Everyone has a worldview, but relatively few people see their world through the eyes of the Bible, even among those who call themselves Christian.
The Great Commission
Christian people across the world are well familiar with what we call “the Great Commission.” Jesus, after his resurrection, just before he ascended into heaven, spoke these words to his disciples:
“All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Matt 28:18-20
Many pastors who avoid debatable or political/social topics, claim they are ‘just called to preach the gospel.’ Others avoid contemporary arguments in society by sticking to their preaching and teaching schedule. These seem to be noble practices to most Christians, but do you think it’s only fair that those who sit down to dine at the table of where they get their spiritual food each week have a responsibility to humbly challenge their spiritual teachers to address controversial topics that are relevant to the issues we all struggle with that are going on in our world today?
Nobody argues the fact that “preaching the gospel” is essential to bring souls to salvation in Christ. But it’s obvious from the Bible that “salvation” is only the first step in our process of personally obeying Christ’s command to His disciples to “disciple” the nations. Have we given much thought to how we… individually… are assigned to do our part in the bigger assignment to the entire family of God?
“All things”
Jesus gave a plain and straight forward command in Matthew 28 and it wasn’t to “save people” from going to hell. Now that idea can be a shocker to some people… even offensive to some… but let’s be diligent to apply one of the basics of discipleship training taught by the apostle Paul, when he wrote to the Thessalonians to…
“Test all things and hold on tightly to that which is good.” (1 Thessalonians 5:221).
Jesus said, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations.” So, let me ask you a really basic question… when it comes to interpreting the Scriptures… Who or What is the object of this command to make disciples? It’s “the nations” isn’t it? Now obviously, ‘nations’ are made up of individual people, so there’s no question that we have the dirty job of helping baby believers grow up to be mature disciples of Jesus. But what does he mean by “the nations?” The Greek language word here is “ethnos.” It’s the same word from which we get the English word “ethnicity” which simply means ‘people groups.’
So, do you think it’s fair to say that Jesus is expecting those of us who call ourselves disciples of His to deliberately involve ourselves in the process of fundamentally transforming whole societies of our fellow humans into faithful children of the only Savior … the ONE who is claimed by Scripture to be the Creator of the world?
So, if we recognize that ‘unsaved’ people have been conditioned all their life by their society to have world views that are going to need a lot of adjusting, do you think it’s reasonable for each of us to consider checking that our own ‘world view’ is consistent with the world view that’s conveyed in the Bible?
Remember… Jesus said: “teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you”
Bringing God’s people to a life of submission to the lordship of Jesus Christ in every way is the commission for all his disciples with the goal that their whole ‘people group’ would be discipled. Since the Bible addresses every aspect of human life, pastors who overlook this basic understanding are rejecting the heart of the great commission. It’s much more than the popular notion of getting people to have their ticket punched so they can go to heaven. God wants his children to all reflect his glory by obeying his commandments. His commandments are his ways. That’s why the Hebrew language used their word “torah” which simply means “the ways of” or “the teachings of” God which are unchangeable… That’s why they are called “the LAW.” Because anything that’s given the designation of “law” is supposed to be inviolable. You can’t break the law of gravity because it’s obviously one of the “ways of the Creator God.” And just like gravity is a law, Jesus wants us to come to the realization that we can consider ourselves safe when we walk according to His ways… His laws… His ‘torah.’
Let’s not get hung up on the word ‘torah’ because it’s the word the Jewish people revere… as if the Scroll they esteem as the “Torah” is some kind of a religious idol? That’s ridiculous.
Post-modern society has taught us wrongly to have a stubborn resistance to the idea of obeying commands. Christians need to beware of this tendency to what theologians call “antinomianism.” Whether you’re talking about secular people or religious people, the idea of thinking that “the law” is old fashioned or Old Testament thinking is a worldview that reflects the sinful nature of the unregenerate human soul, that idea (of antinomianism) fights against any authority outside oneself.
Noah Webster traces national integrity to Biblical instruction
Noah Webster [1758-1843], is generally considered the Father of American Education and the Schoolmaster of the Republic. He was a faithful advocate of integrating Biblical principles into education. He strongly believed that moral and spiritual development was absolutely essential to sustain freedom in society. In his own words, “Education is useless without the Bible.”
Webster strongly opposed what we, today, call secularism – leaving God and His precepts out of society. To remove the Bible from public education, in his view, would lead to moral decay and society-wide instability. When you think of the disturbing level of depravity in our today’s pop culture, it’s easy to agree with him, isn’t it? Secularists have quite literally taken over, dominated, and evangelized America’s youth for over 100 years now, ever since what was called the “Roaring Twenties” of the early 20th century.1
Barna Worldview Report
A new research study from the Barna Group suggests that a large share of our nation’s moral and spiritual challenges is directly caused by the absence of a biblical worldview among Americans. The findings from Barna’s national survey of 2,033 adults showed that only 4% of adults have a biblical worldview as the basis of their decision-making. Researcher George Barna described the outcome.
“If Jesus Christ came to this planet as a model of how we ought to live, then our goal should be to act like Jesus. Sadly, few people consistently demonstrate the love, obedience and priorities of Jesus. The primary reason that people do not act like Jesus is because they do not think like Jesus. Behavior stems from what we think – our attitudes, beliefs, values and opinions. Although most people own a Bible and know some of its content, our research found that most Americans have little idea how to integrate core biblical principles to form a unified and meaningful response to the challenges and opportunities of life. We’re often more concerned with survival amidst chaos than with experiencing truth and significance.” 3
So, what are Barna’s foundational basics for a “Biblical Worldview?” See how your own ideas measure up. Here they are.
- Jesus Christ lived a sinless life;
- God is the all-powerful and all-knowing Creator of the universe and
- He stills rules the universe today;
- salvation is a gift from God and cannot be earned;
- Satan is real;
- a Christian has a responsibility to share their faith in Christ with other people,
- the Bible is accurate in all of its teachings.
Have you noticed that many well-meaning pastors seem to be programmed with a misunderstanding of their assignment in their so-called ‘ministry?’ If we have a Biblical worldview, what does the Bible tell us about the assignment for pastors in today’s churches?
Ephesians 4:11-12 tells us: “And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying (or building up) of the body of Christ… (that is, the people who together make up the family of Messiah’s Ekklesia – or church body).”
According to this text from the Bible, the local church should be seen more as an army training base rather than just as a hospital. Such bases naturally have a hospital, but their purpose is to train and equip a strong army of soldiers. What would you expect soldiers of heaven’s army do? Would it be both to reclaim those held hostage by the enemy of men’s souls… and to restore them to full effective usefulness… not in Satan’s domain… but in the kingdom of God? Instead, our church leaders have been creating a mentality that the church’s job is to set up hospitals, expecting the world to come into our hospitals. Now that tends to work pretty well in a war zone where everybody is injured or shell-shocked by the physical attacks that they’ve suffered at the hands of an enemy… but think about it. When a generation of people is basically fat and happy, are they apt to think much about going to the hospital to correct their deepest dark secrets of the problems that are secretly destroying their lives?
Acts 20:27 quotes the apostle Paul, saying: “For I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God.”
Preaching the gospel itself is NOT the pastor’s primary job. That’s the job of God’s gift of ‘evangelist.’ This misconception is an error which has become a ‘sacred cow’ among many Christians. The biblical assignment of pastors is to shepherd and teach the flock, equipping believers to make disciples who are prepared to make more disciples. This means teaching them to stand up for truthful things. That includes the inerrancy of Scripture; the sanctity of life; the creation of the distinction between male and female; and the fact of the perversion of human behaviors including the whole gamut of LGBT…XYZ, etc. It also includes informing them of the Biblical laws that help us understand the God-created principles of free enterprise and private property which expose the ideological errors of Marxism (which is really collectivism) that makes the state into a replacement for God. How are we supposed to do these things if we’re not being taught what God’s word says about them?
If all we hear in church is evangelism, how shallow will our thinking be? We’ll be an inch deep and a mile wide. No wonder our nation is in the fix we’re in. That’s why we should all be greatly encouraged to seize the present opportunity to not just get people in our generation saved… but get them into the real family of God so they can submit to each other with the goal of becoming true disciples of Jesus, our Heavenly Father’s only Messiah… He has clearly laid out in His Bible, by the way, that His goal is to build His kingdom and ultimately get His family back to the garden where He has complete face to face communion with all His family.
As we all recognize the fact that God is always calling His church to reform… we must also constantly bring attention to the fact that He is wanting to do it the way He commanded, by being open to constantly being conformed to the image of His Son.
How Biblical worldview affects personal morality
By the way, the Barna survey exposed some very revealing insight on how people’s views of morally acceptable behavior are deeply impacted by their worldview. Contrasting the perspectives of those living out a biblical worldview with those who don’t, the biblical group were 31 times less likely to accept unmarried men and women living together (2% versus 62%, respectively). They were 18 times less likely to endorse drunkenness (2% versus 36%). Biblicists were 15 times less likely to condone sodomy (2% versus 31%); 12 times less likely to accept profanity 3% versus 37%); and 11 times less likely to describe adultery as morally acceptable (4% versus 44%). What about porn and abortion? Less than one-half of one percent of those with a biblical worldview said voluntary exposure to pornography was morally acceptable, compared to 39% of other adults. A similarly tiny proportion endorsed abortion, compared to 46% of adults without a biblical worldview.3
Do we honestly believe the 10 commandments are practically relevant in today’s world?
The 10 commandments include four about man’s relationship with God and six about man’s relationship with other men. That’s why Dr Luke, in the New Testament writes that…
Jesus answered and said, “‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,’ [Deut 6:5] and ‘your neighbor as yourself.’ [Lev 19:18]” Luke 10:27
The laws of government deal with our relationships with other people. They’re covered in over half of God’s most basic commandments. Since they’re from God, those who live in slavery to evil want to get rid of all of them, even though they are foundational to civil order and peace.
If we don’t get involved in civic matters, the anti-biblical politicians will ultimately outlaw the gospel.
By the way… that’s a good reason we should add one more glaringly basic foundational pillar to Barna’s Biblical Worldview essentials… The 10 Commandments are universally applicable to all human societies on Earth.
I like the way my friend, historian Bill Federer, identifies the most important thing.
“The most important thing is to bring people to Christ. But the second most important thing is to preserve the freedom to do the most important thing.”
If someone believes that preaching the gospel is the most important thing, they will be involved in the process of preserving the freedom to preach it. That means making time to deliberately influence political outcomes in our civic community. If we don’t get involved, what do we have to look forward to? European countries have begun to criminalize preaching the gospel because it’s offensive to people of other faiths. Islamic countries make preaching the gospel punishable by death. Same goes for communist countries. If Christians don’t participate in protecting society’s freedoms, the enemies of freedom will eventually prevent you from preaching the gospel. Don’t expect the big swath of society’s spectators in the middle of the controversy to do anything much to stop it.
It should seem obvious that God providentially assigns his children to be involved in all kinds of life situations and spheres of influence for the sake of affecting people with the gospel. Those who hide their light under a bushel basket are cowards. In their sincere desire to be spiritual, they don’t seem to be thinking about what kind of country that they’re leaving to their children. How can anyone not care about the child-sex-trafficking that’s going on in their state? Are these the same people who don’t care about the lying to our children in the schools that sponsor teaching the anti-God and anti-science fallacies of evolutionism? What other vital truths are being distorted… or altogether omitted… from not only schools but even the churches that have openly admitted their disagreement to our list of Biblical worldview imperatives? They don’t care…
What does Jesus say?
“It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.” Luke 17:2
If people give consent by saying nothing and doing nothing to stop actions of evil… they are guilty of the same crime of the offender – it’s the rule of tacit admission. Silence makes you an accessory to a crime for which you’ll be judged.
Everyone knows Leviticus 19:18. “Love your neighbor as yourself.” But the verse just before it says “Reprove your neighbor so you will not be held guilty for his sin.” (Lev 19:17) The KJV and some other translations use words that cloud the proper understanding of this verse. So, be sure to do your research and not miss this very important truth of God’s law, the ‘Torah.’
The 400 year-long Israelite Republic, beginning with Joshua and ending with Samuel, operated under the civil system where the spiritual leaders – the tribe of Levy… the priests – were given the job to teach everyone the law and everyone was responsible to enforce the law.
The Pilgrims and Puritans of colonial America looked to Israel’s pre-king period, as the perfect government model. That was before they insisted on having a king for themselves, like all the pagan nations around them. The colonists believed that God wants to have a personal relationship with each person and give each person a responsibility to help keep order in society. They taught this as they taught Hebrew language to students at Harvard and Yale.
After four centuries – about ten generations –Israel’s priests stopped teaching the law. They went ‘woke.’ When the priests of God stop teaching their society the righteous laws of God, then everyone does what’s right in his own eyes …and chaos ensues just like the book of Judges shows us. The people see that self-government system isn’t working, so they demand to have a king.
Benjamin Franklin reflected this reality well when he said…
“Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.”
Why is God’s biblical record important?
The kings of Medieval Europe and later… looked to the Bible for their authority, but only to the period of Israel’s kings and onward. The idea of the ‘divine right of kings’ tends to always be abused by royal children who beget spoiled brats… God chose me… I’m the royal gang-leader… Do what I say! The American colonists were all led by Bible believing pastors who looked to the pre-king part of the Bible, where you had millions of people with no king, but everyone was supposed to be taught the law of God. Everyone was accountable to God to follow it and to help enforce it. They recognized their need for God’s laws, but they also recognized that they didn’t really need a king if they could maintain the rule of God’s law by the sense of community obedience to follow it.
“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
John Adams, Second President of the United States
King Saul set a kind of dividing line between America and England. Both look to the Bible, but one wants a ‘theocracy’ to have you ‘cancelled’ unless you yield your conscience to the government. America’s founders wanted governmental rule by ‘the consent of the governed.’ That means freedom of conscience, freedom of religion, freedom of speech… but always accountability to God’s laws.
This uniquely American idea, reflects the basic premise that God loves you and He wants you to love Him back freely… of your own will. If obeying God is forced, then it’s out of fear rather than love. Since God wants us to freely and voluntarily love Him, He gave us the opportunity to have a society governed by the principle of freedom.
Rom 13:1 “Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God.”
Monarchies require subjects to submit to their King. In a republic, the citizens are the king. Subjects obey. Citizens give consent. God allowed America’s founders to create a government constituted in many ways like the blueprint God gave Israel’s family… with millions of people, no king, and everyone teaching the law to their families, with direct accountability to God to follow it.
In ancient Israel, God, knowing the people would sin, instituted the Day of Atonement. That’s the fasting day of repentance each year during the Autumn Feast of Booths, when the high priest sprinkled the blood of the sacrificial lamb on the mercy seat over the ark of the covenant in the Holiest chamber of God’s Tabernacle. That way, everyone’s sins of the past year were forgiven so they started the new year off with a clean slate. America’s founding fathers, understood how that foreshadowed Jesus, who is our atonement. We’re forgiven, not only for the past year, but for our entire lives and for all eternity.
But we still want to maintain order in society, so we still have the law… The law is God’s perfect law, even though New Testament beliefs infer that everyone is free to eat what they want and circumcision is not essential for salvation. Nevertheless, belief in one’s heart and confession with one’s mouth, followed by baptism, is understood in our society to be built on the principle of free will to worship God as found in the Bible. American society is built on principles like …
Isaiah 1:17 “Learn to do good; seek justice, rebuke the oppressor; defend the fatherless, plead for the widow.”
If you see someone in need and you don’t respond in some redemptive way, is the spirit of God living inside or not?
If the people of God, the body of Christ that we call His local church – His Ekklesia – is not taking seriously …winning the world for Christ… how can we keep our mouth shut when they want to mutilate the little kids? How much of the blood guiltiness of the millions of innocent murdered preborn babies of the past half century lays at the feet of Christians who’ve not even voted to remove corrupted representatives who legalized such crimes.
Jesus said “But from the beginning of the creation, God made them male and female.” Mark 10:6.
If you’re not standing up for what Jesus said, you’re giving your consent to those who insist society must repudiate what Jesus said.
American society says nothing happens here unless we corporately give our consent. That’s why the Declaration of Independence sets the cornerstone of ‘government from the consent of the governed.’ This harks back to Moses who wrote to choose men who hate covetousness for your leaders over tens, 50s and 100s.
“If the citizens neglect their duty, and place unprincipled men in office, the government will soon be corrupted… If a republican government fails to secure public prosperity and happiness, it must be because the citizens neglect the Divine commands, and elect bad men to make and administer the laws.”
Noah Webster
All this discussion is why all of us… in our own generation… need to participate in the maxim of First Thessalonians 5:21 – “Test all things” … even what is passed down from our various ‘church fathers.’
Don’t let the difficulty of facing the possibility that what you’ve been taught may be incorrect, prevent you from growing deeper in the Word of God.
Don’t defend your current dogmatic doctrine without considering the full counsel of Scripture as you continue seeking truth. Afterall, that’s a big reason why the Barna study I referred to earlier… found the highest percentage of Christians with a Biblical worldview are found in “non-denominational” Protestant churches (13%)… it’s more than six times more than in the mainline Protestant churches (2%). We hope that has something to do with more relevant Bible teaching in at least some of those churches.
Bonus Segment
We might be inclined to say “we only follow the Bible” as if our church is not susceptible to having error creep in to our congregational frame of reference. That’s exactly what first century Jews believed when confronted by the teachings of Yeshua. But look what Jesus said to them when the Pharisees and the scribes asked Him, “Why do Your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat their bread with defiled hands?” This was a ruse.
He said to them, “Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: “THIS PEOPLE HONORS ME WITH THEIR LIPS, BUT THEIR HEART IS FAR AWAY FROM ME. ‘BUT IN VAIN DO THEY WORSHIP ME, TEACHING AS DOCTRINES THE COMMANDS OF MEN.’ Leaving the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men. You are good at setting aside the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition…” and “thus, you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down.” (Mark 7:6-13)
The Jews of Jesus’ time meticulously preserved the accuracy of the Torah and the Tanach – what we call the Old Testament – but they also developed their ‘Talmud’ which amounted to their version of our modern-day commentaries and denominational doctrinal statements with many traditions of opinion and theological dogma. Their opinions had become ‘sacred’ to them, excluding the plain sense that Jesus was declaring to them in their very midst.
Is most of the modern church any different? When was the last time you encountered a theological debate in the context of your own sect of Christianity and the ‘church fathers’ weren’t brought up to justify the position that they hold?
Just because we are taught that various theology debates were all settled by the church fathers of the 4th century or by the reformers of the 16th century, we have to defer to the truth of the New Testament scripture that says… “knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation” 2 Pe 1:20
If we’re going to be humbly honest, we have to admit that any man’s reasoned opinion or convincing interpretation of a scripture must be carefully applied in the interpretation of other scriptures. Early Church fathers did what they honestly believed to be correct. Today’s church leaders echo much of what was passed down to them, sincerely believing it’s right. The apostolic epistles of the New Testament need to be understood in the context of the issues that were needing to be addressed by them in their time. Sometimes our ‘lack of knowledge’ of those ancient contexts can skew our understanding of what their words meant to their original audience.
Do you believe that well-meaning, even devoutly sincere ‘believers’ today will be chastened and even judged for misrepresenting the straightforward truth of God’s Word?
Matt 5:17-20 “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.”
Matt 7:21-23 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’
Who are these people to whom Messiah Jesus is speaking? They’re people who honestly thought they were doing God’s will and heading for His heavenly kingdom. How can they have been so far off track? Is it not because they were misled? Wrongly taught by their church fathers who worked hard to preserve the misguided traditions of their earlier leaders?
Think about it! How many years passed from the time of the victory of the Maccabean revolt and the restoration of Temple sacrifices in Jerusalem to the time when Jesus joined in the tradition of celebrating that victory at the Feast of Dedication (or Lights – that is named Hanukkah)? The apostle John wrote about it in his gospel (John 10:22-23). Just less than 200 years passed between this event and the Resurrection of Yeshua, our Messiah. That’s at least five 40-year ‘generations.’ A lot of change can happen in a society in 200 years, can’t it?
It’s critically vital that we understand the rock-solid nature of God’s Word in the Old Testament.
“The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever.” Isa 40:8
That’s the very same verse that Peter quotes…
“…but the word of the Lord stands forever. And this is the word that was preached to you.” 1 Peter 1:25.
The Word stands forever… Not man’s interpretation of it. .. the word ITSELF. …which is why the Psalmist said,
“I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.” Psalm 119:11
Why would the psalmist say this? Because, it’s the law… which Yeshua equated as the “Word”… defines what sin is. Paul shows us this in Romans 7:7.
“What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed, I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, ‘Do not covet.’” Rom 7:7
The law is what defines sin. Thus, the psalmist says he hides the word in his heart, so he won’t sin. This is also why John said…
“Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness.” 1 John 3:4
That’s why God’s Word “stands forever” … to show us the ways of Yahweh, not man’s teachings or his interpretations of the Word. No… the word of God. That’s what stands forever.
This may be difficult to hear, but everything that Yeshua did was in complete alignment with the Torah… the very thing He preached.
Rather than seeking to defend your view, seek the Truth, by reasoning with the whole counsel of Scripture.
Sources:
1 – American Renewal Project newsletter 11/26/2024; Biology 101, “A man is a man, and a woman is a woman.” By David Lane https://myemail.constantcontact.com/Biology-101—A-man-is-a-man–and-a-woman-is-a-woman–And-a-man-cannot-become-a-woman–.html?soid=1106253726374&aid=tWIztchIShk
2 – Truth & Liberty video with Bill Federer – Myth 3: Some Things are Secular and Some Things are Sacred – October 11, 2024 https://www.truthandliberty.net/episodes/myth-3-some-things-are-secular-and-some-things-are-sacred
3 – A Biblical Worldview Has a Radical Effect on a Person’s Life – Barna Group – https://www.barna.com/research/a-biblical-worldview-has-a-radical-effect-on-a-persons-life/
4 – Come Let Us Reason – “But My Pastor Said…” – a talk from the ministry of Torah Family
