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Do you agree that the biblical references cited illustrate some elements of each worldview being seen in Scripture? Explain
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Yes. The Scriptures are the book of the whole human experience, and as such contain elements of the various worldviews mentioned.
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Yes – I see these truths in Scripture.
Also, I see how the Bible includes examples of these varying world views in its pages for us to be able to compare to our Biblical worldview. Jesus never ignores these worldviews or say “He doesn’t believe in that” – we cannot not ignore that other ways of belief exist; we must confront them with the love of Jesus and the truth of His Word. -
Yes. To recap the Biblical references cited…
God is the First Cause of the universe (Deism—Gen. 1:1)
creation is guided by Providence (Theism—Eph. 1:11)
matter exists and can be observed (Naturalism—Eccl. 1:5-7)
spiritual realities do exist and can be experienced (Pantheism—Jn. 4:24)
skepticism has its place, and apprehending truth often encounters mystery (Nihilism—Eph. 1:9)
life without God has no objective meaning (Existentialism—Eccl. 1:1-4)Not only do we see fragments of the Biblical worldview in every other major worldview, we also see the Bible explain that this course of events is unsurprising.
“They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator…” -Romans 1:25a
You cannot exchange the truth if you don’t have a piece of it to begin with.
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Yes.
• God is the First Cause of the universe (Deism) Gen. 1:1 “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”
• Creation is guided by Providence (Theism) Eph. 1:11 “In him (Christ) we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him (God the Father) who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will …”
• Matter exists and can be observed (Naturalism) Eccl. 1:5-7 “The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises. The wind blows to the south and turns to the north; round and round it goes, ever retuning on its course. All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from, there again they return again.”
• Spiritual realities do exist and can be experienced (Pantheism) Jn. 4:24 “God is Spirit and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
• Skepticism has its place, and apprehending truth often encounters mystery (Nihilsm) Eph 1:9 “he (God) made known to us the mystery of his will according to His good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ…”
• Life without God has no objective meaning (Existentialism) Eccl. 1:1-4 “Meaningless! Meaningless! … Everything is meaningless…” -
Yes, CS Lewis makes a great point here. It’s so easy to just focus on what we don’t agree with or to clarify in a relativistic world that we don’t believe the same thing. However, it’s also important to start with what we agree with and then move to what we disagree with as Tim Keller states.