Nathaniel Smith
Professor Lobaina
Bible 105 – B02
9/7/15

Biblical Worldview Essay

Worldviews are a very important part of society. They define what we believe and act as a filter for the way that we see the world. As Christians our worldview has always and will always be criticized, but it is important that we define our worldview so when it is questioned we can stand up and speak what we believe. I believe that our worldview is defined by four major categories that are as follows: the natural world, human identity, human relationships, and civilization.

As Christians our worldview starts with Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” This verse is the basis for what we believe about the natural world. In continuing reading our worldview of the natural world grows in seeing that God created the earth and everything in it in seven days. When you tear down the basis of the natural world we see many different worldviews amongst people and scientist. Scientists have the Theory of Evolution and the Big Bang Theory and we as Christians have the Theory of Creation. These theories are all worldviews of different faiths and religions. Our faith is the main basis of our worldview without it we lose sight of who we are and our identity in Christ. In looking further our worldview of the natural world gets deeper as we see differences in things such as intelligent design. Overall the biblical worldview of the natural world is this: God created everything we know and see in a time period of seven days.

It’s amazing to see no matter where you are one of the most want to know topics is identity. As Christians we know we find our identity in Christ but what does that mean for our worldview? Well our outlook of identity starts with the tree of knowledge of good and evil. We know how the story goes Eve eats of the fruit, offers it to Adam, he eats of the same fruit, and then they lose their connection with God and they are kicked out of the garden. This is a fundamental part of human identity because without it sin never happened which would mean that one of the greatest events in history would have never occurred the event of Christ death and ultimate resurrection. These events led to the worldview of human identity that we have today; the identity that says that we are incredibly messed up but because God sent His only son down to earth to pay for our mistakes we can gain a new identity that doesn’t have to be the identity “messed up”, but our new identity that says “perfect, holy, made new, and redeemed”!

Moving on we see the worldview of human relationships starting with Adam and Eve. This starts in Genesis 2:18 “Then the Lord God said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” We see that even from the beginning of time God saw a need for human relationships whether it is a relationship of intimacy, a friendship, or a relationship of accountability. We need human connection and accountability to experience spiritual growth, I believe that Christian Schwarz put it best when he said, “Realizing that small groups make the most difference in a church’s quantitative and qualitative growth” (Schwarz, Natural Church Development, p. 32). She talks about how we need to be in small groups to experience congregational growth, but not only that but spiritual growth among the small group. Small groups are where relationships are built within the church and between the people, but all of this is pointless without the deeper relationship we see between Adam and Eve. These relationships are among the deepest form of relationship, we see this when Adam states, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.”(Genesis 2:23 ESV) Wow! Bone of my bones, flesh of my flesh, this is the ultimate for of human relationship. The human relationship, that without it we could not have gotten to where we are today. This human relationship allows not only life long companionship, but also reproduction, which allows us to fulfill another command to go fourth and multiply (Genesis 9:7 ESV). Ultimately this allows us to create civilization.

Which brings us to the last point of worldview, civilization. Civilization slowly grew after the fall as Eve gives birth to her first son Cain in the beginning of Genesis four. From there civilization grows all the way up until Noah where we realize sin had become so bad God desired to destroy the earth and ultimately destroy the way that civilization had become. Civilization is one of the hardest worldviews to discuss and to truly comprehend. Dictionary.com defines civilization as “an advanced state of human society, in which a high level of culture, science, industry, and government has been reached.” This means that throughout scripture we see a number of different civilizations that all come about because of the Tower of Babel. We now live in a world with thousands, maybe millions of civilizations all because of the tower of babel. Each civilization has their own worldview and among their worldview they have their faith or lack there of. In the light of a biblical worldview we see a higher civilization, a civilization of mercy and forgiveness along with promises and fulfillment.

In conclusion we have all learned and know what we believe and hopefully know why we believe it. Our worldview can be the difference between casual mediocre faith and profound audacious faith, our worldview can be the difference between our faith being persuaded and our faith standing strong in the time of testing. There is so much more to biblical worldview than these four main points of the natural world, human identity, human relationship, and civilization, but these are the basis of what all other points build off of. Without worldview we have no basis of faith, morals, or belief.

Works Cited
"civilization." Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition. HarperCollins Publishers. 07 Sep. 2015. <Dictionary.comhttp://dictionary.reference.com/browse/civilization>.

Schwarz, Christian. Natural Church Development: A Guide to Eight Essential Qualities of Healthy Churches.
1996.print.