Using Worldview Diagrams

In our media-saturated day we must communicate Bible truth effectively and efficiently. Decisions matter.

Our Complete Message
The simple powerful Christian gospel is not simplistic. For two long we have truncated our gospel to fit in a nutshell. Our gospel has been fractured, fragmented and distributed in pieces that do not answer the great questions of life. We won't be ashamed of the gospel if we communicate it ALL! It is the power of God unto salvation.

Graphics
• Graphics are metaphors conveying much without words.
• Graphics show relationships between parts.
• Graphics attract and hold the interest of learners.
• Graphics provide visual context —where our discussion fits in the big picture
• Well designed charts keep the whole message in view while we explain the parts;

Format
Computer, TV-set, Large screen projection, Wall-chart, Placemat, Book, Pamphlet
• The hyperlinked pages of this Internet site.
• CD with interactive hyperlinked pages
• Portable Power-Point presentation
• Printed handouts to encourage private study
• Book that explains worldview charts and the response they ask
• Worldview placemat charts for small group study with Internet support.
• Worldview Wall-Charts for class instruction
• Videotape
• Interactive DVD
(Some of the above are not yet available, but are on Lifedesign's to-do List)

To Defend The Faith

• To successfully present or defend a Biblical view of reality in a secular-saturated society,we must establish our supernatural context or risk being marginalized. Unless hearers first see the big picture, our truth fragments will appear irrelevant to the world of human experience.
• For too long, the Christian Worldview has been denied fair consideration in the marketplace of values, decisions and directions.
• If today's secular educated mind is to ever see what Bible believers can see, they need a larger frame of reference. Jesus called their problem 'blindness.' The god of this world suppresses the truth of the spiritual realm.
• Whether Bible believers are defending creation, answering Life's Great Questions, explaining the future or presenting the Gospel, they will be irrelevant unless they communicate their big view of reality.

• The concept of worldviews stretches our view of reality and communicates essential differences between:

— The spiritual dimension of reality and the physical. — God's Inerrant revelation and man's fallen knowledge — God's Righteous Wrath and His Loving Care — Time and Eternity — Biblical Historical Events and Ambiguous 'Views' — Hope in a Saviour and in human achievement — Faith in God and Advancement of Self — The Biblical Worldview and the Secular Worldview

Science abusers speculate that natural causes produced supernatural achievements like creation, resurrection and salvation. They must be challenged.! Is our God silent on these Great Questions of Life? How could our loving Provider withold this essential life guidance? As I study my Designer's work, guided by His written revelation, the meaning of life explodes with energy. I want to share it.

To Penetrate Our Secular World

The Secular Worldview now dominates our culture. Godless philosophies rule our education, edit our media and write our laws. Immorality in high places is rewarded by voters. Violence and terrorism are destroying civility. Christian values are mocked. Those who want God's order and try to slow the destruction are maligned, marginalized and muzzled as intolerant bigots and a repressive evil.

Secular philosophies hide their destructive agendas behind benevolent-sounding causes. Special interest groups win government enforced secularism for public life and are fast intruding into private lives —even our thoughts. The secular agenda demands progressively more rights for the earth, animals and anyone or anything that can be painted as a victim of society. Because rights are a limited resource in any society they must be taken from others. Those who live by God's order and the Biblical Worldview are now painted as the repressive evil. Tolerance is the new virtue, but Bible believers are not included —they are fair game for ridicule and those from whom to take rights.

But God's people are told "to occupy until He comes." How can we obey Him? Too often Christians are running to catch up —they fail to see the creeping damage caused by secularism until after laws are changed. As the Biblical lifestyle is cut away the only recourse is fruitless protest that invites a negative label.

Christians are tempted to withdraw into their safe sanctuaries to pray, study, worship, and fellowship. While we need spiritual growth and close support from fellow believers, we must not become self-centered and self-serving or we will become more isolated, ignored and irrelevant.
It is not enough to focus on our spiritual needs alone and ignore the problems faced by those around us.

Bible believers need wide-angle vision if they are to occupy, purify and preserve their world. Where do we find such a wide-angle view of reality? In the Bible! The Bible contains the very best worldview. Unfortunately we are good at breaking the Bible into 30 minute sermons and Biblical Band-Aids for personal problems, but we have lost sight of the Bible's big picture. To occupy against the Enemy's flood we need to move back from our narrow formulas and see God's big agenda.

"GOD SAID IT; I BELIEVE IT; THAT SETTLES IT!" In our secular-driven society such a clear affirmation of Biblical authority is refreshing and rare. After all, God’s Word is adequate and completely trustworthy. Although the first 2 assertions are honorable, the latter is selfish and helps no one. We are told to be ready to give reasons for our hope to those with questions. If we wrap ourselves in the Bible and let the rest of the world march to hell without at least explaining our very reasonable Worldview, we will be progressively marginalized, irrelevant and useless. Our Biblical worldview, values and lifestyle will be trampled under foot. We have been warned: We can either be purifying table salt or dishonored road salt, but salt we are.

We must show the world that ours is more than a private belief. It is a comprehensive life system that answers life's great questions and mankind's big problem. People grope for the answers that make sense of life and we hold them.

Failing to see Christianity as a comprehensive belief system cripples our ability to penetrate our secular world. Without this large context we cannot defend our faith and secular friends cannot see why we believe as we do. Our children bring home disturbing questions from school but we can't pinpoint the danger to help them stand alone. We can’t challenge the secular answers to life’s great questions. Our shrunken gospel stays in its nutshell.

We must recover the Bible's complete Life System or Worldview that speaks to the entire realm of human experience and existence.

To be salt and light and “occupy 'til He comes,” we need beliefs big enough to exceed every challenge.
To penetrate our secular world Christians must rediscover the Biblical Worldview.
It is the frame of reference that can displace the secular worldview.

To Own the Biblical Worldview

The Biblical Worldview diagram may help us see and may even convince us that this is the best worldview, but we cannot own this belief system by mental affection.
To own the Biblical Worldview we must personally get inside it.
By faith, we must step in, walk and experience God’s ways and His works. God then reveals His view of reality to those who trust Him.
Anyone can enter but there is only one door—Jesus Christ. He said:
”I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.” (Jn 10:9)
“I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me.” (Jn 14:6)
How do we enter the door: Jesus Christ?
Without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is,
and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. (Heb 11:6)
We enter by faith —by believing in Jesus Christ —who He is and what He has done. Jesus paid for our sins.

To Share the Biblical Worldview

World events, fearful trends, personal problems, the creation debate, life’s great questions.
The Biblical Worldview chart is an effective bridge for truth seekers coming from every direction.
Keeping this complete frame of reference up front while connecting the pieces will invite trust in the comprehensive Biblical context.
The Deceiver would “sift us as wheat” —demanding quick answers for truth fragments. But time and care are needed to frame a cohesive foundation. Under time pressure our best answer could be:
“I would like to explain what I believe, but these are life-shaping matters. Could we meet when there is more time?”
To share the Biblical Worldview we must prepare. Our own self-defeating compromises must be rooted out. Otherwise weeds from that anti-God paradigm will spring up and choke the good seed of the Word. Only incorruptible truth from Scripture will stop deeply embedded secular static and resonate inside every truth-seeking creature.

This sheet only introduces the challenge to Christians who would impact our post-Christian culture. More preparation is available. The 100+ web pages at www.lifedesign.ca explore both worldviews and ways to guide Biblical truth around mental roadblocks.