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I am a born-again Christian, who is Reformed, but also charismatic, spiritually speaking. (I do not speak in tongues, but I believe glossalalia is a bona fide gift not given to all, and not as great as prophecy, for example.) I have several years of college education but only completed a two-year degree. I was raised Lutheran and confirmed, but I didn't "find Christ" until I was in the Army and responded to a Billy Graham crusade in 1973. I was mentored or discipled by the Navigators in the army and upon discharge joined several evangelical, Bible-teaching churches. I was baptized as an infant, but believe in believer baptism, of which I was a partaker after my conversion experience. I believe in the "5 Onlys" of the reformation: sola fide (faith alone); sola Scriptura (Scripture alone); soli Christo (Christ alone), sola gratia (grace alone), and soli Deo gloria (to God alone be the glory). I affirm TULIP as defended in the Reformation.. I affirm most of The Westminster Confession of Faith, especially pertaining to Providence.
Showing posts with label christian worldview. Show all posts
Showing posts with label christian worldview. Show all posts

Friday, January 10, 2020

The Old Humanism...

"God is not dead, nor doth he sleep." --Henry Wadsworth Longfellow


Humanism isn't a newfangled idea or concept but was an idea concocted or developed by the Greeks in antiquity. They sought to make man the measure of all things or that everything is related to man and interpreted with him in mind (known as Homo mensura in Greek). This was promulgated chiefly by Protagoras. The actual roots stem from ancient times (postdiluvian or after the Noachian flood, aka the Deluge) when the people sought to make a name for themselves (cf. Gen. 11:4). Man has always had trouble with the truth because his pride gets in the way; he tends not to accept the authority of God and seeks to be his own man. Sin is basically that: the declaration of independence from God. As it is written (Rom. 1:28, HCSB): "And because they did not think it worthwhile to acknowledge God...." In fact, Voltaire went so far as to define God thus: "Man has created God in his image." And Sigmund Freud went on to insult God as being a "projection."


By definition, humanism is the deifying of man and the dethroning of God! Men have tried to make a name for themselves since the tower of Babel (cf. Gen. 11:4). Friedrich Nietzsche proclaimed unashamedly that "God is dead," which meant that He either doesn't exist or is totally irrelevant. They exalt man and ignore God or make Him irrelevant, even declaring Him dead. What kind of God dies? But our God refuses to and will not die! What they are doing is worshiping man, because man is by nature a religious creature that is hard-wired to worship someone or something and never can claim to worship nothing even if he's a self-proclaimed nihilist or atheist. They are parading themselves and are braggadocious of their own achievements, not God's accomplishment, and in this way are very religious. John Dewey, who co-wrote Humanist Manifesto [I], in his book Common Faith, posited that we can be "religious" without "religion" or claiming no official or affiliated religion.


It sounds offensive to say, "Glory to man in the highest!" This is counter-intuitive but is what they are maintaining unawares. Man is not worthy of worship but man cannot but worship someone or something. Humanists tend to live in the here and now and refuse to let God into the reckoning. Without God in the equation, man is without purpose and hope and is empty. This void or God-shaped vacuum can only be filled by God according to Blaise Pascal! Sartre said that unless one considers God in the picture, man is a "useless passion." Christians, on the other hand, live their lives in light of eternity, not just for the mundane and the present circumstances--they can live above them and have hope for the future that lifts the spirit. Augustine of Hippo is known for maintaining that man is restless until he finds his rest in God.


Humanists live for themselves like animals in heat avoiding pain and seeking pleasure. But Christians live for God and have a higher purpose in living that brings meaning and definition. They have a destiny to live out and a reason for being. I want to point out that even Christians can become humanists by letting their pride get in the way and becoming self-centered and selfish and losing track of the will of God, seeking short-term pleasure in life instead of a life defeating evil and the power of sin. And when Solomon says that there's nothing new under the sun, he's right in that even Adam and Eve were humanists when they ate of the proverbial apple and sought their own wisdom, pleasure, and meaning in life independent of God's will and love.


We must realize that God has a purpose for everyone and Christians realize fulfillment in God only. God even made the wicked for the day of evil. When we have served our purpose God may call us home to glory, but we're all here for a purpose that we may not be aware of. Paul said in Col. 1:16 (MSG): "...[E]verthing got started in him and finds its purpose in him." We are all here for a reason and must never say as the old proverb goes: "Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die!" Those famous words are in Scripture and man has always been guilty of this kind of thinking.


Julian Huxley wrote Religion without Revelation to point out that we can be good without God and don't need God or believe in absolutes to have ethics or morals. That's basically what Satan has always tried to convince man since the Garden of Eden: We can be good without God, or we can be as gods! This is what's so deceiving of false religions because they may seem good on the outside and people are tricked into thinking that they mean well, but Satan knows how to insert just enough error to be dangerous and inoculate one from the truth and deceive with an element of truth.


In conclusion, we'll never arrive at objective truth (true regardless of whether it's believed and apart from personal input or perspective) unless we start with God in the picture, as Athanasius said, "The only system of thought into which Jesus Christ will fit is the one in which He is the starting point." We must not begin with man and explain the universe or explain away God, but must begin with God and explain everything else: reality, man, the world with all the academic disciplines, current events, and history. The Bible starts out as rational,, "In the Beginning," and it's theological as well as rational, even without realizing it or becoming atheists, they are practical atheists maintaining: "Down with God; up with man!" Au contraire! The divine viewpoint should be: "All the world is relative to Christ," according to Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and Carl Henry said, "The Christian belief system is relevant to all of life." Soli Deo Gloria  

Monday, April 15, 2019

Presuppositions Of A Christian Worldview

God is the moral center of the universe. Consequently, there is absolute truth and right and wrong. Adam was created a living being, with a soul and spirit (known as dualism); naturalistic or materialistic views of man, as not having the immaterial is wrong (a heart to love God, a mind to know Him--we have a mind as well as a brain, and a will to obey Him). Man has inherent dignity in God's image only in the Judaeo-Christian worldview. God created man male and female and said it was good. Any other combo is not of God and just because something is legal doesn't mean it is moral. We affirm the inherent worth of the individual and life as inviolate. Man, however, is not basically good nor inherently good, but totally depraved and inherently evil, but having a conscience, and needs the institutions of family, church, and state to curb his evil bent. The Bible is God's gift to man to give him a sense of "ought." We believe in individual responsibility and that everyone is ultimately accountable to God. Christians cite the church father Athanasius, who said that Christ will only fit into a system of thought where He is the starting point. There is an absolute standard of right and wrong that we all know called natural or transcendent law--morality is not relative. Something other than matter and energy exists in the cosmos--mind! God is the Higher Mind, and this mind precedes, creates, and is over matter.

There are several institutions God has ordained: The model for government is given in Isaiah 33:22 as having three branches: Executive, legislative, and judicial. All authority is from God and we are to submit to it for the Lord's sake! A government, has limited powers, rights, and responsibilities, and might attempt to redefine marriage, but God never does. Marriage is honorable as a divine institution predating government and comes from God himself. The Bible sanctions no specific form of government; however, the government is meant to keep evil at bay and protect one's person and property (cf. Matt. 22:21). There is no certain mandated type of government but God ordains it to curtail evil (It is not a necessary evil, but necessary because of evil, according to Augustine). We "render to Caesar that which is Caesar's," (cf. Matt. 22:21) unless the law contravenes Scripture mandate. Then there does come a time for civil disobedience though when Christians must obey God and not man because of conflict. We believe in the rule of law (no arbitrary rule of men) and that the basis of all Common Law is Scripture. God's law trumps man's law and there is such a thing as obligatory civil disobedience. The Sabbath or blue laws are moral and date from creation itself. God gave man a conscience to know transcendent or natural law and is responsible to God. A clear conscience doesn't mean he is without fault; it must be captive to the Word of God. The sanctity of the family institution predates government. Unalienable rights are conferred from God and not the government, which only recognizes them. Governments have no right to tyrannize. There is no so-called social gospel, a misnomer (turning stones into bread). God demands "social justice" (cf. Isaiah 3:15; Jeremiah 22:26 and Psa. 82:4; Amos 2:6-7; 4:1; Mal. 3:5, et al).


Work ethic comes from God and all work has dignity and can be done to the glory of God--work shows the image of God in us. There is no class system or caste system (property rights are protected though) in the eyes of the law--but all are equal under the law--with respect to liberty and justice. The Bible is reliable historically, prophetically, and in doctrine and the Christian worldview depends upon the veracity of Scripture. We presuppose the existence of absolute truth incarnate in Jesus Christ.


Spiritually speaking: The Church will not usher in the kingdom of God but wait for Christ to come to do it himself according to the Father's timetable--in the meantime we occupy till He comes as our marching orders while we fulfill the task of the Great Commission, and become ready for it to happen at any time. G. K. Chesterton observed: "America is a nation with the soul of a church." Christians have no geopolitical concerns, but await Christ to usher in His Millennial Kingdom--we are not Utopians. Christian theology is Christ-centered! The Bible is the basis of most precedent and principle and is authoritative on moral issues. Christians are to set the example of pure living and be light and salt in a wicked world, where they are in the world, but not of it. Our rights, conferred from God, recognized by the state, are not absolute and end where other's rights begin.




Soli Deo Gloria!

Developing Christian Worldview

"No nation has survived the loss of its gods" (George Bernard Shaw, Irish playwright and Nobel Prize winner for literature).

A worldview is a way of interpreting your world, such as purpose in living, where you came from, and where you are going--our role in the world-system--questions such as: Is there right and wrong? Is there a God? What is the meaning of life? How do you interpret reality? There is a current war of ideas in the world: Marxism (basically an economic understanding, but also totalitarian, aiming to establish a domination of the proletariat or working class and abolishing the bourgeoisie in class warfare), Secular-Humanism (basically that man is the measure of all things, making a name for himself, up with man, down with God, or deifying man and dethroning God, and reality starts from him), New Age (the idea of cosmic consciousness, or force, or supra-consciousness, [God is the force of life and an influence] being in touch with the inner god--they think Jesus was just this sort), Postmodernism (founded by Nietzsche as the patron saint, saying that "God is dead" or irrelevant and we can live without Him), Islam with its geopolitical concerns (believing that "tomorrow belongs to Islam" and being bent on (world) hegemony), and Christianity (Christ's kingdom is in the hearts of man and not of this world) itself--the first five have one thing is common in that they oppose Christianity. Any viewpoint that doesn't start with God is evil (man is not the measure of all things like humanists have taught)!


We are exhorted to "hate that which is evil and cling to that which is good" in Rom. 12:9 and in 1 Thessalonians 5:21-22 it says, "...hold fast that which is good. Abstain from all appearance of evil." [which means that when evil appears, resist it.] Only those who have their senses trained to "discern good and evil" can digest the meat of the word and the infants in Christ can only live on the milk of the Word according to Hebrews 5:14. We need to love God with our whole minds and not be indolent, slothful, or anti-intellectual--we are to use the minds God has given us to the glory of God (cf. Mark 12:30, Col. 3:23).

We are in the world, but not of it, according to Scripture (John 15:19 says, "You are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world"). If we love the world-system or cosmos of Satan, the love of the Father is not in us--indeed he entices us with many delicacies of the world to compete with our spiritual appetites. Beware of the pseudo-philosophies of this age as the admonishment in Col. 2:8 says, "Let no man spoil you through philosophy or vain deceit..." We need to "contend for the faith" like Jude said in v. 3 and that means taking stands for Jesus and sticking up for what is right in an evil world. We are the salt and light as the children of God.


Paul's swan song was: "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith" (2 Tim. 4:7). We all have a conscience and can tell right from wrong (Rom. 2:15), and we are all responsible and don't have any excuses for knowing God (Rom. 1:18-20). In 1 Chron. 12:32 it says that only a few people were able to interpret the times and knew what to do. Daniel 11:32 says that the "people who knew their God "shall be strong and do exploits." At the time of the end, the wise will understand and the wicked will not" (Dan. 12:10). When Nebuchadnezzar realized that God was sovereign he came to his senses (Dan. 4:35).

Today we seem to be doing what's right in our own eyes (similar to the Israelites in Judges 21:25--"They did what was right in their own eyes"). The culture says that there is no standard of right and wrong--it is all relative and you can't force your morality on another person. It isn't that we can't legislate morality, it's whose morality we legislate.

In Allan Bloom's book The Closing of the American Mind, he says that people now believe "all truth is relative"--if that is true, then that statement has no value; it is also relative. They say nothing is always wrong and nothing is always right; what matters is sincerity. This goes back to Satan's taunt: "Hath God said?" They seem to believe that the only truths that are relative are those that defend the Christian worldview! One prof was reported as saying, "You can know nothing for certain." One astute student asked, "Are you sure?" "Yes, I'm certain!" Jesus was the Truth itself, the incarnation of Truth with a capital T and came to bear witness of the truth--the Romans, including Pilate, doubted the existence of absolute truth (true no matter who believes it and whether anyone believes it or not). They thought that "might made right." This was the epitome of cynicism and an insult to Christ's veracity.

God's providence works all things according to His divine decrees and He has no Plan B; He has no other plan, but to use us as His vessels of honor and to bring glory to him (cf. Isa. 43:7). Everything is going according to plan as Isaiah says in Isa 37:26 and He is in control according to Isa. 14:24, 27 and 46:8-11. "Behold, the nations are as a drop of the bucket..." (Isa. 40:15). "He's got the whole world in His hands." Psalm 22:28 says that God is sovereign over the nations and we can be sure even over every molecule in the universe. Eph. 1:11 says that God works out everything according to His will. John Wesley used to read the paper to "see what God is doing in His world." God is even in control of the toss of the die (Prov. 16:33) and in control of the whims of the king (Prov. 21:1). He leaves nothing to chance: Einstein said, "God doesn't play dice with the universe." The secret is to stay away from extremes: "Turn not to the right hand nor to the left: remove thy foot form evil" (Prov. 4:27).

As Christians we are to "submit [ourselves] to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme; or unto governors..." (1 Pet. 2:12-13) Paul says something similar: "Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God" (Rom. 13:1). We are to "render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's" according to Matthew 22:21 and even be light and salt in the world, trying to make people see the light to get saved according to our gift. With privilege there is the flip side of responsibility; they go hand in hand. There is such a thing as "social justice" but no "social gospel." One only need refer to the prophets Amos and Micah. We assert that God is the only legitimate legislator according to Isaiah 33:22 (positive law says that man can make any law he desires) and His character is the law of the universe. Isaiah said, "Woe unto them who decree unjust laws..." (Isa. 10:1-2). It has been said, "If we have contempt for government, we get contemptible government."


"What do you mean by crushing My people and grinding the face of the poor...?" (Is. 3:15). "Rescue the weak and the needy..." (Ps. 82:4). The believer who knows the Lord is concerned about the plight of the poor (Psa. 41:1) and the evil in the world: he doesn't just see evil and say, "Why?" He also sees good and says, "Why not?" This is what it means to know the Lord according to Jeremiah 22:16--to be concerned about those less fortunate and defending those who can't defend themselves, the weak ("He pled the cause of the afflicted and needy; Then it was well. Is not that what it means to know Me?" declares the LORD [in Jer. 22:16]). Amos and Micah are champions of the underdog and the underprivileged and deplore how "they sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals--those who trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth and turn aside the way of the afflicted (cf. Amos 2:6-7). "...Who oppress the poor, who crush the needy..." (Amos 4:1). Malachi is appalled at those "who oppress the hired worker in his wages..." (Mal. 3:5). We are not to be partial to the poor nor to the rich, but show justice to all (Deut. 19:15). Charity and welfare were mandated in Israel according to Lev. 19:9-10 Deut. 15:4, and other passages--they were allowed to "glean the fields" of the landowners. There was to be "no poor in Israel."

Now, what kind of values are Christians supposed to espouse? They should subscribe to the sanctity of the family unit as having preference over the government's authority, because it was established before it; it should believe in the inherent worth of the individual (you have rights, but they end where mine begin--you can swing your fist but not hit my nose!) as being in the image and likeness of God (the imago Dei), and that means having a mind to know and communicate with God, a heart to love Him, and a will to obey Him. These are called inalienable rights and our culture is based on it in the constitutional Bill of Rights. We are merely stewards of God's riches ("The earth is the LORD's and the fullness thereof" says Ps. 24:10) and are responsible to Him to give account at the judgment. (There is a Protestant work ethic mentioned in 2 Thess. 3:10 that declares that those who are not willing to work shall not eat.)

All authority ultimately comes from God and we get our rights and dignity form Him; "unless you assume a God, the question of man's purpose is meaningless," and without God man is a "useless passion." (Bertrand Russell and Jean-Paul Sartre). We believe the government has limited power derived from God--it is not a necessary evil, as Augustine said, but necessary because of evil. We have a duty to this government since we owe them our security and protection of our property and our person from crime--justice and law and order are the primary functions. Marriage is to be held in honor and a "man shall leave his mother and be joined to his wife and the two shall become one flesh" and "God made them male and female and said that it was good." No rights are absolute, such as you saying it's your religion to be a cannibal or that you can yell fire in an auditorium! Sometimes it may be our duty to disobey, which is termed civil disobedience--God's laws trump the government; shall we obey God or man? ("We must obey God rather than man" [Acts 5:29]).



I believe firmly that the Bible sanctions no certain type of government, as long as human rights are respected. The government was first documented to be divided into three parts in Isaiah 33:22 into the legislative, judicial, and executive branches (king, judge, lawgiver). I refer to Lord Acton's adage that is a cliche now: "Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely." We do not believe that our rights (note that the obverse of rights is responsibilities necessitated) are derived from the government, but directly from God, who gives us dignity and worth as man in His image or the icons of God, as it were.

If God doesn't exist, everything is permissible. But we believe in transcendent or natural law that everyone is able to know by nature apart from the government. Law is designed for wrong-doers and should confer rights on us. People are in a state of rebellion against our so-called bourgeois values (which really is the Judaeo-Christian heritage or Western civilization). As the psalmist says, "What can the righteous do when the foundations are destroyed?" (Ps. 11:3). For one thing, we should pray for our leaders, not condemn them [It is our God who put them there, as Paul said, "Is unlawful to speak evil of a ruler of your people", Acts 23:5].

Christians are not "utopians" but are waiting for Christ to usher in His Millennial Kingdom at His second coming. A word to the wise is sufficient: Christians have no geopolitical aspirations like the Muslim world bent on dominating the world with their hegemony, and they should not sound the alarm, but "occupy till He comes" (business as usual). As Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world." In conclusion, we have read the last page of the Bible and know how it all will turn out and are assured that we are on the winning side and victory is inevitable in the end. NB: Keep the faith! "The LORD frustrates the counsel of the nations; He thwarts the plans of the peoples...Happy is the nation whose God is Yahweh!" (Psalm 33:10-12). A word of encouragement--all is not lost: God is able to heal our land if we confess our corporate sins and humble ourselves in repentance as His people (2 Chronicles 7:14)


In the final analysis, it is vital to know Scripture to combat the prevalent Secular Humanistic viewpoint (deifying man and denying and dethroning God) in the world and not to fall into the devil's trap. Sir Francis Bacon said, "Knowledge is power." And the Bible backs this up in Proverbs 10:14 saying, "The wise lay up knowledge..." And Proverbs 24:5 says, "And a man of knowledge enhances his might." We must not remain silent and concede everything away. They are trying to eradicate Christianity from the marketplace of ideas, the classroom, and the public square.


In summation: Common fallacies are that if an idea works it should be implemented (John Dewey said that the test of an idea is not whether it is true, but whether it works). Today we see pragmatism or doing what is practical, prevalent and politicians act expediently or doing whatever serves their purpose. The danger with these erroneous worldviews is that they contain an element of truth, just enough to inoculate one from the real thing--like a being vaccinated from the truth and immune to reality. A most dangerous philosophy is that the end justifies the means (in pragmatism and utilitarianism), or that if one has sincere motives it is sanctioned. Communism is replete with this doctrine. Modern times have necessitated a war of ideas and ideologies. Today with pragmatic politics they believe that, if it works, it's moral (Hitler was successful at what he did!). The "isms" of the world are on a collision course. It does matter what you believe and what your worldview is: What you believe affects what you do and how you act. The main battle is not against capitalism and socialism, but between the free world and totalitarianism. Soli Deo Gloria!


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Christian Worldview Outshines The Others

The problematic issue is that all religions and worldviews have an element of truth and just enough to make one immune to the real thing and inoculated, as it were. NB: The Christian worldview stands or falls on the veracity of the Word of God. The Christians' citizenship is in heaven as Jesus said in John 15:19, "You are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world." Don't let the world squeeze you into its mold it says in Romans 12:2 in one translation. My premise is that God is the moral center of the universe and is our Judge, we are not His judge (we are by definition held accountable to our Creator).

There are basically ten academic subjects that are directly affected by the worldview (which are as follows: Theology, philosophy, ethics, biology, psychology, sociology, law, politics, and history economics makes up Western Civilization or Christendom) and disciplines of a student of the truth. There are several worldviews including Secular Humanist (the predominant one in America), Communist or Marxist, Postmodern (which holds all truth as relative, except its own truths and especially those of Christianity) New Age, and Muslim. They all have this in common: They all agree to oppose Christianity.


Christianity is the only one that gives dignity to man and meaning to his life and purpose or teleology to his life's origin and destiny. Humanists, et al., describe Christians as out of touch with reality (Ted Turner, for instance, has labeled Christians as weak and Christianity a religion for losers), Freud described Christians as neurotic, if not psychotic. The problem is that Marx described religion as the opiate of the people--actually, young people are ill-prepared and don't know what they believe when encountered with worldviews, and should have their minds kept open.

What has happened is that man has forgotten God according to Alexander Solzhenitsyn. The historian, Will Durant asks if a man can live without God? Ironically, on the other hand, Bertrand Russell says what the world needs is more Christian love. Nietzsche proclaimed God as dead (not relevant anymore) and that "we killed Him." Russell (the most famous atheist philosopher of the twentieth century), also said that "unless you assume a God, the question of life's meaning is useless." God is indeed relative to all dimensions of life and every major academic discipline.

Ethics is in debate and is the chief problematic area because what you believe affects how you behave (orthodoxy or right belief is necessary for orthopraxy or right behavior)--Humanists say ethics are relative to one's culture. We believe that the faith you have is the faith you show, but Christianity is not a system of ethics, but a relationship with the living God. We have an inner sense of "ought." We will be held accountable to our Creator at the judgment. The summation of Christian ethics is to follow the Lord in discipleship.

Look at the gamut of value systems:

In Islam, Muhammad is seen as the exemplary hero held in superlative status, though he had many flaws in his character, while Jesus was sinless--what Jesus did, no man can do, what Muhammad did, any militant man can do. We believe in absolute right and wrong--certain things are always wrong in all situations at all times. 

Postmodernists, with more of a mood than dogma, say that they believe in no absolutes but moral relativism. If it feels right, then it is--make your own credo (essence of New Age)! "Truth is a short-term contract." Imagine the consequences of believing that! They essentially believe you should live as you please (see how your worldview affects your behavior--it has consequences!). 

Secular Humanists claim we are an evolving animal and it is no wonder they behave like animals! They believe in the science of ethics and reject absolute standards--nothing is conceived as good or bad--they believe in "no truth." Remember, Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." Therefore, truth can be known and does exist.  

Marxists claim man is the highest form of man. Christians are immoral and the enemy and Marxists feed on class hatred and envy--ultimately the end justifies the means. The question is whether we are headed toward perfection and a higher being someday. 

The Postmodernists refuse a Big Story (worldview), or metanarrative, or grand narrative, as they call it, and want to get in touch with the god within and that tolerance is the ultimate virtue--you might say they endorse neither atheism nor theism--their faith is highly eclectic and highly individualized. 

New Agers believe in the reciprocity rule of ethics (what Confucius taught-- don't treat others the way you don't want to be treated--don't even the score!), inner truth and enlightenment, karma, and being non-judgmental or tolerant. They believe we should design our own ethics--if it feels good, it's right for you! What modern-day schools teach is that your ethics or mores are okay as long as you can justify them or have sound reasoning behind them.

The big issue in psychology is whether we have souls, as others deny (except Islam). Is there a supernatural (the secular humanist vehemently denies any supernatural)? Does the mind supersede matter or vice versa? Which came first mind or matter? "In the beginning, God" not "In the beginning matter (no God)." The problem is that only Christianity deals with the problem of sin, death, and guilt in an acceptable way. Christianity is a competing therapy to psychology and is regarded as an enemy, not an ally.

There are parameters to a Christian worldview: mind over matter, God before people, plan, and design before creation, life from life, and enlightenment from Light. All things have their origin or genesis in God: "In the beginning God...." The problem most people have is that they know enough truth to be dangerous as Sir Francis Bacon (the father of modern empiricism, along with John Locke, and author of the scientific method), said, "A little philosophy inclineth man's mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion."

Let's show the ways Christianity outweighs the other worldviews
:

In theology, there is more evidence for God than against and you cannot disprove God or the fact of a designed universe (argument from design)--Christian theology is Christ-centered and its validity is based on the veracity of the Scriptures; In philosophy the mind or logos precedes or is over and has power over matter and the Higher Mind and loving God is superior to moral relativism in concept--having a First-Cause or Unmoved-Mover fits the facts better than pure chance and accident of history in the making--the vast majority of great thinkers according to renowned scholar Mortimer J. Adler were believers in God--supernaturalism and faith are vital to reason (the main purpose of reason is to show that some things are beyond reason; 

 In biology creating life coincides with the evidence better and you cannot demonstrate or prove spontaneous generation--life only comes from life (biogenesis)--no evolutionist can demonstrate how life began (life could not have arisen by chance according to Sir Fred Hoyle in The Intelligent Universe); as creatures of God we have dignity being in the image of God--creationism should be given equal time to evolution as both are faiths and can't be proved (who was there?); 

In psychology, the need for a Savior and the solution to the guilt problem outweigh the evolution concept, and mind supersedes matter or what is called dualism is superior--man has a soul and a mind as well as a brain (actually Christianity is better psychology than psychology)--man's problem is sin and guilt and how to overcome it, not deny it, because we are fallen creatures--Christianity is the only view that treats this issue; 

 In sociology, the biblical standards of society and family are superior to free love, open sex, or any social experiment (we believe in the inherent worth of the individual and primacy of the family unit as fundamental to society; 

In government, there shouldn't be any more interventionist than absolutely necessary and lean toward laissez-faire and open and free markets. In law, God hates the perversion of justice and provides a firm foundation--all just law is God-oriented and founded on the absolutes of right and wrong (known also as transcendent law and natural law), We uphold the rule of law and that the basis for Common Law is the Bible, relying on its veracity and relevance; Christians are obliged to obey the law (however; God's law trumps man's), and believers should pose no threat to other types of government as revolutionaries or anarchists, but should be model citizens whose real citizenship is in heaven; 

In politics, rights are derived directly from God and the responsibility of governments to secure them (by the way government is not a necessary evil, but necessary because of evil according to St. Augustine)--involvement in the political process is encouraged and apathy and ignorance are wrong--justice and freedom for all is a right from God; 

In economics, the concept of private property, work ethic, and individual responsibility is far more motivating than a welfare state based on redistribution of wealth and class envy--everything is given from God and we are merely stewards of His provision and bounty;

In history, utopia will be ushered in by Christ and is far more than a pipe dream, not just pie in the sky--history is linear nor repetitious and is headed for a culmination of judgment and a millennial kingdom ushered in by Christ, not us, the climax of history is when Christ comes to reign as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Secular views hold uniformitarianism or that things have always been as they are without catastrophe or intervention by God, such as the deluge. The story of history is "his story" and goes from creation, to fall, to redemption, resurrection, judgment, and eternity.

The role of government is to protect private property, ensure justice, preserve personhood from danger, and keep evil at bay, thus securing human rights and making the opportunity, as well as seeing the marketplace is fair and moral, as well as ethical-- the law is made for the evildoer who needs the motivation to be good.

Secular Humanism and Atheism have been declared religions by high federal courts in America, but children's minds are not kept open because there are violations of First Amendment rights in the classroom. After all, evolution is taught as absolute truth and not just theory, and creationism is not allowed equal time, though over half of Americans don't accept it as gospel truth.

In conclusion: It is time for Christians to stand up and boldly proclaim the truth, and to let their Christian colors show; that means taking a stand and not being ashamed of their faith or of Jesus, looking for opportunities to make Him known. It might be as simple as writing your congressman, or the editor of your paper, even lighting a candle, showing your Christian colors, and having a prayer meeting, chain, or vigil can be beneficial. We need believers who dare to be "Daniels" and will not just stand by the sidelines, so to speak, but stand up and be counted: "But the people who do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits" (Dan. 11:32b). Soli Deo Gloria!


The Necessity Of A Christian Worldview...

"Of the sons of Issachar, men who understood the times, with knowledge of what Israel should do, their chiefs were two hundred..." (1 Chronicles 12:32, NASB).

"... [A] people without understanding shall come to ruin" (Hosea 4:14, ESV).

C. S. Lewis, the literary apologist who wrote the Chronicles of Narnia and Mere Christianity, said we must defend our worldview and not lose by default or neglect---in other words, we must have the answers and be prepared for spiritual battle. Lewis also says "[we] must show our Christian colours, if we are to be true to Jesus Christ. We cannot remain silent and concede everything away." We must dare to be "Daniels" willing to get into the action and not stand aside and merely passively observe. We cannot remain neutral, for that is a stand against Christ and His truth. Matthew 12:30 says: "He that is not with Me is against Me."

The Judeo-Christian mindset has not failed, it has not been defended, but abandoned. The dual problem is that many do not know why they believe, nor even what they believe! Our mission: Get the truth out there and propagated in a culture that is convinced that "truth is a short-term contract," but there is absolute truth! But it is not all relevant. We must all be responsible to disseminate what light God has given us. The ramifications of being remiss or negligent are a nation devoid of divine viewpoint and being hi-jacked by fanatical or fringe movements, using God to promote their agenda, and possibly even the ultimate surrender to secular thinking, and the elimination of Christian input in toto into the public square could transpire, i.e., muzzling our freedom of speech!

What is a worldview (commonly referred to as Weltanschauung, the German terminology)? Opinions are something you hold, while convictions hold you: It is the sum total of your convictions and why you see a life worth living or something worth dying for. It has been said that it usually answers the queries: "Where did I come from? Why am I here? Where am I going?" Your worldview helps you explain God (or explain Him away), your world, and the relationship between the two as to how they relate individually and as a society. In sum, your outlook on life. In essence, we have a theory of the world and God, and how we relate to them, according to the dictionary. This is a vital discipline because kids are going to college ill-prepared when there's a war of ideas going on, and too many need to get their thinking straightened out (cf. 2 Cor. 10:5: "... [B]ringing every thought [or viewpoint] into captivity to the obedience of Christ"). So how do you interpret reality?

To answer these questions from the viewpoint or perspective of Secular Humanism, they leave God out of the equation and explain away the supernatural, only believing in the observable and rational, and leaving the universal language of science and consensus to figure out all the answers. Science has become a religion--or "scientism" and making value judgments, (as Carl Sagan, the 1981 recipient of the Humanist of the Year award, according to my source, said, "The cosmos is all there is or ever was or ever will be"--this is out of the realm, scope, and domain of science). More people believe in the theory of evolution (which is unproven and "unprovable") as religious dogma and scientific fact, and this is the Big Lie. Dr. Karl Popper says that evolution does not fit the definition of a scientific theory.

But Evolution is the building block of Secular Humanism and this belief system has no place for God in the Picture. This is the predominant worldview today in academia and we cannot remain silent and concede everything away, according to C. S. Lewis, again. Humanism has been around since antiquity and was known as man being the measure of all things (define and begin all reality with man, not God) and it was called homo mensura--deifying man and dethroning God. They see all religion as just chasing some "pie in the sky," and believe in living for the "here and now," without living in the light of eternity.

According to scholar Carl F. H. Henry, Christianity speaks to all academic disciplines and is relevant to all facets of life, not just having a personal relationship with God. There is a struggle for student allegiance in the school system and atheism has been declared a religion by the Seventh Court of Appeals in 2005. And Secular Humanism was defined in the book Religion Without Revelation by Julian Huxley. In A Common Faith, John Dewey sees the Secular Humanist movement as having the elements of a religion. They say that children's minds should be kept open, but they proceed to brainwash them. A. Solzhenitsyn has said that "man has forgotten God," and Friedrich Nietzsche (the patron saint of Postmodernism) said "God is dead." meaning that He is "no longer believable or relevant" Will Durant has well said, "The greatest question of our time is whether man can live without God." A current politician has said he would "keep God out of it."

You either must begin with man and explain the cosmos, or begin with God and explain the cosmos. This begs the question: What was in the beginning? "In the beginning God," or "In the beginning matter." Which created which? Do matter and energy have inherent power and intelligence to fix all the more than fifty constants in our cosmos and make life suitable for us, known as the Anthropic Principle, or the fine-tuning of our planet for human life?

Athanasius (the father of orthodoxy), one of the Church Fathers, said that the only system of thought that Christ will fit into is the one where He is the starting point. The false assumption that science makes is that Christianity is anti-science: In fact, it made possible modern science in the first place and is the "Mother of Modern Science" Many good scientists have been theists: Examples are Kepler, Newton, Copernicus, Boyle, Pascal, Galileo, Maxwell, and Farad.

Shakespeare said it well, concerning our meaning in life apart from God in Macbeth as he mused about the entirety of living: "...['T]is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing." R. C. Sproul said in the same vein: "With God we have dignity and without God, we have nothing." When you insert God into your thinking you can explain reality and find meaning to it. Bertrand Russell restated it well, "Unless you assume a God, the question of life's purpose is meaningless." Life is nonsensical without reference to God!

The biggest challenge Secular Humanism faces is the word "purpose" (and its corollary "meaning"), or the study of it known as teleology (from telos for purpose). The word seems almost theological to them in nature. There is indeed a war of "isms" and the battleground is the mindset of a whole generation that is apathetic toward them in their interpretive framework. The bottom line is that these "isms" have consequences.

It was the proponents of Secular Humanism that bemoaned the fact that children's minds weren't kept open when evolution was a forbidden subject in school; now they refuse to even let Creationism have equal time, though there is plenty of evidence, so that lack of evidence presents no excuse for denying it. We need to keep God in the public arena and defend the Christian worldview in the public square wherever possible, not letting Secular Humanism eradicate it or make it irrelevant. (They believe religion is acceptable as long as it is "privatized.")

"If there is no God," Fyodor Dostoevsky's dictum goes, "all things are permissible," and up for grabs, and we are without a moral compass--if we are animals, why not act like them? (Morals are then subjective and only a matter of personal conviction.) Some believe values are just a matter of public consensus--justifying Nazism and Communism! Listen to the New Age definition of it: "Morality is a nebulous thing; listen to the God within!" And if it feels like the truth, it is.

Postmodernists say that it can be right for you, but not for someone else. They dodge the morality and no-truth issues. Compare this idea to the situation described in Judges 21:25 (ESV): "... [E]veryone did what was right in their own eyes." All we need to know is that God is the moral center of the universe! A theologian Karl Barth, focused on Christians who are religious, but not righteous--and decried this as a natural fruit of this way of thinking.

We need to separate the wheat from the chaff, ascertaining the truth from the fiction. "My people perish for lack of knowledge" (Hosea 4:14). Note well: "Knowledge is power," said Sir Francis Bacon (cf. Prov. 24:5). "For lack of knowledge My people go into exile" (Is. 5:13). I Chronicles 12:32 says we need people who can interpret the times and know what to do. Our faith is "defensible" and we must meet the challenge and not lose by negligence or default. If we are versed in our worldview we will realize it outshines every other one.

The answer to Pilate's question: "What is truth?" is obtainable. Absolute truth is knowable since Jesus claimed to be the personification or embodiment of Truth with a capital "T" Himself! We need believers with a sense of "ought" and are committed to defending the truth as Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the Lutheran theologian. He penned The Cost of Discipleship and coined the phrase "cheap grace", and was a dissenter of Nazism (involved in assassination attempts), and a political/religious martyr, who said, "Who stands fast? ..., not the man whose final standard is his reason, his principles, his conscience, or virtue, but God." If we study the rationales behind these flimsy, bleak belief systems, we can readily detect their Achilles' heel. I rest my case! Soli Deo Gloria!

Focusing On Worldviews...

Deciding who to vote for is more than getting what you want on some issue that you deem vital. They don't buy your vote! What you may see as the most important stand he takes may be of no value or consequence to the opponent. It is not a matter of having a wish list and whoever gives you what you want wins your vote. A person can be a godly person and have a Christian worldview, and still be wrong on something--no one is infallible and inerrant. There is such a thing as selfish voting for one's personal agenda to advance one's economic cause or predicament. We shouldn't be able to vote ourselves out of poverty. True decisions should be for the welfare of the people at large and not favoring one group with a bias. The government is of the people, by the people, and for the people (all the people!). What happens usually is that when someone gets elected he only feels beholden to those who put him there and fails to realize faithfulness and responsibility for all the people. Everything is not going to change when your candidate gets elected and it is just pie in the sky to hope that a would-be messiah will save our nation.

The most dangerous thing is an idea whose time has come and this is what we see now is new ideas that resonate with the people--a revolution in politics and things are not as usual and candidates march to the beat of a different drum. I've never seen such finger-pointing and using someone as a scapegoat. The campaigns seem like movements and I'm not the only one saying that--people are voting who have before felt disenfranchised--but I question the sincerity and naivete of the youth of our nation who don't realize that candidates basically make empty promises to get elected, and true competence is a rare commodity in the political arena.

I find myself agreeing with a candidate some of the time, and simultaneously finding him obnoxious and repugnant personally--but this is the way the common man in our nation is and they relate to him. I believe that "character counts" and one must have a candidate that God can use and can be trusted--God is the one who is really in control and is the one who ultimately decides our election, though we must be good citizens and vote the best we know-how. One can be right on a number of issues and still not have a Christian worldview--it is not a matter of who is right on the most issues like a math equation. Some politicians are more problem-solvers than ideologues or purists. Martin Luther said that he'd rather live under a competent Turk than an incompetent Christian--but I think he means one that doesn't think like a Christian (have a correct worldview) and is one in name only without conviction. God gives a nation the politicians it deserves and politics is dirty business according to Goethe and makes strange bedfellows--so we must beware that they all pander to a degree and are saying what they believe we want to hear.

What is problematic is when you find yourself agreeing in spirit with someone who doesn't qualify and may be dangerous. I'm not saying that there are parallels to the way Hitler had so much charisma and promised to make Germany great again (great slogans, but no record), but we have to look beyond the issues and the promises and really find out what kind of man we are voting for--can he be trusted? Do we want a candidate that appeals to our lower nature that is divisive? The litmus test: "Power tends to corrupt," says Lord Acton, and "absolute power corrupts absolutely"--can we trust them with the nuclear code or national secrets? After all, we are electing the diplomatic leader of the free world and the commander in chief of the U.S. Armed Forces of our nation--not designated wheeler-dealer or deal-maker who thinks the path to prosperity is as simple as a trade war. As Bob Dylan sang: "The times, they are a-changin'." Promises have to be realistic and achievable, because anyone can just tell people what they want to hear and give their own solutions, but are they trying to buy votes with promises?

One must realize that in today's politics pragmatism rules and the test of the truth of an idea is its effects or whether it works. Adolf Hitler got a lot of success for that matter but was dead wrong--"the final solution" (making the Jews the scapegoat and eliminating them) looked like it was working. The end doesn't justify the means as pragmatists and utilitarians ultimately believe, and we can't just look at results to judge the morality of a law or action. Doing anything to win today's credo and saying anything to win is just politics as usual. The New Morality of today only looks at the motive and if one is sincere and well-meaning or doing it out of love, the methodology or the end result doesn't matter. In a Christian perspective, the motive, as well as the result or goal, must be concordant with Scripture and morality.

In the final analysis, we really don't know who God's man is until he wins and we acknowledge God's sovereignty. We do err in judging our fellow man for his political opinions, (no one has a monopoly on truth or wisdom) which may be due to ignorance of the biblical perspective, though he may be a Christian himself. No one is right on all the issues and should be crowned the king; we live in a democracy that respects everyone's right to vote their conscience and the way they see things in their world. Only God knows what is the most important issue--all we can do is vote according to what we know and our worldview and being willing to reach across the aisle and compromise to get things done in an otherwise dysfunctional government in gridlock. Soli Deo Gloria!

Eradicating Christian Worldview

The Christian point of view is not only disdained but frowned upon, including any mention or hint of it in the open marketplace of ideas. Back during the Scopes trial of 1925, they bemoaned the fact that the kid's minds must be kept open, and they shouldn't prohibit the teaching of evolution. In our nation, you can criticize the government, but not Darwin; in China, you can criticize Darwin, but not the government--which one is muzzling the Christian worldview the most is your guess. This is not the building block of secular worldview and religion in its own right. Now the reverse has occurred: You must teach evolution not as a hypothesis, but as unquestioned scientific fact, even though it doesn't even qualify as a theory--it is unproven and cannot be proved in a scientific manner, because no one has observed it nor is able, and there is no evidence in the fossil record. There are no missing links found when there should be millions. Darwin said that if his theory were correct it would be evident in the fossil record--it isn't!

It seems like Christianity is copacetic if one privatizes it and doesn't try to "proselytize" or spread the faith to the infidel. Evangelistic outreaches are a no-no in academia. The primary result of believing you are just a glorified animal is that you begin to act like one, irresponsibly and unaccountable with no hell to shun and make up your own set of values as you go along. Christians are to stand up and be counted and not be ashamed of the faith, nor of sharing it. They are to defend the Christian worldview and fight the secularization of society, forcing God out of our courtrooms and being politically correct, which is wrong--you want to be correct if it differs.

Daniel was forced to make his faith known when they prohibited him from praying. He neither flaunted his faith, nor privatized it, but demonstrated that he would not be hindered in the free exercise of his religion. The government, likewise, can make no law abridging the free exercise of religion, as well as establish a religion by force. Today they say: As long as your religion is private and doesn't bother anyone else, it's okay! However, we are a nation founded upon the Judaeo-Christian worldview and we stray from it at our peril. This interpretation and framework of thinking is not failing, nor has it failed; believers are abandoning it because they actually are convinced their faith cannot be defended on the open marketplace of ideas. When Christianity is no longer welcome in the public square it is time to take a stand and not lose our worldview by default or negligence, conceding it away without a fight--we are to fight the good fight and contend for the faith!

Au contraire! There is plenty of evidence to make our worldview believable and relative. There is plenty of evidence for those who have the will to believe--God can make a believer out of any skeptic if he is willing to do God's will (cf. John 7:17). No one can say there wasn't any evidence, because people reject Christ out of the hardness of their hearts, not because they are wise (cf. Psalm 14:1).


We are in the world, but not of it (cf. John 15:19), but this doesn't mean we are to love the world or its system--we are to be lights and salt to the lost. We, who see the light, are to share our vision with a lost world and stand up and be counted for Jesus, showing our Christian colors. Today it seems like the resurgent atheists are the militant ones out to convert the prospects to their way of thinking! We are to let our "lights so shine before men, that they may see our good works and glorify [our] Father who is in heaven" (cf. Matt. 5:16). In the final analysis, the philosophy of leftism says religion is unobjectionable as long as it is "privatized." What they really mean is that you make no effort to propagate your faith and spread the good news of Jesus and just keep your faith to yourself. There comes a time to act in protest and civil disobedience and to defy the law that prohibits any free exercise of our faith or establishes some other faith by decree or mandate. Soli Deo Gloria!



Christian Worldview 101



Defending Christian Worldview









"O Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you. Avoid the irreverent babble and contradictions of what is falsely called "knowledge," for by professing it some have swerved from the faith. Grace be with you." (1 Tim. 6:20-21, ESV).
"Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect" (Rom. 12:2, ESV).
"My people perish for lack of knowledge" (cf. Hosea 4:14).
"For lack of knowledge My people go into exile" (cf. Isa. 5:13).


Our worldview, which outshines all others, the terminology taken from the German Weltanschauung, is our outlook or worldview (i.e., the sum total of convictions [e.g., is there such a concept as sin, a God, life after death?], ideas [philosophy and interpretations], beliefs [religious], values [patriotism?], but not opinions--note: you hold opinions, but convictions hold you!) and our worldview concerns our viewpoint in toto on life, our view of God, man, and the relationships and duties they owe each other--on reality in general. How do we make sense of the world when we encounter ideas whose time has come? It also answers the basic questions of life: Where did we come from or who are we? What is our purpose and meaning in life? What is wrong with mankind and how can we solve his dilemmas? And where are we going, or what is our destiny. Athanasius said that the only worldview that Christ will fit into is the one where He is the starting point! "Christianity is Christ," according to John Stott, "all else is circumference!" If we take God out of the equation, we head into natural catastrophe and disaster--our lives become chaotic with no purpose or aim, busy, but to no avail, going nowhere.




The Bible is basically our Owner's Manual to guide us to do God's will on earth. We are basically here "to glorify God and enjoy Him forever" (cf. Isaiah 43:7; and The Westminster Shorter Confession of 1646). The only worldview that gives dignity to man is the Christian one, for we see man as in the image and likeness of God, though tarnished by sin, it's still there and we are not dumb animals (cf. Job 18:3). If you see yourself as a grown-up germ or descended from blue-green pond scum or algae, it will affect your self-esteem and worldview. Teach man he's an animal and he will act like one! We become disoriented from God's design without God in the reckoning, as Alexander Solzhenitsyn said, "Men have forgotten God." The word "purpose" is a dirty word to secularists, who deny that there is meaning and purpose in life, which is true without God in the picture and the end result of futile speculation and a fool's errand searching trying to "find oneself" or one's purpose in life.




We have a purpose in being here to do God's will: rule or subdue the earth; be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth; fulfill the Great Commission, and be lights in the world representing Christ doing good deeds in His name. We don't own anything, but are only stewards of God's blessings. We were designed to know God! However, culture has run amok in its abandonment of God and taking Him out of the reckoning. God sets the agenda and to disobey His will is called sin--of which is the root of the problem.




And so man rebelled against the loving God and chose his own way over God's wisdom and provision--he chose not to trust God; we do the same thing and only duplicate that sin and folly. We are not victims of circumstances or of nature and are not pawns of our genes and we can blame no one but ourselves since we are all born in sin and all have fallen short of God's glory and ideal. This was called the Fall and we all dittoed that sin and are individually responsible to God and it's a cop-out to blame anyone for our own faults and shortcomings or sin. The crux of the problem is that sin has entered the innocent world that God created.




God's remedy is the cross whereby He paid the price to redeem us and set us free from our sins. We are at the mercy of God because He is a God of justice and will judge all sin. What we need, is not an educator, nor an economist, nor a scientist, but a Savior to stand in the gap and put a hand on both us and God in reconciliation. God has solved the sin problem by the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus!




It is a challenge to live up to a Christian worldview because the whole world has become secularized and people want us to privatize our faith. The Bible is not passe or obsolete, but relevant to all our problems! The biggest problem is what Jesus said, "You are wrong because you do not know the Scriptures, nor the power of God," cf.. Matt. 22:29. The Bible has all the answers to man's dilemmas, and his chief enemies are the devil, the sin nature in himself, and the world system. Equipped with Scripture, we will know what God thinks, get our thinking straightened out and have a Christian worldview, so necessary to defeat the devil's world. The world has fallen for Satan's lies and is deceived, and we are to preach the gospel so that they can know the truth and the truth will set them free (cf. John 8:32).




Ideas and worldviews have consequences and affect how we live. "If there is no God," Dostoevsky said, "all things are permissible." Atheist mathematician and philosopher Bertrand Russell said, "Unless you assume a God, the question of life's purpose is meaningless." Hamlet summed it up in Shakespeare's Macbeth: "[Life is a] tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing," This is the bleak outlook and belief system without God in the picture. Will Durant, the famed humanist historian, said the biggest issue of our day is whether man can live without God. George Bernard Shaw said that no nation has survived the loss of its gods. The Bible has something to say about every major academic discipline and they all find their origins in Scripture. Modern man basically believes that science can solve our problems and has given up hope in religion as the solution. It takes faith to believe this! Secular Humanism is the prevalent worldview academically and socially, whereby the theme is "Down with God, up with man!" The deception of this worldview is that it strives for good without God! They see "man [as] the measure of all things" (in Latin homo mensura), and refuse God as the "moral center of the universe" with transcendent laws.




And the Postmodern era has become rather skeptical of the existence of absolute, transcendent truth, and posits all truth as being relative; relative to what? Saying truth is relative, with no Truth with a capital T; we can know nothing for certain, an epistemology of skepticism--it's a contradiction in terms and is itself a truth claim of no truth! Actually, the only truths they are really concerned about as being relative are the ones related to Christianity. This philosophy is in sharp contradistinction to the Bible's claim of propositional, incarnated, and absolute truth with no wiggle room for disagreement. The Bible says that the fear of the Lord is the beginning point of all knowledge (cf. Prov. 1:7). All knowledge begins in faith, it's not just Christians who have faith, they just don't put faith in science as the sole arbiter of absolute truth.




What Secular Humanism does is deify man and dethrone God-man has wanted to make a name for himself ever since the tower of Babel (cf. Gen. 11:4). Their two main presuppositions are that evolution is unquestioned scientific fact and that the supernatural doesn't exist--they believe science has undermined the Bible! Christians are called to show their colors, be "Daniels," stand up and be counted, and be informed and show discernment: Men who "understood [interpret] the times, with knowledge of what to do," as it says in 1 Chronicles 12:32.


C. S. Lewis summed it up for our marching orders: "We must not remain silent and concede everything away [and lose by default]." That means our faith is defensible in the market square and open marketplace of ideas and we need not privatize it. We are in the world, but not of it (cf. John 15:19) and there is a war of "isms" going on, but Sir Francis Bacon said, "Knowledge is power!" (Cf. Prov. 24:5). R. C. Sproul, influential theologian, said it well: "With God we have dignity and without God we have nothing."


In sum, it is written: "In the beginning God..." meaning that we start with God and explain creation, we don't start with creation and explain or explain away God! In sum, Christian worldview outshines all others and had the best explanation of reality. Soli Deo Gloria!