Your worldview shapes how you look at everything in life. From how to raise a family to a work ethic to public policy issues, worldview matters. Center for Arizona Policy (CAP) is committed to helping put forth a robust and consistent Christian worldview. The lack of a biblical worldview directly affects views on life, marriage and family, and religious freedom.

I’m grateful that our team includes our Legislative Counsel, W. Michael Clark, co-author of his recently published book, An Introduction to Christian Worldview: Pursuing God’s Perspective in a Pluralistic World.

For a brief synopsis of Michael’s remarks at our recent events in Phoenix and Tucson, read on.

What is a worldview? 

A worldview is “the conceptual lens through which we see, understand, and interpret the world and our place within it.”

• It involves more than the rational mind; it also involves our passions, drives, and affections. It involves what we love and long for.
• It can be expressed as a story or in a set of assumptions about reality.
• These assumptions about reality may be held consciously or subconsciously, consistently or inconsistently.
• Our worldview affects not only how we view reality, but it also directly affects how we live in it.

Lesslie Newbigin, a British theologian and missiologist, once wrote, “The Christian story provides us with a set of lenses, not something to look at but to look through.” A Christian worldview, therefore, is grounded in God’s authoritative revelation as recorded in the Scriptures. It should not be grounded in our experience, our culture, or our emotions.

If we look at the Bible, we see that it presents a unified metanarrative with 4 parts: Creation, Fall, Redemption, and New Creation. In the Garden of Eden, we see God’s good design for humanity. Adam’s rebellion led to the Fall, a disruption of the shalom/peace/wholeness that existed. Then, through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God redeems his fallen creation, leading to the day when those in Christ will dwell forever with God in a new heaven and new earth. This metanarrative should guide a Christian’s worldview.

So what?

The Apostle Paul exhorts Christians with these words,

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Romans 12:2, ESV).

And

“See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ” (Colossians 2:8, ESV).

Our culture will shape us into its image if we are not careful. If we want to develop a robust and consistent Christian worldview we have to be intentional. We have to study God’s Word. We have to be committed to a local Bible-believing church. We have to take advantage of resources that help us think through the truthfulness of the Christian worldview and respond to objections. We also have to be aware of the competing worldviews that vie for our affections. And then, by God’s grace, as we commit ourselves to these things, we will be shaped more and more into the image of Christ and not into the image of our culture.

Ready to dive in for more? Order Michael’s book here.

ICYMI – Latest News & Articles of Interest

• “Obergefell and the Right to Other People’s Children” by Jeff Shafer, senior counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom.
• On “The Briefing,” Albert Mohler discusses the controversy of a new book by psychoanalyst Erica Komisar that highlights the importance of mothers in the early development of their children.
• “Judge Oks suit over baby body parts research” from Baptist Press. A woman files lawsuit against an abortion clinic in New Mexico for not disclosing its “relationship with the University of New Mexico (UNM) and the possibility that it sent her dead baby there for research.”