Thinking About
Biblical Worldview
Michael Goheen
IDIS 102, TWU 2007
Popularity of Term Worldview
Popularity of Biblical worldview today
among evangelicals:
• Response to comprehensive and
powerful modern humanist worldview
• Establish a solid foundation for vigorous
cultural engagement including
scholarship
• Retrieve gospel from „values‟ category
Fact/Value Dichotomy
Truth Truth
Claims Facts
Public
Know
Opinions
Values
Private
Believe
Starting point: Gospel of Kingdom
Jesus announces that the kingdom
has come (Mark 1.15-16)
“God is acting in power and love
through Jesus and by the Spirit to
restore all of human life and all of
the creation to again live under
God‟s loving rule.”
This announcement assumes:
Good creation (Creation)
Messed up by sin (Sin)
God is acting to restore creation to
again be what it was meant to be
(Restoration)
Battle for whole creation between
power of sin and power of Spirit
(Antithesis)
Illustration
Healthy child Good creation
Deformed by Deformed by
disease human sin
Process of Restoration
healing
Struggle Struggle
between disease between evil and
and healing God‟s healing
power power
Three Simultaneous Lenses
Creation: How was world meant to
be?
Sin: How has the human rebellion
perverted it?
Restoration: How is God restoring it?
Creation: How was it meant to be?
Creation ordered by God‟s word
• All of human life
• All of non-human creation
Divine and human wisdom
Divine wisdom: Way God orders creation
Human wisdom: Conforming ourselves to
that order
„Wisdom [is] wrought into the constitution
of the universe‟ so that human wisdom is
„ethical conformity to God‟s creation‟
(Fleming).
Kosmos: „the world held a divine order‟
and therefore wisdom was „fitting oneself
into‟ this divine order. (Gladigow).
Creation: How was it meant to be?
Creation ordered by God‟s word
• All of human life
• All of non-human creation
Humanity as image of God
• Made to know and love God
• Made to serve and reflect God
Cultural development
Very good
Sin: How has human rebellion
perverted it
Power that twists and distorts all of
human life (God, each other, nature)
Sin and its effects
Sin and Its Effects
Forms of sin (greed, lying,
etc.)
Results of sin (sickness,
SIN pain etc.)
Death
Satan, powers of darkness
Sin: How has human rebellion
perverted it
Power that twists and distorts all of
human life (God, each other, nature)
Sin and its effects
Idolatry
“ . . . all sin is an expression of the basic
sin of idolatry, of putting something else
in the place of God.” (Paul Marshall)
Sin as idolatry
Sin: How has human rebellion
perverted it
Power that twists and distorts all of
human life (God, each other, nature)
Sin and its effects
Idolatry
Affects all of non-human creation
Restoration: How is God restoring
it?
“While justly angry God did not turn
his back on a world bent on
destruction; he turned his face
toward it in love. With patience and
tender care he set out on the long
road of redemption to reclaim the
lost as his people and the world as
his kingdom” (Contemporary
Testimony,19)
Redemption
Redemption flows from love of God
Redemption is restorative
Redemption is comprehensive
„Long road‟ of redemption
‘Long Road of Redemption’
Israel chosen to model restoration of
human life vs. idolatry of nations
Jesus reveals in his life, deeds, and words
God‟s restoration
Cross: Battle and victory for creation
Resurrection: Beginning of renewal
Church called to make known God‟s
restoration
Christ‟s return: Restoration complete!
Design-Directing power
Clash of Kingdoms
Antithesis
Kingdom of Kingdom
darkness of God
Creation
Which ruler will you serve?
Scholarship and university education: Part
of creation
Battle between idolatry and God‟s
kingdom
Default: Idolatry of our culture
Choose this day whom you will serve!
“No one can be a loyal servant to two masters. Either you
will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted
to the one and despise the other. You cannot faithful serve
both God and _____.” (Jesus, Matthew 6.24)