Everyone has a set of beliefs and values that form a framework and set of “lenses” through which the data of life and the world around us is assessed. Our task is to determine what is true and to live in step with that truth. The Christian Worldview is the one worldview that rings the truest with the known facts of science and life. This class will focus on the latest in this area and review summary “take-aways” that will help Christians defend the faith. Lecture presented by John Weber

1. A Critical Review of
Worldviews
Why a Christian Worldview Makes the Most Sense
John Weber
Defending Christianity
HCBC Apologetics Ministry

2. Resources

3. Resources

4. Worldview
• What is it?
• Do I need one?.....Do I already have one?
• Can’t everyone just believe what they want and we all agree to leave
each other alone?
• “Why can’t we all just get along?”- R. King, LA 1987
• “Imagine there’s no heaven..” – John Lennon
• Can’t I just believe in nothing?
• Why doesn’t this work?

5. Definitions of Worldview
Dr. Norman Geisler
• A way of interpreting all of reality
• A framework everyone uses to make sense
out of the data of life and world around us
Charles Colson
• The sum total of our beliefs about the
world, the “big picture” that directs our
daily decisions and actions
• Our major task in life is to discover what is
true and to live in step with that truth

6. Why is Worldview Important?
Dr. Samuel Huntington Harvard University
• “The world is divided not so much by geographic
boundaries as by religious and cultural traditions, by
people’s most deeply held beliefs – by worldviews” *
• Huntington’s Major power blocs in 1993:
• Western, Islamic, Chinese, Hindu, Orthodox, Japanese and
possibly African regions
* “The Clash of Civilizations,” Journal of Foreign Affairs (Summer 1993)

7. Major Grouping of Cultures and Worldviews
• Western – Judeo-Christian, Naturalism, Apatheism, New Age,
• Islamic – Mohammed 600AD
• Chinese – 2000BC – Today 10% Christian
• Hindu – 1500BC (by Aryans)
• Orthodox – 1054AD
• Japanese – 660BC
• Animism – Ancient

8. What is Truth?
• Pontius Pilate – “What is truth?”
• The Coherence View – consistent with what else I believe
• The Correspondence View – a proposition aligns with the world
• The Postmodern View – Truth is a product of belief
• Perspective and Truth – Each person has a different experience that
forms “their truth” and cannot remove their “set of lenses” through
which they view the world.
• Community Agreement – if 2 people agree it becomes truth for
reasons of practicality

9. An Old and Famous Fable - Buddhist or Jain Origin*
*Dr. Craig J. Hazen
Blind men were led into King
Rajah’s courtyard to illustrate
a truth
Different religions of the
world are stumbling upon
only one particular aspect of
ultimate reality and are blind
to the total picture

13. We will get back to this

14. Aren’t All Religions Basically the Same?
The False Appeal
• Exclusivity claims to religious truth are divisive and may lead to
violence and suffering for centuries.
• Once this is embraced by all, there is the possibility for “Utopia”, since
all the religious hands are touching the same essential truth

15. Worldviews in Conflict
Will Durant:
• American writer, historian, philosopher. Author of
The Story of Civilization
• “From barbarism to civilization requires a century;
from civilization to barbarism needs but a day”

16. Theism versus Naturalism
Broadly, the conflict of our day is between Theism and Naturalism*
Theism:
• The belief that there is a transcendent God who created the universe.
Naturalism:
• The belief that natural causes alone are sufficient to explain
everything that exists
Some take the position of “ideal-observer”. Beware. Test everything
and know what it good and true.
*Colson: How Now Shall We Live? p20

17. Major Worldviews with a Naturalism core
The absence of God (no overarching right/wrong) allows the naturalist
to embrace numerous views in which societal rules are dictated by the
most powerful:
• Moral Relativism – If nature is all there is no source for moral truth.
Every principle is reduced to personal preference
• Multiculturalism – Since there is no source of moral truth we find
identity in race, gender or ethnic group
• Pragmatism – What ever works best is right. Purely utilitarian
• Utopianism – If we can create the right social and economic
structures, we can usher in an age of harmony and prosperity

18. Life Without a Christian Worldview
• “Without a Biblical worldview, all the great teaching goes in one ear
and out the other. There are no intellectual pegs….in the mind of the
individual to hang these truths on. So they just pass through. They
don’t stick. They don’t make a difference.”
- George Barna
• More on these intellectual pegs later

19. Key Questions Affecting One’s Worldview
• Who am I?
• Why am I here?
• Where am I going?
• What’s wrong with the world?

20. Key Questions Affecting One’s Worldview
• Who am I? – Evolved? Created? It starts with the God question
• Why am I here?
• Where am I going?
• What’s wrong with the world?

21. Is There a God?
• Dawkins contends that a supernatural creator
almost certainly does not exist and that belief in a
personal god qualifies as a delusion, which he
defines as a persistent false belief held in the face
of strong contradictory evidence.1
• His subtle but persistent flaw: “his ubiquitous use
of a rhetorical strategy known as a logical fallacy”
• i.e.; “Begging the question (or circular reasoning)
• “Stating, as obvious, the very thing that needs to
be proved”2
1Wikipedia 2/8/18 2Louis Markos Apologetics for the 21st Century

22. Is There a Creator?
Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth
Colossians 1:15-17 He (Jesus Christ) is the image of the invisible God, the
firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on
earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or
authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is
before all things, and in him all things hold together.
Hebrews 1:3 He (Jesus Christ) upholds the universe by the word of his power.
Romans 1:20 For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine
nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in
the things that he has made. So they are without excuse.

23. So Who Am I?
Genesis 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of
God he created him; male and female he created them.
Psalm 8:4-5 what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of
man that you care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower
than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.
Or

24. Is There a God?
Summaries from Dr.’s Wilson, Salviander and Bradley:
• Earth, as a system, exhibits an exceedingly rare set of conditions needed to
support advanced life.
• The fine-tuning of the universe is such that it is immeasurably improbable
(impossible?) to have ever happened by chance.
• High Human intelligence levels inconsistent with evolution
• Ability to think about the “Big Questions”
• Exhibit complexity far exceeding the need to survive
• Unexplainable sudden emergence of human culture and complexity
• Collective and cumulative knowledge and learning, aka Human Exceptionalism
• Scientific evidence of soul/spirit outside of the physical body
• The universe requires the presumption of a “supernatural” agent that is
transcendent, powerful and purposeful – i.e., a creator

25. Key Questions Affecting One’s Worldview
• Who am I? – Evolved? Created? It starts with the God question
• Why am I here?
• What’s wrong with the world?
• Where am I going?

26. Why Am I here?
• Selfism: To get all I can before I die?
• Christian View: To live a transformed life in family and society?
• The key to the Christian life is transformation

27. Synanon – A Utopian Experiment, 1958-1997: Santa Monica, Marin County and Tulare County, CA
Synanon's Sober Utopia: How a Drug Rehab Program Became a Violent Cult – Matt Novak 4/15/14
• Synanon started with what looked like the best of intentions. And the
organization still has defenders today. But no matter what the initial goals of this
strange community and its heavy-handed leader, there's no denying what it had
become: a dangerous cult ultimately tossed on the scrap heap of failed utopias.
• Whether dangerous or benign, the utopian impulse is almost always about
control. We strive for perfection with small actions, working toward some greater
change in our lives; our own slice of heaven. We blind ourselves to the dark
undercurrents of our carefully controlled little worlds.
• That's what happened at Synanon. Members ignored the greater sins for the
smaller ones. As members became more and more invested in the utopian
project's minutiae, it became harder and harder to escape. Ultimately, Synanon
collapsed under its own utopian hubris—a tyrant's ant farm masquerading as a
grand experiment with the good life. And for some of the bruised and battered
left in Synanon's wake, its undoing came none too soon.
• Selfism’s attempt at Utopia, devoid of personal transformation, is a death trap

28. From Dr. Sarah Salviander’s Presentation November 7, 2017
94 million killed in the 20th
century due to Communism

29. What’s Wrong with the World?

30. What’s Wrong with the World?
• Are humans really basically
good? Or
• Are do humans seem to have
a “natural bent” toward
selfishness and greed and
arrogance?
• Is there suffering in the world
today?
• Is it evil? (opposite of good)
Dr. Salviander

31. Christian Worldview
• Transcendency:
• There is a transcendent being who existed before creating the universe and who is ultimate origin of
everything. (Genesis 1:1)
• Purpose and Design:
• As we study creation we learn more about his power, purpose and love. (Romans 1)
• Who We Are:
• Humans are his crowning achievement in creation. (Psalm 8) He gave humans spirit and the image of
God. (Genesis 1:26-27)
• What Happened?:
• The original humans missed the mark and all humanity inherited a “sinful-nature” or “bent-to-sin”
(Genesis 3)
• How Then Shall We Live? – Ezekiel 33:10
• In all facets of life: Social structures, stewardship of the earth and resources, human organizations,
expression through art and music are to be impacted by humans with God’s image.
• The Fix:
• Let God cover our sinful nature as a result of his payment for our poor choices and allow him to remake
us as a “new creation”
• We live as redeemed people having a positive impact on everything on earth. Resurrection Apologetics

32. Result of a Christian Worldview
• Transformed lives have had a
positive impact in many areas
impacted billions of people for
centuries
• Yet, Christianity is under
tremendous attack.
Dr. Salviander

33. Growing Opposition to a Christian Worldview

34. An Old and Famous Fable - Buddhist or Jain Origin*
*Dr. Craig J. Hazen
Blind men were led into King
Rajah’s courtyard to illustrate
a truth
Different religions of the
world are stumbling upon
only one particular aspect of
ultimate reality and are blind
to the total picture

35. Christian Worldview Alignment with Reality
Are These Barna’s Intellectual Pegs?
• A reasoned approach to data indicating the existence of a transcendent,
powerful and caring/planning/purposeful being.
• Authenticity of scriptures
• Scientific and Biblical evidence for:
• How did the universe begin?
• A biogenesis, the origin of first life - Causality
• Macro-evolution (species to species) – Specified information from random?
• Uniqueness of humanity
• Where do we see God’s World and God’s Word agree?
• Utopian pursuits without God lead to the worst in humanity while changed
lives within a Christian worldview lead to the best in humanity

37. How Now Shall We Live?
A Compendium of Transformational Miracles
• God’s Training Ground: The Family
• Young People at Risk: Education
• Civic Heroism: Anything is possible
• Sacred Role of Work
• Science as Apologetics – Scientific Naturalism is
incoherent and self-contradictory
• Touched By a Miracle
• The Story of Kim Phuc
Each one of these is
one or two slides to
communicate the
value in the world of
people embracing the
Christian Worldview vs.
the Naturalism view

38. How Now Shall We Live?
• Everyone has a worldview
• The Christian worldview matches reality, science and mankind’s
“Utopian” hope, through Christ’s resurrection.
• The Christian Worldview is a far superior worldview than Naturalism
both in terms of matching reality and adding value to world we live in.
How Shall We Live?
• “By embracing God’s truth, understanding the physical and moral
order he has created, lovingly contending for that truth with our
neighbors, then having the courage to live it out in every walk of
life”*
*Colson: How Now Shall We Live? p487

39. Where Am I Going?
• A Sojourner on Earth and a Residence with God for Eternity
• Philippians 2:13 For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good
pleasure.
• Hebrews 10:24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works
• James 4:14 What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then
vanishes.
• Romans 12:2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of
your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and
acceptable and perfect.
• John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in
him should not perish but have eternal life.
• I Thessalonians 4:17 indicates the Lord will escort his people to heaven to be with him
forever.

40. An Old and Famous Fable - Buddhist or Jain Origin*
*Dr. Craig J. Hazen
Blind men were led into King
Rajah’s courtyard to illustrate
a truth
Different religions of the
world are stumbling upon
only one particular aspect of
ultimate reality and are blind
to the total picture

41. Summary
• Everyone has a worldview
• The Christian view and the Postmodern view have radically differing
views of truth
• The Postmodern “set of lenses” can be removed as evidenced by
personal transformations
• Just like King Rajah and the elephant, Christianity has a
messenger(Jesus Christ) who needed to come and explain the truth
• Christian Worldview that conforms to the reality in the world