A Biblical Prescription: A Worldview Checkup

“I need an unsuspecting colleague to help me with an experiment,” I remarked at the office one Monday.

“Oka-a-ay,” a coworker replied.

“Great! If you don’t mind putting on these glasses.” I handed him a pair of sunglasses, unremarkable except for the red cellophane I’d taped over the lenses that morning. Once he’d kindly donned them, I held up my phone, displaying words which looked like this:

“Can you tell me what these words say?” I asked, bringing the screen closer until he could read them.

“There is no hope, but fear,” he responded. “There is no meaning in life.”

“Okay. Now I’m going to give you a different pair of glasses.” Reclaiming the red-tinted shades, I handed him clear lenses and asked him to reread the message.

“There is now hope,” he said, “but not fear. There is now meaning in life.”

“Awesome! So you saw the same message both times, but you interpreted it differently based on the glasses you were wearing.”

He nodded.

“Thanks,” I said. “That’s all I needed to know!”

The Glasses Make All the Difference

This object lesson illustrates the concept of worldview. Like a pair of glasses that colors everything we see, a worldview is the set of beliefs we use to interpret the world around us. We all observe the same world—the same humans, the same rock formations, the same scientific data. But how we understand and explain our observations depends upon our worldview.

Our worldview glasses affect how we perceive and respond to reality, as my coworker’s lenses affected his interpretation of the message. By coloring our perceptions, worldview influences our decisions and behaviors, ultimately impacting every part of our lives. For instance, by viewing money through the lens of God’s Word, we’ll make financial decisions based on the biblical principle that we are stewards of resources which ultimately belong to God (1 Timothy 6:17–19).

Our worldviews impact not only our daily decisions, but also our approaches to matters of life and death. For example, someone viewing an unborn baby through biblical glasses will see a human created in God’s image, imbued with meaning, value, and dignity. But someone viewing the same baby through secular glasses will see a clump of cells that resulted from unguided, natural processes. In this view, destroying an unwanted baby is little different than unplugging a spare appliance. Because our worldviews bear such major implications, we need to make sure we’re viewing reality through the clearest lens possible.

Anatomy of a Worldview

Worldviews are formed from beliefs called presuppositions—big picture statements that we affirm as true and foundational for the rest of our thinking. For example, a biblical worldview begins with the presupposition that God exists and has revealed absolute truth through his Word. But a fully secular worldview begins with the presupposition that there is no God, or that we can’t be sure if God exists, so truth is up for humans to decide.

How do we know which presupposition is true? A biblical worldview gives us the basis for logic, knowledge, and truth by affirming that we’re made in the image of a logical, all-knowing God of truth. But the humanistic (secular) worldview is based merely on arbitrary opinions of man. Without a Creator whose character is the source of absolute truth, we’d have no consistent foundation for concepts like logic, morality, justice, science, and human value.1 Secular worldviews often borrow these concepts but cannot do so logically within their own arbitrary worldview. (For instance, a secularist criticizing a professing Christian’s hypocrisy must borrow the biblical concepts of truth and morality to call hypocrisy “wrong.”) Ultimately, God’s Word as the supreme presupposition proves true (2 Samuel 22:31; Psalm 12:6, 18:30; Proverbs 30:5).

Starting with the right presuppositions matters because our presuppositions shape how we answer life’s major questions. Where did we come from? Are we here for a reason? What is our standard for truth and morality? What happens after death? We all have some framework for interpreting reality and for approaching these major questions—even if that approach is to avoid thinking about them or to say we don’t believe they can be answered. So although not every person may have thought through his or her worldview carefully, everyone does have a worldview. The question is, which worldview? Answering that requires understanding the worldviews that exist in the first place.

Quiz: How Biblical Is Your Worldview?

1. How do you view the origin of the universe?
   a. God created the universe, but we don’t know for sure how long it took.
   b. God created the universe in six literal days.
   c. The universe arose naturally.
   d. The universe is divine, and we are all connected to it.
2. How do you view truth?
   a. God’s Word is the authority for absolute truth.
   b. Each person should live his or her own truth.
   c. We cannot know truth for certain.
3. How do you view human nature?
   a. People are born inherently good but sometimes make bad choices.
   b. People are born inherently sinful.
   c. People are neither basically good nor sinful.
4. How do you view Jesus?
   a. He is God the Son who came to earth in human flesh to pay sin’s penalty.
   b. He was a good person and teacher, but not divine.
   c. He is God’s Son who came to earth to teach us about loving others.
5. How do you view different religions?
   a. All religions are equally true, and we all worship the same God.
   b. All religions except atheism are backward forms of thinking.
   c. All religions that contradict the Bible are false and cannot save anyone.

Results

How did you do? Whatever your score, it’s always good to re-evaluate your worldview by renewing your mind with God’s Word.

Answers: 1 b, 2 a, 3 b, 4 a*, 5 c

* Though Jesus taught about loving others, that teaching was not the primary reason for the incarnation.

One World, Two Worldviews

Many belief systems around the planet—such as Hinduism, Islam, and secular humanism—offer a variety of explanations for reality. But in the end, we can choose between only two kinds of worldview glasses: the tinted shades of human reasoning or the clear lens of God’s Word.2

Humans are finite, fallible, and, as Scripture explains, flawed by sin (Romans 3:23). We make mistakes. We’re not all-knowing. We see only fragments of reality filtered through our human perceptions. Even if we unite with other humans to compare our best observations about reality, we can’t be certain our conclusions are correct any more than two people wearing red glasses can be certain a message they’re both reading is complete. 3

But what if someone with perfect knowledge—clear glasses—revealed what the big picture of reality looks like?

But what if someone with perfect knowledge revealed what the big picture of reality looks like? God, our infinite, infallible, all-knowing Creator, has done so by giving us his Word. By calibrating our thinking to the standard of Scripture, we can perceive the true state of reality. We’ll still see the world through the eyes of finite humans who can’t understand everything. But what we can perceive, we’ll perceive with the clarity of a God-given lens.

How (Not) to Wear Glasses

Even though God has given us his Word as our authority for truth, research suggests that shockingly few professing Christians wear biblical glasses consistently. For instance, even though about two-thirds of Americans identify as Christians,4 Dr. George Barna recently found that only 9% of professing American Christians truly possess a biblical worldview.5 Even fewer (6%) also understand how to live out this worldview by applying biblical principles to their entire lives. Yet over half (51%) of self-identified Christians believe their worldview is biblical.6 In other words, the vast majority (at least 82%) of professing Christians who think they have a biblical worldview really do not.

Instead, nearly 9 in 10 Americans embrace syncretism, a hodgepodge of often inconsistent, contradictory beliefs cobbled together to form a worldview.7 That’s like taking the pristine glasses God gave us, smashing them with a hammer, and trying to glue pieces back into place along with tinted shards that don’t fit together. No such glasses could possibly reveal a clear picture of reality.

Another mistake some professing Christians make is wearing biblical glasses selectively. They might don biblical lenses to demonstrate love or decry a moral wrong, yet wear secular glasses to interpret science or make daily decisions. But having a biblical worldview doesn’t mean sprinkling our perspectives with ideas we’ve cherry-picked from Scripture. As a genuine relationship with Jesus transforms the whole of our lives, a genuine biblical worldview transforms the entirety of our thinking, reflected in the way we live moment by moment.

Putting on Biblical Glasses

How do we develop a genuinely biblical worldview? First, we must start with the right presupposition: God’s Word, beginning from its very first verse in Genesis, is the authority for truth. That means wherever—whether in culture, classrooms, churches, or our own minds—we encounter any message that conflicts with something God has clearly stated in Scripture, we accept the Bible’s teaching as true above the human claims every time. As Paul exclaimed in Romans 3:4, “Let God be true though every one were a liar.”

Naturally, we can’t exercise this kind of biblical thinking unless we understand what Scripture teaches. So the next step to building a biblical worldview is developing a deep familiarity with God’s Word. As George Barna describes this process, “What we’re trying to do is know enough of the Scriptures and how they apply to life so that we can think like Jesus, and the reason that we want to think like Jesus is so that ultimately, we can act like Jesus.”8

The foundational step in getting to know God’s Word is understanding the big picture of truth revealed from Genesis to Revelation. To help, Answers in Genesis summarizes this big picture in the 7 C’s of Biblical History.

History began with creation when God formed a perfect universe in six literal days. Adam and Eve’s sin brought corruption into the universe, resulting in death and destruction. God reset the world through catastrophe—the global flood of Noah’s day. After the flood, Noah’s descendants disobeyed God’s instructions to spread throughout the world, so God caused confusion of their language at the tower of Babel. As a result, people groups dispersed and spread throughout the world. So even though we see various people groups around the globe today, we’re all part of one race—the human race.

How did God plan to redeem humans—and all creation—from sin’s effects? He sent his Son, Jesus Christ, as God in human form to pay sin’s death penalty on the cross for a ll who put their faith in him. Rising from the dead, Jesus demonstrated that he had defeated sin’s effects, enabling reconciliation between God and creation.

That reconciliation will be fulfilled at history’s consummation when God will create a new heaven and earth restored to their original perfection.

This overview of history, all of which ties back to events first described in Genesis, lays the foundation for the rest of our thinking. When we trust God’s Word, beginning in Genesis, we can build a truly biblical worldview. For instance, we think biblically about humans by recognizing that every human is endowed with value because each person is created in the image of God (Genesis 1:27). We think biblically about family as Jesus did (Matthew 19:4–5) by recognizing marriage as the family union established by God between one man and one woman at creation (Genesis 2:24). We even think biblically about thinking by recognizing that our minds are not byproducts of natural processes but are reflections of our logical Creator.

Polishing Our Biblical Glasses

Beginning with this big-picture understanding of Scripture founded on Genesis, we can fine-tune our biblical worldview by reading the Bible consistently while seeking to understand its text in the way the original audience would have.9 This way, we’re less likely to fall for false teachers who twist verses, reinterpret them, or take them out of context.

Filling ourselves consistently with Scripture equips us to better resist temptation, recognize lies, and reach biblical decisions in every area. That’s what living out a biblical worldview means—not only viewing everything through the lens of Scripture, but also responding accordingly in all our day-to-day decisions, beliefs, and behaviors. This is the kind of lifestyle James described in James 1:22–25 when he exhorted, “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves,” adding, “the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.”10

Preventing Our Glasses from Slipping

Once we’ve fixed our biblical glasses in place, what steps can we take to ensure they stay polished, pristine, and firmly in position? Studies have identified factors that set apart Christian young adults with the strongest biblical worldviews. These studies suggest that maintaining a solid worldview involves staying equipped in three ways: spiritually, intellectually, and relationally.11

We can stay equipped spiritually by pursuing a close walk with God, engaging in intentional prayer and Scripture study, and regularly recalibrating our thoughts and actions to the standard of God’s Word. To stay equipped intellectually, we can learn apologetics—the practice of defending our worldview against messages that oppose Scripture. By gaining biblical critical thinking skills, we can also learn how to think like apologists, answering new faith-challenging messages we’ve never encountered before. Finally, we can stay equipped relationally by surrounding ourselves with godly community, including a Bible-believing church, spiritually minded friends, and Christian mentors. These individuals can not only model how to live out a thoroughly biblical worldview, but also keep us accountable if we begin to compromise.

A Clear View of the World

Ultimately, like my shade-sporting coworker helped illustrate, the right worldview glasses make all the difference for how we perceive, interpret, and respond to reality. Only our all-knowing, infallible Creator holds a perfect understanding of reality. So his Word alone provides a clear lens through which to view the universe, make decisions, and answer life’s major questions. By building, developing, and maintaining a biblical worldview, we trade the tinted glasses of human reasoning for the perfect lens of God’s Word. And that changes everything.