A failure of Christian thinking is a failure of
discipleship, for we are called to love God with our minds.
The biblical narrative serves as a framework for the principles
that allow the formation of an authentically Christian worldview. Many
Christians rush to develop what they will call a “Christian worldview” by
arranging isolated Christian truths, doctrines, and convictions in order to
create formulas for Christian thinking. No doubt, this is a better approach
than is found among so many believers who have very little concern for
Christian thinking at all, but it’s not enough.
Christian thinking that culminates in a God-centered worldview
requires that we see all truth
as interconnected. Ultimately, the systematic wholeness of truth can be traced
to the fact that God is himself the author of all truth. Christianity is not a
set of doctrines in the sense that a mechanic operates with a set of tools.
Instead, Christianity is a comprehensive worldview and way of life that grows
out of Christian reflection on the Bible, and the unfolding plan of God
revealed in the unity of the Scriptures.
A God-centered worldview brings every issue, question, and
cultural concern into submission to all that the Bible reveals, and frames all
understanding within the ultimate purpose of bringing greater glory to God.
This task of bringing every thought captive to Christ requires more than periodic
Christian thinking, and is to be understood as the task of the Church, and not
merely the concern of individual believers. The recovery of the Christian mind
and the development of a comprehensive Christian worldview will require the
deepest theological reflection, the most consecrated application of
scholarship, the most sensitive commitment to compassion, and the courage to
face all questions without fear.
Christianity brings the world a distinctive understanding of
time, history, and the meaning of life.
The Christian worldview contributes an understanding of the universe and
all it contains that points us far beyond mere materialism and frees us from
the intellectual imprisonment of naturalism. Christians understand that the
world—including the material world—is dignified by the very fact that God has
created it. At the same time, we understand that we are to be stewards of this
creation and are not to worship what God has made.
We understand that every single human being is made in the
image of God, and that God is the Lord of life at every stage of human
development. We honor the sanctity of human life because we worship the
Creator. From the Bible, we draw the essential insight that God takes delight
in the ethnic and racial diversity of his human creatures, and so must we.
The Christian worldview contributes a distinctive
understanding of beauty, truth, and
goodness, understanding these to be boundless, and that in
the final analysis, are one and the same. Thus, the Christian worldview
disallows the fragmentation that would sever the beautiful from the true or the
good.
In the context of cultural conflict, the development of an
authentic Christian worldview should enable the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ
to maintain a responsible and courageous footing in any culture at any period
of time. The stewardship of this responsibility is not only an intellectual
challenge, but it determines, to a considerable degree, whether or not
Christians live and act before the world in a way that brings glory to God and
credibility to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Failure at this task represents an
abdication of Christian responsibility that dishonors Christ, weakens the
church, and compromises Christian witness.
A failure of Christian thinking is a failure of
discipleship, for we are called to love God with our minds. We cannot follow
Christ faithfully without first thinking as Christians. Furthermore, believers
are not to be isolated thinkers who bear this responsibility alone. We are
called to be faithful together, as we learn intellectual discipleship within
the church.
By God’s grace, we are allowed to love God with our minds in
order that we may serve him with our lives. Christian faithfulness requires the
conscious development of a worldview that begins and ends with God at its
center. We are only able to think as Christians because we belong to Christ,
and the Christian worldview is, in the end, nothing more than seeking to think
as Christ would have us to think, in order to be who Christ would call us to
be.
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Have you prayed? Seek the Lord
with prayer and fasting. Spend time in worship and listening prayer and in the
Word – God will reveal His heart’s purposes to you and direct your paths.
Prayer Requests
* Pray that the free world will not
remain unaware or lulled into complacency by comfort, but will rise up in
effective and compassionate solidarity with the persecuted members of the Body.
* Pray to the Lord of the harvest,
that He might send more laborers onto His harvest fields.
* Pray for a harvest of salvation in every land, that the lost millions will
hear the name of Jesus and believe in Him.
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