Video Transcript: Worldview Discernment

Henry - Welcome back, Henry and Steve here as we go into the second  presentation on worldview discernment.  

Steve - So, there's, there's really two options in terms of discerning the world  you can discern a worldview without God, right? There's no way you can discern anything without a starting point. Yes. So you can start with a compass, right  with a view of God. Or you can discern a worldviews without a view of God.  

Henry - And so it's like your perspective, right? It's how you analyze the spirits.  

Steve - So we thought, you know, we should start off with the biblical worldview,  what is it? 

Henry – It's the grand Christian, Christ centered narrative that basically sees the world as creation. God created it. a better world a perfect world. Humans fall into sin, Adam and Eve fell in Genesis 3. And then God has redeemed this world, in  the fullness of time, Jesus Christ rose from the dead, and sent out the church to  be agents of redemption, through the Holy Spirit through the Holy Spirit. And this 

is our mission now is to bring redemption. So it's not, it's more than just a  narrative, it is a lifestyle, it is salvation, it is transformation of the whole world.  

Steve - Right. So the more you understand this Christian grand narrative, the  more apt you are to evaluate all the different worldviews out there, because  some worldviews will take a piece of this, right, or they'll be missing something,  

Henry – like for sin. Sin is an interesting example of that, in the human centered  narratives, sin is not really even a topic, nature or nurture, born that way or  economic factor made you that way. But sin, we know, there is a brokenness  that needs to be redeemed. Colossians, For he has rescued us from the  dominion of darkness, so that you can see there's the fall and brought us into  the Kingdom of the Son he loves, there's redemption, In whom we have  redemption, the forgiveness of sins, He is the image of the invisible God, the  firstborn over all creation. For by Him, all things were created things in heaven  and earth, visible, invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers authority, all  things were created by Him. And for Him, He is before all things. and in Him all  things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, and the firstborn among the dead. So that in everything he might have  supremacy, For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwelling in him. Now  that is a worldview. That's the starting point. Jesus Christ is the center of all  human reality. 

Steve - Okay, so we want to just look at God, without God, in the Bible, what you know, so understanding the perspective that people have, without that, in some  ways, you have to be ready for it. And I think I Corinthians is the perfect couple  of verses to describe that.  

Henry - Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world, for sense in the  wisdom of God the world through it's wisdom did not know Him, God was  pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who  believe. See the whole narrative of the Christian worldview there. Jews demand  the miraculous signs. Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a  stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles, but to those whom  God has called both Jew and Greeks, Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom of God and the worldview of God.  

Steve - So the world view without God, they're forced to present themselve as  this is the smart way, the experts, the extra science, because that's all that they  have. And so to be aware of that, and then anything that is not that is foolish. So that's why in our culture, there seems to be a war against the Christian view,  because they have to pull that pull the leg from under the Christian view, in order to have their own leg to stand on.  

Henry - That's what philosophy did in the 18th century, 19th century, especially  when it started to get God out of philosophy, like we can't know anything, where  God is in the equation.  

Steve - And really the last 150 years as those slowly eroding the stability of  culture, because all the things that gave life meaning that there is a God for this  purpose, that there's something that goes beyond this earth. There's heaven.  There's possibility, there's legacy. And there's meaning future, all of that has  been slowly eroded. Right? And then what do you put in its place? Right? So  now we have different philosophies of life. worldviews of life that are more based on today. Right? And pleasure, right? And eating and drinking today, because  tomorrow you die. And all that there is your 

Henry – And if you speak against that you're called fool.  

Steve - Yeah. Right. But and that, and then the, you know, you what do you what do you do with it? Because it's kind of a negative worldview, right. And so now  you have to busy yourself with other projects, social justice issues, whatever  your hands can find to do to keep you from realizing you only have 80 or so  years on this planet. And then you're gone. 

Henry - And really there is the fight, the humanist narrative, the human centered  narrative, more modern and postmodern spiritual plan, explain modern versus  post modern. So in the school, in the school of philosophy, there is the modern  era where they're trying to find objective truth and science without God would  give objective propositions propositional truth. Well, then the philosopher the  modernists, picked holes in that, again, if you don't have God in the center,  you're gonna find holes in anything. So the post modernists picked holes in it  and said, you know, all that could be illusion. Instead, we should construct our  own truth. So, the postmodern world, many critical theories come out of that  postmodern where we will deconstruct what used to be constructed as modern  truth or even about that Christian truth, and we'll deconstruct it all, and we'll  create a new world where we will make advantages based upon our  perspective, such as critical race theory would say, you know, we need to, like,  get every advantage for the construction of a reality for a group, that's  persecuted in our philosophy.  

Steve - First, we had sort of a foundation to live with the Christian basis and that narrative, right? And then that got replaced with the modern and modern truth,  and science. All we know is what we can see and measure, right? And so, one  foundation was taken away, and then we tried to construct another one, right?  And now the postmodern we're tearing apart that one, right? And we have this  sort of shifting sand Foundation, right? Because your truth is different from my  truth, right? And then how do we even talk to each other because you can use  the word differently than I use the word.  

Henry - We have to position our advantage against all the other individuals,  right. Colossians 2:23. Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of  the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence. That's an  interesting passage, do we really see that for all the advancements that we  have? I think the world is in turmoil, right?  

Steve - Are we making any progress? Okay, learning how to spot religious or  intellectual bias. So now we're talking about the discerning, right, like, how, how  do you discern a worldview? being wary of people that, well, let's read these  number one.  

Henry - When someone must be an expert when something doesn't sound self  evident. 

Steve - Yeah, this what I'm trying to tell you doesn't sound true. But let me quote some guy who studied at some university, righr.  

Henry - when I think about Christians now so as Christians, we do have a grand  narrative. And in an expert comes on the news and, and we feel you know, this,  they're not even talking about sin, they leave sin out instead, they're doing this  and then it doesn't sound right. But then come so and so from the University of  South Florida, says this, this, and this.  

Steve – Which is interesting. Christians have always gone to the Bible as our  expert. And then, but the culture will blast us for that. Yes. But they're doing the  exact same thing. They're picking up their own experts, right? They're making  their own word of God,  

Henry – But it's not the Word of God is still a religious bias, but they make it  sound as the experts, right?  

Steve - And who are these experts and you know is science sometimes people  will say, 70% of scientists believe this but science is not a voting. A consensus of science  

Henry - and really the next one, make something look like science that is not  proved by science. Media cliches, like millions of years of human evolution are  experts say,  

Steve - but even scientists will say this is the theory. Right? But now the media  picks it up, like as if it's not a theory, like this is an accepted fact by everybody.  Right?  

Henry - And whenever you hear that, you know, there's an old saying, thou doth  protest too much. But whenever you see someone really selling something,  there might be an intellectual bias there,  

Steve - especially when there's no room for discussion. Right? It's like, you  know, this is just accepted.  

Henry - Three, elitism, and you've you disagreed, you are so ill informed.  Number four, oh, here's one claiming to be non religious, objective truth. And  that's like, A, that's like a modern thing. We don't hear that much. But, you still  hear it, know, like, you know, this is the way it is. Right. 

Steve - And, and it's not religion. So religion is just wishful thinking. Right? And  our view is the way things are right. When the reality is every worldview is  religious, it;s religious, it's your theory of reality. Yes. Number five, emotionally  given broad generalities without considering the merits,  

Henry - in some ways, is a logical fallacy where somebody is talking about their  experience, it's almost antidotal. And then all of a sudden, like, there's a whole  news story about this, because somebody experienced a trauma. And, and then  they, then they sell a worldview out of a specific trauma. In you see that all over  the news? Like, you know, like, something bad happens. And then this relates to some big policy.  

Steve - what I hear in the world that I live in terms of sports, people sometimes  criticize Christianity, but most of the time when they do they do it in broad  generalities, right? Christians are judgmental. I met a Christian once, who  evangelicals are people who don't. evangelicals are Republicans, and they don't care about people, right? Something like that. And there's no evidence, there's  no specific thing. There's nothing that you can talk about, because it's just a  broad generality. And so often, I'll say, Well, I can maybe sympathize what  you're saying, if you could give me a specific thing that you're talking about. And  I will, I will stand with you against that, too. If you can, give me a specific  incident where Christians are being unloving, or uncaring, or whatever it might  be, I will join you. Because I think Christians should be loving and caring. But it's always this broad generality. Like, all Christians. So when people start talking in  generalities, and when you ask them for specifics, that's the time to okay, they're coming from a certain worldview, right? That is driving their view of everything,  right. So you can spot it. you know, in a lot of ways of how to spot it is really  should be self evident. A worldview should shouldn't be that complicated, right?  The more complicated it gets, the more you wonder. It's confirmed through  inquiry and study. So if you study Christianity, if you really look into it, right, it  starts making more sense. And you know, what's interesting to me is, the  Christian grand narrative is everywhere. If you go to movies, for example, the  movie will always start out with, here's a situation things are pretty good. And  then something goes wrong, creation fall, fall comes in there. And then the rest  of the movie is all about redemption. How do we fix this problem? And now  some movies end in total chaos, and nothing gets fixed, right? And that's sort of  the modern philosophy of modern life doesn't have any meaning or purpose. But most movies that people attend and like, and like are ones that give some hope.  And so they all just follow the grand narrative. And if they don't, people don't. I  mean, all the great books, write all the stories, they all follow this exact narrative  over and over and over again. So that's what we mean by it. Just makes it  sense. It follows.

Henry - Well Romans 1:20 talks this way For since the creation of the world,  God's invisible qualities, His eternal power and divine nature have been clearly  seen, being understood from what has been made so men are without excuse.  But the point being is, it's not that complicated. You know, Alvin Plantinga, a  great philosopher, and historian, sort of, in our philosophy, tradition, talks about  proofs of existence of God. And he has an interesting way looks at he says, you  know, really, it's way simpler than we all make it. We don't need 1000s of  ontological proofs all that, just look around, and you see birds, is like,  everywhere you see God, if you just open your eyes a little bit, and see God  

Steve - sees stuff. That's beyond explanation. I mean, the simplest thing is like  time, we don't know what it is, we can't figure it out our space. These are basic  things. And yet, when push comes to shove, we don't know what  

Henry - they really are clearly seen. But But it's interesting the Romans passage goes on, is that really men, through their wickedness, suppress it? In other  words, they didn't want to see it. Right? That's a religious perspective.  

Steve - They deny what they see. Right? In some ways, it is self evident. And  that's why you keep seeing it reflected in arts and culture and movies and  books, right. And yet, people still deny it 

Henry - And Satan's trick is always been to try to twist it. Make it sound beautiful  or make it extreme or make it when you can't have,  

Steve - or make it human centric, right? I mean, in some ways, the devil came to Adam and Eve, and said, Well, you can be like God. It's about you, right? It's  not, it's not being like a steward. And God has blessed you with an incredible  creation. And he put you at the top, you know, gave you purpose and meaning.  Like you can be and you're missing out or God is withholding something from  you. Right. That self centeredness.  

Henry - You're really, Christian discernment worldview, Christian discernment is  really being open to divine intervention. Right, actually. God had a purpose.  

Steve - So any, any worldview that is closed to this. A lot of people are just  closed to it. You know, what I know myself? I can, what I can see is what I  believe. I'm not going to believe anything I can't see. Science is what I'm gonna  hold on to. How limiting is that mean? How would you even know? I mean,  people that say there is no God, how would you know that? Right? I could say, 

I'm not sure there's a God or I'm not sure I believe that there's a God. Okay.  Right. But to say there just isn't one, right.  

Henry – Such powerful denial, in what a message, this is your message, you're  born, and we all know why you live your life. And we don't know what God's  purpose you will know it is wherever you want it to be. We don't know what right  or wrong is. You're on your own. You're always on your own. And when you die,  you die alone. And that's it. If anything, don't take too much carbon footprints in  this earth, and we'll move in front of it.  

Steve - But why do I care whether I take carbon footprint or not? Because what's the purpose of it? Right? The whole idea of taking care of the earth suggests  that there's a purpose to that. right, like there's meaning to, right, right.  

Henry - And so that comes from we want to be the human saviors of ourselves.  So we got to reserve the right is not open to the presence of God Himself  through the work of the Holy Spirit, for the work of ministering angels, the work  of miracles, where God shows up unexpected, our prayers,  

Steve - and that really, for me, is my testimony and why I believe in the Christian worldview, in large part, I've studied it, scripture, church history, all these things.  But to be honest, it's mostly because I've seen God show up in my life. And I  can't explain things without God being there. So that's one reason but secondly,  I choose hope. Why choose a worldview? That has no hope? Right? I mean, I  don't I don't get that Why choose the I mean if you have a positive and a  negative, and let's say you're not sure which one is true. You're you're just not  sure two horses. Why would you choose the negative one in  

Henry - why not walk in the one hope. you know, and and yeah, maybe negative things will happen to you because sin we have a worldview, we understand that  there's a brokenness, but then God shows up and angels will minister to you.  You see the world differently. Right. Right.  

Steve - And so God shows up in your life, which then confirms, right? I mean, I  don't know how you confirm yourself. And the other thing a secular worldview  how does that get confirmed. More happiness, euphoria. I know but then  happiness goes south when I get cancer, so it's a short lived thing. Yeah. And  then what happens? What do I how do I hold on to that on my deathbed? I  guess you just sort of become stoic about it. You know, I think you're right. In my way. People like you people do the stoic thing, or they do the denial. Keep so  busy. Get into drugs and alcohol or whatever it might be. You forget about. 

Henry - Some philosophers like Sartre said, suicide is your salvation because  you finally beat the determinism of your existence. And that's James 3:17. But  the wisdom that comes from God is first of all, pure, positive, peace loving, it  wants reconciliation, love, submissive. It actually says, God, you made this  world that about you is full of mercy, because fruit impartial, it's not racist. It's  sincere. It's not hurting anybody else. It's a place for new birth. And I love that  Jesus really wants to know how to do something. What must I do to be saved?  And Jesus says, To be born again. It's a new perspective, a new life and then  later when Jesus rises from the dead, born unto eternal life. Right? Right. Right.  

Steve - So we're suggesting that the best way to evaluate these worldviews is to start with one. We've discovered that the Christian worldview answers all the  problems, the most positive way to live. And so choose to walk with God. Just  even walking with God every day talking and listening to him. probably 80% of  why I believe is because  

Henry - so I like to reiterate the most positive way. most effective way to discern  other worldviews is to live in one yourself. And you will see the difference right. I  will see you next time.