Archive for January, 2010
January 29th, 2010 | 
Author: 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.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in 
“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.
Read the rest of this entry »
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.)
Read the rest of this entry »
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:
Read the rest of this entry »
Are we really justified by faith alone?
This topic has been debated for a L-O-N-G time. But consider these biblical quotations.
I’ve had some correspondence with a good friend, Mark. He’s a “justified by faith alone”, hang-on-to-the-Reformers guy who takes the Bible seriously. I’ve been a little rough on him.
Here’s how.
Read the rest of this entry »
HOW TO EXCEED THE PHARISEES
The words of Jesus create problems for many people. The reason? They don’t like them.
Consider this from Matt.12: 36-37: “But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”
Everyone hopes that these words are somehow and somewhere modified elsewhere in Scripture. Justified by our words? No way. We’ll never make it, that’s for sure. Yet the words of Jesus are there to deal with.
Now consider this passage earlier in the book of Matthew: “For I say unto you that unless your righteousness exceeds he righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.”
For many, that sounds like a great dose of legalism.
Read the rest of this entry »