What is Your Worldview?

Let's start with a short quiz. Of the situations listed below, which one or ones has to do with spiritual concerns?

a) An abortion doctor is imprisoned for murder because he delivered at least seven babies live and then killed them with scissors.
b) Certain organizations within our country are planning and plotting the destabilization of our country in order that they may insert their political and social agenda.
c) Hundreds of people see Jesus weeping in a rock under a highway overpass and a shrine is built where many come to see the phenomena.
d) The governor of Wisconsin is sent death threats because he supports legislation to reign in public union activity in the educational system of his state.
e) A mother systematically drowns her five children, one after another and the authorities call it postpartum depression.
f) At a conference on health, one speaker said that “schizophrenia is a healthy, valid, desirable condition-- not a disorder.”

Most people, I believe, would answer C. And those people would only be partially right. All of the above have to do with spiritual concerns. All are cases of spiritual warfare. All are cases of the enemy of God sowing confusion, chaos, and deceit. The way we view these events is called our “worldview”.

A worldview is how we view the world. Makes sense, right? When we see events unfolding around us, what do we believe to be the cause? Do we believe the world is a random happenstance, or was the world created by an all-powerful being? Do we believe that we all are here for a purpose or are we an evolutionary accident? Do we believe that people are innately good or are they born sinners and are innately self-centered? Do we believe that things happen for a reason or do they happen by chance? Do we believe that humans are the top of the food chain and all that happens is by our doing, or do we believe that there are forces much greater than us?

Think about your answer to all the above questions. Then, regardless of your worldview, try reexamining the scenarios above while considering these ways of looking at our world. Try to think of everything in this world as being involved in spiritual warfare. We have an enemy. His name is Satan. “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 6:10-12).

And Satan was the most powerful angel who decided he wanted to become like God and was cast out of heaven down to earth, where, for a season, he has been given the right to rule (see Revelation 12). Paul calls the devil “the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience” (Ephesians 2:2). Who are the sons of disobedience? They are those on earth that have not accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. No, I'm not saying those without Christ are devil worshippers. But, unwittingly, those without Christ do the bidding of Satan by being susceptible to his manipulations. And Satan does everything in his power to confuse people, to breed chaos, and to deceive people. We see this in Genesis, where the serpent comes and deceives Eve, leading her and Adam to sin, thus introducing death into the world. John, in Revelation 12, calls the devil “the deceiver of the whole world.”

Try thinking of everyone as being innately evil, born with the propensity to do wrong. Psalm 51:5 says, “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.” Thinking this way removes the confusion over seeing people who do something totally evil and unexplainable, like the woman who drowned her kids. Because we are all born with a sin nature, if we don't have Christ, the devil can prey on that nature and cause us to do things we “rationally” would not do. There is no good in us apart from what God gives us - “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by His grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:23-24). Therefore, without Christ, we can be manipulated to do evil, even if we are generally a “good” person.

Try thinking that we are here purposefully, that God created the universe and each and every one of us and that He loves us and wants none of us to die without Him thus spending eternity in hell. John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that He gave his only son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” Now throw the enemy into the mix and you can see why the devil tries to confuse and deceive, as he wants as many souls as possible not to go to heaven. Try thinking this way, then re-examine the above scenarios.

I don't know about you, but often when I watch the news, talk to people, or hear of things going on in our world, I can only shake my head and wonder how people can be that way, how they can think the way they do and do the things they do. For example, one certain political philosophy has begun to align itself with Islam. This is the same political philosophy that heavily supports homosexuality and radical feminism. And they are embracing Islam, which teaches that women have no rights and that homosexuality is a grave abomination against their god. Does this make sense? Not on the surface. But from a spiritual sense it does as our enemy continues to try and confuse us and to reign chaos upon this world.

What should be our response? Do we condemn people when they do stupid, contradictory things? That would not be the response that Christ would have. We have to remember that people without Christ are under deception. They are slaves to their sin. Paul addressed the Galatian believers and said, “Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods” (Galatians 4:8). In Romans 6 and 7 Paul talks about those without Christ being slaves to sin apart from God. And in Titus chapter 3, Paul says those without Christ are “slaves to various passions and pleasures.” A slave is compelled to do the will of his or her master. Thus those without Christ do the bidding of the devil. For us that know Christ, the only appropriate response is to pray for those under the yoke of the enemy, and, if God gives us the opportunity, to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with them. For their only hope is the grace of God.

Try viewing everything around you in spiritual terms. Try viewing everything as either bringing glory to God or fighting against God. By adjusting your worldview, you will begin to better understand the chaos and confusion around you. Try seeing everything through the eyes of Christ.