Worldview is EVERYTHING

How we view the world influences our lives more dramatically than almost any other single factor. The funny thing is, we rarely spend a lot of time thinking about it.  Worldview is kind of like the air that we breath, or the water that comes out of our faucet.  Most people take it for granted, and don’t really stop to think much about it’s purity, how it travels to us, or how our bodies are affected by it.  But if someone slipped some tasteless, odorless toxins into it, our lives would be negatively affected, and we could become sick, or even die.  I think we would be wise to become much more aware of the concept of worldview, and take some inventory of why we believe what we believe and look for any toxins that have crept into our thinking.

Our worldviews are continually being molded and shaped by our culture – the news we read, the movies and television shows we watch, the music we listen to, all these things carry messages that feed into our minds and hearts and become part of the way we see and interpret the world around us.

As I sit here today thinking about the upcoming elections and my lack of enthusiasm about any of the presidential candidates, I’m realizing once again just how much worldview is playing out before us.  We have a field of candidates, all claiming to be Christian.  Yet, their idealogies and what they stand for could not be more different.  As I hear the comments of people who have made up their minds of who they are voting for, I can hear their worldviews speaking.  If you think that “rich people” (commonly defined as someone who makes more money than me) should carry more of the tax burden, and the government should be doing more to help people, then Obama is your man.  If you think that Muslim extremists pose the greatest threat to our nation than anything else, McCain is probably your choice.  If you think that the Federal government should stay out of our lives as much as possible and that we should mind our own business and let the rest of the world do the same, you’re probably leaning towards Barr, the Libertarian candidate.

Three men, all “Christian”, who all view the world through very different eyes.  What makes the difference?  Their worldview.  It’s everything.

In “Rich Church, Poor Church” by John Muratori, he says that a recent Barna poll finds that only 9% of born-again Christians hold a biblical worldview, 7% for Protestants overall, and this drops to only 4% in the general population and less than 1/2 of 1% for Catholics.  I’m not sure how they arrived at these conclusions, but based on what we see out there in our culture, I’d have to agree with their conclusions.

If these numbers hold true, then the numbers for those who actually have a Kingdom worldview must be far less.  I would define a Kingdom worldview as a biblical worldview that includes an understanding of the mandate to have dominion in the earth rather than an escapist mindset that delays the Kingdom for some future time.

Not everyone is ignorant of the power of worldview. We are very much in the midst of a culture war and the war for the destiny of this nation.  Massive amounts of money are being invested by forces that are hostile to the Kingdom of God in order to influence the marketplace of ideas.  One example would be the $20 million dollar donations that both Harvard and Georgetown Universities received in 2002 from a member of the Saudi Royal Family to help advance an Islamic agenda through education.  Is it any wonder that Isalm is the fastest growing religion on college campuses today?

Clearly, the powers that control Hollywood are controlled by the Antichrist spirit.  Christianity is regularly mocked, the traditional view of marriage and family values is seen as old-fashioned, and dysfunction is celebrated and portrayed as “normal”.  Rather than viewing the harsh realities of broken lives as abnormal and something to be overcome, we are being systematically programmed to accept such tragedy as status quo and the way life should be.

Make no mistake about it – our minds are very much like computers that are continually receiving programming from what we see and hear every day. Never has there been more information flowing at us, and never has it contained so little truth in regards to what is most important in life.  We are being entertained to death.  Not that I am against entertainment, mind you.  But you cannot drink from the toilet long without picking up a nasty bug, and if your immune system is insufficient to fight it off, you will die.

Fortunately, we live in an age of technological advances.  We are no longer held hostage by the major media, news and education outlets.  The Internet has leveled the playing field, and anyone can make their opinions known to the world (just like I am right now).  The marketplace of ideas has just exploded to a whole new level and this will only increase as more and more people realize the ability they have to broadcast their worldview to others.  My intent is to arm you, my faithful readers, with the power of truth, and the One who claimed to be the Way the Truth and the Life said that the Truth will set us free.

Truth is not relative.  Facts are facts. If you believe that just believing something makes it true, then you have some serious problems with logic.  There are some things in life that are subjective, but there is objective truth in the world.  If you accept a falsehood as truth, you are deceived, and if the deception is on a significant level, it could cost your your life, or worst yet, your eternal soul.

In the final analysis, understanding how our worldview is shaped and how it influences our thinking is critical, and critical information bears repeating.  I plan to use this blog to help my readers develop a Kingdom worldview.  We simply must re-program our minds (the biblical term would be “renew”) with the truth and stop allowing the enemy to control us through the strongholds he has placed into our minds.  I feel like I’m fighting a fire with a squirtgun, but who knows… maybe if enough other squirtguns show up, we can extinguish the flames together.

Until next time, pay attention to the messages that are flowing into your brain, because they have an effect on how you live your life.  And stay away from the chocolate-coated turds.  They’re bad for you.

R<><

~ by richlionheart on August 30, 2008.