A Christian Worldview

Dr. Adam Blehm suggests that Christians have “uniquely marked” beliefs about the world. For example, we obviously believe that God exists. We believe that human beings are valuable. We believe in right and wrong. Here are some features to a Christian worldview.

1. God exists and is involved in the world.

Christians are theists. “In the beginning, God…” (Gen. 1:1; John 1:1). Christians are not deists, who believe God created the world but is no longer involved. Christians can vary in how much they think God intervenes and acts in the world. But we, at the very least, think that God interrupted history in creation and redemption, and we believe he is at least watching and concerned about the course of history. Most Christians have long believed that God is actively at work in the world and in our lives.

2. God is the most real thing.

Christians are oriented around God as the most real and most important thing. There is a spiritual realm where God is, and it orients everything that exists in the universe. Within this belief, some Christians treat the spiritual realm as far more important than this physical one. Some treat the ideas in God’s mind as the key to understanding and living in the world. Others strongly downplay any “dualism” of body and spirit, focusing on living out the faith here. Many try to balance a focus on body and spirit.

3. Who are we?

Christians believe that all human beings are created in the image of God and, thus, that all humans are intrinsically valuable. No one can be discarded as worthless. We are rather to love our neighbor and enemy (Matt. 5:43-48; 22:37-40). 

However, another core Christian belief is that we are fallen. “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). We are born with a “bent to sinning.” We are thus all in need of Christ’s redemption. 

4. What is the nature of right and wrong?

Christians have always looked to Scripture as the greatest and most definitive source of our knowledge of good and evil as well as right and wrong. Many Christians look to God’s nature as the ultimate measuring rod of right and wrong. The good is that which God embodies, and we are to live our lives in accordance with his nature. Scripture then reveals his nature to us.

Within these general beliefs, some Christians emphasize God’s nature as love (1 John 4:7-8), making love the core criterion for what is right and wrong (Matt. 22:37-40). Others gravitate more to the sense that God is holy (Lev. 11:44-45; 1 Pet. 1:15-16) and thus that the key to right and wrong is keeping all God’s commandments in Scripture (John 14:15).

5. How do we know what is true?

Scripture obviously plays the central role in the Christian understanding of what is true. At the same time, Christians throughout the centuries have sometimes worn different glasses as they have read the Bible using different hermeneutics. A hermeneutic is an approach to interpretation. Some are unaware of their hermeneutic. They take a “what you see is what you get” approach that is unaware of its own assumptions. 

For example, some assume the Bible is about ideas and is merely an answer book to intellectual questions. Others might assume that the Bible is a rule book, primarily a book of dos and don’ts. For still others, the Bible is a divine meeting place, a place to encounter God and be transformed. We are often unaware of the core hermeneutical assumptions we have when coming to the Bible, and yet they determine much of what we take away from it.

Many Wesleyans have spoken of Wesley’s quadrilateral. Although not a concept that Wesley himself developed, it is the idea that we can discover God’s will in Scripture, in tradition, through reason, and through experience. These are not all the same, of course, since Scripture is the primary element. Nevertheless, God also has spoken throughout the church, and it should be obvious that we use reason and experience to figure out the world every day.

6. Where is history headed?

Orthodox Christians believe that history is headed toward Christ’s return and the full establishment of the kingdom of God “on earth as it is in heaven.” At death, there is a heaven to gain and a hell to shun. But, even more so, there will be a resurrection of all the dead when Christ returns. Historically, Christians have seen the kingdom of God being established on a renewed earth, where we will live for all eternity. On a popular level, many have seen heaven as our eternal destiny.

From the preceding, you can see that there are certain core elements in a Christian view of the world. However, there have also been variations in perspective on some of the details. It is very important for us to come to realize our hidden assumptions because these “steer our ship,” so to speak. It is one thing to know what you believe. It is a quite different thing to know what unexamined assumptions you have underlying those beliefs, for these are what are really driving the ship of our interpretations of the Bible, the world, and what are most shaping the decisions we make.