A City on a Hill
Brittany made an impatient little huff, “I think that we are all just on this journey of becoming, ya know? Who are we to tell people that their journey is sinful? As long as we get there in the end, right? You’re so black and white. What you believe is true doesn’t have to be the truth for everyone. ” Brittany was an acquaintance of mine that I had met in college. She hadn’t known who Christ was for very long, and her approach to her faith wasn’t showing the fruit that it ought to. She was upset that I was concerned about the direction she was heading in the realm of LGBT, and her defense was simply that she “hadn’t arrived yet.” She felt that she should not only be allowed but encouraged to “follow her heart” in whatever direction it took her. And she felt that walking with God meant having a consultant who she could accept or refuse His advice as she pleased, it was the journey with Him that mattered.
Today, I want to distinguish between the Biblical worldview and the secular worldview and explore why it’s so important. It is my hope and intent that everything you’re going to read from me will have been filtered through a Biblical worldview the best I can. Unfortunately, much as I’d like to, I can’t be perfect. No one can. I always try to do my best, though, and stay open to when someone corrects me. I value constructive conversation, and I’m always hoping to learn more–even if it’s just to understand a different point of view. I may not always agree with you, but I want to see where you’re coming from.
In the case of my friend, she never could accept my advice. Determined to forge her own path, she packed up Jesus into her backpack, like a novel for light reading rather than a survival guide to life, and marched determinedly into her chosen sin. It broke my heart. Her worldview was colored by her worldly upbringing, and she hadn’t allowed God to change her heart. She was more concerned with being politically correct and “exploring all that the world had to offer,” than she was living a life that was pleasing to the Lord.
A Biblical worldview can be complicated, controversial, complex, and confusing. It’s not often the most popular way of thinking, even amongst fellow Christians. It can be hard to stand in the face of adversity, and it can feel impossible to swim against the current. Anymore, nearly everything Christians believe in is considered wrong in the eyes of a secular worldview, even down to how we dress! The Biblical worldview is most often not the politically correct way of doing things. It is the very reason why Christ warns us that we will face hardship in the coming days. “Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and imposters will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived” (2 Timothy 3:12-13.)
I want to be an encouragement to you though, dear Christian, as we go down this road less traveled. You are not alone! Not only do you have God, but you have your fellow Christians with you. We are a community, a sisterhood, and a brotherhood. We can support one another even as we struggle through ourselves. Let us start by defining this Biblical worldview that can be so difficult to maintain.
Focus on the Family identifies a worldview as “…The framework from which we view reality and make sense of life and the world …A personal worldview is a combination of all you believe to be true, and what you believe becomes the driving force behind every emotion, decision, and action. Therefore, it affects your response to every area of life: from philosophy to science, theology and anthropology to economics, law, politics, art and social order — everything.”
Worldview affects every area of our life. In the book of Romans, the Apostle Paul explains how Christ affects our worldview. Through sanctification, our hearts change. Our values change. What we were once interested in no longer holds our attention. It was enough to take a persecutor and slayer of Christians and turn him into one of the greatest apostles the world has ever seen. This is why it’s so important to make sure that our worldview comes from the right place. The Word of God is perfect truth. What better place to build your sense of direction than from the words of the Creator of the universe?
Focus on the Family goes on to explain how a Biblical worldview stands apart from a secular worldview. “A biblical worldview is based on the infallible Word of God. When you believe the Bible is entirely true, then you allow it to be the foundation of everything you say and do.” This is hard to do in a world where it’s more attractive, more acceptable, and sometimes even safer to be mainstream. So many people fear the truth of the gospel that you can’t even talk about it in workplaces.
When I worked at the local university in my hometown, we were actually instructed to teach students to “broaden their minds and learn a ‘better way of thinking.’ Because many of these students were raised Christian, their primary beliefs will be Christian, and that line of thinking needs to change.” When I heard those words, it felt like a punch to the gut. How was I supposed to do well in an environment that was so blatantly hostile to my very identity? How do we navigate a world that so openly opposes God?
The answer? Be a light. Be a city on a hill. Absorb as much of God’s knowledge and influence as you can, and then shine. Your worldview is the very engine that powers your light, and God is your fuel.
How do you Change Your Worldview To Align With Christ's?
Romans 12:2 says, “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” (ESV). The only way to learn the truth and to resist secularism is to become very familiar with your Bible. God literally gave us the instruction manual for life! Reading it, memorizing it, and developing a relationship with God is the only way we can navigate life with any hope of doing things the right way. Developing a Biblical worldview involves learning the truth about God, and unlearning many of our preconceived notions, assumptions, and misinformation we’ve received about God. We’ll get into this more later.
To develop an iron-clad faith, we need to create a sort of lens or filter that we can pass every facet of our life under. It’s like wearing colored glasses; if we want to see the world in blue, we wear sunglasses with blue lenses. In this case, we want to see the world from God’s point of view.
As I mentioned in my last post, there’s not really an easy, passive, way to do this. It’s not sufficient to just go to church and let that be your primary mode of study. We have to put in the work and actively seek after God. As we seek, it’s easy to get swept away with our emotions as we see friends, family, and even random strangers on Facebook reject what is so clearly laid out in the Bible.
1 John 1:19 really addresses one of the largest hurdles we face as we start to build our knowledge base: the mastery of our own emotions. “Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil.” Our world is overflowing with controversy right now. We face everything from differences in political views to LGBT, abortion, racism, immigration laws, and so much more.
1 John counsels us not to bother ourselves with the controversies, though. It’s useless to argue about things because God is in control. He is not surprised by the state of our world. He certainly doesn’t need us fighting his battles— especially when it comes to the Bible. The burden of proof of God’s existence and sovereignty is not on you or I, but on God—and I promise you, He can handle Himself.
That’s not to say we can’t or shouldn’t involve ourselves at all! Missions work and volunteering are highly praised in the Bible. The Bible also tells us we should hold our brothers in Christ accountable for their actions. We can and should vote so that we are adding morally upstanding values to our communities and our country at large. But the problem lies in the quarreling. We shouldn’t let our anger get the best of us. God can do so much more than our anger can. Our job is merely to teach the Gospel in love, and then sit back and watch God work.
Focus on the Family provides a list of questions that George Barna uses to determine if you do, in fact, have a Biblical worldview:
- Do absolute moral truths exist?
- Is absolute truth defined by the Bible?
- Did Jesus Christ live a sinless life?
- Is God the all-powerful and all-knowing Creator of the universe, and does He still rule it today?
- Is salvation a gift from God that cannot be earned?
- Is Satan real?
- Does a Christian have a responsibility to share his or her faith in Christ with other people?
- Is the Bible accurate in all of its teachings?
The Bible’s answer to all of these questions is an irrefutable YES! While this list is not exhaustive, it does give us a basic foundation of a Biblical worldview. It deals with some of the most important points the Bible teaches. If we seek to have a Biblical worldview, we should be able to answer these questions ourselves with a definitive “yes.”
What is the Secular Worldview?
Secular culture is fluid. It’s arbitrary and self-serving and spouts ideologies that only make sense if you believe that sin is just a term used to oppress people. The secular worldview tells you that you can do whatever you want with no eternal consequences. If it feels good, it’s holy. The secular answers to the questions above could look something like this:
- Truth is dependent on who is experiencing it. My truth will be different from your truth.
- Truth is defined by whoever is narrating. To disagree is merely to state your own personal truth.
- Jesus was a man, so he had to have struggled with sin just like any other human.
- God is just a concept. God can look like whoever you want to put in charge. God can be male, female, agender, or otherwise. God can be passive or active–whatever you feel governs your life and your values, are your own truth to reveal.
- If I live a good life and do good things for people, I can go to heaven. God wouldn’t punish a good person, only murderers and rapists.
- Satan is just misunderstood, Satan doesn’t tell me that I’m wrong, he tells me that I’m right and to live my truth however I see fit. Satan is freedom.
- Christians can believe whatever they want to believe, but they need to keep it to themselves. Don’t force other people to believe your truth, it’s offensive and rude.
- The Bible was written by gross patriarchal men. There is not a single female author in the Bible. All of these laws and statutes that are listed in the Bible are just a way for men to control other people–especially women.
The sad thing is, that secular beliefs only give the illusion of freedom. The reality is that they make you a slave to sin. The devil is called The Great Deceiver. He’s a liar and a cheat. He will cheat you out of your peace, your dignity, your identity, and eventually, your life. But he’s also crafty. If you felt the effects of sin immediately, you’d jump away and never want to dally with sin again. Instead, the devil treats you like a frog.
When boiling frogs, you can’t just toss them live into boiling water. The frogs will immediately jump out of the pot as soon as they feel the pain from the white-hot stove. But if you turn up the heat slowly, letting the frogs get accustomed to the change, they will stay in the pot until eventually, it’s too late and they succumb to the heat.
So many people don’t even realize that secularism is killing them until it’s too late. There will be a heartbreaking number of people who, when they die, will genuinely be shocked at where they ended up. I hope and pray that you won’t be surprised, and that we’ll all meet together in Heaven someday.
Reprogramming Your Heart
Unlearning the secular way of thinking is hard. It’s not just the work we have to put into learning and research, it involves re-programming our minds and our hearts. Thankfully, God does the re-programming himself, but we have to allow ourselves to be moldable. We have to be willing to be vulnerable and humble.
You can tell you’re starting to unlearn your original programming when your response to situations is the Godly one. It may not be the first thought in your head in the heat of the moment, but you’re able to catch yourself before acting, and you allow the Holy Spirit to shape your response. You may want to lash out in vindictive anger at your spouse–you may even feel it’s justified–but you’re able to stop yourself, rationalize, take a moment to pray, then respond out of love.
It can also look like your overall values are changing. You no longer support certain political viewpoints, or you no longer feel comfortable supporting a company that’s not doing things in a way that honors God. Usually, this isn’t something you have to force. This type of change comes from the conviction of the Holy Spirit. The closer you draw to God, the louder the Holy Spirit gets. All of us are indwelled by the Holy Spirit at the point of salvation–and He never leaves us once He enters our hearts. Some have quenched the Holy Spirit, and turn deaf ears to His call. But if we allow ourselves the vulnerability, curiosity, and humility to submit ourselves to the Trinity, our minds will naturally begin to shift what we value.
You can also take measures to protect yourself against secular/worldly values. Be fiercely protective of yourself, like you would with your kids. Don’t expose yourself to things that you know will have a negative influence on you. There was a TV series I really liked in college called Switched at Birth. When I was learning ASL, I loved watching it to hone my receptive interpretation skills, and to become more familiar with Deaf culture and with the struggles deaf/hh individuals go through. It didn’t hurt that the show was pretty entertaining too!
The problem arose when I noticed that it was hard for me not to react explosively or dramatically to small setbacks. It was harder for me not to curse in stressful situations. My mind started thinking about relationships with family members and friends in ways that weren’t healthy. It was like I was looking for reasons to be angsty, scanning my family and friends for things they might say or do that I could find offense in. The final straw was when the show started introducing moral values that just blatantly went against what is Christ-like and Biblical. It shouldn’t have taken me that long to cut myself off, but I wasn’t giving myself the boundaries that I needed with entertainment.
As I distanced myself from the show, I noticed my nerves settling, my anger cooling, and my reactivity numbing. I didn’t feel the need to lash out at every little thing anymore. I found peace again.
Sometimes, the influences in your life aren’t blatantly obvious. The show wasn’t exactly the worst thing I could have been watching. It was enough to create upset in my spirit, though. There was nothing about it that pointed me to Christ. The show presented secular, worldly values, and if you’re not paying attention, those values start to sink into your heart. It’s like putting a sliced onion in your fridge. Even if you stick it in a container! At first, you don’t really notice anything, but by the end of the week, your entire fridge reeks of onion, and boy is that stink hard to get out!
So guard your hearts. Guard your minds. Guard your spirits. Practice discernment wherever you can. You don’t have to pull up weeds that were never even allowed to take root. This practice isn’t weak either. It is not weak to recognize when something is negatively affecting you and it’s not strength to be able to withstand influence either. Every person is built differently, and every person will struggle with different stumbling blocks. Don’t fall into the comparison and harsh judgment trap. We’re all on the same team here.
I leave you with a prayer, Dear Christian, that you would seek first the Lord in all things. Don’t let yourself be tossed by the waves, but build your house on the rock. Don’t give the devil a foothold in your heart. Shore up the areas you are weak in, unlearn the bad habits and falsehoods you’ve fallen trap to, and align yourself with a Biblical worldview. God didn’t make rules for us because He likes being a control freak. He made rules to keep us safe–to protect our souls from corruption. Let’s honor that, and honor Him with all we say, think, and do. Amen.
Until next time!
Your post touched on a topic I have thought about often: asking if a thing I do is edifying to God. It’s hard to give up things that are not “bad” but are also not edifying. A constant struggle in my life.
I think there is a difference between *edifying* and honoring. Not everything we do has to be EDIFYING, but it shouldn’t dishonor God. We don’t want to do things, say things, or support things that hurts our testimony. As long as we claim the title of Christian, we are choosing to represent God and all that He stands for. What we endorse is representative of that. I actually want to do a post about this and talk more in-depth.