WORLDVIEW

The worldview for the skeptic or unbeliever is based on a foundation of the unbeliever's own wisdom and self-sufficient intellectual powers. According to Proverbs 10:8 the person with the "worldview" that lacks faith is unteachable. He also despises instruction (Proverbs 15:5). Paul expressed himself quite plainly with the question to the Christian world as well as the secular, "Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?" (1 Corinthians 1:20). Although the "fool" can be educated and sophisticated from the secular viewpoint, he is a fool because he has forsaken the source of true wisdom in God. The worldview in line with what the typical worldly skeptic is a foolish view in God's eyes. The man who hears Christ's words and yet builds his life on a rejection of that revelation is a fool (Matthew 7:26).¹

Romans 1:18 also states that the person who suppresses God's general revelation in the created realm is a fool. The fool (his worldview of Christianity) is one who does not make God and His revelation the starting point (the presupposition) of his thinking. For it is quite clear that the unbeliever's worldview and those that embrace it despise the preaching of the cross, refuse to know God, and cannot receive God's word (1 Corinthians 1 and 2). The unbeliever who holds to this worldview will not submit to the word of God or build his life and thinking upon it. With this in mind, the disbelief and ignorance of God's will, therefore, produces the foolishness that is evident in this worldview.

The Christian's worldview is opposite of the unbeliever's. To the Christian all things are relevant to God and are created by God. God is and always will be. The Christian's worldview is that of reality and faith. God is real, His revelation is real, His existence is real, and that mankind cannot function without God. Revelation 1:8, "I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty." Revelation 10:6, "And he swore by him who lives forever and ever, who created the heavens and all that is in them, the earth and all that is in it, and the sea and all that is in it…" All Glory belongs to God. Psalm 19:1, "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands."

Why are there basically only two worldviews?

There are two philosophies or systems of thought; one submits to the authority of God's Word as a matter of presuppositional commitment and the other does not. These are the basic two worldviews. To further emphasize this, however, is to see that the unbeliever (the philosophy that God is not relevant or does not exist) opposes the Christian faith with a whole system of thought-not simply through a series or various methods of criticism(s). The unbeliever's attack goes after the Christian beliefs. It attacks the foundation, not just different points of Christian teaching. Assumptions by the unbeliever are based on his general world-and-life view. That view of life by the unbeliever will be evaluated by his presuppositions which questions possibility and probability of the evidences presented by the believer. The unbeliever, because he cannot receive or know the things of the Spirit, 1 Corinthians 2:14, "The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.", suppresses the truth, Romans 1:18, "….godliness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth." It is a fact that the unbeliever "exalts his reasoning against the knowledge of God" (2 Corinthians 10:5). Again, the person who suppresses God's general revelation in the created realm is a fool (Romans 1:18). The fool (his worldview) is one who does not make God and His revelation the starting point (the presupposition) of his thinking.

The believer, on the other hand, knows that all wisdom and knowledge is in Christ Jesus. The believer knows that in Jesus is truth (John 14:6). This is the starting point for the believer. The ultimate truth must be an expression of God's mind. God and His Word must be the self-authentication, indisputable starting point for all thought. Christ demonstrated this when He refused to put the Lord to a test (Matthew 4:7) showing complete obedience to God's authoritative law (Deut. 6:16).

Although the world might want to break the two worldviews into subsets, the truth is found in what is true and false. It is black and white-saved and unsaved.
________________
¹ Ibid, page 25