The Myth of Neutrality

I. Unbelievers place pressure upon believers to be “neutral” in their approach to Christian apologetics. A. Christian scholarship is frequently pressured to put aside commitments that are distinctly Christian. B. The pressure comes in the form of an appeal to be non-committal on the truth of Scripture. (The Christian apologist is pressured to search for truth under the guidance of acclaimed secular thinkers.) C. Those who exert the pressure often affirm that the only way to be open minded is to be non-committal. (Christians are urged to retreat from their dogmatism and assume with the unbeliever an attitude of “nobody knows yet.”) [i][1] D. Christians are pressured to leave the Bible out of the discussion to avoid being accused of having preconceived ideas. (When the unbeliever insists that Christianity must “pass the test of science,” he is appealing to a truth criterion built upon human autonomy.)[ii][2] II. The nature of reason makes neutrality impossible. A. Facts are inseparable from their interpretation. They cannot stand alone. When men reason about facts, they always understand them in terms of a broad, unified whole or system. The question is, “which system gives meaning to the facts of the universe?”[iii][3] B. Without a unified system or whole, facts are meaningless. Man cannot reason, live, nor deal with truth apart from presuppositions. Without presuppositions, attempts to reason would take place “in a vacuum.” (All thinking begins somewhere – at a primitive starting point or presupposition. Faith in presuppositions enters at the very beginning of the process of selecting and organizing facts. By the nature of the case, presuppositions are held to be self-evidencing and self-authenticating. The question is, “which system of thought provides an adequate foundation for reality?” “What is the basis for an orderly universe?” “Why is our state of affairs conducive to rational thought?” All men have presuppositions, none are neutral.)[iv][4] C. Neutrality is impossible because facts and evidences are interpreted by means of one’s world view. Debate a non-Christian long enough, and it will become evident that the disagreement is not over truth claims, but over one’s method of knowing. Disagreement over what one claims to know is in reality due to a conflict in world views. (Believers and unbelievers are both analyzing reality from within their world views. Thus, there is no neutral ground because they are always true to their frameworks. Unbelievers hate God. They choose a philosophy that doesn’t leave room for the God of the Bible. The unbeliever has chosen a world view that lets man be the determiner of reality.)[v][5] D. In terms of epistemology, the believer has nothing in common with an unbeliever. (Epistemology deals with how we think about reality and how we account for it. Epistemology asks, “how do we justify our claims to know?”) 1. The believer and the unbeliever have opposing philosophies of fact and opposing philosophies of law. Believers and unbelievers are in total disagreement about the structure of reality. When viewing reality, there are only two possible reference points: either the sovereign Creator is ultimate or chance is ultimate.)[vi][6] 2. In the temptation of our first parents in Eden, Satan cast doubt upon the reliability of God’s revelation. In essence, Satan told man to rely on his own reason; to exalt himself above God and His Word. The temptation was a solicitation for man to become his own god by becoming his own origin of truth, justice, morals, meaning and beauty. Satan did not mock or contradict man’s reason. He did not suggest that he should distrust it. Satan offered a temptation which would enthrone man’s reason above God and His Word; above all that is holy.[vii][7] E. Reason is not an abstract neutral faculty. It is a capacity planted in us by God that enables us to receive divine revelation, and as a result, think truthfully. 1. The unbeliever sees his own mind as ultimate. Therefore he denies the Scriptural assertion that a man can know nothing apart from God’s revelation. Man’s intellect and powers of reason are not ethically neutral. Man’s intellectual sin reveals itself in the field of knowledge. Christ died to subdue us to Himself holistically – it is a subduing that begins with the intellect – Matt 18:3, 4).[viii][8] 2. When men insist that reason is a neutral faculty instead of a tool of divine revelation, it reveals a particular bias -- namely that they regard the intellect to be an autonomous judge. Every unbeliever is committed to apostate presuppositions which are lived out unrighteously. Thus, reason cannot be relegated to some neutral category or authority.[ix][9] III. The nature of the sinner makes neutrality impossible. A. When men take a neutral approach to knowledge, it is characterized by a vain, darkened mind (Eph 4:17, 18). A neutral approach in philosophy is condemned by Scripture because it does not begin with the truth of God. “Neutrality” takes its direction from the accepted principles of the world’s intellectuals (Col 2:8). “Vain” thinking is thinking that is not in accord with the Word of God. It is philosophy which operates against the truth of Christ (Rom 1:21). All thinking that begins with the presupposition of autonomous reason is vain and condemned by God (Eph 5:6). When the non-Christian insists upon neutrality in the world of thought, he is operating upon principles of unbelief.[x][10] B. Human rationality is blinded by sin to the truth of God (2 Cor 4:3, 4; Eph 2:1-3; 1 Jn 5:19). Spiritual blindness eliminates the possibility of common ground in respect to the truth of God. The unbeliever’s spiritual blindness means that he has no common cognitive commitments or understandings with a believer. To allow the unbeliever to set debate ground rules of neutrality only delays the exposure of his sin. God’s grace must first confront the sinner in his unbelief so as to convict his heart of the infallible truth of Christianity.[xi][11] C. The sinner uses reason to “insulate” himself from the claims of God. The unbeliever’s preference for a chance universe is not the result of scientific research, nor is it simply an error in judgment. He has intentionally chosen a world view that enables him to deny (suppress the truth of) his creaturehood, God’s claims, and God’s moral authority. The unbeliever has an axe to grind; he wants to hold fast to and justify his independence from God. The claims of God necessarily destroy the notion of neutrality. God’s claims do not leave human autonomy in tact. Jesus said, “He who is not with Me is against Me” (Luke 11:23).[xii][12] D. The unbeliever’s world view is hostile at every point to the Christian philosophy of life. 1. The natural man’s working epistemology (method of knowing) is totally informed by his ethical hostility toward God. His heart disposition of enmity involves a satanic principle that is opposed to God (Col 1:21). 2. The natural man is not fully conscious of his own position toward God and His truth. Outwardly, he assumes the posture of an objective truth seeker. In reality, he is an enemy of God with a conflict within him. On the one hand, he has an inescapable sense of deity by virtue of the fact that he is made in the image of God. On the other hand, he suppresses the truth of God because of the false principle of human autonomy. Granting a position of neutrality only serves to conceal the autonomy lie.[xiii][13] IV. The nature of God’s revelation makes neutrality impossible. A. When a man sets up his own authority for what is true and what is not, he becomes the epistemological authority and not the Bible. Neutrality turns authority over to the unbeliever. It puts God on trial. By contrast, Scripture never submits to another standard of truth other than itself. If Scripture submitted to another standard of truth, then the authority of Scripture would rise no higher than the extra-biblical standard. B. It is inconsistent for a Christian to claim that the Bible is the ultimate source of authority, and then for the sake of debate, be neutral toward it. All facts are God’s facts. They must be interpreted by the Word of God. Only the Holy Scriptures are the ultimate intellectual standard. [xiv][14] C. Opposition to Christianity is not merely confined to doctrinal points contained in Scripture, nor is it merely the natural sciences opposing supernaturalism. Those who oppose Christianity war against the whole biblical manner of conceiving of the world and man’s place in it. The Bible presents the Christian world view as comprehensive. The Scripture authoritatively interprets the cosmos and all things natural and moral. The Word of God encompasses the entire universe and our part in. Neutrality ignores God’s truth regarding the whole and instead diverts the argument to particulars.[xv][15] D. The Word of God infallibly answers every ultimate question. Granting neutrality constitutes an unnecessary surrender of absolute truth. The believer has submitted to Christ’s epistemic authority. It is disloyal to Christ to set aside His authoritative answers to ultimate questions for the sake of debate. Christ is the believer’s philosophy for every ultimate question. The Christian apologist should not relinquish his devotion to Christ’s epistemic authority for the sake of argument. V. The nature of the debate makes neutrality impossible. A. When the unbeliever is allowed to set the terms of the debate, the Christian loses the authority to challenge the unbeliever’s autonomy. To set aside distinctly Christian commitments in the interest of neutrality is immoral. It constitutes a form of thinking of which the world approves (James 4:4). To acquiesce to neutrality as a ground rule of the debate is to miss the biblical point of contact with the unbeliever. It is to assume that all the sinner needs is religious information, rather than antithesis. (The biblical point of contact centers upon God’s claims upon the sinner. Divine claims are addressed to the unbeliever’s intellect, will and conscience.)[xvi][16] B. Christians have a world in common with unbelievers but not a world view in common with unbelievers. The true point of contact with the unbeliever is his sense of deity which he is unable to fully suppress. The world we have in common with the unbeliever is controlled by God and is constantly revealing God. The commonality Christians share with unbelievers is that both are made in the image of God and are surrounded by God’s creation. It is all common ground, but none of it is neutral ground. Denial of neutrality secures commonality rather than destroys commonality.[xvii][17] C. When a man assumes the position of ultimate reference point, he puts himself in a position to not understand God’s truth. Conceding neutrality only deepens the unbeliever’s spiritual dilemma of darkness and vain thinking. By contrast, a presuppositional approach in apologetics is consistent with the point of contact enjoined by Scripture. The Christian apologist will not grant the legitimacy of the unbeliever’s starting point. Instead he will drive home the antithesis by uncovering the unbeliever’s rebellion against God.[xviii][18] D. The Christian apologist cannot leave the unbeliever’s controlling presupposition of autonomy unchallenged. Neutrality denies the antithesis that exists between sources of authority. Either God or the sinner is the ultimate reference point. When in the interest of dignity, the Christian apologist concedes to the pressure to assume neutrality, he erases theantithesis between the believer and the unbeliever. The Scriptures constantly emphasize the antithesis between the believer and the unbeliever. The world’s antipathy toward the Christian is because the believer is of the truth – John 17:14-17. Neutrality is an egregious compromise of the antithesis as defined by Scripture.[xix][19] E. Neutrality implies that we live in an open universe. It implies that a comprehensive divine system does not control the universe. 1. In an open universe, facts issue forth from the womb of possibility. They are new for both God and man. God too must “wait and see.” He cannot interpret reality for man because He has not interpreted for Himself. As a consequence of the supposition of an open universe, man must be neutral and God must be within the universe. 2. Christian theism holds that for God all the facts are in. God knows the end from the beginning. There are no new facts to God. History is but the expression of the purpose of God. In order for man’s interpretation to be correct, it must correspond to the interpretation of God. Man’s synthesis and analysis rest upon God’s analysis. Man the truthful interpreter is constructively receptive, he thinks God’s thoughts after Him. 3. Neutrality makes God a correlative of man. Neutrality depicts God and man as having the same order of thinking with the same categories of thought. Endnotes [i][1]Greg L. Bahnsen, Always Ready (Atlanta: American Vision, 1996), 3, 4. [ii][2] Michael Kruger, “The Sufficiency of Scripture in Apologetics” The Master’s Seminary Journal, 12:1 (Spring 2001): 72. [iii][3] Greg Bahnsen, Always Ready, 7. [iv][4] Kenneth L. Gentry Jr., Let God Be True: A Brief Defense of the Christian Faith, 57, 58. [v][5] Michael Kruger, The Sufficiency of Scripture in Apologetics, 76. [vi][6] Scott Allen Will, Absolutely No Common Ground?, 67. [vii][7] Robert A. Morey, “Is ‘Natural Theology’ a Form of Deism?” Journal of Biblical Apologetics,1:1 (Fall 2000): 26, 27. [viii][8] Greg L. Bahnsen, A Critique of the Evidentialist Apologetical Method of John Warwick Montgomery, 3. [ix][9] Greg L. Bahnsen, VanTil’s Apologetic, Readings & Analysis (Phillipsburg: P&R Publishing, 1998), 156, 157. [x][10] Bahnsen, Always Ready, 8-12, 17. [xi][11] Scott Allen Will, Absolutely No Common Ground?, 63. [xii][12] James F. Stitzinger, “Apologetics and Evangelism TH 701” (The Master’s Seminary, Sun Valley, CA, 1999), 84-88. [xiii][13] Scott Allen Will, p. 74 [xiv][14] Michael Kruger, pp. 79-81. [xv][15] Jerry Solomon and Rick Wade, “World Views, Parts I & II” (Richardson, Texas: Probe Ministries International, 2000), 1:3, 2:2. [xvi][16] Kruger, p. 75. [xvii][17] Scott Allen Will, pp. 69-73. [xviii][18] James F. Stitzinger, pp. 22, 24, 84. [xix][19] Greg L. Bahnsen, pp. 7, 8.

The Role of Creation in Christian Worldview

A. The Creator’s self-identification establishes the very purpose of the universe

1.) Nothing in the created universe can be equated with God (yet only the God of Scripture is both transcendent and immanent). 

2.) The universe was created ex nihilo (out of nothing)—it is upheld by God every moment. 

3.) The universe is utterly dependent upon God; it is not self-existent nor is it self-interpreting.

4.) God’s Word is the ordering principle in creation.

5.) The universe exists as a ‘stage’ for God’s glory.

B. The Creator’s relationship to the creation is the foundation for all reality

1.) Ultimate reality is God Himself and His blueprint for His creation.

2.) God structures all reality (truth and meaning have no existence independent of God).

3.) Man cannot set up his own rationality apart from God. God is the ‘reference point’ for all reality.  Human sin and angelic sin do not produce a new reality.

4.) God controls the way knowledge is apprehended; because God knows every fact and gives every fact its meaning; there are no ‘brute’ (un-interpreted) facts.

C. The Creator’s relationship to the creation is the context for the Gospel

1.) The doctrine of God and creation is the only starting point for a unified view of reality.          

2.) Paul established the identity of the Creator as the essential framework for the Gospel.  We ought to follow Paul’s example of setting the Gospel in the context of ultimate reality—i.e. the Creator’s relationship to the creation.

3.)  The message of redemption is best communicated in the context of divine restoration of a fallen creation. 

D. Creation is the ‘first chapter’ in the story of the revelation of God’s glory

1.) The creation is a general revelation about God.

2.) God has a supreme regard for the things that make Him known.

3.) The object of all knowledge is the glory of God.

4.) No part of the creation can be truly known apart from its role in God’s plan to bring glory to Himself.

5.) The order found in the universe is constantly bearing witness to the majesty of the Creator.

II. Mankind created in the image of God distinguishes man from everything else in creation. 

A. The Creator-creature distinction is the starting point for understanding man’s accountability to God and for understanding the moral government of God.

1.) As Creator, God has the right to tell the creatures made in His image what to believe; and       what He requires of them.

2.) As creatures made in God’s image—our only true freedom is living according to our created purpose. God’s moral requirements constitute true freedom.

3.) Every worldview that undermines God’s revelation about Creation; Fall, andRedemption is hostile to freedom.

B. The image of God defines what it means to be human

1.) The image of God sets forth man’s purpose: to know his Creator; to live for His Creator’s glory; to operate in covenant relation with God; to interpret all of God’s works truthfully.

2.) The image of God sets forth man as morally accountable to God.

3.) The image of God is the basis of our moral free agency.

4.) The image of God is foundation for man’s dignity.

5.) The image of God means that man’s faculties were designed to receive divine revelation.

6.) The image of God defines man as both the crown of creation and steward of God’s works.

C. The doctrine of the Trinity has profound implications for all our social relationships.

1.) The Trinity implies that relationships are not created by sheer choice; but are built into the very essence of human nature created in the image of God.

2.) Trinitarian worldview is the only coherent basis for social theory.  The alternative is social contract which has ushered in countless social ills.

3.) The Trinity forms the pattern for relationships of diversity with perfect equality; a pattern for relationships in which the members are different, yet without inferiority.

III.  Darwinian evolution is a bankrupt theory void of scientific evidence.

A.  Evolution is a religious philosophy; not a scientific theory.

1.) Evolutionary theory is driven by naturalistic presuppositions; not by empirical science.

2.) Philosophic naturalism is a religious philosophy not a scientific theory.  Naturalism states that ‘nature is all there is’—and prime reality is but matter, motion, and natural processes.

3.) Although naturalism is a religious philosophy; it masquerades as empirical science—it pretends to operate in a philosophy-free zone (Darwinists dogmatically assert their belief that materialism is more scientific than theism).

B.  Evolutionary theory is bereft of solid scientific evidence.

1.) Evolutionary theory depends upon gradualism.  The fossil record is bankrupt of gradualism.

2.) A testament to evolution’s lack of evidence: the ‘icons of evolution’, long since debunked by empirical science still appear in the latest textbooks (i.e. Darwin’s beaks; dysfunctional fruit flies; doctored moths; Haeckel’s embryos).

3.) Because Darwinism’s foundation is abiogenesis (life arising spontaneously from non-life); evolution is not true science; but it lethal ‘anti-science’.

IV.  Evolutionary theory has proven to be destructive to society.

A. Evolution is ‘open war’ upon the biblical doctrine of man as the image of God.

1.) Darwinism destroys moral free agency (by suggesting man is determined and not free and responsible).

2.) Darwinism is nihilistic; it destroys the sacredness of life and the meaning of life. 

3.) Darwinism normalizes death, victimization, suffering, war, and evil—thus removing the need for man’s redemption through Christ.

4.) Darwinism destroys the divine basis for ethics.

5.) Darwinism was regarded as a “scientific” rationale for the despotic purges conducted by Hitler and Stalin (Karl Marx and Adolph Hitler expressed gratitude to Darwin for an ideology that justified oppression in the interest of ‘progress’).

B. Evolution is an exercise in irrationality.

1.) Darwinism is radical reductionism; suggesting that man is a mere ‘biological machine’.

2.) Darwinism functions like a ‘universal acid’; eating up all competing truth claims.

3.) Darwinism suggests that the Bible’s truth claims have no basis in fact.

4.) Darwinism suggests that chance and chaos are more sophisticated designers than God.

5.) Darwinism suggests that all of our thoughts are merely mental mutations—ultimately traceable to our genes’ attempts at survival.

V. God’s inescapable self-revelation in the creation makes all men culpable.

A. Romans 1:18-23 is the record of the universal corruption of human reason.

1.) God’s wrath is revealed against those who suppress the truth of God in unrighteousness.

2.) God’s attributes of power, wisdom, and goodness are clearly seen in what has been made.

3.) That which is known about God is evident in man and in the physical creation; therefore all men are without excuse.

4.) All men have chosen not to honor God; and have exchanged the truth of God for a lie—and have worshipped and served the creature and the creation.

5.) The approval of sexual immorality and deviant sexual behavior result from a willful loss of the knowledge of God.

6.) God’s judgment upon those who reject the knowledge of God is giving them over to their lusts and to a depraved mind.  

B. Intellectual rebellion, folly, and futility are the result of placing human reason ahead of divine revelation.

1.) The satanic lie in the Garden of Eden was an invitation to place reason ahead of revelation.

2.) The Edenic lie believed resulted in the ‘Eve theory of knowledge’ (Eve’s consequent epistemology of reason ahead of revelation is duplicated by every non-theistic philosophy).

3.) When Eve believed the lie; she placed herself and God on the same level of being.

4.) The Edenic lie was a solicitation to Eve to erase the Creator-creature distinction.

5.) Unregenerate men have an affinity for the Lie.

VI. Scripture gives us numerous reasons why evolution is a lie.

A. Evolution deifies natural processes.  Biblical creation glorifies God.

1.) The wicked have no regard for the works of God’s hands (Ps 28:5).

2.) God is exceedingly jealous His reputation as Almighty Creator (Is 45:5-10ff.).

3.) Evolution attributes to chance what only Almighty God can do.

4.) Evolution cannot explain the nearly infinite examples of design in the creation.

B.  Evolution cannot be harmonized with the record of events in creation week (Gen 1-2).

1.) Light before luminaries baffles evolutionists (1:3-5).

2.) Life on land before life in the sea refutes the evolutionary order of events (1:11-13).

3.) Flowering fruit trees created before pollinating insects refutes evolutionary order (1:11-13).

C.  The term, “after their kind” (used 10 times in Genesis one) speaks of animals remaining within their kind and not evolving into another kind.

1.) The study of taxonomy is only possible because of the existence of systematic gaps between kinds of plants and kinds of animals.

2.) The fossil record bears witness to the fact that there are genetic barriers between the kinds. The fossil record is not a continuum of one kind becoming another kind.

D.  Man comes directly from the hand of God and not from some other species.

1.) The doctrine of man created in the image of God is preserved by the Genesis record of the creation of mankind.

2.) Fallen man has intentionally corrupted the doctrine of the image of God because sinful man finds the doctrine to be restrictive (Ps 2:1-3).

3.) Evolutionary theory has been used to justify man’s autonomy and to cast off moral accountability to God.

E.   Sin is the cause of death and suffering; sin and death are necessarily joined.  Scripture states that death entered in because of man’s sin (Rom 5:12).

1.) Evolution redefines death—completely removing death from its moral context.

2.) Evolution views death as a creative force (natural selection being ‘non-random death’).

3.) Evolutionary theory places death before sin.

4.) By contrast, Scripture states that death reigns because sin reigns (Rom 5:12-21).

5.) Scripture unfolds death as the sinner’s great enemy (1 Cor 15:56).

F.   While on earth, Christ demonstrated His absolute power over the natural laws He created.

1.) Jesus set aside natural laws when he multiplied one boy’s lunch to feed thousands.

2.) Many of Jesus’ miracles were creative supernatural acts which demonstrated His omnipotent power as Creator.

3.) Jesus has power over death; He reversed death and decay when he raised Lazarus.  Jesus claimed that He would one day raise all the dead to appear before Him (Jn 5:28-29).

G.  The fossil record bears witness--not to the origin of life; but to God’s universal judgment of the earth by water (the Genesis flood).

1.) Billions of fossils are found all over the earth buried in water-borne sediment. 

2.) Geology is filled with evidences of catastrophism (global catastrophic upheaval).

3.) Twisted strata; quickly buried fossils; immense deposits of sandstone and lava; vast fossil fuel deposits; and ocean fossils on the highest mountain peaks all attest to a global flood.

VII. The record of the Genesis flood is not allegorical. 2 Peter 3 sites the global flood of Genesis as concrete proof of coming judgment at Christ’s return.

A.  Peter’s ‘flood theology’ is the proof for his argument of certain coming judgment.

1.) Christ cautioned His followers to be ready for His return (3:1-2).

2.) Peter warns that in the last days ‘mockers’ will abound (3:3).

3.) The mockers (in order to deny the second coming of Christ) argue for a uniformitarian view of history—a view which denies the judgment of God in the Genesis flood (3:4).

4.) 2 Peter 3 sites the universality of the Genesis flood as proof that the mockers are wrong about the glorious return of Christ (3:5-6).

5.) Peter affirms that the present heavens and earth were changed by Noah’s flood (3:5-7).

6.) The present heavens and earth are not immutable; but are reserved for a second global judgment; this time by fire (3:5-7).

B.  In view of the coming judgment believers are to maintain a disposition of readiness.

1.) Take notice of the reason for God’s apparent delay in Christ’s return (3:8-9).

2.) Look for the Day of the Lord with eagerness (3:10-13).

3.) Be diligent in your readiness for the Day of the Lord (3:14-16).

4.) Be on guard against the danger of the mockers (3:16-18).

VIII. Christ is Creator of the universe, Upholder of all things, and eternal Utterance of God—He stands at the center of our epistemology.

A. Christ unifies all reality. 

1.) Christ does what no philosopher has been able to do: He links the transcendent to the immanent; He links the universal to the particular; He links the material and to the immaterial; He links the temporal with the eternal; He links physical to the spiritual. 

2.) The eternal Son of God connects the realms of being (permanence) and the realm of becoming (change). 

B.  Christ as the “Logos” is the source of all rationality in the universe.

1.) God’s revelation in Christ closes the gap between fact and value; and between science and theology, thus eliminating the dualistic view of truth that dominates our culture. 

2.) Christ is the source of creation’s order, rationality, uniformity, and information.

3.) Christ is the source of the correlation that exists between the mind of man and the facts and experience of creation.

4.) The Logos doctrine states that the existence and determinate nature of the universe as well as the very principle of purpose, meaning, and rationality reside in the character of God Himself as He is made manifest in Christ who is the Agent of creation.

5.) Because Christ, the Logos, made the world, it is characterized by reasonability, rationality, and meaningfulness.  

C.  Christ is epistemic Lord—He is God’s authoritative infallible Word to man (Heb 1:1-3).

1.) Christ’s epistemic authority is anchored in His self-attesting identity (Jn 5:18; 10:33-36; 12:48-50).

2.) The Bible begins with a declaration of God; not a defense of God.  In Scripture, “Being” is placed ahead of “knowing” (ontology ahead of epistemology).

3.) The only God-approved point of access to knowing is the fear of God (Prov 1:7).

4.) Man was created for certainty; but it is certainty resting upon God’s self revelation; it is not certainty resting primarily upon human reason.

5.) Christ’s epistemic authority as the Living Word is the source of His authority in the written Word.  Jesus validated His testimony upon an appeal to His own knowledge of Himself (Jn 8:14).

D.      Christ’s Lordship is both personal and cosmic. 

1.) Christ is supreme and preeminent; He has first place in everything.

2.) All things in creation exist for Him and unto Him.  Christ is the goal of all creation.

3.) Cosmic reconciliation is needed because heaven and earth are not now united: kingdoms are in conflict.

4.) “Cosmic” reconciliation has as its cause the spiritual reconciliation accomplished at the cross of Jesus Christ.

5.) Christ is the consummation of all things (Eph 1:7-11). All things in both spheres  (physical and spiritual) will be summed up in Him.

6.) The permanence and continuance of the universe rest far more upon Christ than upon physical laws—this is a Christo-centric universe.

IX.  Biblical creation, biblical worldview, and apologetic method function together.

A. Our pre-evangelism must go beyond a critique of evolution.

1.)    Christianity does make truth claims about the nature of reality; the origin of the cosmos; the character of human nature; and the events of history—therefore it is unfair to place Christianity’s truth claims in an ‘upper story’ non-cognitive realm.

2.)    We must boldly proclaim God as Creator; and we must boldly state His design for the universe; the world; and for mankind.

B. In the beginning was information.  God is the ‘Fashioner’ of all created order.

1.) God’s ‘fingerprints’ are everywhere in creation (Ps 19).

2.) The argument from intelligent design is powerfully set forth in concept of “irreducible complexity” (the term describes the vast amount of complexity that must be present before a tightly integrated system can function.  The common mouse trap is a simple illustration).

C. Christian apologists would do well to construct a case for intelligent design in origins.

1.) Information does not arise from natural forces within matter but has to be imposed from outside by an intelligent agent.

2.) God claims to have designed the creatures; the animal behavior; and the creation systems spoken of in Job 38-41.

3.) Christian apologists can learn to present a view of the cosmos through the lens of Christian worldview (Ps 36:9).  Biblical creation takes Christianity immediately into the realm of objective truth.

4.) Naturalism is a failed worldview; it cannot explain the nearly infinite examples of       design in the world; and it cannot give understanding of God, the world or man (1 Cor 1:21).

D. In our pre-evangelism we tear down the strongholds raised up against the knowledge of God (2 Cor 10:3-5).

1.) By raising and answering ultimate questions it is possible to do an internal critique of the unbeliever’s faulty worldview.

2.) By means of the critique it can help the unbeliever see the gross inconsistency between what he professes to believe, and actual reality.

3.) There can be no agreement with the unbeliever regarding the truth claims of Scripture until there is agreement on the fact that man is the image of God. 

4.) The biblical apologist will employ antithesis in an evangelistic encounter.  He will confront the unbeliever’s inescapable sense of deity.  He will seek to bring to the surface what the unbeliever knows of God; but seeks to suppress (i.e. the knowledge of God from creation).

5.) Effective evangelism today increasingly involves a worldview clash—a fundamental clash between epistemologies (there are only two epistemological starting points: God or self).

6.) Once the unbeliever’s worldview is brought to the surface; it may be discussed. The biblical apologist will then expose the unbeliever’s working epistemology as hostile to the knowledge of the Creator and hostile to the Creator’s claims upon His creatures.

7.) Christian worldview is the only “key” that fits the lock of human experience. Christian apologists can go forth with the confidence that Christian truth encompasses all reality.

The Role of the Corporate Body in Sanctification Part 1

I. God’s has a specific plan for the Body of Christ.

A. The church is an organism; not an institution (1 Cor 12) (Gary Inrig, Life in His Body, Wheaton: Harold Shaw Publishers, 1975, p. 30).  The ‘secret’ of the body is that all parts share life together. 

The members of the body possess supernatural connectedness by mystical union with Christ through the Holy Spirit (Ray Stedman, Body Life, Glendale: Regal Books, 1972, p. 25). Institutionalism and formalism tend to organize the church in such a way that the very nature of the body as a living organism is denied in practice.

Discussion: What difference does that make in practice that the church is a living organism? Why does the church tend to revert to behaving like an institution instead of an organism?

Discussion: How does our commitment to the gospel keep the true organic nature of the church in view?  How does the gospel help check the drift toward ‘redefining’ the church as made up merely of programs, activities, and teachings?

B. The body of Christ is the corporate expression of the grace of Christ.  The gifts in the body at work are each a facet of Christ’s character reproduced and made visible (John MacArthur, The Body Dynamic, Victor, 1996, p. 101).

1.) God intends that the local church be a corporate display of His glory and wisdom  (Eph 3:10-11; Jn 13:34-35; Jn 17:21-23) (Mark Dever and Paul Alexander, The Deliberate Church, Crossway Books, 2005, p. 26).

2.) God’s character is known by both the truth of the gospel and by the church’s organic union with Christ as her members function in harmony—showing collectively the character of Christ. 

3.) God bids His people to enter His plot; His story—to be part of the big picture (Lane/Tripp, How People Change, New Growth Press, 2006, pp. 93-94).

4.) The church is a medium of revelation—revealing the character of God.  It does so ONLY when it incarnates the disposition of Jesus.  Only then will nations and angels behold in it the manifold wisdom of God.  Wooing, winsome, conquering grace is a function of the church manifesting the qualities of her Head (Charles Jefferson, The Building of the Church, New York: Macmillan, 1913, p. 154).

5.) “Ministries have been given by Christ . . . to enable the body of Christ to attain its ultimate goal, that is, ‘the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ’” (Peter T. O’Brien, The Letter to the Ephesians, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999, p. 317). 

C. The fellowship of the members of the body is proof of the divine power of Jesus—“that they may be one. . . “ (Jn 17:21-23).  The unity of the brethren is evidence to the world that Christ came from heaven.  The Lord declares His ministry to be that of binding men together by indissoluble bonds (Jefferson, p. 48-52). 

Discussion: How are these indissoluble bonds made visible?

Discussion: How strong is our desire to get to know our brethren?  Why is it often weak? How is our desire to know God a desire which parallels the desire to know our brethren?

II. The members of the body are vitally connected to Christ and to one another for the purpose of fellowship (1 Jn 1:1-10). 

A. Justification by faith (an alien righteousness imputed to us) is the basis for true community.  Without justification, we could not know our brother—intimacy and transparency would be blocked by ego. But Christ opens the way to our brother.  He opens up peace, love, acceptance, and service. Christ alone is the source of all unity; He is the ground and strength of our fellowship (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together, San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1954, pp. 23-24, 30. 39).

B. The purpose of the church (to reveal the manifold wisdom of God Eph 3:10) demands: a.) that the individual members are connected to Christ, and b.) that God’s blueprint for the body be followed (Inrig, p. 11).

Discussion: How does God’s purpose for the church absolutely rule out a ‘spectator’ role for believers? What message is a church sending when attendees are treated as ‘consumers?’

C. The life of the church is a group of individuals who have life in Christ in common.  The members are united together in the reality of the indwelling Spirit.  According to 1 Corinthians 12:7, “each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.”

Discussion: In 12:25 Paul joins the theme of the diversity in the body to the goals of unity and mutual care.  Explain the connection the Apostle is making.

1.) The presence of the Spirit gives the church a supernatural dynamic which is unique among all human organizations (Robert Saucy, The Church in God’s Program, Chicago: Moody Press, 1972, pp. 21-22, 27).

2.) The term “members of one another” implies interdependent cooperation among believers (Rom 12:5; Eph 4:25; 1 Cor 12:21-25). 

3.) Christ took the separation; the ‘disrelatedness’ of our sin, and He gave us the right relatedness of true community in its place (Land/Tripp, pp. 79-80).  In redemption He gave us His own right-relatedness to the Holy Trinity.

D. The church is a true community of people who are committed to doing spiritual good to others. This is how God intends the body to function (Dever and Alexander, p. 41). 

Discussion: How can we be more deliberate in getting together with another person for the purpose of his or her spiritual good? 

Why does the individual believer experience an impoverished spirit when he or she discontinues mutual edification in his relationships in the body of Christ?

Discussion: Describe as precisely as you can what growing believers must do in order to solve the problem described here by Powlison:  Countless counseling crises occur because people don’t know how to get in touch with the living Lord Jesus; therefore, believers ought to labor in love to more fully connect other believers to Christ. (David Powlison in C. John Miller’s, Outgrowing the Ingrown Church,Zondervan, 1986, p. 169).

III. The corporate function of the body is gospel-driven and Christ-dependent.

A. True fellowship involves translating vertical fellowship with the Lord into horizontal fellowship with the brethren (1 Cor 1:9) (MacArthur, p. 115).

B. The body is only healthy when its members are in subjection to Christ its Head and are responding to His commands under the loving rule of His Word—only then is she functioning properly (Saucy, p. 29).

C. The body is lavishly supplied with all its needs for life, health, growth, and unity as it holds fast to its Head.  The individual members of the body then function as channels of spiritual nutrition in relation to one another that the body might grow “with a growth that is from God” (Col 2:19) (Saucy, pp. 30-31).

D. We need a better understanding of the gospel in order to get closer to Christ.  The church is weak on the present benefits of Christ’s work because the church is weak on the gospel.  Only when the church is immersed in the gospel will she truly begin to see Christ as her ‘Source Person’ for all she needs (Lane/Tripp, pp. 4, 6, 13, 238-240). 

Discussion: Explain how being ‘immersed in the gospel’ draws us closer to Christ and gives us true views of Him as our life.

E. We need an incisive awareness of the gospel’s implications for corporate life together the gospel must enjoy a central position in the church so as to govern the way the church functions.  Only then the church will gain traction (Dever and Alexander, pp. 21-22). God concentrates His power in the gospel, so rather than thinking up new methodologies and programs; let us turn to the gospel for our oneness, walk, warfare, worship, worldview, witness, and wholeness.

Discussion: Respond to this statement, “When the gospel ceases to be central in a church that church will, as a matter of course, be less hospitable to struggling broken people.”

IV. Christ is building His church and He commands every member to build with Him.

A. To edify is to build up.  We are commanded to please our fellow believer so as to “build him up” (Rom 15:2).  The fact that we are members one of another in a living organism is not grasped by most church members.  Let all be done with a view to building up the body—if we are to be pleasing to Christ we must be intentional and we must be always conscious of what Christ is building (Jefferson, p. 29). 

1.) Only a true disciple of the Lord can build the church.  Discussion: Why is this so?

2.) True fellowship is a vital means of grace; the Bible alone cannot make you strong and bring you to maturity.  God’s grace flows through social bonds—the brotherhood is the atmosphere in which the gospel truths blaze (Jefferson, pp. 70-72).

Discussion: Describe how close fellowship with other believers who are saved by grace causes the gospel truths to “blaze” in our minds and hearts.

B. In order to build up our brethren, we must be deliberate about doing spiritual good to our brother (Dever and Alexander, p. 37).  Are you deliberate about pursuing discipleship relationships?  Are you deliberate in seeking to be mentored as well as to mentor? 

Discussion: What decisions would you have to make in order to put yourself under the teaching of the mature as well as seek to help those who are less mature than you are? Do you think that building up of the brethren is possible without making these decisions? 

C. The consumer-spectator mindset cuts the nerve of being “others oriented.”  God is calling His people to be outward oriented in order to draw the lost to Himself. 

1.) Believers are to bear one another’s burdens, to build up one another (pointing out evidences of grace), and to encourage one another.  We are to spur on our brethren to greater faithfulness (Dever and Alexander, 197-199). 

Discussion: How can you be more deliberate about spiritual conversations intended for the good of your brethren?  What are some specific ways you can fulfill the command in Hebrews 10:24-25 in your conversations? 

2.) It is rare for church members to embrace the mentality set forth in Ephesians 4:12. Paul tells us in that passage that the members of Christ’s body are to do the work of service of building up the body.  That means that church members are responsible for the major part of the transmission of the transforming Word of God to one another.  This activity, carried out by its members, is to be the normal function of the church!

Discussion: What would have to happen in order for our thinking to shift from the pulpit as the major source of the Word to our conversations with other believers as the major source of the Word?

D. What is desperately needed in the body is the ability to visualize an effective church leadership which is compatible with the priesthood of all believers (Bruce Stabbert, The Team Concept, Tacoma: Hegg Bros. Printing, 1982, p. 181).   The following elements are useful in shifting our thinking away from institutionalism back to Christ’s pattern for the body:

1.) The decentralization of ministry forces us to be creative.  Believers encouraged to think of ministry in a decentralized fashion (as Christ-focused and body-driven with every member a minister) tends to continue the release of creative possibilities (Frank Tillapaugh, Unleashing the Church, Ventura: Regal Books, 1982). 

2.) Lasting motivation for ministry does not come from the exhortations of church leadership.  It comes from being involved in frontline ministry—the ministry to which God has called a particular person (Tillapaugh, p. 131).   

3.) Shared leadership is the priesthood of each believer in action.  When everyone in the body is freed and released to pursue his or her calling; THEN it becomes the responsibility of the entire body to discern what God is doing instead of solely the leaders (Tillapaugh, p. 114-115). 

4.) According to Ephesians 4:7-16, the body can be trusted to produce what it needs. Paul describes the body’s function as a complex, delicate, interdependent working of all the parts.  Christ as Head of the body can be trusted to work through the body in such a supernatural way that the body will produce what it needs—just as a physical body produces speed, strength, endurance when a particular demand arises (Tillapaugh, p. 77-78).

Discussion: How would the dynamic above be manifested in the development of ‘home grown’ leaders instead of looking outside the church to hire ‘professionals?’

5.) The body has specialized parts capable of ministering to every kind of person  (military, college, homeless, artist, CEO, prisoner, etc.).  Church members can do these ministries as a functioning part of the local church body (Tillapaugh, p. 23-24). 

6.) Each believer must be taught and equipped so that his mindset is characterized by the following: “My brothers and sisters need the ministry that Christ died to accomplish through me” (Stabbert, p. 182). 

V. The believer’s sanctification is to take place within the context of the body of Christ.

A. The Christian community (the local church) is the context for change.  Individual redemption is played out in our relationships (Lane/Tripp, pp. 76-79).

Discussion: Are we in the habit of thinking about our relationships as the context for sanctifying change?  Why or why not? 

1.) Relationships reveal character.  Relationships amplify what we are. Relationships involve risk—we risk being offended and offending.  The community is a mirror our self-absorption shows up. Community is the very thing we need to move us out of self-centeredness.  The corporate body is needed to make me like Christ (Lane/Tripp, pp. 83-86). 

Discussion: Why is the body of Christ needed to make me like Christ?

2.) There is substantial sanctifying change in individuals within the community of faith as the gospel is applied to friends and family.  When the gospel is applied to our relationships and to our affections, it pulls us above our preoccupation with personal happiness to enjoy God’s blessings in Christ and to share those blessings with others  (Lane/Tripp, p. 251). 

Discussion: What has to happen in our thinking for us to regard ourselves as God’s chosen ‘conduit’ of care, grace, love, and truth to our brethren?

B. Maturity is a mutual process achieved by interdependent ministry in the body.  We are gifted by God for the common good (1 Cor 12:7).  This is not a matter of terminology—the issue at hand turns upon the very nature of the church (Inrig, p. 45). 

1.) Our fellow believers are agents of our change. God’s plan for our maturity operates through human instruments (MacArthur, p. 73). 

Discussion: What kind of attitude and what kind of action is needed if we are to be willing to learn from each other that we might grow together into full maturity in Christ?

2.) Genuine ministry is slavery to Christ and to one another lived out (Saucy, p. 131).  The very nature of the church is to serve God (C. John Miller, p. 45).  Read Galatians 5:13-14.  What is the proper use of our freedom in Christ?  What is the misuse of our freedom in Christ?

VI. Every believer is a steward of God’s grace.

A. Read 1 Peter 4:7-11.  We are “stewards of God’s grace,” we are to care for something that we do not own.  We are accountable to the Lord for our care of what is entrusted to us.

Discussion: Why is so important to know what one’s spiritual gift is?  Is it a sin not to exercise one’s spiritual gift?  Why or why not?  How does the neglect of our spiritual gift impact our sanctification?

B. Why does the unity of the body depend upon a deep and practical appreciation of the diversity of gifts in the body?  (See 1 Cor 12:14-31).  Explain why the diversity of the body contributes to the unity of the body according to 1 Corinthians 12 (O’Brien, p. 317). 

Discussion: Does this appreciation of the body’s diversity also mean that we ought to be willing to be on the receiving end as others exercise their gifts? 

Discussion: If every member is a minister; then explain the relationship between being a steward and being a minister. 

What kind of price would you have to pay for deeper involvement in the body?

VII. What New Testament metaphors describe the nature and function of the church?

A. The church is a “Temple made up of living stones” (Eph 2:19-22; 1 Pet 2:4-10). 

1.) “Living stones being built together” clearly communicates the communal nature of the church. Each stone is faceted and fitted for close contact and a perfect fit in relation to the other stones in the building—each niche is filled and each stone is adequately fitted for it by “the measure of Christ’s gift” (Eph 4:7) (Saucy, p. 35).

2.) The living stones are “framed together in the Lord” into an abode (habitation of God). Each believer is a temple individually (1 Cor 6:19), and collectively. 

3.) The living stones comprise a royal and holy priesthood (1 Pet 2:9).  The believer’s primary sacrifice is himself (Rom 12:1-2; Heb 13:15-16; Phil 2:17).  We cannot truthfully offer sacrifices to God without also serving our fellow brother, sharing our goods, and building up the community (Saucy, pp. 35-42, 95). 

Discussion: Explain why the essence of worship is giving our selves back to God without reservation.  Explain how this is carried out in the body of Christ.   

B. The church is a body with Christ as its Head (Eph 4:7-16).  Every member of the body is ruled by Christ and nourished by Christ so that the growth from Christ is mediated through particular persons (O’Brien, p. 315).

1.) Describe the way interdependence operates in vv. 11-15.

2.) According to vv. 15-16 what contributions are being made by each individual member?

3.) Paul stresses that LOVE is the indispensable means of building up the body.  It is only in love that the body increases, and it is only in love that true Christian ministry will contribute to the building of the body (4:16).  The spiritually gifted community is not only distinguished by the spiritual gifts through which the Spirit’s energy flows, but also the community is marked by the divine nature. Therefore love becomes the criterion for assessing the church’s true growth (O’Brien, p. 316). 

4.) Love (agape) is not merely a heart sentiment.  LOVE is action.  It makes an industrious worker who delights in making the sacrifices needed to build up the body. Love makes a persevering worker.  Our love to the brethren is ‘reflexive’—it is motivation coming from sheer grateful love to Christ (Roger Carswell, Growing through Encouragement, Wales: Bryntirion Press, 1997, p. 18-19).

Discussion: Are you in the habit of thinking about love as a sentiment and not as action in building up the body?  Do you regard your sanctification and maturity as tied to the contributions made by the members of the body?  Why or why not?

Discussion: Locate several passages in the N.T. which describe how believers are to relate to one another in a caring, encouraging, and edifying way.

Discussion: Read Romans 15:14 and Colossians 1:28-29. What is being accomplished by believers in these verses? How do these activities contribute to sanctification and maturity?  What is your present role in these activities?

The Value of Teaching Biblical Worldview

It is common for concerned Christians to look at our society and ask, “What’s going on out there?” We are shocked to see behaviors which used to be justly condemned as immoral now being normalized and even defended. 

            But what has caused the ‘floodgates’ of immorality to swing open so widely? The only way to answer this question with certainty is to realize that humanity has torn itself away from God’s blueprint for His creatures. That’s why there has been an unraveling of goodness and truth. 

            The moral and spiritual consequences are immense. Man’s defiance against God’s blueprint is causing suffering; people are experiencing divine judgment in ‘slow motion’—the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven (Rom 18-23). 

            An ‘explosion’ in immorality has as its underlying cause the rejection of the knowledge of God. In the place of the knowledge of God are lies about freedom and fulfillment. These lies are attractive because they ‘free up’ man’s lust; but the hidden price tag is costly—men are plunged into deeper ignorance; darkness; deception; bondage; and oppression.

            Consequences such as broken homes, abused neglected kids, abortion, suicide, perversion, sexually transmitted disease, unwanted pregnancies, same sex marriage, violence, substance abuse, and pornography have not developed in a ‘vacuum’. 

            These tragedies are accelerating because the precious things of God are being eroded; and people are taking pleasure in sin and not in the knowledge of God (Del Tackett, “Biblical Worldview,” Focus on the Family Magazine, July/Aug, 2004, Dec, 2005).

            It is clear that America is no longer guided by Christian principles. Secular humanism now directs the public affairs of our nation. This philosophy, or worldview, of secular humanism denies God, Christ, and the Bible. Secularism removes God’s standards and allows man to substitute his own standards instead. 

            Without God’s Word and the Gospel, man has no reliable moral compass. People make decisions based upon they felt needs and desires. Each individual becomes a law unto himself—choosing what is ‘right’ in his own eyes without respect to God’s standards.

            God’s Word says in Judges 21:25, “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” There could hardly be a more accurate assessment of our country today than the description found at the end of the book of Judges (www.wakeupamericainc.org, “God Rejected”).

            Christians are not immune to this ubiquitous influx of relativism. Things that once appalled are now commonplace—shameful things are the subject of TV sitcoms. Like Lot of old, many professed believers have become desensitized to the immorality that surrounds them.

            The church has been lulled asleep—she has reclined upon the false security provided by humanist philosophies such as the separation of church and state. She has settled into a perpetual state of indifference toward the public affairs of our nation. Consequently the government and the academy (educators) have systematically removed God from the fiber of our nation while the church has stood by passively. With its chief spiritual weapon sheathed; the church has watched in apathy—without unleashing the constraining power of God’s Word (ibid.).

            When the church imagines she is static; she is actually in ‘retreat mode’. Our young people are paying the price; they are becoming the casualties of our culture. It is the ‘Christian’ college students who have never been trained in Christian worldview who are at greatest risk of departing from the faith (David Noebel, Understanding the Times; The Religious Worldviews of our Day and the Search for Truth).

            College students who leave the faith are, for the most part, those who were never taught a unified worldview which has Genesis and biblical creation as its foundation. Students who are never taught what is at stake if the foundations of Scripture are destroyed are astonishingly vulnerable to erroneous worldviews (Jerry Fallwell, Ken Ham, If the Foundations be Destroyed).

            High school and college campuses are indoctrinating our youth in the satanic philosophies of humanism and naturalism at an alarming rate. Rampant moral decay is the result—accompanied by a gross loss of confidence in the reliability of the Scriptures.

            We are standing at a crossroads in human history. Now is the time for the church to become proactive in training its members in biblical worldview. Biblical worldview is the very foundation of ethics, life decisions, values, and behavior. 

            Believers equipped in biblical worldview develop the resolve and discernment to live life without compromise; to live in light of God’s total truth; for His honor and glory. Training in worldview enables Christians not only to stand firm in the face of our culture’s non-biblical ideas; but also to tear down the atheistic ultimates of false worldviews.   

How serious is the Problem we are facing today?

·        60% of professing Christians believe co-habitation outside of marriage is acceptable (George Barna at barna.org)

·        70-88% of students from “Christian” homes deny their faith before graduation from college (barna.org)

·        One symptom of Bible illiteracy is the runaway trend to reject biblical theology in favor of syncretism—professing Christians are combining views from different faith perspectives including Islam, Wicca, secular humanism, and eastern religions (“Americans draw Theological Beliefs from Diverse Points of View,” 10/8/02, barn.org)

·        Only 9% of Evangelicals have a biblical worldview (“A Biblical Worldview has a Radical Effect on a Person’s Life,” 12/1/03, barna.org)

·        Instead of preparing their children for life, the vast majority of parents are waiting for social institutions to train their kids (“Americans Agree: Kids are not being Prepared for Life,” 10/26/04, barna.org)

·        62 % of Americans consider themselves to be deeply spiritual, and 88% feel accepted by God (“Most Adults feel accepted by God, but Lack a Biblical Worldview,” 8/9/05, barna.org)

·        Only 9% of young people under the age 24 base their moral choices on the Bible (ibid.)

·        Only 1 in 20 Evangelical dads have ever led their families in devotions (barna.org)

·        In 2006, 91% of Evangelical kids said, “There is no truth apart from myself”—that’s up from 52% in 1994 (barna.org)

·        Only 33% of churched youth say the church will play a part in their lives when they leave home (Josh McDowell, 2006)

·        In our media-saturated culture promiscuity is cast as freedom—our ‘highly sexualized culture is at war with parents’ (James Dobson)

·        In the 1970’s only 5% of 15 year old girls had sexual intercourse; by 1997 it was 38% (Columbia University Report, 1997)

·        It is estimated that 1 of every 2 churchgoers is caught up with Internet pornography (World Net Daily, “Killer Culture,” 12/8/03)

What is the Philosophical Climate of our Culture?

            Relativism has Christian college students ‘backpedaling’—but training in biblical worldview can help them set forth a compelling defense of the Christian faith.

Postmodernism has given college students a view of reality steeped in relativism—in that view God is inconsequential; outside of reality if you will. In addition, Darwinism has drastically eroded confidence in the reliability of the Bible (Director of Campus Crusade, Cal Poly Pomona).

        The pressure exerted by philosophical pluralism is so great that to press for an exclusive truth claim is to be regarded as a bigot. The postmodern world is relativized so totally that one is no longer allowed to say somebody else is wrong without sounding like a hypocrite (D. A. Carson, Conference on How to Reach Postmoderns with the Gospel).

            Postmodernity functions as a fortress that effectively ‘locks out’ the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

On our college campuses the mouths of our Christian kids are often closed in their public witness. Their vocabulary does not include the notion of antithesis. There is a great need to speak to the theological/ideological needs of the rising generation of Christians that are under attack. Christian college students are intimidated by the politically correct, diversity-inclusivistic ideology of the academy. Students are ‘brainwashed’ into a survivalist mode of, “Can’t we just get along?” with its implicit appeal to intolerant oneness (Peter Jones, on the challenge of reaching today’s ‘neo-pagans’ with the Gospel, Christian Witness to a Pagan Planet, 2007).

            Christian college students for the most part are unable to mount a convincing ideological critique of what is on the ideological/spiritual level of the campus; and they are unable to give an ideological/theological defense of the Gospel. Christian students are swept up in ‘personal narrative theology’ with a dismissive attitude toward doctrine. Tied to the lack or rejection of doctrine is a lack of categories for taking on the enemy. You cannot take on the enemy of paganism that surrounds us if you ignore the categories that identify it—religious categories by which it must be forced to make its public case. Understanding those categories will help Christians find their minds and voices (ibid.)

            Postmodernism eats away every transcendent reference point. There is no longer any meaning outside of self. Human potential becomes the disordered self in need of order. The empty, dismantled self (with its inner void), runs to psychology to fill it. Religion becomes completely based upon self.

In the culture of modernity, the stress is put on image, not character. The boundary between God and self becomes fuzzy. An encounter with God does not depend upon a truth-based belief and idea, but upon an inward experience. In narcissistic culture, God is in the image of self; He is internalized. (David Wells, God in the Wasteland, pp. 94-100).

            More and more, effective evangelism involves a fundamental ‘clash’ between worldviews.

Unlike evangelism in the past; our struggle now involves a worldview clash. In the clash there is a fundamental collision between epistemologies. This ‘clash’ is necessary because knowledge has been privatized; it has been dissolved into the ‘sociology of knowledge’ void of truth claims. Without truth claims, there can be no objective sin or evil—one is left with a domesticated God who does not judge, govern, or redeem (D. A. Carson, Reaching Postmoderns with the Gospel).

            The Western world now is a mission field never faced before—it is ‘ex-Christian’. It has been inoculated; but retains only a distorted memory of Christianity; a memory of Christianity as the age of prejudice. With the memory of prejudice comes the commonly held notion that Christianity cannot be credible because there cannot be one true religion to the exclusion of all others (Tim Keller, on Evangelizing Postmoderns).

            A two-level view of truth has relegated Christianity to the ‘upper story’ realm of privately held ideas—in that realm the Bible’s truth claims are viewed as religious ideas with no basis in fact.

The two level view of truth (public/private split) hamstrings our efforts at both personal and cultural renewal. Ultimately it reflects a division in the concept of truth itself, which functions as a gatekeeper, ruling Christian principles out of bounds in the public arena. Only by ‘crafting’ a full-orbed Christian worldview can we liberate Christianity from its cultural captivity. Only by the total truth set forth in the Christian worldview can we unify our fragmented lives and recover spiritual power. Christianity is not just religious truth but truth about total reality. It is total truth (Nancy Pearcey, flyleaf,Total Truth).

            We are seeing more and more ministries characterized by theological minimalism and a downplaying of divine truth as the real foundation of the church. Says MacArthur, “Bible teaching, even in the best venues today, has been deliberately dumbed-down, made as broad and as shallow as possible, oversimplified, adapted to the lowest common denominator—and then tailored to people with short attention spans” (Book review by Scott Lamb, 3/22/07—The Truth War: Fighting for Certainty in an Age of Deception, by John MacArthur).

How do Seminary Students benefit from the study of Biblical Worldview?  

            Biblical worldview provides a vision for Christian education.

In seminary students begin to develop both their ecclesiology and their philosophy of ministry. Once they leave seminary and enter church ministry, they will be expected to ‘cast a vision’ for Christian education, outreach, evangelism, and leadership development. Christian worldview helps complete the ‘scope’ of vision necessary for effective training in Christian ed., evangelism, and leadership development.

            Biblical worldview offers a solid foundation for understanding the times in which we live.

Seminarians will ultimately be ministering to those who live in a ‘post-Christian’ era. Our culture is characterized by a vicious civil war over values. Worldview training prepares pastors in training to understand the times so they will know how to equip the saints to engage our culture.

            Training in biblical worldview helps the seminary student recognize that church-goers are bombarded by the ‘divided truth concept’. Secularism regards biblical truth claims as ‘upper story’ with no basis in fact. Biblical worldview refutes this dualistic view of truth. By obtaining a grasp of God’s unified truth as the ‘big picture’ believer’s are equipped with a powerful weapon in the war against fragmented truth. 

            There is an alarming trend which continues to grow—Christians are succumbing to a syncretistic view of spiritual truth (they gather ideas from many different religions). By stressing God’s unified truth—biblical worldview helps equip church leaders to expose the radical inconsistency of syncretistic worldviews. 

            Biblical worldview brings a dynamic unity to the truth claims we preach and teach.

Most Christians have received their religious training in a ‘devotional manner’. As a consequence they assume that religious truth belongs in a religious compartment.   Worldview training overturns this deficiency by setting forth God’s truth as total truth. All of God’s Word applies to all of God’s world. God’s revelation is not merely about ‘religious’ things; it is God’s absolute truth about the cosmos, origins, history, providence, anthropology, and destiny.

            Ideas have consequences; erroneous ideas bear bad fruit. In a media-saturated culture, there is a relentless reinforcement of ideas which make up erroneous worldviews. If churches are to wake out of a slumber mode of retreat—they will have to be proactive in training their members in what they believe and why they believe—there is no shortcut if we are to successfully confront the lies of our culture. Worldview training helps prepare seminarians to equip others in analyzing false worldviews for the purpose of discerning what is good, right, and holy.

            Biblical worldview helps prepare seminarians to teach and model effective evangelism.

Very few evangelical churches are functioning with a ‘Gospel mission’ mentality. Instead there is a ‘safe house’ mindset which has allowed Christians to retreat into the woodwork instead of engaging our culture. Training in biblical worldview instills boldness in believers—enabling them to step out of ‘privatized Christianity’ and into effective evangelism. Biblical worldview imparts a pervasive confidence that there are biblical answers to every important life question.

            Most Christians have settled into a ‘survivalist’ mode in which they hope to avoid a ‘truth encounter’ with the unsaved. Training in biblical worldview gives believers a firm grasp of reality. By setting forth God’s truth as the onlyfoundation for all thought, believers learn that Christian truth alone matches reality. Believers need this foundation if they are to confront the fortresses or error raised up against the knowledge of God.

How does training in Biblical Worldview assist Pastors? 

            Biblical worldview provides essential vision for leadership development.

Dedicated Pastors are involved in training leaders to defend the faith. In a world awash in relativism, godly leaders need to know that every Christian truth they defend derives its meaning and authority from its relation to the character and plan of an infinitely good, wise, and holy God. This confidence must be imparted to God’s people if we expect them to be ‘worldview changers’ in the home, at church, and in the community.

            Biblical worldview instruction is mandatory if pastors are to adequately protect their flocks.

Pastors are responsible to protect the flock; equip the flock, warn the flock, and armthe flock. This process of pastoral protection of the flock is inseparable from two things. One, the flock must be imbued with the knowledge of where their answers are coming from. And two, they must be taught the specific points at which the world is warring against Christian truth.

            Effective pastors explain how God’s truth opposes the prevailing philosophies of the day. Biblical worldview provides a host of ‘points of contact’ with erroneous worldviews. Church-goers ought to be prepared by their pastors to anticipate the objections of unbelievers—and then to answer those objections. Anything less constitutes a lack of preparation to ‘take every thought captive’.

            Biblical worldview is essential equipping for effective apologetics and evangelism.

A church’s attitude about the value of biblical worldview usually ‘trickles down’ from pastors and church leaders. What the church leaders view as important is normally viewed to be important by the congregation. Biblical worldview is invaluable in equipping the saints to fulfill the Great Commission.

            Because we live in a post-Christian era, Gospel outreach in the 21^st Century is increasingly a ‘cross-cultural’ endeavor. When Paul spoke to the biblically illiterate Athenians on Mars Hill; he laid out a ‘framework’ for the Gospel. Without this framework, or divine context for the Gospel, we may be speaking ‘into a vacuum’. Biblical worldview equips believers to lay the ‘foundation stones’ of Christian worldview (God as Creator; man as the image of God; man’s moral accountability to God). Worldview training equips believers to confront a faulty view of God and to confront the faulty reference points held by unbelievers. This ‘pre-evangelism’ is increasingly necessary in our post-Christian culture.

            Biblical worldview is useful in preaching—it helps establish a connection between the biblical world and our 21^st Century world.

Pastors who incorporate biblical worldview impart a mental framework to their people. This framework is helpful in creating a long-term strategy for driving home biblical truths in practical and creative ways. 

            By means of a worldview framework, believers are better able to embrace the foundations of their faith—and consequently are better able to process the numerous principles, truths, and narratives provided in the Bible. Preaching without this mental framework can be ‘information overload’. A biblical worldview gives believers a grid or filter to know how to categorize and implement the spiritual facts they receive (George Barna, Think Like Jesus).

            Biblical worldview sets up an antithesis between God’s Word and the deadly lies of our culture.

Worldview training equips pastors to raise the epistemological self-consciousness of their hearers. If the church is to be ‘salt and light’ in this present age, then she must see clearly the epistemological gulf that divides believer from unbeliever. According to Colossians 2:8, every individual falls into one of two camps: he is either a captive of false philosophy, or free in Christ. In order to witness effectively, believers must be taught how to expose the unbeliever’s ‘working epistemology’—an epistemology which calls forth God’s wrath (epistemological: pertaining to ‘how’ we know what we know).

How does training in Biblical Worldview help Churches? 

            Biblical worldview assists parents in understanding the nature, scope, and content of their task in training their children.

Biblical worldview helps parents capture the vision to raise their children through a ‘process’ of training based upon strong relationships. The traditional model of training kids through ‘programs’ is failing. Young people are best trained when their parents embrace the vision to live ‘incarnational’ lives in the presence of their children. We can’t be effective raising children ‘programmatically’. We’ve got to raise them with ‘process’ (Josh McDowell).  

            Christians don’t have to be intimidated by the common ‘defeater beliefs’ that are parroted by unbelievers (“evolution is a fact; all religions have validity; Christianity is the cause war; it is wrong to make moral judgments; etc.”). Through worldview training, believers can learn to deconstruct commonly accepted ‘defeater beliefs’—and in so doing, overcome the charge that the Gospel is implausible (Tim Keller). 

            Biblical worldview is able to strengthen churches in the areas of evangelism and discipleship.

It is not surprising why so few Christians share their faith with unbelievers. Our culture is now so biblically illiterate that Gospel preaching, without the framework of creation and the moral government of God, we may find ourselves speaking ‘past’ the unbeliever. Worldview training prepares Christians to methodically lay the foundation for the Gospel. 

            Once Christians learn to establish the biblical ‘context’ for the Gospel; they will experience a net increase in effectiveness. They will develop the confidence to speak the truth in love to a dying culture; and they will learn to recognize and address false worldviews. This is essential if we are to make an impact upon our world for Christ.

            Biblical worldview provides the spiritual ‘weapons’ necessary to stand against the unrelenting tide of our culture.

The false worldviews of our culture can send shockwaves through the faith of those not established in the Word of God. Biblical worldview helps strengthen and stabilize believers.  The truths of biblical worldview fit together like the interlocking pieces of a puzzle: Reality is God and His plan for His creation. One cannot know God, the world, or himself apart from Christian truth. Christianity is defensible in the marketplace of ideas. The fact of evil in our world is a powerful validation of God’s revelation in Scripture. The doctrine of biblical creation grounds our accountability to God. Moral truth is the expression of the character of God. Idolatry is behind all other sins. Christian truth fits human experience like a key fits a lock.

            Biblical worldview teaches believers how to ‘take the roof off’ of false worldviews as an opening for the Gospel. It is the Christian worldview alone that corresponds with reality. When armed with that confidence the evangelist exhibits a compassionate boldness because he knows that the unbeliever’s worldview will not stand up under scrutiny. 

            Biblical worldview helps preserve the integrity of Christian life.

When God’s unified truth is applied to all of life it is transforming in its power. Many professing believers live a ‘disconnected life’—in other words, what they say they believe is disconnected from how they live. Biblical worldview deals with this ‘disconnect’ through the power of unified truth. Believers committed to biblical worldview learn to bring every area of life under the lordship of Christ.

            Instead of a unified worldview; many believers have a ‘patch-work’ of ideas that make up their life view or worldview. One of the greatest advantages of systematically studying Christian worldview is that believers become aware that God’s unified truth is total truth. There is both joy and confidence that arises from discovering God’s Word speaks to every area of life.

            A dedication to study biblical worldview brings with it the confidence that God has answers to all of life’s important questions. There is an answer from God’s Word for everything you experience from day to day. Thus, biblical worldview is a vision of life and a vision for life. Therefore there are no compartments ‘exempt’ from the lordship of Christ. Biblical worldview is the basis for all of life’s choices, decisions, values, beliefs, and behavior. 

            Christians make the most God-honoring decisions when those decisions are based upon an integrated biblical worldview. Biblical worldview is the basis for all of life’s choices, decisions, values, beliefs, and behavior. This knowledge is intensely practical; it helps believers form the appropriate response to the moral issues we face in our culture. 

CONCLUSION:

            God’s blueprint for mankind is a unity of total truth. The pieces of God’s worldview are made to fit together like pieces of a puzzle—they are interlocking and interdependent. To hold to a unified biblical worldview that incorporates every part of God’s blueprint is never an accident; it is always the result of systematic training. 

            In order to be fully grasped; biblical worldview must be diligently taught. The benefits far outweigh the cost—Christians trained in biblical worldview develop the resolve to view all of life through the biblical grid and bring all of life under the lordship of Christ.   God has called us not only to personal faith; but also to a biblical worldview that has the power to transform our world.

What is Religious Truth?

The Bible refuses to allow men to be neutral regarding its claims. It even states why it is that men will not read it. God’s word gives such a comprehensive anatomy of human sin, that individuals are disturbed by what they read. That anatomy of iniquity is not only a description of sinful deeds but also of sinful motives, thoughts, and thought forms. Since cultures may be known in large measure by their thought forms, Scripture provides a critical assessment of human societies.

A movement that historians refer to as “The Enlightenment” would by scriptural standards, be titled a “darkening.” As a philosophic approach to life, it marked a new low point in man’s rejection of divine truth. The Enlightenment was supposedly “man’s emergence from a self-inflicted state of minority.” That “minority” consisting of reasoning that depends upon “guidance from someone else . . .” (NIDCC, p 343-4).

The thought forms systematized during The Enlightenment of the 18^th century represent an attempt to formulate a worldview independent of God. The position that human reason is autonomous is one of the pillars of humanism. So thoroughly has this leaven of “pure reason” permeated western culture that every political-educational center in the western world now operates upon humanistic presuppositions.

The Scriptures declare that man is utterly dependent upon God’s revelation in order to know absolute truth. Therefore, for man to imagine that he has the capacity to take his own measure, provide his own meaning, carve out his own destiny, and determine his own moral course is the epitome of arrogance.

The claims of Christ are a frontal assault upon the mindset of humanism. For Jesus Christ claims to be the revealer of God (John 1:18), and He claims to be the incarnation of absolute truth (John 14:6). Modern men, like Pilate of old in the presence of Christ, flee from accountability before God by uttering, “What is truth?” But God’s truth permits no neutral ground. Pilate must either judge himself or judge Christ.

The Roman ruler’s capitulation sends the Truth Incarnate to the executioners. So also the natural man of contemporary culture judges God’s revelation in Christ to be unreliable and self to be authoritative. By usurping the place of God, men have arrogated to themselves the role of determining ultimate reality. The consequences are grave. The rejection of God’s revelation thrusts men into a perilous sea of subjectivism. Cultures that reject divine truth and law inevitably drift toward the jagged rocks of anarchy, oppression, pestilence and holocaust.

Historically mankind has sought ways to validate religious truth. “Jews ask for signs, and Greeks search for wisdom . . .” (1 Corinthians 1:22). But God’s validation of religious truth is the revelation of Himself in Christ. Not only in the discourses of Jesus is God revealed, but also in the works of Christ and in the character of Christ. But the revelation of Gods truth, wisdom and righteousness reach their most pivotal focus in the cross of Christ.

This presents a paradox to the mind of man. For the death of Christ does not immediately satisfy either the Jewish or Greek criterion for the validation of religious truth. The net effect is a radical humbling of human pride. For the reception of God’s wisdom in the revelation of His Son is not made to depend upon the accessibility of signs, nor is it made to depend upon human wisdom. The wise did not find the cross of Christ compatible with their wisdom and the Jews were not brought to faith by signs.

Both Old and New Testaments affirm that the knowledge of God is unattainable by the exercise of human reason and senses. Man by investigation cannot build an observation tower to view God, and then by reflection determine what is true about Him. God has closed off all of those avenues; “. . . The world through its wisdom did not come to know God . . .” (1 Corinthians 1:21).

An entirely new faculty is needed in order to apprehend the knowledge of God with absolute certainty. Having eliminated reliance upon signs, human wisdom, and that which can be perceived by the senses, Scripture states that the validation of religious truth shall be by another means altogether.

That new faculty needed is the Holy Spirit indwelling a man (1 Corinthians 2:10-16). Though God has provided abundant evidences that the Scriptures are the very words of God, “[The] full persuasion and assurance of the infallible truth, and the divine authority thereof, is from the inward work of the Holy Spirit bearing witness by and with the Word [of God] . . .” (The 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith. p 10).

Man is humbled by the scriptural proposition that the foundation for certainty shall not rest upon signs, wisdom, empirical evidence, or the scientific method. God’s special revelation in Christ and the Scriptures is the foundation for certainty concerning spiritual truth. Christ Himself is the epistemology of those who believe (Colossians 2:8). For Christ is God’s truth incarnate. He is the revealer of God. Those who receive His testimony of divine truth receive His Spirit as well.

Christ reveals absolute truth and the Holy Spirit validates absolute truth. By the knowledge of Christ through the Scriptures, the believer is given the Holy Spirit who continually validates the veracity of God’s Word.

God desires that those who bear a saving relationship to Himself, and thus to His truth, shall be fully assured and persuaded that they are in possession of absolute truth. A frequent theme in the Holy Scriptures is certainty concerning the knowledge God gives. “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, in order that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 John 5:13).

At times God even condescends to swear by oath in order that redeemed men may have full assurance that His revelation is infallibly true (Hebrews 6:17-20).

The natural man’s ignorance of God is not absolute. By the general revelation of creation men may know something of God in an academic way. An incredible universe of beauty and diversity speaks of a Creator who possesses attributes of divine might and wisdom. Because man has a conscience that accuses or defends every moral action, man knows that God must be a righteous Judge who holds His creatures accountable. But to know God personally and not merely conceptually is only possible if a third element is introduced. That third element is Christ’s work as Revealer and Redeemer. No one possesses definitive knowledge of God unless he knows God as Creator, Lawgiver-Judge, AND Redeemer (2 Corinthians 4:3-6).

It is the lovingkindness of God that He has addressed so much of His revelation to man’s desire to know with absolute certainty. The very foundation of knowing spiritual truth for certain shall not rest upon the exercise of man’s innate faculties of sense and reason, for these are fallible. Christ Jesus Himself is God’s special revelation; in Him are all the treasures of God’s wisdom and knowledge. (Colossians 2:3).

Miraculous signs may not be the foundation of religious certainty, but they were granted by God and were of value to the seeker during the times that God was giving new revelation. Jesus said, “Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me; otherwise believe on account of the works themselves” (John 14:11).

On Mars Hill Paul said to a Gentile audience that God, “. . . furnished proof to all men by raising Him [Jesus] from the dead.” (Acts 17:31). God has used the miraculous fulfillment of prophetic Scriptures to draw men to faith in Himself. (Acts 2:14-36).

God intends that men know Him personally, know His purpose for them, know His claims upon them, know the way to God, and know how to live before Him. What men desperately need is to understand first of all what God thinks of Himself and secondly what He thinks of men. The answer to both of these is found only in the Gospel. For the Gospel is the revelation of the mind of God and His disposition toward sinners. The Gospel is not merely the entryway to the knowledge of God, it is the ongoing basis for contact, favor, and growth in Him.

The Gospel as the mind of God is so radical and foreign to human understanding that it requires the faculty of the Holy Spirit implanted in man to fully comprehend it. Men have no compendium of knowledge and experience to draw upon by which to probe the mind of God. Nothing less than the illuminating ministry of the Spirit will suffice to give understanding. Without His anointing, men read the Bible with the “lights off.” The precious things of the Spirit of God are regarded as foolishness by the natural man (1 Corinthians 2:14).

Although the Holy Spirit performs a number of ministries in the believer, this article is concerned with His work in validating spiritual truth. When the Christian opens his Bible, he not only reads about God, he reads about himself. He reads about his position in Christ, his identity in Christ, his possessions in Christ, his privileges in Christ, his future in Christ, and his ownership by Christ. These realities are spiritually discerned. They cannot be perceived with certainty and finality apart from the work of God’s Spirit.

It is the Spirit’s ministry to convince a man that the supernatural truths he is reading about are beyond speculation. How vital this is. The sacrifices Christ calls a man to endure are joined to the conviction that his spiritual possessions consist of wealth beyond measure. The Spirit gives validation and full assurance to the believer that by union with Christ these possessions, though freely given, are his by legal right (1 Corinthians 2:12).

Only a person who has God’s Spirit living in him can know with certainty that he is the object of divine activity. Only a person indwelled by God’s Spirit can think God’s thoughts after Him. The Holy Spirit enables a believer to employ his own mind in the study of Scripture. In so doing He allows the Scriptures to dominate exceptionally in that man’s intellect, will, and affections. That man who by the Spirit’s ministry has a renewed mind is said to have “the mind of Christ”

(1 Corinthians 2:16). This rebuilt mind, which was formerly the tool of a full-time sinner, is the product of the Spirit’s validation of Scripture.

Billions of people attempt to determine religious truth for themselves. They lean on the broken reed of carnal reason. Scripture refers to that thought form as “the spirit of the world” (1 Corinthians 2:12). With man doing his own validating, no wonder phrases such as, “I’m glad it’s true for you,” or “I’m glad your religion works for you,” are so common. The countless souls who utter such absurdities are willfully ignorant of the fact that God in His wisdom and goodness has determined that there shall be but One who validates religious truth. He is God’s own Spirit.

Bibliography

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Fraser. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1960.

The Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689. Put forth by the Elders and Brethren of

many Congregations of Christians in London and the Country.

Grudem, Wayne. Systematic Theology; An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine. Grand

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The New International Dictionary of the Christian Church. S. v. “The Enlighten-

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Robertson, A.T. Word Pictures in the New Testament. Vol IV. The Epistles of Paul.

Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1931.

Van Til, Cornelius. The Defense of the Faith. Phillipsburg: Presbyterian and

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