
Date: September 14, 2014
Study: What’s Your Filter? Christian Apologetics and Worldview
Teacher: Lawson Hembree
REVIEW
Study Thesis: A Christian worldview enables us to look at all of live through scriptural lenses, which in turn equips us to defend the faith, evangelize wisely, critique unbiblical thought that pervades our culture, and bring God glory in all of life.
Worldview Definition: A commitment, a fundamental orientation of the heart, that can be expressed as a story or in a set of presuppositions (assumptions which may be true, partially true, or entirely false) which we hold (consciously or subconsciously, consistently or inconsistently) about the basic constitution of reality, and that provides the foundation on which we live and move and have our being.
Six Reasons to Study Worldviews: 1) to develop ours, 2) to defend the faith, 3) to evangelize better, 4) to identify and reject false teaching, 5) to grow in cultural discernment, and 6) to glorify God in all of life.
Five Worldview Foundations: God, Reality, Man, Morality, Knowledge.
INTRO
In RC Sproul’s book Battle for Our Minds he mentions a big, beautiful Presbyterian church in Los Angeles that was very close to the epicenter of the Northridge earthquake in 1994. The congregation was both dumbfounded and ecstatic to find the building completely intact afterwards, down to the stain-glassed windows. It seemed like a miracle that the building was still standing! Nevertheless, just to be safe, they called in the engineers to check things out. Upon investigation, they discovered that the whole building had moved off its foundation, making it unsafe and utterly useless. They had to spend millions tearing it down and rebuilding.
Our views of God and reality are the foundations of our worldview. Much like this church building in California, if the foundations are off, our whole worldview has to be torn down and rebuilt; but if it is solid, we should see be able to build a solid, useful structure on top of it.
Main Idea: The biblical consistency of our worldview depends on a correct view of God and his relation to the world.
Today we’ll be looking at the first two foundational elements of a worldview: God and reality, also known as theology and metaphysics.
Theology is simply the study of God. As Christians, this is the heart of our faith: growing in the knowledge of God. Our theology is our worldview. Metaphysics is basically the study of being or reality. Ultimately, metaphysics is about the quest for ultimate truth. RC Sproul writes, “It goes beyond the physical realm that we can see and measure. Thus, metaphysics is a philosophical attempt to bring sense and coherence out of all the incongruous elements of this world” (Sproul, Lifeviews, 99).
At the heart of a Christian approach to metaphysics is the question, “How does God relate to reality?”
IS REALITY OPEN OR CLOSED? Continue reading →