Worldview
Everyone has a worldview by which they interpret the “facts” they are presented with in life. This worldview is a network of assumptions and beliefs about reality (metaphysics), how we know (epistemology), and what is right and wrong (ethics). Unfortunately, very few Christians stop to evaluate if these assumptions (or presuppositions) are Biblical or not. If we have an inconsistent worldview, it will negatively impact every aspect of our lives. On the other hand, a Biblical worldview glorifies God, generates faith, gives stability, produces optimism and makes life feel worth living. Though worldview issues may not seem that interesting to some Christians, it is critically important that all Christians develop a consistently Biblical worldview. Biblical Blueprints has been helping Christian leaders to do that for over a decade.
The starting point for Christianity must not be the assertions of man but must be the assertions of God. The Bible does not say, “Your Word is true” (as if we can judge the truthfulness of God by some man-made criteria), but “Your Word is truth” (John 17:17; Psalm 119:160), which means that all truth claims must be judged by the Word of God. It is the standard for truth.2 Jesus also called the Bible “the key of knowledge” (Luke. 11:52). Without this key of knowledge we fail to see the true significance of events.
The New Testament word for presuppositions (or “basic principles”) is stoicheia. The word is also sometimes translated as axioms. 100% of our axioms must come from Christ. This word was used in classical Greek and by the Church fathers to mean the elementary or fundamental principles. In Geometry it was used for axioms, and in philosophy for elements of proof or the "protoi sullogismoi" of general reasoning (Liddel and Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, s.v.). Obviously both of these definitions are synonyms with "presuppositions." The New Testament teaches that the stoicheia are the "foundation" upon which our faith and practice rests (Heb. 5:12-6:3). We find our stoicheia in the Word of God (Heb. 5:12) and most specifically in the person of Jesus Christ (Col. 2:8-10; Heb. 6:1) revealed in them. The stoicheia of the world are the foundation of the non-Christian "philosophy" (Col. 2:8) and are diametrically opposed to the stoicheia of Christ the God-Man (Col 2:8-10). Our thoughts and actions are a logical outworking of these stoicheia in everyday life (Col. 2:20ff).
We must recognize that the superstructure of our world-and-life view is antithetical to the superstructure of the heathen's world-and-life view, not because the superstructures do not have any things in common, but because of the way in which these superstructures are completely committed to their foundation or presuppositions. Paul gives us an example of this concept when he vigorously opposed the Galatians succumbing to pressure to be circumcised and observe "days and months and times and years" (Gal. 4:10). Though the physical act of circumcision was not wrong (cf. 1 Cor. 7:19; Acts 16:3), the idea that lay behind it was destructive and led to syncretism, a denial of their presuppositions and an unintentional reversion to weak and pathetic presuppositions (Gal. 4:9). Join Biblical Blueprints in spreading the message of the need for all Christians to develop a godly worldview with Biblical presuppositions.
