TISCA’s Annual Conference on Tuesday, 13th June 2023 is again being held in Westminster at the Emmanuel Centre. Our theme is In His image – our dignity, development, distinctiveness and desire to serve in schools. In the article below, Alan Campbell, a Belfast pastor, considers our Image in Christ and a Biblical Worldview.
It may seem daunting to engage this fluid generation of hybrid ideas, unfixed morality and easily triggered sensitivities with the good news.
However, beneath the easy-going indifference or the enraged cancel culture is someone wired by God to be fixed to something. We weren’t designed to live in a vacuum of ideas, or in the free fall of relativism. No one can live there consistently for any length of time in the world that God created.
We all need a framework for identity (who am I?), meaning (why am I here?), belonging (where do I fit in?) and destiny (where am I going?). Unconsciously we all live out our answers to the complex issues of epistemology (what is true?), metaphysics (what is real?) and ethics (what is good?). We all have a gospel narrative; a view about what is wrong with our life/our world (fall) and how it can be made right (salvation).
Under these is the deepest question; how can I know that I am right about what I believe?
The answers to all these questions together make up someone’s worldview.
God has mercifully revealed himself to us and has given us concrete answers. Scripture is consistent with itself throughout and with reality absolutely.
- Who am I? A creature, a sinner, forgiven in Christ.
- Why am I here? To know God, glorify him and enjoy him.
- Where do I fit in? In relationship with the Triune God and his people.
- Where am I going? Rescued from eternal destruction to one day stand before the presence of God, faultless.
- What is true? God revealed is our Source of all Truth.
- What is real? God revealed is our Source of all Reality.
- What is good? God revealed is our Source of all Goodness.
- What is wrong with us/the world? A good creation broken by sin.
- How can it be made right? Jesus and his gospel.
How do we take the Biblical Worldview into our conversations? Picture the Prince of the realm, glass slipper in hand, seeking to find the woman whose foot fits. He will marry her alone.
1. Listen/Ask
Every conversation you are part of today involves worldviews. There will be global, national, local and/or personal matters discussed.
Simply find something that person is interested in. Listen. Ask questions; “why do you believe that?”, “how did you arrive at that opinion?”.
2. Filter
Pass everything through the Biblical Worldview:
- Are there claims about truth, goodness, reality?
- Are there opinions about purpose, identity, belonging and destiny?
- Is there a gospel narrative about what is wrong and how it can be fixed?
3. Expose
Underneath these views are shaky foundations. Society, law, and family are sandy foundations because they are constantly shifting. Go deeper, compassionately expose these foundations as unreliable. Show that the glass slipper of reality doesn’t consistently fit the foot of their worldview.
4. Share
Graciously share the Biblical Worldview. Our goal is not to convince, we leave that to the Spirit. Simply help them see that the Biblical Worldview is robust and consistent with reality: the glass slipper of reality perfectly fits the foot of the Biblical Worldview. It makes sense and it makes sense of the world we live in.
From there it’s a small step to the gospel; “can I share with you what I believe about what is wrong and how it can be fixed?”.
May we enter into our vocations this week confident in the reality that each person we interact with, whether it looks like it or not, is desperately searching for the answers God has graciously given. May we gently, lovingly and confidently live out these realities and share them with others as God gives us openings.
Alan Campbell is from Belfast, he pastors at Blurton Baptist in Stoke-on-Trent. He came to Christ from Atheism as a young adult. He writes for Reach the Isles and seeks to equip churches and ministries to engage the post-Christian culture.
