The Culture War: “Only Two Worldviews”
By Jay Wegter
I. Awareness—how did things get so messed up in our culture?
A. We are shocked to see behaviors which used to be justly condemned as immoral now being normalized and even defended. But what has caused the ‘floodgates’ of immorality to swing open so widely? The only way to answer this question with absolute certainty is to realize that humanity has torn itself away from God’s blueprint for His creatures. That’s why there has been an unraveling of goodness and truth. The moral and spiritual consequences are immense. Man’s defiance against God’s blueprint is causing suffering; people are experiencing divine judgment in ‘slow motion’—the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven (Rom 1:18-23).
B. An ‘explosion’ in immorality has as its underlying cause the rejection of the knowledge of God. In the place of the knowledge of God are lies about freedom and fulfillment. These lies are attractive because they ‘free up’ man’s lust; but the hidden price tag is costly—men are plunged into deeper ignorance; darkness; deception; bondage; and oppression. Consequences such as broken homes, abused neglected kids, abortion, suicide, perversion, sexually transmitted disease, unwanted pregnancies, same sex marriage, violence, substance abuse, and pornography have not developed in a worldview vacuum (2 Tim 3:1-13).
These tragedies are accelerating because the precious things of God are being eroded; and people are taking pleasure in sin and not in the knowledge of God (Del Tackett, “Biblical Worldview,” Focus on the Family Magazine, July/Aug, 2004, Dec, 2005).
II. The problem with our response—Christians often feel stranded between worldviews and consequently fail to be salt and light:
A. Countless believers who profess Christ today are actually ‘stranded’ between two mutually exclusive worldviews. As a result these young adults walk around with a palpable tension as they are pulled in two different directions. They know something is wrong; they can see popular culture’s growing enmity toward the historic Christian faith. But, they live with the fear that if their Christianity becomes too visible, it may result in their being labeled intolerant; obnoxious; or closed-minded. Nonetheless, Jesus said His true believers are salt and light (Matt 5:13-16).
Because believing students often find themselves caught between the worldviews (the worldview of their Christian friends, and the worldview of their non-Christian friends); their attempts at adaptation produce neutralized testimonies instead of relevancy. Concerning the worldview of the non-Christian; our culture of relativism gives unbelievers a set of ‘plausibility structures’ (believable lies) to frame every cultural issue. What is concealed behind these plausibility structures is the worldview that is incorporated when the unbeliever is ‘framing the issues’ (that is, defining the issues from his life view perspective). The secularists know that whoever ‘defines the terms’ is ultimately in control—or holding the high ground. As believers, we gladly submit to God as Definer of what He has called into existence. Our Creator is Definer, Owner, Upholder of all that He has made. God’s authority is inseparable from the fact that He gives definitions; relations; categories; boundaries; and limitations—ultimately this constitutes a precise ‘blueprint’ for the creatures made in His image (Gen 1:5-10; Ex 20:1-17; Acts 17:26-27; 1 Cor 15:35-49).
B. Man the rebel seeks to normalize and legitimize his rebellion by seeking to rip the defining role from God and usurping it for himself. Now since a majority of the cultural issues today center upon ‘how the human body is to be used,’ is not surprising to see a massive campaign of ‘redefinition’ taking place in order to justify immoral uses of the body (1 Thess 4:3-8).
Sexual perversion, abortion, same sex marriage, and pornography have been reframed and redefined as freedom, individuality, reproductive rights, free speech, democracy, equality, personal expression, sexual orientation, etc. The rising generation is often oblivious to the reality that redefinition is taking place on a comprehensive scale (Is 5:20). Satan’s original lie was an exercise in redefinition—a distortion of God’s Word. Redefinition is a prime tool of the powers of darkness in the spiritual battle of the ages. Redefinition is a very subversive weapon because the lie which drives it is hidden.
C. S. Lewis notes in his book, “The Abolition of Man” that nothing is easier than to live by animal passions; what is difficult is to be a person of virtue. Says Lewis, the more laws we pass which sanction the expression of animal passion, the more we are abolishing our true humanity. Thus, when men set aside God’s laws, they will tend to legislate vices in the name of acting in the interest of the common good.
This is why is it is indispensable to be able to answer the following three questions before one takes social action; legislative or otherwise. 1.) What is a human being? 2.) What is the purpose, goal, or design of a human being? 3.) What is human flourishing? The way you answer these questions reveals your worldview.
III. The compromise—professing Christians often attempt to live between the two mutually exclusive worldviews:
A. One of most egregious cultural symptoms of redefinition occurs in the ubiquitous charge of “you are being intolerant.” In our age of moral relativism, to make a moral evaluation is increasingly being equated with intolerance. But, the cost of retreat in the face of intimidation is greater than most would admit. Believers are called to be salt and light—but mute covert Christians are neither salt nor light (Eph 5:1-12).
What students are often missing today is an understanding of what lies behind the charge of intolerance. What is just beneath the surface of the accusation of intolerance is ultimately a redefinition ploy. The charge of intolerance has an immobilizing effect—like the proverbial cobra that hypnotizes its prey with an icy stare, students are often stopped dead in their tracks by the intolerance accusation.
Students are hesitant to engage their accusers for a reason—the notion of intolerance (as a criticism against those who make moral evaluations) has been culturally framed so that it is associated with a particular set of emotions. The charge of intolerance frightens people. They are fearful of the stigma associated with the charge of intolerance—namely a history of racial and sexual prejudice.
B. What most students don’t see is that tolerance has been redefined to mean moral ambiguity. As a consequence of not seeing the redefinition agenda, the charge of intolerance pressures them into silence in the face of genuine evil, injustice, and wickedness when prejudice is not even remotely in view. What is actually going on? It is mankind seeking to usurp the authoritative role of God as Definer—in so doing sinful man becomes the re-definer (but just as Satan’s days as a re-definer are numbered; so also are man’s days as re-definer are numbered—Psalm 2).
Now in regards to retreating in the face of the intolerance accusation; this knee-jerk surrender at the very thought of being labeled bigoted is also a telling indicator of our culture’s loss of critical thinking. Where critical thinking is in short supply, emotions rush in to fill the vacuum. Our society has ‘tutored’ this rising generation to think in terms of emotional comfort. The implicit message is, “by always seeking what I perceive as my emotional well-being, I will always be acting in the interest of my highest good.” This is the polar opposite of what God commands in Scripture—the Word of God imbues us with the urgency of repentance: “rend your hearts and not your garments; if your eye offends pluck it out; be miserable, mourn and weep” (Joel 2:13; Matt 18:9; James 4:9).
C. Because believers do not normally think in terms of two antithetical (or mutually exclusive) worldviews; they are too easily intimidated by the charge of intolerance. Believing students who have not been grounded in biblical worldview find it easy to be on the defensive— attempting to legitimize their convictions against the culture’s stereotypical perceptions.
A foundation in biblical worldview can help equip believers so that they do not allow themselves to be unwittingly dragged onto the turf of non-Christian worldview (with its plethora of redefinitions). To be dragged onto non-Christian turf is to feel like those who launch stereotypical objections against Christianity actually have a salient argument when they suggest that the Christian viewpoint is antiquated (a layover from the age of prejudice) and therefore nearly irrelevant in this culture. Nothing could be further from the truth.
IV. The Power of divine perspective—why we must see the lie beneath the culture war:
A. What is disguised as a culture war between viewpoints on substantive moral issues is actually endemic to the spiritual battle of the ages. The culture war is ultimately about worldviews in conflict. And, this conflict is ultimately traceable to its fountainhead—the Edenic Lie which Satan used to slay our first parents (Gen 3:1-7). Our culture’s growing enmity toward biblical Christianity is an indicator that the erroneous worldview which opposes historic Christianity can only operate under camouflage for so long—if the trend continues, open defiance against biblical Christianity will replace today’s measured opposition.
B. Satan’s original lie drove a wedge into the mind of man. A dichotomy within man’s heart was formed in the process. Our first parents, once having acted upon the devil’s lie, became blinded to God’s glory—they regarded God’s glory and man’s highest good as mutually exclusive—that’s the dichotomy. Satan’s lie created a breach, or wedge, in man’s thinking between the will of God and the good of man. In effect, Satan told a lie about God’s goodness; a lie that once believed would ‘logically’ justify human self-determination, and justify the enthronement of autonomous human reason (and with it, the arrogation of the role of ‘definer’).
C. Lucifer’s lie about God’s goodness scribes the very outline, shape, and contours if you will, of the spiritual darkness that rules every unregenerate soul. The luciferian lie has four basic parts: 1.) “God is not good and loving.” God is withholding your highest good. He is even threatened by your human potential. This became an excuse to think
negatively about God . 2.)
“God is not truthful; therefore He is not to be revered.” “You shall not die.” Doubt leads to denial. The lie cast doubt upon the authority; authenticity; reliability; and truthfulness of God’s Word. This became an excuse to think
skeptically about God.
- “God is not righteous.” God is not going to comprehensively punish sin. His threats are idle. God is not to be feared. His dictates are not really commands; only advice. This became an excuse to think irreverently about God. 4.) “God is not gracious.” Since God is not good, truthful, and righteous; you need to be your own god. Experiment a bit; liberate yourself; determine truth; reality; right and wrong for yourself. This became an excuse to think independently from God, and an excuse to worship created things . The lie has repeatedly incubated and expressed itself throughout human history. Its present morphology (by which it takes captives) is in the form of philosophies which suggest that ideas do not have consequences. That is of course but a small variation from the original lie, “you shall not die” (Gen 3:4).
V. The biblical answer to the dilemma:
A. The lie is an attempt to blur the distinctions which God has made—and then to call that blurring of distinctions, “freedom.” By contrast, biblical worldview teaches us that to embrace divinely ordained distinctions is love; and to reject them is self-destruction. God’s laws, limits, and boundaries which He has placed upon mankind are infinitely wise, good, just, and loving— they preserve our humanness. They enable us to reflect the Creator. They are safeguards of love in our relationships. Mankind was created to be a ‘bounded creature’—so much so that those divinely ordained bounds and limitations are necessary to preserve our humanness and dignity.
B. Our culture is dead set on obliterating the creation distinctions established by our Creator. In the process, the West is well on its way to ‘amputating’ the soul of man. Once a culture no longer defines mankind as the image and likeness of God, theism is lost, and a monstrous substitute rushes in to take the place of the knowledge of God—the result has been the same through history: spiritual holocaust is followed by physical holocaust.
As long as the Lie is in place as a set of accepted cultural forms, the immensity of the consequences of what a person worships will be concealed. The power of the gospel involves exposing and eradicating the lie from the heart of the sinner. The gospel is at the center of our worldview. The gospel exposes man’s idols as the cause of his brokenness. The healing health of the gospel begins by cleansing us; giving us right-standing with God and delivering us from the soul-destroying habit of worshipping created things.
C. The justified person shows reverence for his or her Creator by respecting the wise and just limits and boundaries that God has placed upon us. Submitting to God’s ‘blueprint’ for us protects us from damaging ourselves and others, and it protects us from blaspheming God and the gospel. The Lord Jesus Christ is at the center of our worldview. His identity and uniqueness set biblical worldview apart from man-centered systems of thought. Christ is God’s authoritative ‘mouthpiece’—through the Word of Christ God gives us His authoritative view of the world (Heb 1;1-3; Col 2:2-3). When, by the grace of God, we order our lives by ‘God’s view of the world,’ we move out of our innate self-deception and love of darkness, and into the reality of living unto God.
D. Our Creator’s infallible view of the world brings clarity to every ethical cultural issue we face today. Christian students today desperately need this biblical framework in order to understand how the gospel overturns the ancient lie (with its current cultural forms). The gospel gives you God; the gospel lets you taste God’s goodness; and the gospel gives you clarity and discernment by giving you God’s view of the world; the gospel gives you the truth which sets us free.
VI. Where do we go from here?
A. The idols of our culture are supported by the ancient lie; therefore they cannot be tipped over by means of morality, rhetoric, political action, or social reform. The gospel alone is the power of God for salvation. The gospel is not just ‘how to get to heaven.’ The gospel is the radical antithesis of sin meeting divine justice at the cross of Christ so that sinners may meet the God of all grace. Therefore the gospel is a militant encounter between idols and the living God (1Thess 1:9). The gospel breaks the power of sin; but first it sheds its intense light to illuminate God’s character to our understanding, and it illuminates our bondage to idols.
B. Nothing has the power to extricate the sinner from the lie except the gospel. This exposure of modern idols by means of the evangel is what it means to press the claims of the gospel; for the power of the gospel is evidenced in the kingdom transfer from darkness to light; from the lie to the truth—the restoration of the helpless sinner to God and His will. Thus the gospel defines the exact contours of the battle front between truth and error—between the lies which enslave and the truth of Christ which liberates (Acts 14:15).
C. Cultural issues today are framed in the way in which they are BECAUSE the erroneous worldview behind that ‘framing’ is anchored in the worship of created things. This is the very reason why we must see the gospel as more extensive than merely granting eternal life to the undeserving sinner. The gospel is a lens which allows us to see that there are only two worldviews—the worship of God and the worship of the creation (and the creature) (Rom 1:18-23).
The better we understand this contrast (or antithesis), the more equipped we will be to effectively preach the gospel to this generation. Here is the reason why: biblical worldview allows us to see with clarity the structure of unbelief and the content of unbelief. Man’s love of autonomy makes him easy prey for the lie that ideas do not have eternal consequences. Man’s love of darkness means that he places his own mind on the same level as the mind of Almighty God. At the heart of human rebellion is the demand to retain autonomous reason so that the creature (in his imagined independence) becomes the definer instead of God. The more clearly we see the sinner’s dilemma (with its present cultural forms of the ancient lie); the better able we will be to speak grace into his situation.
D. Worldviews are in conflict—energized by the spiritual battle of the ages. The destinies resulting from these two respective worldviews could not be further apart—eternal heaven versus unending perdition under the wrath of God. Therefore Christian students must be trained to speak God’s truth into the darkness as an act of supreme love. To fail to do so—to attempt to solve the worldview dichotomy and quandary by the desultory behavior of trying to live between the two worldviews is tantamount to retreat (desultory: straddling two horses) .
E. It is a great misnomer to imagine that one may go through life in Yahweh’s world without a totalizing meta-narrative (an overarching worldview) which controls every action, decision, and affection. Students who think that they can find de-militarized ground in this battle of the ages are greatly mistaken. To pretend that one is standing on neutral ground is to compromise in an attempt to survive—but this is not surviving. To go along in order to get along is not true peace. Our culture’s growing enmity toward biblical Christianity is forcing our hand. This can be a good thing because we are being confronted with the fact that reaching for imagined middle ground does not faithfully represent our Savior. Redefinition in the name of democratization and freedom is taking place at breakneck speed in our culture.
F. Biblical antithesis is what is called for. To follow Christ is to be a worldview-changer— every single true believer lives as a disciple of Christ: employing biblical discernment with a willingness to speak the Word of God into every situation. To follow the Savior is to answer the gospel call to an antithetical life. Our relativized culture imagines that absolute truth cannot be known. Our culture postulates that even if the truth were known, God’s authority would not be standing behind the truth. As a consequence, the culture is all too ready to give a ‘free pass’ to those who embrace its man-centered redefinitions. The Christian who owns his biblical worldview publicly must face the reality that he will be ostracized to some degree (Jn 15:18-25).
G. The rising generation has grown up fearing giving offense. Sadly, they have all too often measured their social effectiveness by the very base standard of being liked. What is really needed by followers of Christ to live under His eye, for His approval (Jn 12:42-43; 5:39-44). Then, and only then is it possible to find one’s place in the battle of the ages. The uniqueness of Christ is the unifying truth in our biblical worldview. As Lord of the cosmos and Lord of the church He gives us the clarity to see what is at stake in this ages-long battle.
VII. The key to understanding the culture war: there are only two ways of being spiritual (Romans chapter one):
A. A close examination of Romans chapter one reveals that there are only two possible views of reality, and thus only two ways of being religious. We could refer to these two different ways of perceiving reality as one-ism, and two-ism (Peter Jones). One-ism suggests that all is one —everything shares the same essence—everything is a part of everything else, including God! Those who buy into one-ism hold to a closed universe. In the closed universe view; proponents of this error attempt to explain what’s in the box (by ‘box’ we mean universe) by what’s in the box (including the explanation of man). In other words they attempt to explain the creation by the creation.
This view is known as naturalism or materialism (and is foundational to pantheism). By contrast, the open universe view proclaims the non-negotiable truths of biblical theism—that our transcendent Creator has spoken to us infallibly in His Word and in His Son (Heb 1:1-3) and He acts upon the created universe from outside of it—He is not a part of it. It is dependent upon Him; not the other way around.
God’s self-revelation, the Bible, is God’s authoritative word from outside the time/space/mass continuum. God is not a part of the time/space/mass continuum we call the universe. In the Scriptures God is telling things we could not have known apart from His revelation. The Bible defines reality as God Himself and His relationship to what He has created (Rom 11:36). God has direct control of what He has made. He owns it; upholds it; directs it; sustains it. He invaded history in the Person of Jesus Christ. But when Christ returns in glory; it will not be as suffering servant next time. He will return as Conqueror to subdue every enemy of God (1 Cor 15:23-28; Heb 9:27-28).
Biblical theism (or two-ism) emphasizes that reality is built upon ‘two-ness.’ In other words God has created the world and its contents by forming distinctions (separating light from darkness; separating woman from man; etc). Only as these divinely ordained distinctions are preserved do we have a true knowledge of God; of the creation; and of man and his place in the universe.
B. Biblical two-ism proclaims that reality can only be understood if we embrace the distinctions God has made. The foundational distinctions our Creator has put in place are: the distinction between Creator and creature; the distinction between male and female; the distinction between man and animal; and the distinction between right and wrong. Now here is where things get sticky. Our culture has been moving away from two-ism at warp speed. One-ism is gaining ground in politics, education, and religion. Our young people are increasingly hearing that the worldview of one-ism represents the best opportunities for liberty, democracy, fairness, and unity. This growing popularity of this mindset places Christians in a difficult situation: God’s view of the world is being eclipsed as the progressives frame the issues of our day in accordance with one-ism. The authoritative categories given to us by God (about Creator-creature; man-woman; right-wrong) are increasingly regarded as outmoded, thus in the public arena they are eroding at a frightening rate.
C. Christians are often mute in the face of one-ism’s assault on God’s truth. Believers need equipping so that they can frame the issues according to biblical worldview, and then speak the truth with confidence. The gospel bestows renewed courage because it gives us the categories by which we may rightly understand reality. The divine vantage point of two-ism (stressing the infinite distinction between Creator and creature) thoroughly informs us what to believe and how we are to live. The gospel is our infallible ‘lens’ through which we accurately view God, the creation, and ourselves.
The gospel gives us God’s authoritative view of the world. First, the gospel believed brings us all the way to God through Christ’s perfect substitution for sinners. Second, the gospel makes us true worshippers who worship God in spirit and in truth. Third, the gospel gives us God’s view of male and female, of our bodies, and of our relationships. This is precisely where one-ism and two-ism have radically contradictory ethics. The gospel tells us that our bodies are ‘for the Lord’—to serve Him and to love and serve others in purity (1 Cor 6:13). One-ism views the human body far differently (as belonging to self and as part of god instead of the image of God). Because one-ism’s way of seeing is bound up in worshipping the creature and the creation instead of God, one-ism can only leave its adherents stuck in idolatry.
D. The gospel delivers from idolatry by letting us find our identity and happiness in God instead of in created things. Romans one is invaluable in setting forth the two worldviews of belief and unbelief in stark contrast. We hope that through this material you are discovering fresh ways to discuss the truth with your friends, many of whom are no doubt looking for answers as to how Christianity may be reconciled with the prevailing views of our culture today.
Through the profound simplicity of Romans one, with its emphasis on only two ways of being religious, you can help your friends see how the gospel message of Christ’s uniqueness equips us to successfully navigate through the maze of contradictory worldviews.
VIII. Christ has commissioned you as His ambassadors—therefore, it is time to find your place in the battle of the ages:
A. Believing students frequently have but a vague notion of the spiritual battle in which they are engaged—they are tempted to write off this opposition to historic Christianity as a ‘cultural issue’ that they have to accept. This is why a comparison of the two worldviews is such vital equipping. It opens up the understanding to the fact that the new tolerance (while making strident appeals for fairness and inclusion) is radically exclusivistic; and not inclusivistic as it claims to be.
The exclusivist agenda (posing as inclusivist) of the new tolerance is hidden inside the Trojan horse of ‘fairness.’ The new tolerance is unbendingly monistic (monism meaning the oneness of all things, or one-ism). It opposes the divinely ordained distinctions that are inherent in biblical theism. This erroneous worldview behind the new tolerance is a deadly weapon used to normalize sin; death; and sexual immorality, and to dispense with need for regeneration by the Holy Spirit. What remains are variations on the utopian theme—mankind, through the pursuit of social justice, social engineering, and sexual politics will usher in a new age of equality and prosperity.
B. When we see today’s issues through the Word of Christ, we will have the clarity we need to discern our culture. We will have the biblical worldview tools and biblical framework necessary to resolve the cultural issues of our day without compromise. Christ’s Word provides the strength we need to pursue transformation by the truth with boldness and confidence. By contrast, students living between (or straddling) the two worldviews are hoping to defuse the antipathy with niceness; harmlessness; and dialectic. That is not the example set by our Lord. He kept joined what our culture is desperate to tear apart—Jesus kept joined truth and love—mercy and justice. Christ did not seek harmony and peace by relativizing truth and morality. He proclaimed the message given Him by His Father in heaven. Turn from your idols —for they are your actual oppressors and destroyers (1 Thess 1:9-10).
C. Students need to see that there are two historic worldviews locked in combat. And they need to see the immensity of the consequences of each of these worldviews. The present form of the ancient lie is using the charge of intolerance to tear apart truth and justice and mercy.
The very idea of lawless love (‘love’ without justice; without God’s moral absolutes) is central to the Edenic Lie. Lucifer implied to Eve that she could choose right and wrong for herself without divine consequences. What does it cost to put us back in possession of the truth? Let us never forget that the price to restore us to the truth was the death of Jesus Christ, the Truth Incarnate. Jesus dies to put us back in possession of God’s truth. There is so much at stake—life and love at stake—eternity at stake. We cannot be mute, it is the blood bought truth that sets sinners free (Jn 8:31-36).