What is a "Worldview?"

The Vine & Fig Tree Worldview

What is a "worldview?"

A Worldview is the pair of glasses through which you view the world. It is the foundation upon which you build the structure of your life. It is the grid which filters and sorts billions of facts and makes sense out of life.

A worldview also characterizes a society, or nation. Millions of people can be controlled and directed by the "worldview" of their government or leader. Those with an active "worldview" tend to dominate those with a passive "worldview":

Active: "It is my destiny to rule over others."

Passive: "I'll never amount to much. I just take what comes my way."

Active: "God created me to enrich the lives of those in my family and my fellowman."

Passive: "The universe is an accident. Mankind just evolved. I just do what I'm told. Maybe I'll win the lottery."

A worldview perpetuates itself.

A Christian worldview creates a Christian civilization, which allows people to contemplate and refine their understanding of the universe.

A pagan worldview creates paganism, not civilization, in which human beings are dominated by superstition and the forces of nature, and between hunting and gathering don't have time for philosophy (from the Greek words meaning "love of wisdom").

A worldview is your ultimate philosophical commitment. It is your religion. You apply your worldview to everything you do.

“I was already a Christian, but my worldview had not yet caught up to my Christian commitment. It can take a long time to apply the lessons of the Bible to your life, your work, and your community. Those days were the time when I began to do that.
Joseph Farah, editor, WorldNetDaily

Life, work, community. Every area of life is affected by one's ultimate worldview. What Farah is saying is that he grew up with the worldview of the religion of Secular Humanism, which says there is no God, that man is his own god. Farah had been applying this philosophy/religion to his own life. Then Farah realized he was not God, but Christ is Lord of Farah's life. That meant Farah had to start learning how to obey Jesus rather than Joseph Farah and other Humanists.

It also means that Christ had to become Lord of Farah's personal life, his work, his community: every facet of human life and society.

The original American Worldview is seen in the Declaration of Independence.

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. God is here and He is not silent. He has given us His revelation in the Bible, also referred to as "The Laws of Nature and of Nature's God"

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. Because we are created in the Image of God, we have a conscience (literally, "know with") that cannot escape knowing certain "self-evident truths," among them that God is there and He is not silent, and we must not infringe of the life, liberty, and property of others.

He has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivatng and carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither. This piratical warfare, the opprobrium of INFIDEL powers, is the warfare of the CHRISTIAN king of Great Britain. Determined to keep open a market where MEN should be bought and sold, he has prostituted his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this execrable commerce. This is an excerpt from Jefferson's draft of the Declaration, removed by the Continental Congress to secure approval of slave-holding states for the plan for Independence. Many Christians wanted to abolish slavery, but the so-called Christian King of Britain, George III, would not permit this. A true Christian worldview takes action against social and global injustice. There is no area of human thought or action where a worldview does not prescribe duties or reform thinking.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the Protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor. Not a single person who signed the Constitution was a "deist" who believed in an impersonal creator-god who never involves himself/itself in the creation. The God of America's Founding Fathers answered their prayers and miraculously and supernaturally intervened in America, changing the course of history. "Providence" is the act of the "Supreme Judge" intervening in history against the wicked on behalf of the good.

Every issue of life is viewed through one's worldview. Notice how these issues are shaped by the writer's worldview:

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.	God is here and He is not silent. He has given us His revelation in the Bible, also referred to as "The Laws of Nature and of Nature's God"
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.	Because we are created in the Image of God, we have a conscience (literally, "know with") that cannot escape knowing certain "self-evident truths," among them that God is there and He is not silent, and we must not infringe of the life, liberty, and property of others.
He has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivatng and carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither. This piratical warfare, the opprobrium of INFIDEL powers, is the warfare of the CHRISTIAN king of Great Britain. Determined to keep open a market where MEN should be bought and sold, he has prostituted his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this execrable commerce.	This is an excerpt from Jefferson's draft of the Declaration, removed by the Continental Congress to secure approval of slave-holding states for the plan for Independence. Many Christians wanted to abolish slavery, but the so-called Christian King of Britain, George III, would not permit this. A true Christian worldview takes action against social and global injustice. There is no area of human thought or action where a worldview does not prescribe duties or reform thinking.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the Protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.	Not a single person who signed the Constitution was a "deist" who believed in an impersonal creator-god who never involves himself/itself in the creation. The God of America's Founding Fathers answered their prayers and miraculously and supernaturally intervened in America, changing the course of history. "Providence" is the act of the "Supreme Judge" intervening in history against the wicked on behalf of the good.