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In this edition of Issues in Perspective, I hope to analyze the concept of worldview, arguing that biblical Christianity is the only worldview that provides coherence and sustainability, and then test the worldview concept on two major cults—Mormonism and the Jehovah’s Witnesses.
First, what is a worldview exactly? Christianity is not only a personal relationship with the living God through faith in Jesus Christ; it is a worldview. It is an entire way of thinking, covering not only theology, but how to think about ethics, history, science, literature, etc. Because God has revealed Himself verbally in the Bible, Christians have the answers to the most penetrating questions of life. James W. Sire suggests that there are seven such basic questions:
1. What is prime reality--the really real?
2. What is the nature of external reality, i.e., outside of ourselves?
3. What is a human being?
4. What happens to a person at death?
5. Why is it possible to know anything at all?
6. How do we know what is right and wrong?
7. What is the meaning of history?
Human beings must come to terms with these questions sometime during their lives. Sire argues that to discover one’s worldview is a “significant step toward self-awareness, self-knowledge, and self-understanding.” [See James W. Sire. The Universe Next Door: A Basic Worldview Catalog (Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity, 1988), pp. 17-18.] Genuine biblical Christianity provides coherence and sustainability as it answers these basic questions. |
