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Why we need to teach Biblical Worldview
to our Kids ‘World-proof’ your kids for college NOW so they
won’t become casualties of our culture by graduation By Jay Wegter It is common for concerned Christians to look at our society
and ask, “What’s going on out there; is our culture caught in an irreversible
death spiral?” We are shocked to see
behaviors once condemned as wicked now being normalized and even defended. The corrupt agenda of sexual politics fills
our newspapers with reports not only of legal protection for perversion; but
also of new legislation which would ‘gag’ our efforts to speak openly about the
Bible’s condemnation of sexual immorality.
Consider how serious the Problem is we are facing
today: ·
70-88% of students from “Christian” homes deny
their faith before graduation from college (barna.org) ·
Only 9% of Evangelicals have a biblical
worldview (“A Biblical Worldview has a Radical
Effect on a Person’s Life,” ·
Instead of preparing their children for life,
the vast majority of parents are waiting for social institutions to train their
kids (“Americans Agree: Kids are not being
Prepared for Life,” ·
Only 9% of young people under the age 24 base
their moral choices on the Bible (barna.org) ·
In 2006, 91% of Evangelical kids said, “There is
no truth apart from myself”—that’s up from 52% in 1994 (barna.org) ·
Only 33% of churched youth say the church will
play a part in their lives when they leave home (Josh
McDowell, 2006) ·
In the 1970’s only 5% of 15 year old girls had
sexual intercourse; by 1997 it was 38% (Columbia
University Report, 1997) In our media-saturated age the constant drone of secular
culture’s deceptive message has been ‘mainlined’ into our youth like heroin
into the bloodstream. The consequences
are deadly. In making a play for the
billion dollar teen market, corporations have been shameless in their promotion
of immodesty, group sex, and perversion.
Spring Break orgies are filmed; and then played back as ‘cool’ behavior
in order to market product lines to our youth (See
www.pbs.org,
Frontline-- “Merchants of Cool”). The majority of our kids believe what they hear in the media. When polled recently, 66% of high school boys believed that cohabitation is the best preparation for marriage (See Cohabitation and the Bible, by Kerby Anderson, www.planetwisdom.com). In addition, the vast majority of evangelical teens believe that there is more evidence for evolution than biblical creation. The battle to transmit the faith to the next generation
is for the most part not being won. A
startling statistic came out recently—79% of high school students from Southern
Baptist Convention will deny the faith by the time they graduate from a secular
university (www.barna.org).
We have left our kids to tread water in
a swamp of moral relativism in which the notion of absolute right and wrong is
non-existent. Our culture seems
hell-bent on ‘sexualizing’ our youth—the assault of sensual imagery on
television has the net effect of ‘normalizing’ illicit sexual behavior. The ‘floodgates’ of immorality have swung open for a
reason. The willful loss of the
knowledge of God has resulted in the setting aside of God’s moral blueprint (Rom
In the Apostle Paul’s
exposé of pagan culture, he warns that the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven now against those who suppress the
truth of God in unrighteousness (Rom Without God’s Word and the Gospel, we have no reliable moral
compass. It’s like a boat with no rudder
and no navigation device adrift on a shore-less sea. People make decisions based upon on felt
needs and desires. Each individual
becomes a law unto himself—choosing what is ‘right’ in his own eyes without
respect to God’s standards. There could
hardly be a more accurate assessment of our country today than the description
found at the end of the book of Judges, “In those days there was no king in
Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25). This is the ‘philosophic climate’ our young people are facing. If we leave them unprepared; they may become the next ‘casualties of our culture’. David Noebel warns that college students from Christian homes who have never been trained in biblical worldview are at greatest risk of departing from the faith (David Noebel, Understanding the Times; Worldviews and the Search for Truth). The lies propagated on university campuses are stealing
the souls of our youth. Colleges have
become the most active purveyors of the new paganism. High school and college campuses are
indoctrinating our youth in the satanic philosophies of humanism and naturalism
at an alarming rate. Rampant moral decay
is the result—accompanied by a gross loss of confidence in the reliability of
the Scriptures. If we do not train our
young people in Christian worldview; then we are guilty of sending our kids off
like lambs into a pack of wolves. The university students who leave the faith are, for the most part, those who were never taught a unified worldview which has Genesis and biblical creation as its foundation. High school students who are never taught what is at stake if the foundations of Scripture are destroyed are astonishingly vulnerable to erroneous worldviews (Fallwell & Ham, If the Foundations be Destroyed). Christian parents are justly alarmed. There are few experiences that bring more
heartache than seeing one’s son or daughter leave the faith they once professed
to believe. We are standing at a
crossroads in human history. Now
is the time for church and family to become proactive in training its members
in biblical worldview. Our Christian
students are waiting to be formed into ‘worldview changers’ who are able to
resist the forceful tide of our culture’s lies. Consider the advantages of
training our young people in Christian worldview. Biblical
worldview is the very foundation of ethics, life decisions, values, and
behavior. Believers equipped in biblical
worldview develop the resolve and discernment to live life without compromise;
to live in light of God’s total truth; for
His honor and glory. Training in worldview enables Christians not only to stand
firm in the face of our culture’s non-biblical ideas; but also to tear down the
atheistic absolutes of false worldviews; and to powerfully share the Gospel in
a secularized society. “One of the reasons the mouths of our college kids are often closed in their public witness is because they are intimidated by the politically correct, diversity-inclusivistic ideology of the academy. Students are ‘brainwashed’ into a survivalist mode of, ‘Can’t we just get along?’ with its implicit appeal to intolerant oneness” (Peter Jones, Christian Witness to a Pagan Planet, 2007. www.cwipp.org). “Christian college students for the most part are unable
to mount a convincing critique of the erroneous worldviews on campus; and they
are unable to give a theological defense of the Gospel. You cannot take on the enemy of paganism that
surrounds us if you ignore the categories that identify it—religious categories
by which it must be forced to make its public case. Understanding those categories will help
Christians find their minds and voices” (Peter
Jones). Peter Jones has hit the nail on the head. Our Christian students are in trouble because
they cannot make the truth they believe ‘speak’ to this culture. They lack the training necessary to see the
total relevance of God’s truth to all of life.
As a consequence, they either keep their convictions private, or blend
with the world. Unfortunately, the
latter choice is the most common one; but it doesn’t have to be that way. Through training in biblical worldview our
young people can be equipped for effective Christian apologetics and evangelism. Biblical worldview equips
students for effective evangelism by instructing them how to conduct a ‘clash’
between worldviews. Unlike
evangelism in the recent past; our struggle now involves a ‘worldview clash’. The unbeliever’s faulty worldview must
‘collide’ with the timeless truth of God’s Word so that the unbeliever sees
where he opposes God. It is only the
Word of God that is capable of deconstructing the unbeliever’s faulty worldview. This ‘clash’ between worldviews is necessary because in
today’s world knowledge has been privatized into personal opinions without
absolute truth. And, without truth
claims there can be no objective sin or evil—one is left with a domesticated
God who does not judge, govern, or redeem (D. A.
Carson, “Reaching Postmoderns with the Gospel”). We now live in a
world in which religious truth and error are no longer mutually exclusive—they
are just different ideas with no one ‘view’ constituting absolute truth. Pastor Tim Keller comments on this
phenomenon: “The Western world now is a mission field never faced before—it is
‘ex-Christian’. It has been inoculated;
but retains only a distorted memory of Christianity; a memory of Christianity
as the age of prejudice. With the memory
of prejudice comes the commonly held notion that Christianity cannot be
credible because there cannot be one true religion to the exclusion of all
others” (Tim Keller, “Evangelizing
Postmoderns”). This is why biblical worldview is so desperately needed—it
instills boldness in believers. It
enables them to step out of ‘privatized Christianity’ and into effective
evangelism. Biblical worldview imparts a
pervasive confidence that there are biblical answers to every important life
question. It’s time to bring biblical worldview to the forefront of our vision for Christian education. If churches are to wake out of slumber—they will have to be proactive in training their young people in WHAT they believe and WHY they believe it. There is no shortcut if we are to successfully equip our kids. Worldview training is an extremely effective way to equip our youth to analyze false worldviews for the purpose of discerning what is good, right, and holy. The next generation of Christian leaders is depending
upon us as parents to cast a vision for Christian education, outreach,
evangelism, and leadership development.
Only biblical worldview provides the ‘scope’ of vision necessary to
speak God’s total truth to a darkened world. Our young people will ultimately be ministering to those who
live in a ‘post-Christian’ era. Our
culture is characterized by a vicious civil war over values. Christianity was once viewed as holding back
corruption; but now it is commonly viewed as holding back progress! Worldview training is essential if we are to
raise up a generation of Christian leaders who understand the times and who
know how to effectively communicate the truth of the Gospel. Biblical Worldview
provides a main line of defense for families. Biblical worldview assists
parents in understanding the nature, scope, and content of their task in
training their children. It helps
parents capture the vision to raise their children through a ‘process’ of
training based upon strong relationships.
The traditional model of training kids through ‘programs’ is
failing. Young people are best trained
when their parents embrace the vision to live ‘incarnational’ lives (God’s truth and love in action) in the presence
of their children. We can’t be effective raising children ‘programmatically’. We’ve got to raise them with ‘process’ (Josh McDowell). In a world awash in relativism, our young people need to
know that every Christian truth they defend derives its meaning and authority
from its relation to the character and plan of an infinitely good, wise, and
holy God. This confidence must be
imparted to our kids if we expect them to be ‘worldview changers’ in the home,
at church, and in the community. By means of a worldview framework, our kids are better able
to embrace the foundations of their faith—and consequently are better able to
process the numerous principles, truths, and narratives provided in the
Bible. To our kids’ ears, our
preaching, teaching, and instructing (without this mental framework) can be
‘information overload’—young people commonly respond with an attitude of “So
what?—you’re just heaping on more information.” By
contrast, biblical worldview gives young people a grid or filter to know how to
categorize and implement the spiritual facts they receive (George Barna, “Think Like Jesus”). In addition, biblical worldview is the ideal context for developing biblical convictions. One of the most sacred trusts given to parents by God is the guidance we provide our children in developing biblical convictions. Only by the wisdom of biblical convictions will our young people be able to successfully navigate through this world’s pitfalls and make God-honoring life choices (Paul David Tripp, Age of Opportunity, pp. 128-132). Biblical worldview helps
preserve the integrity of Christian life. When God’s unified
truth is applied to all of life it is transforming in its power. Many professing believers live a
‘disconnected life’—in other words, what they say they believe is ‘disconnected’ from how they live. Biblical
worldview deals with this ‘disconnect’ through the power of unified truth.
Believers committed to biblical worldview learn to bring every area of life
under the lordship of Christ. Instead of a unified worldview; many believers have a
‘patch-work’ of ideas that make up their life view or worldview. One of the
greatest advantages of systematically studying Christian worldview is that
believers become aware that God’s unified truth is total truth. There is both joy and confidence that arises from discovering
God’s Word speaks to every area of life A
dedication to study biblical worldview brings with it the confidence that God
has answers to all of life’s important questions. There is an answer from God’s Word for
everything you experience from day to day.
Thus, biblical worldview is a vision OF LIFE and a vision FOR
LIFE. It is vision ‘of life’ because it provides
both holistic truth and discernment of our culture. It is vision ‘for life’ because God’s unified
truth brings cohesion to all of life so that it may be lived to the glory of
God. Therefore there are no compartments
‘exempt’ from the lordship of Christ.
Biblical worldview is the basis for all of life’s choices, decisions,
values, beliefs, and behavior. Christians make the most God-honoring decisions when those
decisions are based upon an integrated biblical worldview. Biblical
worldview is the basis for all of life’s choices, decisions, values, beliefs,
and behavior. This knowledge is
intensely practical; it helps believers form the appropriate response to the
moral issues we face in our culture. CONCLUSION: God’s blueprint for mankind is a unity of total truth. The pieces of God’s worldview are made to fit
together like pieces of a puzzle—they are interlocking and interdependent. Therefore, no piece of the biblical worldview
puzzle is expendable. To hold to a unified biblical worldview that incorporates
every part of God’s blueprint is never an accident; it is always the result of
systematic training. In order to be
fully grasped; biblical worldview must be diligently taught. The
benefits far outweigh the cost—Christians trained in biblical worldview develop
the resolve to view all of life through the biblical grid and bring all of life
under the lordship of Christ. God has called
us not only to personal faith; but also to a biblical worldview that has the
power to transform our world. Our young
people are counting on us to provide this kind of training. |
