I have been studying the concept of worldviews and I am asking persons from all walks of life the question: “What is the purpose of life?” You have always been somewhat of an enigma to me. So I would be interested in how you would answer this question.
ooh! I know the "right" answer because this is the first question in our catechism (shorter westminster) that we're taught as kids. Yay me, I'm Presbyterian! ;-)
Q: What is the Chief end of man?
A: To glorify God and enjoy Him forever.
Maybe the reason I'm an enigma is because my life is often not behaviorally congruent with that. I'm not always in the Christian mode, but I'm getting better. I think folks that gripe about Christians being hypocrites dont understand that justification is instantaneous but sanctification takes a lifetime. I'm justified ("saved" to you Baptist folks) but God is still working on me. Maybe if I was smitten like Saul was on the road to Damascus (or was that Emmaus?) anyway, maybe then I could be justified and sanctified pretty near the same time, though Paul still accounted himself the "worst of sinners" even after his conversion.
As for worldview, I've had a pretty smart athiest complain to me that the "Christian worldview" doesn't make sense because there is no single, unified set of beliefs that you could call a "Christian worldview." Each Christian or sect of Christians appear to him to have widely divergent beliefs. I don't buy that. I'm sort of in the C.S. Lewis 'Mere Christianity' camp on that one. That is, there are a set of core beliefs that nearly every Christian has no problem confessing. Often individuals differ in how they understand the details, but like the Pareto principle, some 80+% of folks hold some 20% of the doctrine in common.
Worldview seems to really come down to how we behave in response to what we say we believe. If you take that core of what Christians believe in common, what does that tell you (or necessisarily infer) about how the world works and how we should behave in the world. That's the Christian worldview.
I think I'll post this to my blog (with the names removed to protect the innocent)
...I appreciate you answer and would agree. Again, I go back to Phil 1:6 and the idea that although we are justified at salvation, but sanctification is a lifelong process that requires my attention to the development of a deepening relationship with God.
If you take the principle worldviews that exist out there: biblical, secular, socialist, Islamic, etc. and line them up as to how they answer and deal with basic aspects of life. You will find which make sense and which don’t in terms of their consistency. People often contradict themselves in terms of their belief
0 comments:
Post a Comment