they believe the "child" should make their own decisions when they are older. One helps in a local soup kitchen on a  monthly basis, the other won't lift a finger around the house. Their individual worldviews color how they think about the world around them as well as how they participate in society.

Young or old, rich or poor, black or white, Protestant or Buddhist, you plug in the variables, everyone has a worldview. And worldviews CAN change. Ideas and thinking can change a person. Life's crises can change a worldview.

A change of mind.

Take a look at Acts chapter 9. This is a fantastic, and I might say supernatural, example of a change in someone's worldview. Saul, a student of the great rabbi Gamaliel, a persecutor of this new "religion" or sect who calls themselves "Christians" or followers of "the Way", changes his worldview. He becomes Paul.

He now, by the power of the Holy Spirit, sees the world as God sees it. Before his conversion, Saul saw the world through one set of lenses. Yes, it may have been in the Jewish tradition and close to God, but it was still out of focus. God needed to remove the scales from his eyes so that he could see everything the way God did. And that means everything. 

And when we see with "new" eyes, we have a change of mind. We renew our minds. As our minds are renewed, everything else changes.

Some people may argue that it is first a change of heart. That may be close, but I believe God uses a change of mind first. God wants us to reason this all out. The heart is full of feelings, and He has already said  that our hearts are "deceitful above all things." Jeremiah 17:9. God wants us to think. He wants us to use our minds.

Why is understanding worldviews important to the study and participation of Apologetics? Without understanding the other party's worldview, we don't understand how they think or what  "makes them tick," as Sigmund Freud put it.  Furthermore, we need to be able to communicate our Christian, Trinitarian worldview to them;  rather than just argue for a "Supreme Sentient Being", devoid of personality or relationship. This is the idea of "Christian Theism." In a separate post, we'll provide an overview of non-Christian worldviews.

In his book, "The Universe Next Door," James Sire develops the idea that there are 7 parts or questions that come into play as we construct our worldview. As we go through these questions, I'll plug in the Evangelical Christian (this is going to be a broad brush, so beware and please allow me some leeway) ideas that go along and support these worldviews.  In determining a worldview (yours  or another person's), we essentially ask the question: "What is the  Nature of..." And so let's begin.

The first question we ask is, "What is the Nature of Reality?" The philosophical term would be understanding the Metaphysical or Ontology. What is really real? Is there a god? If there is, what does he, she, or it look like or act like? No matter what, when defining a person's worldview, we must define God (Theology) or the absence of Him. And what of our being? 

In defending the Christian Faith (orthodox, Bible-believing, fundamental),  our Ontology and Theology is that God does exist and He exists in the "form" of 3 Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. These make up the Godhead. God is Triune in Nature. The Father is God, Jesus Christ is God, and the Holy Spirit is God. Without this doctrine firmly in place, our apologetic is crushed. We don't even know Who God is. How then do we accurately and positively present our apologetic to an atheist or agnostic or Eastern religious (Buddhist, Hindu, etc)  person? What about that "spiritual" friend who is constantly looking here and there for a "blessed" time of refreshment? That person is as lost as the atheist! 

Remember that getting "close" doesn't count in  God's economy. You're either Saved or lost; Redeemed or unregenerate. God has no middle ground.

As Christians, we naturally believe in the "supernatural", that is we believe that there exists something or a "realm" beyond what our senses are able to determine. Our reality is the unseen as well as the seen. The invisible as well as the visible. That is part of our creed. 

The second question asks, "What is the Nature of the world around us?" What is our Cosmology? Not just the ground under our feet, but the planet, the creatures inhabiting it, the solar system, and beyond. Where did it all come from? Where is it all going? How is it constructed? 

From  Cosmology come the studies and our understanding of biology, geology,  physics, chemistry, and astronomy. We debate Creationism versus evolution. We seemingly split hairs over "old earth" versus "new earth". The Bible, as a book of Natural Observation, states that the earth, universe, and all that we see or don't see (the microscopic world as well as the universe beyond what can be seen) was created by God in 6 days. The Bible states they are literal, 24-hour days. 

Others translate the days into epochs or eons to better support their worldview; after all,  evolution needs time, and the more time the better...to make it all fit.

As a  Christian, I rely on the Bible as God's True Word. I can't pick and choose what I agree with or don't. It's either 100% true or it's not. If there is even ONE error in the Bible, then God has lied and the entire volume is false. And so by Faith, I believe that God created all that I see and experience in 6, 24-hour days then rested on the seventh. It is far easier to believe and accept Divine Creation rather than go through all of the mental gymnastics of evolution.

Creationism is a simple and plausible "theory." Let's face it, no one, I repeat, no one was there in the beginning to see it all happen...except God. For the  Christian who believes in evolution (which is its own faith), I ask the question: if you don't believe in 6 literal days of Creation, then what do you do with Revelation chapters 21 and 22? How many billions of years will God need to make the new Heavens, Earth, and Jerusalem happen?  Remember that God is constant, consistent, and immutable in all that He does.

And since we're talking about creation, what of God's pinnacle (yes, pinnacle) of creation, mankind? 

Our third question: What is the Nature of man? What is our Anthropology? Where did we come from? What about gender? Why do men differ from women? Why do women like the seat down? How can men be thinking of nothing? What happens after we die?

Christians believe that God created mankind (one race) in two forms: male and female. Different bodies, different functions. But both were created in the image of God. Eve was taken out of Adam and specially formed as a help mate for him. God knew that man needed woman. Knowing and believing that you are created in God's image gives you purpose. You have worth.

The child that a woman is carrying as she is pregnant is not a "bundle of tissue". From the moment of conception, the DNA from the mom and dad are combined to create a brand new, unique human being. This baby when born will not only have unique (one of a kind in the entire universe) DNA, but also fingerprints, brain waves, speech patterns, and other peculiarities. Even if there were twins or triplets or morA1e, each individual baby is a unique creation. How can that be?

This is why Christians are so utterly pro-life and pro-heterosexual marriage. Gay marriage is, according to God, an abomination in His sight. God created men men and women women. He didn't mess up the gender. We are created for pro-creation and mutual enjoyment.  Two men cannot conceive and give birth to a baby; neither can 2 women. For a baby to happen, the egg needs the sperm as much as the sperm needs the egg. Conception is impossible otherwise. One sex needs the other. The sexes complement as well as complete each other. More importantly, God wants this homosexual man or woman to realize their sin and error and return to Him. He wants that out of pure Love.

At our death, the Christian believes that the soul, being reunited with its resurrected body, will either spend eternity enjoying God in Heaven or enduring a lonely, eternal hell of punishment, damnation, and separation from a holy God, their Creator. People have had chances over their entire lives to see, comprehend, and receive God as their personal Savior and Lord. Those who accept the Sovereignty and excellence of God live eternally. Those who ignore or choose not to believe die eternally. Like it or not, this proposition is "fair" because it's God's universe and we exist under His rules. If you still have a problem with that, go back and review lessons 5, 6, and 7 of this same study.

Also under the heading of anthropology comes the study of sociology,  psychology, and culture. What do we believe as far as an afterlife? That can be a sub-category or criteria. This question can also be dealt with the last question of Teleology, found in part 2 of this Christian worldview series.

Is that enough to think about for a little while? Thought so! Let's digest this before moving on to part 2.