Worldviews, Part 1

Everybody has a worldview, whether it’s Biblical or one of the six alternative worldviews: Secular Humanism, Moralistic Therapeutic Deism, Nihilism, Marxism/Critical Theory, Postmodernism, or Eastern Mysticism/New Age. Researchers at the Cultural Research Center of Arizona Christian University have looked extensively at the worldviews of American adults, and their results are both interesting and concerning. They’ve also shown that most people develop their worldview by the time they are teenagers.

In their recent study of American parents of preteens, they report that the results show that these parents “are in a state of spiritual distress. While the warning signs are identifiable and unmistakable, it appears that parents, as well as their support system (i.e., churches, extended family, and parachurch ministries), are too distracted or disinterested to acknowledge and address the parenting crisis. It seems that a tragic crash is in store.” While 67% of these parents self-identify as Christians, only 2% actually hold a Biblical worldview. Of interest, less than 1% hold some other commonly held worldview such as those listed above. For these parents, it’s a smorgasbord of beliefs—a little bit of this and a pinch of that. This is called Syncretism.

Sadly, a syncretic worldview is likely to lead to Christ saying, “I never knew you.”

Why? A basic tenet of Biblical Christianity is that the God of the Bible is the omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent, perfect, and just creator of the universe who still rules our world today. Of these syncretic parents, fewer than half believe that. Another fundamental belief is that Christ is the sole means to eternal salvation. Only one in three believe that. Only a third rely upon the Bible as their source of moral guidance. And three-quarters deny the existence of the Holy Spirit—the only sin the Bible calls unforgiveable. Did I use the word ‘sin’? Yes, nobody likes that word, and many in this group discount ‘sin’ as a relative moral term, not as an absolute moral term found in the Bible. Curiously, these questions also reveal contradictions in beliefs. Of those parents who claim there is no absolute morality and that moral truth is up to each individual, 50% go on to disagree that moral truth is personal and subjective. Huh? That’s what a syncretic worldview often produces—confusion.

Be objective. Would you expect Christ to welcome with open arms those who don’t accept what He teaches?

So, where do you stand?

In the next part, we’ll look at some of those worldview issues.

Source:https://www.arizonachristian.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/AWVI2022_Release_03_DigitalVersion.pdf