This post is a rough transcript my talk from Place of Grace on August 25, 2025.
What is a worldview and why is it important? First, everyone has one. The formal definition of a worldview is this: It is a comprehensive framework of beliefs, values, and assumptions that shapes how an individual or group perceives and interprets the world. It acts as a lens, influencing thoughts, feelings, and actions. In other words, our worldview dictates how we live our lives.
Of course, you all know that I am here to talk about a Christian or biblical worldview, and I will get there. I believe that the Christian worldview is the one that corresponds with reality and answers all the big questions. But before we get there, I want to give you a few statistics. According to the Pew Research Center, as of 2019, about 65% of Americans self-identify as Christians. This is a drop from 77% twelve years earlier. This is what they report, but it does not necessarily reflect what they actually believe.
Last year (and the year before) I shared some statistics with you from the Arizona Christian University’s Cultural Research Center. Every year since 2020, the University conducts an American Worldview Inventory. When I reported last year, only 6% of Americans held beliefs consistent with the core truths of what the Bible teaches. In the 2024 report, the number has dropped to 4%. I am providing a link to a podcast where Dr. George Barna who is the Director of Research for this study explains to Natasha Crain how they conduct the survey and what kinds of questions they ask. Podcast | Natasha Crain (episode 20). I have taken the survey myself, and the questions are basic questions on Christian beliefs. There is a link to the survey in episode 53.
Here is what the 2024 survey found. “The typical American adult is not a worldview purist, but is essentially a worldview plagiarist, combining beliefs and behaviors borrowed from an average of nine recognized worldviews into their worldview blend.” They don’t realize that they are pulling from ideologies that are diametrically opposed to each other- millions of Americans simultaneously hold views taken from the Bible and Christian loathing Marxism, or from a pantheistic worldview like Eastern mysticism at the same time they embrace concepts from secular humanism which rejects all supernatural explanations. This is called syncretism. I did a talk about how other beliefs have been syncretized into Christianity (not good!) two years ago at Place of Grace. You can read it on my blog. Syncretism – Abundant Joy.
Before we move into what a Christian worldview is, let’s look at some of the most common worldviews. Put on your thinking caps because this is going to be a mini-philosophy lesson. A worldview should be able to answer the four basic questions in life:
- How did we get here?
- What went wrong?
- What is the solution?
- What is the world going to look like when the repair takes place?
I want you to think about these questions when I discuss these next worldviews.
Naturalism teaches that only natural laws and forces operate the universe. It rejects all supernatural explanations for anything. Some worldviews that are naturalistic include atheism, humanism, existentialism, materialism, and secularism. This worldview teaches that we are the product of material causes and processes. There is no way the world is supposed to be, it just is. There is no evil in the world, things just are.
Eastern Mysticism is rapidly gaining a foothold in the west through the New Age and New Thought movements. It is also found in Buddhism and Hinduism, to name just a few. Its core belief is that the ultimate expression of reality consists of an impersonal life force. The core of all beings is part of this life force. The physical world is an illusion. Your ultimate fate is to have no self-conscious existence at all. Therefore, if there is evil in this world, that is just an illusion. But ask yourself next time something tragic happens if it is just an illusion.
We are living in a postmodern culture. You have probably heard that, but what does it actually mean? Postmodernism is a worldview that basically denies all worldviews. It elevates personal experience over objective reality and relativism over absolute truth. Critical theory (which is an offshoot of Marxism) is based on postmodernism. This reduces evil to oppression and places the blame on certain groups of people. The problem is always on others, and where has that gotten us? Look at how many people were killed in genocides in the 20th century because of Marxist philosophies.
I want to go back to the 65% of Americans who self-identify as Christians. Pastor William described them this way in his sermon on Psalm 1. People think they can just “add a little Jesus to what they are already doing.” Many of these people have a worldview called Moralistic Therapeutic Deism. This is a term that was coined by sociologists to describe a belief system that describes God as a distant helper who created us to be good and wants us to be happy. He is only involved in the world when needed. It is a watered-down version of Christianity that focuses on being good and is self-centered. This is the most popular view of Christianity in America today, but it is not true Christianity at all.
None of these worldviews answer the four questions adequately. But the Christian worldview does. First, we will look at what the Christian or biblical worldview is, and then we will see why it is so important. The Christian worldview teaches that there is a Creator God who exists and He has chosen to reveal Himself to us through Scripture. We have an objective basis for knowing moral standards that exist and what they are- and they apply to everyone.
Do you remember the study I mentioned earlier? The average American adult has borrowed from an average of nine recognized worldviews into their worldview blend. Imagine worldviews are like a pair of glasses. A person constantly changing them to fit the situation with which they are dealing. None of those worldviews matches reality the way God created it.
The Christian worldview is like corrective lenses. This worldview allows you to see the world correctly and prevents you from seeing it incorrectly. The word “worldview” isn’t found in the Bible, but we see the word “wisdom.” Wisdom doesn’t mean knowledge or being smart, it is knowing how to be a human well. The key to living a well-lived life is to understand reality and the ordering of reality so that you can properly conform your life to that reality. The closer you live your life in correspondence to that reality, the more you live a well-lived human life. C.S. Lewis said this. “You can’t go against the grain of the universe and not get splinters.” The book of Proverbs is full of this wisdom on how to live a well-lived life. Our theme for Place of Grace this year is on being a Proverbs 31 woman. Verse 26 says, “Her mouth speaks wisdom, and loving instructionis on her tongue.”
Often, when we think of a Christian worldview, we jump straight to salvation. And of course, salvation is important! Jesus died to save us from our sins. But that is one part of the big picture. How did we get here? Francis Schaeffer, the evangelical theologian, philosopher, and pastor said this. “Christianity is not just involved with ‘salvation,’ but with the total man in the total world. The Christian message begins with the existence of God forever, and then with creation. It does not begin with salvation. We must be thankful for salvation, but the Christian message is more than that. Man has value because he is made in the image of God.” Indeed, in Genesis, we learn several things that form our biblical worldview. Let’s go back to our four questions.
- How did we get here?
- What went wrong?
- What is the solution?
- What is the world going to look like when the repair takes place?
Genesis answers the first two questions and gives a hint that there will be a solution. Before we look at these answers, it is important to realize that the Bible is an overarching story of God’s redemptive plan for us. Too often, we want to use the Bible as a Magic 8 ball. Some of you may remember that illustration from last year. We ask God a question and then open our Bible hoping to find the answer! But the Bible is designed to be read as a whole, in context. We should not be taking verses out and trying to make them fit into a situation. I’ll include a link for the talk I gave last year on how to read your Bible. How to Read Your Bible – Abundant Joy.
In Genesis, we learn first that God is the Creator. He created everything and declared it good. We live in a world that teaches us that the world is on the brink of climate catastrophe. It works on the assumption that we are here through random chance, that we are one natural disaster away from the earth’s destruction. The Bible teaches us in Genesis that God created the universe and everything in it. He saw what He made and declared it good. We are to steward His good creation, and we can rest assured that He is sovereign and in control.
Another thing we learn is that God created us in His image. We are made in the likeness and image of God. What does it mean to be made in God’s image? There are three ways we reflect God’s image. The first is the functional view.
- God creates; therefore we can create.
- God speaks; therefore we can use language.
- God is rational; therefore humans can reason.
We can do these things because we are made in God’s image, but these things don’t fully define Imago Dei.
The second is the relational view. God exists eternally as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—a perfect unity of love. Because we bear His image, we too are inherently relational beings.
The third is the status view. We are made rulers in God’s kingdom. Perhaps the most striking aspect of being made in God’s image is what Genesis 1:26 explicitly states:
“Let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion…”
The Genesis narrative assumes that there is a God, and that God is in charge. Unlike the rest of creation, humans are given a ruling role.
The above was taken from the Identity Project What It Means to Be Made in the Image of God:… | Identity Project which is a series of videos that is available for free.
Today, we have lost this view, even in the church. Abortion and euthanasia are commonplace. In Canada, 1 in 20 deaths are due to Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID, which is just another way of saying doctor assisted suicide. Over 60,000 people have died this way since they legalized it in 2016. In America, over 1 million babies were aborted in 2024, and ten states have legalized doctor-assisted suicide and over a dozen more are considering it. People have begun to mistake “quality of life” arguments as valid for reasons to end a life, even in the church. But God is the one who has given us our value because we are made in His image. Here are some verses that remind us that God created us, and it is He who determines our days.
“For it was you who created my inward parts;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I will praise you
because I have been remarkably and wondrously made.
Your works are wondrous,
and I know this very well.
My bones were not hidden from you
when I was made in secret,
when I was formed in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw me when I was formless;
all my days were written in your book and planned
before a single one of them began.” Psalm 139:13-16
I could go on, but there is more we can learn from Genesis.
We are created in the image of God, and we are created male and female. Over the last twenty years, transgenderism has become a prominent part of our culture. Even as a teacher, I went from never seeing it my classroom to having two transgender students my last year of teaching. There are many reasons for this rise (but social media and the internet are a huge cause of the increase). But as Christians, we need to understand this. God created us as male and female. Biological sex cannot be separated from gender. It is a gnostic idea that individuals can determine their identity, that you can separate the body from the soul. Natasha Crain puts it this way. “As created beings, we don’t get to tell our Creator who we are and what our purpose is; we receive that information through what He’s revealed in Scripture.”
Men and women are created for each other in marriage. They come together in “one flesh.” God is the one who created marriage. This relationship is so important that it is a picture of Christ’s relationship to the Church. Paul writes this in Ephesians 5:31-32:
“For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.This mystery is profound, but I am talking about Christ and the church.”
The marriage relationship is so important that the Bible starts with a marriage- Adam and Eve- and ends with a marriage. In Revelation it describes the marriage feast of the Lamb. We don’t get to redefine marriage to be between anyone. Again, many churches have embraced and accepted same-sex marriage and question and condemn any of us who call it sin. On a side note, it is important to recognize that any sexual sin outside of marriage (marriage that God calls marriage) is sinful, whether it is homosexual or heterosexual.
The last thing I want to cover as part of the first question is that God created us to have a special relationship with Him. We are created to be in friendship with Him. Contrary to the belief of Moralistic Therapeutic Deism, God does want to be a part of our lives!
Now on to question 2. What went wrong? You just have to look around to know that something is wrong. The Christian worldview answers this question. The world that we experience now is not the way it is supposed to be. God gave us free choice. When Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden, sin entered the world. Christianity teaches that the problem is us. We are sinners. Interestingly, the 2024 Worldview Inventory reports that 46% of Americans believe that “People are neither good nor bad when they are born but become either good or bad through their accumulated life choices.” But the Bible teaches “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, in this way death spread to all people, because all sinned” (Romans 5:12). Sin does not just affect people; it affects the whole earth. Paul talks about creation being set free from its bondage to decay in Romans 8. The Fall affects everything.
So what is the solution? Other worldviews teach that the problem is others, and if only we get rid of the right group, or evolve to the next step, or create the right technology…then all the problems will be solved. But things only get worse. In the 20th century, more people were killed (one estimate I read was over 200 million) as a result of government regimes. The Christian worldview teaches us that we cannot fix the world, only God can. Only the God of the universe who created the world, loved us enough to come and rescue us. “For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). This is God’s answer for a broken world. He has redeemed us.
Question 4 is the repair. In the Christian worldview, this is restoration. The Bible does not end with a bunch of disembodied spirits, sitting on clouds, strumming on harps. If you need a reminder, read the end of Revelation! It ends with John seeing a new heaven and a new earth. We will have new bodies. We will live in eternity with God. “Then I heard a loud voice from the throne: Look, God’s dwelling is with humanity, and he will live with them. They will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them and will be their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; grief, crying, and pain will be no more, because the previous things have passed away” (Revelation 21:3-4).
The Christian worldview is this: Creation, the Fall, Redemption, Restoration. They all work together. We need to understand creation to have the foundation. We must understand that God is our Creator, that He created us in His image, and He created us male and female for each other. He created us to be in relationship with Him. When we understand that, we can understand how profound the Fall is, and the effects it has had on humanity and the earth ever since. Only God could provide the means of rescue, and He did that by sending His Son to die for our sins. And Restoration is where the story ends. Jesus reminded His disciples “Don’t let your heart be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? If I go away and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself, so that where I am you may be also. You know the way to where I am going” (John 14:1-4).
We live in a world that tells us that wrong is right, sin is good, and calls good, evil. It is important to know what the Bible teaches. Jesus warned that the gate was narrow that leads to the kingdom of heaven. He also warned that His teachings would bring division. “Do you think that I came here to bring peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. From now on, five in one household will be divided: three against two, and two against three.
They will be divided, father against son,
son against father,
mother against daughter,
daughter against mother,
mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law,
and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.” (Luke 12:51-53)
I brought up some difficult topics tonight. Some of you may be dealing with some of these issues in your own families. I know that I am. But it is important that we look at everything through the corrective lens of our Christian worldview. Don’t let culture determine how you view things. I can understand when secular culture’s beliefs conflict with Christianity. What discourages me is when other believers compromise. It shouldn’t surprise me, though, because Paul warned us of this in 2 Timothy. “Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; correct, rebuke, and encourage with great patience and teaching. For the time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, will multiply teachers for themselves because they have an itch to hear what they want to hear. They will turn away from hearing the truth and will turn aside to myths” (2:2-4). Being a Christian will always be counter cultural. Jesus told his disciples,“If the world hates you, understand that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. However, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of it, the world hates you. Remember the word I spoke to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. But they will do all these things to you on account of my name, because they don’t know the one who sent me” (John 15:18-21). We should not be more worried about fitting into the culture around us than we should be trying to please the God who created us. We should look different. Jesus said we are to be salt and light. “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt should lose its taste, how can it be made salty? It’s no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet. You are the light of the world. A city situated on a hill cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and puts it under a basket, but rather on a lampstand, and it gives light for all who are in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:13-16).
Culture will change. But the solid rock of Christ will never change.
“Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain fell, the rivers rose, and the winds blew and pounded that house. Yet it didn’t collapse, because its foundation was on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and doesn’t act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain fell, the rivers rose, the winds blew and pounded that house, and it collapsed. It collapsed with a great crash.” Matthew 7:24-27
Helpful Resources
Faithfully Different: Regaining Biblical Clarity in a Secular Culture by Natasha Crain
When Culture Hates You: Persevering for the Common Good as Christians in a Hostile Public Square by Natasha Crain
The Story of Reality: How the World Began, How It Ends, and Everything Important that Happens in Between by Greg Koukl
Podcast | Natasha Crain (episodes 20 and 53)
CRC-Release-AWVI-2-April-23-2024.pdf
How to Read Your Bible – Abundant Joy
Explore Colson Center courses, podcasts, and programs | Colson Center
Abundant Joy 