March 6th, 2010 | 
Author: “No authoritarian state can tolerate those who have an absolute standard by which to judge its activities”
Dr. Francis Schaeffer, in “How Should We Then Live?”
Just when you think the economy is bad enough, forcing people out of work, a new danger emerges forcing people not only from their jobs but in some cases from their houses as well.
It has become an accepted belief around the world that the government–local, state and federal–can do whatever it likes. Unfortunately, it is not just a belief, but it happens in practice as well.
As a result people have been served condemnation notices on their properties in order that the properties might become available to other businesses in the community. Under the guise of better planning, people have had to give up the right to their land and home, and often their livelihood, as the law has been used to evict them off their property in order to make way for someone else.
Under the mistaken notion of eminent domain, authorities around the world treat property as if it were their own, thus making the idea of property ownership an impossible goal for many.
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The Signs of a Successful Worldview
Limitations. This is how you can tell a fake worldview.
A worldview has answers to questions. Not vague answers, but very specific answers. Those answers are intimately tied into and connected to the questions and answers that establish the worldview. By that, I mean that the answers flow straight out of your idea about who you are, how you know things, and the moral standards you inherently aspire to. And the answers to these things are directly related to your idea about God. Not just god in general, but specifically the Triune God of the Bible.
Consider this question: How much of its citizens’ money is the government morally entitled to? There are possible answers:
a. As much as it likes
b. No more than 50% (or it might be even no more than 10%)
c. Nothing
Whatever the answer, you need to ask these questions:
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How do you destroy speculations and lofty things raised up against God?
Have I made it clear enough? There is only ONE worldview. That is the worldview based on the . . .
I was about to write “Bible” but I stopped myself. Here’s why.
This is the fifth (final?) article in this series “The Making of a Worldview.” And I’ve only quoted one verse of Scripture, and referred to one section of the Bible. Almost everything you need for a worldview is wrapped up in the first three chapters of Genesis. Now there are some important things that come later, but they are not the foundation.
So it is a worldview based on the Old Testament — the Hebrew Bible — that is the only worldview. It is the principles in the Old Testament that allow us to make comments about worldviews, even if we pretend that we have somehow decided our worldview without the Old Testament.
Thus the Old Testament is not true because you or I or someone else says it is. The Old Testament is true because without it we cannot even begin the process. Without it our minds and mouths are locked tight.
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“The primary cause of financial struggle is simply not knowing the difference between an asset and a liability.” So says Robert Kiyosaki in his book, Rich Dad, Poor Dad.
Economic categories are no longer what they were. It is now common to hear government officials say that the revenue they did not receive was a “cost” to the government.
Imagine going to the company accounting system and entering an amount in the costs of the company for revenue that was not obtained. “Let me see, we should have had another $10 million this year. Let’s put that in as a cost to the business. Better still, make it $10 billion.”
And you think corporate fiscal accountability is bad. Read the rest of this entry »
WHAT IS THE CANON?
This is an important question. And confusion over the answer results in some misunderstandings.
Those involved closely in the debate look at the canon from two perspectives. Both are needed.
The first perspective is that of an authority. It can be in either written or oral form. The Ten Commandments written in stone and the words of Moses were an oral and written tradition, and they were authoritative.
The second idea of canon is that it eventually “came to refer to a perpetual fixation or standardization” (McDonald, The Biblical Canon, p. 55).
A little consideration of these two ideas shows that they are not mutually exclusive. Again to quote McDonald, “the primary debate is over when this literature” took on the status as an authoritative-scriptural manner among the Jews and the Christians. Read the rest of this entry »
The Image of God
A worldview, by definition, is the idea that all areas of life can be viewed from the mountain top of certain principles. In this series, I’ve concentrated on just one of those principles, But I have assumed — or presupposed — another two principles at all times. The reason they are presupposed? They are inescapable concepts; you can not do anything without including them in your assumptions.
Behind our theory of knowledge (epistemology – how do we know things, and how do we know that we know) is an underlying assumption about ourselves, other people, and the world that we comprehend around us. Read the rest of this entry »
Meet the Apostles of Denial
“Everything is just a matter of opinion. You have your opinion. I have my opinion. Truth is whatever you perceive it to be.”
So said a young lady in my home recently. A Christian young lady educated in the best public schools and the best state universities.
And she attends a church that cannot tell her how to tell the difference between truth and error, right and wrong, good and evil.
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Dreaming the Impossible Dream
There can only be one debate in the construction of a worldview. How do you have a discussion without assuming the implied truths of the Biblical worldview?
Imagine, for a moment – if you can – the idea of evolution. How did language begin? Perhaps it was something like this. The first form of life with vocal chords made a gesture towards an object and grunted something. And his or her mate replied, “Uh?” So the first grunter responded to that by repeating his first grunt, and again received another “Uh?” Oops! Sorry, in order to grunt a reply, there must have been two forms of life with vocal chords. Guess they evolved in pairs. Or, maybe they didn’t evolve. (But that’s another story.)
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What mental image comes to mind when you hear the word “worldview”? It’s a popular word and one that should be used often.
But what does that word “worldview” mean to you?
And what does it mean to your neighbor, especially if that neighbor is not a Christian?
More importantly, how do you even begin to put a worldview together? Read the rest of this entry »
When a Dad Worries His Son, The Father Better Have Some Good Answers
I have four sons and a daughter, the firstborn being Matthew. He’s a thinker. And he’s trying to give his father a hard time over some of my comments. Matt’s worried that I’m putting the Torah as a higher authority than the Person of Jesus Christ as revealed in the gospels. Here’s his question:
“What role does the person of Jesus Christ play in all of this?”
Now Matthew is concerned that his father might be going off in a wrong direction, so he’s checking up on his old man to make sure. He comments further,
” Shouldn’t it be Jesus Christ that we look to as the central revolving point of the Scriptures rather than the Torah?”
Good questions. Here’s my reply:
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