What’s a worldview? Think of it like prescription eyeglasses. A worldview is the set of beliefs and assumptions we hold through which we view the world. That view shapes how we process information and how we act on it. Our worldview, then, is crucial, because it determines how we think about the world and what we do in the world. And whether we’re aware of it or not, we all have one.
What are some common worldviews? Atheism. Actually, atheism isn’t all that common, but its adherents seem to be growing more aggressive. Atheists see a world without God. We humans are alone in the universe, unless life exists somewhere on another planet. But there is no God. Therefore atheists don’t pray (there’s no one there). Atheists may marvel at the wonders of nature, but see no God in it.
Moralistic Therapeutic Deism. According to sociologist Christian Smith (in his book Soul Searching) this is the dominant worldview of today’s teenagers. They believe God exists, that he watches over everyone, that he wants us to do good and be nice to one another, but he isn’t involved in our lives. except when we really need his help. Our main goal in life is to be happy and feel good about ourselves. Therefore, moralistic therapeutic deists believe it’s God’s “job” to help us in emergencies but to leave us pretty much alone to find what makes us happy and to define for ourselves what “good” and “nice” mean.
What worldview does Genesis 1-3 offer? Radically different from others! On recent posts I’ve commented on these three chapters. Let’s put together what we’ve found in them and see what worldview they provide. In one word, theism. Here are its parts . . .
- God exists. “In the beginning, God . . . ” (1:1). In the words of the wonderful title of a book by the late Francis Schaeffer, He Is There and He Is Not Silent. God isn’t a creation of our mind; he self-exists outside us and before us and beyond us. Yet he has revealed himself to us.
- God created the universe. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (1:1). The world wasn’t always. But a random evolution of cells with the fittest surviving didn’t produce the world. God spoke it into existence.
- God made man in his own image. “So God created man in his own image. In the image of God he created him; male and female he created him” (1:27). We are not the zenith of a tiny cell that bubbled up out of some prehistoric slime and evolved over billions of years into humans. Our dignity and worth don’t rest on our being the most highly-evolved creature nor on our education or power or wealth, but on our being created like God. Therefore, every human life is sacred.
- God is sovereign over man. Since God created us, his sovereignty over us makes sense logically. And since God commanded us and has authority to enforce what he commands, his sovereignty over us is true biblically and practically. However, God’s sovereignty is not despotic. He created everything very good for us (1:31) and then put man in Eden paradise (2:8). At the same time, being sovereign, God commanded man to trust and obey him (2:16,17). Therefore, when man distrusted and disobeyed, God punished man with curses and expulsion from paradise (3:16-19,23,24). All this means that God, not man, is the center of everything and we are not on our own to discover what makes us happy nor to define what “good” means.
- Evil is present in God’s creation. “But the serpent (Satan–Revelation 12:9) said to the woman, ‘You will not surely die . . . ” (3:5). Here is the power of evil outside the woman acting in open rebellion against God and leading her to distrust and disobey God. Whether we define evil as the absence of good or an entity in and of itself, it exists. And, while not equal to God (God curses Satan–3:14,15), it is stronger than we are. Its power, combined with our sin against our Creator, shuts us out of paradise and leaves us in a world of frustration, pain, conflict and ultimately death (3:16-19,23,24)
- God offered hope of ultimate victory over evil. “The LORD God said to the serpent, ‘I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring: he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel'” (3:14,15). A rather mysterious hope, no? We could solve the mystery by studying other Scriptures. But limiting ourselves to Genesis 1-3, we’re left with trusting ourselves to God who’s given us a hope we don’t understand. Evil, with its resultant distrust of God and disobedience to God that bars the way to paradise for us all, will be overcome by a woman’s son, who himself will suffer in the battle.
What’s your worldview? That’s the important question now. Which one fits best with the real world as you know it? Which one best answers your toughest questions and offers hope for your deepest hurts? Which one best offers you hope for the future? Think about it.
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