What is Your World View?

The title is, What is your World View? The world is changing more rapidly than at any other time in history. We are living in tough, transitional times. We're living in critical, crucial times. I began saying that in the classes at Ambassador in the late 80s. Tough, transitional times and critical, crucial times. And one of the faculty members says, well, we know what Dr. Ward's going to say. He's going to say we're living in critical, crucial times. But we are living in critical, crucial times, and we have been for quite a long time.

The world's financial system is being restructured, and more and more, the hue and cry goes out for a new world order. John Kerry issued such a statement, and others during the last week. John Kerry, former Secretary of State. More and more national sovereignty is being surrendered on every front. More and more, our people are embracing a godless culture. And in turn, God has given them over to a reprobate mind. Let's look at Romans chapter one, and we shall see that.

Romans chapter one, of course, Rome was one of the greatest sin pits in all of the world. They had quite a few sin pits in the Middle East during the time of Christ and the apostles. In Romans chapter one, in verse 26, we shall begin. Of course, you need to read the whole chapter, especially because it perfectly catalogs virtually every sin that is going on today, including the LGBTQ agenda.

For this cause, God gave them up to vile affections for even their women to change natural use into that which is against nature. And likewise, also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another. It is just difficult to understand what is happening there and what is going to happen now even more.

And it has been happening for quite a long time. The LGBTQ agenda is going to continue to be taught from pre-kindergarten all the way through higher education. And more and more you will see the commercials that pair these kind of people together, kissing and doing whatever. So the men in their lust one toward another, men with men working that which is unseemly, receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which is fitting.

And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mine. A reprobate mind, this word reprobate was used to some degree in the mining industry in which metals were able to be mined and then examined and they were useless. They were worthless. They were cast away. So you just throw that away. A reprobate mind, a mind that is twisted, a mind that doesn't think correctly, to do those things which are not convenient. But at the same time there is a great paradox as they demand more freedom, more and more freedom, more and more government handouts.

As they demand more freedom, they in turn give up freedom to the government, to their masters. The people of the world are becoming more and more enslaved economically with each passing day enforced to rely on the government to solve their problems. Yet they continue to vote for the politician and politicians that promise them the most. At the same time, the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. The apostle James describes the end time events with regard to what I've just said.

The rich are getting richer in their many articles. Look at James chapter 5 here in verse 1. James 5 verse 1, first of the general epistles. In James 5 and verse 1, and we're not going to read every bit of this, but we'll hit the highlights. There have been several articles in the past week, talks about how the rich are getting richer as this COVID thing goes along and more and more mergers are taking place and the corporate capitalists are able to merge their capital together with more power and more purchasing power, more production power, where the little man, the worker, is forced out.

And of course, the hue and cry has been with the American worker for the past several decades of jobs being farmed out, exported to China and to other places in the Middle East, Mexico and other parts of the world. So in James 5.1, go to now you rich men, weep and howl in your miseries that shall come upon you.

Your riches are corrupted, your garments are moth eaten, your gold and silver is cankered, and the rest of them shall be a witness against you and shall eat your flesh as it wore fire. You have heaped together treasure for the last days. Behold, the hire of the laborers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, cries and the riches of them and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the Lord of Saboeth.

You have lived in pleasure on the earth and have been wanton. You have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter. It goes on talking how that has happened and how God is going to intervene. I listened to a presentation this week that explained how the insiders on Wall Street and the Federal Reserve are able to rig and manipulate the stock market to their advantage.

They have made millions, even billions, insider trading is far more common than you might realize, even though there's a law against insider trading. But if you have rigged it, if you know what's going to happen beforehand in the economic arena, then you're able to safely invest your money in various stocks that are going to explode.

On the one hand, the world is becoming more unified economically, but on the other hand, it is becoming more and more divided politically, morally, and religiously. Of course, generally speaking, morals and religion go hand in hand. A cursory look at the world will show us that there are more and more division, and the reprobate mind is taking them down a path to destruction and oblivion. Oblivion, you just disappear from the scene. In view of the direction the world is going, what is your worldview? How do you view the world? What do you base your life on and your values on? Have you ever consciously thought about, in using this term worldview, have you ever used this term and consciously thought about your worldview and why it is important? First of all, maybe we should ask, what is a worldview? Your worldview is somewhat like your philosophy of life. They go hand in glove in a way. Your worldview defines your core values and determines how you view God, family, relationship to other peoples, and to the peoples of the world. Furthermore, it shapes how you think about all facets of life and the responsibility you have of fulfilling your reason for being. What is your reason for being? Your reason for being is to become a glorious, radiant spirit being in the kingdom of God. Most people have never really thought in terms of just saying, what is my worldview? They just pick up things from the parents and peers along the way and come to view life through the lens of other people. This is what daddy did, mama did. This is what my friends did, what they're doing, and so I'm going to do it. Arthur Holmes, his first name is Arthur, who is an author, means he is a writer. Arthur Holmes states that the need for a worldview is fourfold. The need to unify thought and life. Thought unifies thought and life. The need to define the good life and find hope and meaning in life. So many people do not have hope.

And the need to guide thought. Keep your heart with all diligence for out of it flow the issues of life. And the need to guide actions. Think before you leap.

Jerry Solomon, another writer, writes, we are challenged to sort through a vast mixture of world views on a daily basis, especially if you have anything to do with mass media and social media. He goes on to say, world views are so much a part of our lives that we see and hear them daily, whether we recognize them or not. For example, movies, television, music, magazines, newspaper, political figures, educators, scientists, art that might appear, anything from on the walls of a building to other places, and all other aspects. Every year, dozens of youth from the United Church of God and other Church of God families graduate and leave home, and the majority pursue some form of higher education.

And what do they wind up doing? It is in this great transitional period between graduating from high school and the next couple of years that so much is determined with regard to a person's life, because what track are you going to follow? Now, in higher education, they will give lip service to the human spirit. All the human spirit is so great, and to spiritual experiences. But they're not talking about spiritual experiences in the same way that you might talk about spiritual experiences. They will not advance the worldview of true Christianity, that the source of true knowledge and values comes from the Word of God, nor will they admit that an evil spirit world led by Satan the Devil even exists. The news of the day will eventually impact your life. Made in China, when I was growing up in early adulthood, this made in China was like a joke. That meant, and also the same thing with Japan. Made in China, made in Japan, that meant it was shoddy material. But today, that's no longer the case. Without China, Walmart would hardly exist. And you just think about the automobile industry. And if you go back into the Japanese-Chinese, began first to make automobiles, weren't all that great. Now, it looks like Toyota is the envy of the land. Everybody wants to drive a Toyota, even the song leader here. On the religious side, Islam is the fastest growing religion and worldview in the world. It has about 1.4 billion adherents.

And then the second one, with regard to what might be considered a unified, as far as religion, worldview has to do with Catholicism, which has about 1.2 billion adherents.

So Islam is making inroads, especially in Europe and to a large degree in the US, every day.

And Catholicism, to some degree, is on the wane, and they are having a difficult time recovering from the sexual abuse by many parents. And the Catholic Church has paid out millions upon millions of dollars in answering and settling lawsuits that have been brought against them because of parents' abuse, and oftentimes it is the priest and another male. In his book title, this is James Seer, The Universe Next Door, he says, he catalogs the most influential worldviews of the past and current. So what are the most influential worldviews of the past and the present? The United States is a nation of isms.

You know, on the coinage it says, the Plurivus Unum, out of many unity.

But some of the main isms that have been extant and still are, and a lot of this is synchritic, that means that they've been mixed together, theism, deism, naturalism, neolism, existentialism, eastern pantheism, and the new age or new consciousness.

Back several years ago in the 80s, I taught the first philosophy class for credit at Ambassador. It was titled, Introduction to Western Thought, in which we covered these various isms and made students aware of what they were teaching. Many of them have written to me through the years and said, you know, when I went to graduate school, or went to this school or that school, what I was taught there really helped me understand and helped me to not be deceived by them. Then along with those isms, there is Protestantism, and there is Catholicism and Judaism. Of course, Protestantism and Catholicism would be under a broad umbrella of, quote, Christianity. There have been very few true Christians through the ages, and people talk about the U.S. being a Christian nation, and many of the principles of the founding fathers were drawn from Scripture, and also many were drawn from John Locke, who basically was an atheist, but a, quote, great philosopher. But was America ever truly a Christian nation, as we would define Christianity, one that understood who and what is God, who and what is man, what is man's purpose, why is he here, what is the process of salvation, how can we be redeemed and bought back from sin and death?

And of course, on the Eastern Front, and I've been to some of these countries, I've been to Thailand. In Thailand, Buddhism is the prevailing thing. These Buddhist monks are out on the street corners every morning, especially. They're in orange kind of gowns, and they are begging alms. Supposedly, they fast every day until sunset, and then they eat, and every young person who embraces Buddhism, that is, male gender, they voluntarily serve in that capacity for a couple of years. Buddhism, Hinduism, and broadly, we call that Eastern mysticism.

Both of these have had a great impact on the New Age movement. It has to do with believing that when a human being dies, their spirit is merged with the great universal spirit. And in some, of course, religions in India, they teach reincarnation, and that's why they hold a lot of the animals sacred. You don't kill a cow, you don't kill this or that or the other, because that may be one of your ancestors that you're killing, and you may come back as a cow yourself. So be careful. One of the greatest philosophies that has affected especially American education, and this was really raging when I was doing my doctoral work at East Texas State University then, now it's East Texas State at Texas A&M at Commerce, is existentialism.

Existentialism is perhaps the most prominent worldview among highbrow intellectuals. Existentialism can be seen frequently even among church members. The existentialist believes that there are no absolutes. I was in this counseling class that East Texas State, in particular major that I was in, you had to take at least one course in counseling, and it was the rage at that time was non-directive counseling. You sort of guide the counselee along by, so you would like to do this. Oh yeah, I understand you would like to do that. You don't direct them, but through your questioning, you guide them, and they make their own decisions. There are no absolutes. And so we got into quite a discussion, and one of the class members piped up and said, well, there's so-and-so, I forget his name, he has to have a certain drug, or he would die.

Well, that's an absolute. So I said, how does he know? Has he ever tried it? And then there was the pail of silence that came over, and that was the lowest grade I ever got in a graduate class. And I did appeal. I had nothing but A's, but when this came out, I got a C. And so I peeled, and then he raised it to a B. So the basic rule of existentialist is that you can choose to do anything you want to do as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else. So up front, I ask you what is the logical fallacy of that statement? So many people say that. The logical fallacy is that the existentialist chooses what harms someone else, especially when it comes to things like drugs and smoking. We take smoking, for example, to begin with, especially if the mother is smoking and it will affect the fetus. If the mother is taking drugs, it will affect the fetus. The unborn are the least protected in all of our society. And then with regard to smoking, it is harming the person himself. And one of the things that we hear about, what is the remedy to almost everything that you hear about? Oh, we need more education. How many times do you have to put up on cigarettes or what do they call, old shoulder or shoulder to chew and tobacco? Warning, this product can cause cancer. It'd be almost as accurate to say this product will cause cancer. And how many people have died as a result of cigarette smoking? One day this week, I don't know where it was, I saw this sign in, I guess it was a convenience store, where they were advertising on the one hand this snuff stuff they put in your gun, between your gun and cheek, and they said, warning, this is not a substitute for cigarettes. So does secondhand smoke harm another person? Does taking drugs or drinking alcohol have potentially damning effects on unborn fetus? Of course it does, not to mention what it does to the person. Those who advocate abortion are denying the rights of the unborn. The unborn, it seems, has no rights. As we have been driving around tighter this past week, in the yards of a lot of people, a lot of houses, especially in the richer parts, they have a sign in their yard that says, pray to stop abortion.

Virtually everything we do affects someone else, either positively or negative. So Satan is the author of existentialism. That's what he told Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, you shall not surely die, you choose for yourself what is right and what is wrong. You don't have to listen to God. You shall not surely die. You be the arbiter of your value system. And God has given us freedom to you to choose. And let's go to the Scripture we've turned to many times in Deuteronomy 30 and verse 15. One other thing, or there'll be many other things, but with regard to what I was talking about in the announcement session, have you heard it all over and over again? Wouldn't you like to hear it one more time? Would there ever come a time in which I would sure like to hear him, them, somebody, read such and such a verse again? No, I've heard that read. Don't read that. In Deuteronomy 30 and verse 15.

See, I have set before you this day life and good and death and evil, and that I command you this day to love the Lord your God, to walk in his ways, to keep his commandments and his statues and his judgments, that you may live and multiply, and the Lord your God shall bless you in the land where you go to possess it. I mean, the book of Deuteronomy is one of the most amazing books you could read. It is somewhat of a summary of the first four of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, where Moses recounts and adds to in some places their journey from Egypt to the Promised Land.

But if your heart turn away so that you will not hear, but shall be drawn away and worship other gods and serve them, I denounce you unto this day that you shall surely perish, and that you shall not prolong your days upon the land where you go or you pass over to possess it. I call heaven and earth the record against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing, therefore choose life that you and your seed may live.

How many times have you heard these verses read in the Church of God? I would say probably if you've been in the Church 50 times, if you've been in the Church 50 years, probably 50 times or more, that you may love the Lord your God, that you may obey His voice, that you may cleave unto Him, for He is your life, and the length of your days that you may dwell in the land which the Lord swear unto your fathers to Abraham, to Isaac, Jacob, to give them.

In 2 Peter chapter 2, if you turn there, you have a summary of what that choosing for yourself, lifestyle leads to and where we are today. Once again, a graphic description of what is happening in the nation today in 2 Peter chapter 2 and verse 10, which in times past, this is 1 Peter, I got to give the second, 2 Peter 2.10, but chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness despise government.

They are existentialists through and through. They choose for themselves. Nobody is going to tell them what to do. They know it all. Presumptuous are they, self-willed. They're not afraid to speak evil of dignities. And some of the things that have been said about the current president in the past couple of weeks is unbelievable. Everything from a Nazi to a warmonger. Whereas angels, which are greater in power and might, bring not railing accusation against them before the Lord.

But these as natural brute beasts made to be taken and destroyed speak evil of the things that they understand not and shall utterly perish in their own in their own corruption and shall receive the reward of unrighteousness as they that count it pleasure to riot in the daytime. Spots they are, blemishes sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you. In some cases, of course, where they say feasting with you. Having eyes full of adultery, they cannot cease from sin.

And that proper translation to having eyes of, the proper translation is adulteres. Having the eyes of an adulteres when you go through the checkout counter and you see all those magazines, very often you see the eyes of an adulteres.

And they cannot cease from sin, beguiling unstable souls, a heart they have exercised. The word exercise here literally means trained, educated too. That they have trained with covetous practices having children of curse. And of course, you're familiar with the Scripture in Isaiah 3. As for my people, children are their oppressors and women rule over them, which are forsaken the right way or gone astray following the way of Balaam, the son of Bozar, who loved the wages of unrighteousness.

You see, when some people hear these scriptures read, they begin to, with their toes, curl their toes, sort of dig in and do a white knuckle job. Because for some, they want to hear smooth things. They want to hear the things that settle them in their own ways. The word of God is sharper than a two-edged sword, dividing us under the thoughts and intents of the heart of man. It is our spiritual mirror.

Another prominent movement, especially in the time of the founding fathers, the 1700s into the 1800s, deism still exists today. A lot of people mix deism with certain tenets of Christianity. A prominent view during the 18th century, that is, the 1700s, but has now almost left the scene, except for the syncritic nature of those who mix it together. I believe that there is a God, but it contends that God created the universe. I just left it to its own, guided by natural law. Their definition centered on the belief in one God alone and rejection of Jesus Christ, the deist and the naturalist reject Jesus Christ and the rejection process of becoming spirit-begotten persons. Many of the founding fathers talks about a supreme being, but what is their real concept of God and their worldview? Do they really believe in the redemption process and being a member of the family of God? Specifically, deists believe that a supreme God exists and created the physical universe, and that religious truths can be arrived at by application of reason alone. You remember that human reasoning, apart from God, is one of the great enemies of faith. Anxious care, fear, doubt, and human reasoning, without any dependence on revelation. I mean, if you don't have revelation, all you have is your mind or somebody else's mind. That's all that there is. Deists typically reject most supernatural events, miracles, that kind of thing, tend to assert that God has a plan for the universe, which he does not alter by intervening in the affairs of human life, nor by suspending the natural laws of the universe. He just said it, like he said a clock, and whatever happens, happens. It's a part of what's within that wound-up plan.

Now, in contrast to deism, there is what is known, and I'm sure you're not familiar with this term, it is phytism, which is another word for faithism, which is another word really for Protestantism. The word phytism comes from phyties, the Latin word for faith, and literally means faithism. It's found in many forms of Christianity, Protestantism, Catholicism, and Judaic teaching, which holds that religious truths rely upon revelation in sacred scripture and upon the testimony of other people, as well as reasoning. To a large degree, we would subscribe to that, that we rely upon revelation from the sacred scriptures. And of course, the sacred scriptures contains the testimony of those who have gone before, and reasoning from the scriptures is necessary. As Paul says, that Isaiah says, come let us reason together, and then Paul in Acts talks about, and Paul met with them and reasoned with them out of the scriptures. Islam believes in one sense the existence of a creator God. But do you know this about Islam? One of the pillars, there are five great pillars to Islam, and this is one of them, that God is not begotten, neither does he beget. In other words, God is eternal, but he doesn't beget. So they would say that Muhammad was a prophet. They say that Jesus Christ was a prophet. But their legend about Muhammad is that he took a flight to the temple mount at his death. He mounted a great white horse which took him to heaven, I guess to his 72. Maybe he got 144 virgins, which they promised some who are killed in jihad. Naturalism is based on reason and natural laws, as in direct contrast to Christianity, which is based on spiritual revelation. Of course, there are natural laws in the universe.

Naturalism made great inroads into Western culture in the 19th century through the writings of Charles Darwin and Marx. Naturalism views God as irrelevant in all things. Proponents believe progress and evolutionary change are inevitable. So the natural laws dictate what is going to happen. They also believe that man is autonomous, is self-centered, and will save himself. Thus, education is the guide to life. You have to be, quote, educated. Intelligence and freedom guarantee full human potential. Science is viewed as the ultimate provider both for knowledge and morals. Of course, in one sense, naturalism has made a great comeback in what you're seeing today because virtually all of these politicians will say, we're going to follow the science. How many times? We're going to follow the science. We're going to follow the science, and the science changes radically so many times. They teach that the world is mechanistic. Mechanistic means mechanical, and that the natural laws of nature are grinding away using the process of just natural law. Obviously, there are natural laws, and of course, one of the main ones that we would look to would say, well, what about gravity? Gravity, of course, is the law of gravity.

But what does the Bible say? God cares about what man is doing in the universe. But the physical universe is not more important than humans.

One of the reasons why God is going to intervene in the course of world events is to stop humankind from destroying the earth. But at the same time, humankind is more valuable to God as the first tenet of what God is striving to do and will do as bringing sons and daughters to glory. Look at Revelation 11 and verse 15. Revelation 11 and verse 15. And the seventh angel sounded, the seventh of the seven trumpet plagues, which is divided into the seven vials of wrath. The seven angels sounded, and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdom of this world will become the kingdoms of our Lord and His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever. Now look at 18. And the nations were angry. Your wrath has come in the time of the dead that they should be judged, and that you should give reward into your service the prophets and to the saints, and them that fear your name, small and great, and you should destroy them that destroy the earth. So the earth is being destroyed. So God placed Adam and Eve into a perfect environment in the Garden of Eden. He told them to dress it and to keep it, to make it even more beautiful. Take care of it. Culture it. Cultivate it. But what His man had done in the name of the dollar, in the name of the rich man, we're going to do what we're going to do. We're going to dump into the seas, into the oceans, into the streams, and so on, so that you'll be hard-pressed to find water fit to drink. And in addition to that, now we turn to Matthew 24, with regard to humankind left to its own devices. If you just let humankind grind away, and God does not intervene, if there's no God eventually directing the affairs, what happens?

In Matthew 24, 21, after the abomination is set up in verse 15, then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world, to this time known or ever shall be, and except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved alive, but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened. And we want to make sure that we are one of the elect.

Even though Western culture is still heavily influenced by the tenets of naturalism, a shift took place during World War II and after World War II, in which we are now in what is called the post-modern era, where to a large degree in the post-modern era, science is absolute. So the so-called science says that the universe evolved, that humankind evolved, that all living things evolved in a state of evolution. But we don't see that because we still see kind reproducing after kind. We see life begetting life. We do not see any spontaneous generation of life springing up from anywhere. Post-modernism contends that truth in any real sense doesn't exist. And that's what's being taught from pre-kindergarten through higher education. Another great thing that a lot of people have given over to, which is as old as Methuselah—we used to say that he's old as Methuselah—but going back to the advent of time as we know time, and that is pantheism. Pan means all, and theism means God. So pantheism means God is all and all is God. In other words, God is in this lectern. God is in your seat. God is in you. God is in everything.

Today, pantheism took a large very parades under the banner of the New Age movement. Actually, there is nothing new about the so-called New Age worldview. It has abounded in Eastern cultures for thousands of years, but it began to have an impact on our culture in the 1950s, and there have been various forms of an interest stirred up since, and it continues. The basic tenets of the New Age movement contend that there are no ultimate distinctions between humans, animals, or the rest of creation. Once again, pantheism all is God, and God is all.

So with the natural outcome and conclusion reached from this of pantheism in the New Age movement, if all is one and all is God, then each one of us is a God. We have had people who attended the worldwide church of God for years who have fallen for this very heresy that I'm talking about right now. The course of miracles, the course of the course of miracles that Oprah Winfrey began to espouse several years ago, in which it is said that humans must discover their own divinity by experiencing a change in consciousness. You have to come to think and to know that God is in you and that you are of God already. They contend that we suffer from a collective form of metaphysical. Now, metaphysical means that which is beyond the normal, that we all suffer from a metaphysical amnesia. We have forgotten that we are God, but we've got to rediscover that. Thus, we must rediscover who we really are. We are really gods, and we must discover the good God in each one of us. The course on miracles is now espoused by Oprah Winfrey and many others. The New Age disciples think in terms of gray, not black and white. Thus, they believe that two conflicting statements can be simultaneously true.

Some of these beliefs are also found increasingly among intellectuals in fields such as medicine, psychology, sociology, and education. Then we have another ism that has had great impact in the U.S. and continues to. It's called neolism. Neolism is another word that literally means nothingness. There's nothing of value, and life is absurd. Why care about it? Many have committed suicide with this notion of nothingism. Neolists generally assert that objective morality does not exist and that no action is logically preferable to any other.

With regard to moral value of one action over another. See, what I am doing here today this afternoon is showing you how Paul can write what he writes. He gave them over to a reprobate mind. These are not just things that you can read about in a book. These are things that people have embraced and believe and try to teach and sell to people.

Neolism has made great roads into the counterculture of American and English youth through various movements such as the Gothic movement and other such movements. So we have briefly surveyed some of the most prominent worldviews, and all of these views cannot be true. In fact, none of these views apart from God is true. Yet you and your children are constantly being bombarded with these views every day of your lives. So let's look at Colossians 2, verse 8. Is this anything new? Colossians is a book in which Paul is writing against Gnosticism. Gnosticism comes from the Greek word Gnostic, which means knowledge to know. And so Paul says, look, you are on a Gnostic trip, but I want to teach you epi-knowledge. I want to teach you that knowledge that transcends the knowledge of this world. Of course, that's what I want to teach you, but you need to understand what this world is offering and trying to deceive Satan the devil behind it, trying to deceive the whole world. So Paul writes this warning to the people at Colossae in Colossians 2, 8, beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition of men, at the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. So Paul says, I'm here to teach you epi-knowledge, the superior knowledge, and that's what we are here to do. So once again, what is your worldview? A worldview provides a model of the world which guides its adherents in the world. Your worldview will determine why you believe certain assumptions. In other words, what is your authority for believing what you believe? Is it because you heard so-and-so say, or when I was in El Paso twice and it rained every day, so therefore it rains every day in El Paso? Those kinds of faulty reasonings, we don't want those to creep in. So what is our authority for believing what we believe? We believe in a personal creator. Notice Isaiah 64 in verse 8. We believe in a personal creator. We believe in a creator who is involved in our lives. We believe in a creator who chases us, moles us, shapes us into the image of his dear son. In Isaiah 64, verse 8, But now, O Lord, you art our Father, we are the clay, and you are Potter, and we are all the work of your hand. The Athos, if you turn to Psalm 14 in verse 1 here, I think it's not verse 1, but the atheist, the fool, Paul says it, yeah, it is 14.1, the fool has set in his heart. This is Psalm 14.1. So all of these isms, basically, that we have talked about, that do not believe that God is personally, intimately involved, that he created the world in the first place, that he created you and me. The fool has set in his heart, there is no God. They are corrupt. They have done abominable works. There is none that does good. And the Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any that did understand and seek God. So, brethren, we're seeking to give that understanding about God. The humanist, and many of these isms, the New Age movement, they believe that humankind is inherently good. And you hear the statement, which to some degree is true, that there's some good in everybody, some will say. There's some good in everybody. There are people who don't go to church. In fact, the new churches now are, if you drive around on Sunday morning, you'll see that the parking lots of Home Depot, Walmart, Sam's are full.

You'll see the parking and traffic.

We went to Tyler this past Sunday. We thought the traffic was bad during the week, but Sunday it seemed to be even worse. See, those that are not at Sam's, Walmart, or the hospital, or the ballgame, they're on their way to one of those places.

So the humanist believes that man's essential nature is good. The Christian believes that man, apart from God, will follow his own lust. So what does Romans 8-7 say? The carnal mind is enmity toward God, not subject to it, neither indeed can be.

See, now we want to go to Acts 17 verse 22. Acts 17 verse 22. This is where Paul confronted the philosophers of his day on Mars Hill, one of the areas where the intelligentsia, the academicians, the philosophers would gather. Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars Hill and said, you men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are too superstitious, or some translation say religious. You have all of these different views about life, about your worldview. For as I pass by and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with the inscription to the unknown God, in case we miss one, whom therefore you ignorantly worship him declare I unto you, God, that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heavens and earth, dwells not in temples made with hands. And he goes on talking about the true God and about the resurrection from the dead.

And of course, they mocked him for that and said, we want to hear more about this.

Christians will assert that they base their beliefs on the Word of God, the Holy Bible. Others may say they base their belief on authority figures such as Mohammed, Buddha, Krishna.

And by looking at that, we understand that there are a lot of people who have opposing views. The principal factors that shape your worldview center on the culture that you were raised on, or reared in. Some people use race, some people use reared. Some say he was just raised, and the others say, well, he was reared. I think that they're basically the same. So how you were taught, what you were taught, and what you practice in relating to other people, how your parents dealt with you, is basically how you deal with others unless you learn another way. So now I want to get to the research that Barnard did with regard to people changing their worldview and embracing something else. In Barnard's survey concerning biblical worldview, the criteria were believing that absolute moral truth exists that is based on the Bible. Does absolute moral truth exist based on the Bible? And many times I have said, you have heard me say, that if we don't base our moral values and truth on the Bible, then we're left to either your mind or somebody else's mind.

Participants were asked how they viewed six core beliefs that centered on, one, the accuracy of biblical teaching, two, the sinless nature of Jesus, the literal existence of Satan, the omnipotence ever present of God, salvation by grace alone, which, remember this is a Protestant, and the personal responsibility to evangelize. The data revealed that people do not get a biblical worldview simply by regularly attending church. You know, oftentimes I wonder and I've said, what have you changed during the week based on what you heard in services? Did you change anything? Did it enhance your understanding? A biblical worldview must be both taught and caught. That is, it has to be explained, and then it has to be modeled. The research also points out that even in churches where the pastor has a biblical worldview, most of the members do not. It is a sort of a social kind of thing that you are if you are in the business world and selling things or that kind of thing. For sure, you're living in Tyler, you want to get connected with green acres.

This is not surprising since, according to Barnard, less than one in ten professing to be born again have the doctrinal convictions to support their contention. The startling fact shows that very few pastors really engage their audience in expository teaching. Expository teaching and preaching means that you wring out of the scripture its meaning and application, and they say that is really explaining what the scripture means and how it should be applied in their lives. Furthermore, it reveals that so many of the people who attend church services are not there to really learn and master the Word of God. So are we here and in your personal life striving to master the Word of God? So it is not surprising that six out of every seven attendees in the typical church do not share the biblical worldview of the pastor even when he has one. Research is now showing that even preaching good sermons and offering occasional programs does not provide a person with the scriptural and practical base for shaping a consistent worldview. You can't just learn it in church or attending a Bible study or a seminar. Barna's research shows that developing a biblical worldview requires a lot of personful activity, teaching, prayer, conversation, accountability. Once again, I ask how important is a worldview in directing the behavior of each one of us. People who are guided by strong core values have thought through the moral consequences of their behavior. In other words, if I do this, what's going to happen? If I do that, what's going to happen?

Adults with a biblical worldview possess radically different views on morality than that which is held by divergent religious groups and demonstrated vastly different lifestyle choices. Remember a verse that I quote quite often, Proverbs 22.7, as a man thinks in his heart, so is he. So sound moral behavior begins with right thinking. We are limited to our thoughts or somebody else's thoughts, but we can have access to and do have access to the thoughts of God. Remember, he says in Isaiah, my thoughts are not your thoughts. As high as the heaven is, above the earth, so higher are my thoughts than your thoughts. We need to learn to think, to respond to life situations as Jesus did. Oh, I wish I could do this one all the time. Because when a certain thing happens, we tend to reflexively react, as I mentioned in the last sermon two weeks ago. For even hereunto we are called, because Christ also suffered, leaving us an example, that we should follow his steps. 1 Peter 2, 21. Jesus spent long hours in prayer and meditation. Just think about this. Jesus spent long hours in prayer and meditation, even though he was the Son of God, and even though he had the Holy Spirit without measure. So what about us?

We're not directly engendered by God into physical existence, but we have been engendered by God to receive the earnest, the begettle of the Spirit. So once again, what is your worldview, and what are you teaching your children, and what kind of example are you setting? If you really want to develop a consistent worldview, you must open the pages of your Bible and be led by God's Spirit. In addition to that, you have to pray, you have to study, you have to meditate occasionally fast. Remember God is Spirit. Those who worship him must do what? Worship him in Spirit and truth. What is truth? The Bible says, John 17, 17, your word is truth. Moreover, the Bible states that the flesh profits nothing. This is John 663, which I've quoted probably 50 times in sermons in recent years. John 663, the flesh profits nothing. It is a spirit that makes a life. The words I speak, they are spirit and they are life. So, if we want to develop a worldview that will stand the test of time, you have to open the pages of the Bible. You have to do what David said to do in Psalm 119, verse 97. Oh, how love I your law! It is my meditation all the day. You have to think about it, you have to meditate on it, you have to play out in your mind. How am I going to react? What am I going to do under such and such a circumstance? Brethren, in the Psalms, God says the world is mine and the fullness thereof, but He has offered to us His mind, His essence, through His Word. We don't totally have the mind of God, but we can be growing toward having the mind of God and Christ in our being and having our thoughts and actions guided by that mind. So, what about your worldview?