The following is a transcript of the video above, edited for readability.
One of the big concerns with the study center is to help students and people throughout Richmond to evaluate the different voices they hear in the culture, and certainly on the college campus as well. There are different competing explanations for how to understand the nature of the world we all live in. And the question is, how do we evaluate those competing worldviews out there?
And in my work with the study center, I want to be helpful to Christians and non-Christians alike. I don't want to just automatically only say, "Well, the Bible says this," even though that's a helpful and good thing because it is God's Word. But I want to be helpful to non-Christians as well. I want to be helpful just across the board. And it seems to me that when you're thinking about how to evaluate competing world views, that there are at least three tests you can use to evaluate those different voices in our culture.
One is the test of logical consistency, and you're basically looking at this worldview and you're asking, "Is this worldview consistent with itself?" Because if it's going to be consistent with reality and it supposedly represents reality, of course it's going to have to be consistent with itself.
The second test is the test of historical consistency, which is asking the question, "Is this particular worldview consistent with history?" Because after all, what is history except the way the world has been up to this point in time? So if it's going to be consistent with reality, it's going to have to be consistent with history.
And the third test is the test of experiential consistency, which is basically asking, "Is this particular worldview consistent with the facts and data that life itself presents to mankind, life as it actually is?" If it's going to fit reality, it's going to have to fit that data.
So it seems to me that those are three helpful tests that can help you get at, "Is this worldview consistent with reality, is this one, et cetera?"
And I think of a couple in particular, take postmodernism for example. This is a fascinating case because I would argue that postmodernism is the most foundational and fundamental worldview in our day, and yet one of the easiest to show that it could not actually fit the nature of the world that we live in, which is really fascinating. Postmodernism is essentially equivalent to relativism, which basically says there is no overarching truth that applies to everybody. It's just a matter of your truth and my truth. In fact, you often hear postmodernism when you hear people say, "Well, that's your truth, but I have my truth, or something to that effect."
But think about what postmodernism is saying at its core. At its core, postmodernism is saying there is no overarching truth that applies to everybody. But in saying that, you have just made an overarching truth claim that applies to everybody, namely that there is no overarching truth that applies to everybody. In essence at the core, you've done the very thing that you say can't be done. So of course, very obviously at the core, this fails the test of logical consistency.
I just find that utterly fascinating because postmodernism rules the day globally in so many different ways. We're so individualistically thinking, you have your truth, your morality, I have my truth, my morality. There is nothing outside of ourselves by which we can judge ourselves and each other. But it's so easy to see at the core how that couldn't possibly fit the nature of reality, yet that rules the day. I just find that a fascinating dynamic.
(Article first published February 4, 2013)
What Is a God-Centered Worldview?
A robust and rich model of Christian thinking—the quality of thinking that culminates in a God-centered worldview—requires that we see all truth as interconnected. Ultimately, the systematic wholeness of truth can be traced to the fact that God is himself the author of all truth. Christianity is not a set of doctrines in the sense that a mechanic operates with a set of tools. Instead, Christianity is a comprehensive worldview and way of life that grows out of Christian reflection on the Bible and the unfolding plan of God revealed in the unity of the Scriptures.
A God-centered worldview brings every issue, question, and cultural concern into submission to all that the Bible reveals and frames all understanding within the ultimate purpose of bringing greater glory to God. This task of bringing every thought captive to Christ requires more than episodic Christian thinking and is to be understood as the task of the Church, and not merely the concern of individual believers. The recovery of the Christian mind and the development of a comprehensive Christian worldview will require the deepest theological reflection, the most consecrated application of scholarship, the most sensitive commitment to compassion, and the courage to face all questions without fear.
Christianity brings the world a distinctive understanding of time, history, and the meaning of life. The Christian worldview contributes an understanding of the universe and all it contains that points us far beyond mere materialism and frees us from the intellectual imprisonment of naturalism. Christians understand that the world—including the material world—is dignified by the very fact that God has created it. At the same time, we understand that we are to be stewards of this creation and are not to worship what God has made. We understand that every single human being is made in the image of God and that God is the Lord of life at every stage of human development. We honor the sanctity of human life because we worship the Creator. From the Bible, we draw the essential insight that God takes delight in the ethnic and racial diversity of his human creatures, and so must we.
Taken from “Intellectual Discipleship: Following Christ with Our Minds” by Albert Mohler (used by permission).
Why Is Worldview Training so Important for Today's Youth?
Christianity.com: Why is worldview training for today's youth so important?-R.C. Sproul Jr. from christianitydotcom2 on GodTube.
The following is a transcript of the video above, edited for readability.
Until 50 years ago, the dominant influence in a child's life, wherever that child was, for good or for bad, was the child's parents. In our age we're so media saturated and so program driven, that parents too often are essentially almost the spice or the icing on the cake of the influence on the child. The parent may have influence on the other influencers, but it's going to be the broader culture. It's going to be the music of that culture. It's going to be the schools of that culture. It's going to be, well the culture of that culture. And because the culture is growing increasingly, non-Christian or even anti-Christian, the culture's trying to win the hearts of our children. What we find for instance, is that 80% of the children are professing evangelicals who go to the government's schools, end up by the time they're done with college, rejecting the faith.
Now, that's terrifying. That should be grabbing our attention, and that should motivate us to be teaching our children what God calls us to teach them. In Deuteronomy chapter six, God through Moses says to God people, "I want you to tell your children about who God is, about what God requires, about what God has done." These are the things that we're to teach when they lie down, when they rise up. And by the way, the we that's supposed to teach these things are the parents. This is God's design. And when we go away from God's design and come up with even Christian, but elaborate programs by which something else is going to do the job God's given, we call that responsibility drift. And I'm telling you how smartest we may be, God's a lot smarter than we are. And when God says, "Parents, you teach your children these things," then our children will learn them.
In fact, the Bible says "If we teach them when they're young, they will not depart when they grow old." So, you've got a hostile culture that's trying to win our children's hearts. You've got frankly, a worldly church that's trying to fight fire with fire, with gun, with programs and bells and whistles, and you've got the simple word of God that's saying to parents, "Talk to your children about who God is." Do it all the time. Do it when they lie down. Do it when they rise up. Do it when they walk along the way. This is God's plan, which is not only good for our children, it's good for the parents too.
For more information about R.C. Sproul Jr., visit: www.highlandsministriesonline.org
For more information about Christianity, visit: www.christianity.com
(Article first published March 14, 2013)
Further Reading:
How to Know Truth and Evaluate Competing Worldviews
Putting Your Worldview in Action
Christian Worldview Training Abroad
It's a Small Worldview After All
The Difference Worldview Makes
8 Questions Every Worldview Must Answer
Photo Credit: Getty Images/Sylverarts
