A Christian Thinker

By L. R. R.

What Is A Worldview?

What it is a worldview? “Weltanschauung” or worldview in German simply means a person’s thinking or understanding is the sum total of everything that person believes. There are many ways we want to interpret our world and it really depends upon your presupposition, for example, you can be an anarchist, communist, criminal, Nazi, guru, and even a satanist. Let me give you an example. I was a satanist before I came to finally acknowledge Christ as my Lord and Savior. My weltanschauung was satanism (read my testimony for more details) to explain my understanding of  “reality” as I lived my life.

I thought that the world as I saw it then were meaningless and purposeless if not also dreadfully uninteresting. I saw Christians, according to my worldview, as my enemies because they were hypocrites and did not live according to what they preach and that they served my arch enemy which was God. Within my world and life view, compassion, love, and mercy was for the weak and should be ignored by a satanist (I’m not speaking for all satanist). Satanist worldview helped me to understand what was true and real back then.

A New Pair of Christian Eyeglass

Worldview can be similar or analogous to a pair of intellectual eye glass. I had a satanist eyeglass to view my world but this eye glass was, as I know it now, did not helped me to see more clearly about reality and truth. It was Jesus Christ who took away my satanistic eyeglass and gave me a new pair of Christian eyeglass and it did change my worldview and remarklby so. Not only that Christ administered me with a new lens, he also forgive my sins. I never took off the eyeglass of Christian worldview since then and I see more clearly that life has a meaning and is purposefully handed to us by our Creator. As a Christian my worldview holds to a belief that Satan will be conquered and the world is more than just the physical. And since a God of life, righteous, goodness, and truthfulness exists then life has its meaning, objective truth and moral values undeniably exist. This is now my weltanschauung and it is pretty much consistent with reality.

Are There Contrasting Worldviews?

Satanist worldview, as I see it now, did not conform with the reality and structure of how things work. Satanism is one among many ways one tries to explain and accept as reality of the world. It is of most importance what kind of worldview we embrace because what ever one perceives the world consciously or otherwise have consequencess for ill or for good. Our particular ways of understanding of the world does not only affect ourselves but also affects those whome we love as well.

I believe and argue that not all welstanschauung are comparable with each other system of thought because they remarkbly contradicts with each other. Put this simply, one of these competing worldviews are wrong and should not be embrace. So, “choose you this day!” which worldview fits and conform with reality. Before we can even take our first step in chosing worldview we must identify these contrasting way of perceiving our world. There are various system of thought out there: Atheism, Pantheism, Deism, and Agnosticism. We will try to investagate some of the predomenant worldviews mentioned above. Let us first consider the worldview of atheism.

• Atheism

Atheism believes that God or gods does not exist, either beyond the universe (transcendent) and within it (immanent). They contend that the universe is self-sustaining apparatus.  According to a atheistic explaination of the universe, either the universe is eternal or it came about by random chance–by accedent–through billions of years ago. Humans wasn’t created by a fiat God but evolved through natural selection decades ago, and does not have a soul. There are no such thing as absolute virtue in morality because morality of evil and goodness is part of our evulotionary make-up. Thus, God is not needed to tell us what is right and what is wrong. The distation of humanity is neither heaven or hell but grave that’s it and that’s that plain and simple, says atheistic worldview. Atheism is also some form of a religion (naturalism) in a sense like Jainism or Buddhism.

• Pantheism

Another major worldview is pantheism, the belief that God is the universe and humans true self is God. Accoeding to pantheism God is one, infinite and usually impersonal; he is the universe. The materialistic universe is an illusion, God alone is the ultimate reality. Evil, pain, and suffering are nothing but illusion caused by errors of the mind. Pantheism are represented by certain forms of Hinduism, Zen Buddhism and the New Age.

• Deism

Deism postulates that a supernatural being such as God created the universe to only left it out to work for itself. For a deistic mind, God is somehow disinterested and inactive when it comes to human affairs. He is just only a spectator who observes His creation but do not interacts. So, the God of deism is wholly transcendent and not immanent. God created us and leaved us on our own.

• Agnosticism

The worldview of agnosticism does not exhaustively role out God’s existence but that we as humans cannot know for sure that there is such a God (soft agnosticism). Even if there was one we cannot know it for sure (dogmatic agnosticism) says the agnostic. Thus the worldview of agnostics pleads ignorance, and even paves the way to atheism.

• Christian Theism

Christian theism believes that the observable material universe is not eternal nor did it came by chance. The universe including us was created by God a finite time ago. God is not part of the universe but apart from His creation (transcendent). Humans, did not evolved through painful gradual step of evolution but was created in the image of God (imago de) and therefore, humans are intrinsically valuable. Unlike the god of deists God deals with humanity and even interacts with them (immanent). God is one, personal, morally perfect, holy, just and infinite in all His attributes. The wordlview according to a Christian believes that evil, suffering and pain is not an illusion but rather real caused by our own choice. Furthermore, evil in its presence form will be defeated by God sometimes in the near future. Morality is not relative but objective, absolute, prescriptive and is grounded in the nature of God.

I haven’t summarized these worldviews in a deeper lever and in a more concise way but my objective is to give you, at least, a simple overview and I advise you to further study these worldviews later in depth if you want. Remember though, that chosing a particualr worldview does not make it your own reality because as I emphasized earlier not all of these predominant worldviews applies to reality since they all contradicts with each other. Not all can be correct at the same time in the same respect, some of these understanding of the world is in grave error. Again, the probability that the Christian weltanschauung are more coherent with the universe and all of its reality are more plausible is beyond any doubt.

By L. R. R.

“Global warming” has been or still is the leading news marketing both in our local and international news media. How much of it is true and how much of it is exaggeration is not of my concern here in this article. My main purpose here however is far more important and far more relevant than the hypes of the so called Global warming and this subject of my concern is Noah’s Flood. I will be dealing with the question whether The Flood where global or local.

    Most Protestant evangelicals agrees that a flood such that of Naoh’s did happened in time past but do they agree the details of the Flood that are accounted for in our Bible? Conservative Christians may agree that there were a huge flood a cataclysmic event that occurred just as the Scripture teaches us but not all are in accordance when it comes geographic account of the flood. Some says that Noah’s Flood where local and other still says that it was definitely global just as the Bible tells us.

    Both sides of this debate argues with scientific and biblical sophistication that ordinary people such as you and me can be lost and not understand their arguments for or against global flood. Since I’m not a scientist and not an specialist in geology I will argue for the global flood biblically and will refer to some knowledgeable experts who specializes in this area. I respect and understand those who argue for the local flood event. They have good and convencing arguments yet their thesis fall far short when examened closely biblically and scientifically.

The Flood Narrative of The Scripture

    Whether you are a local flood defender or not one thing is for sure no one of us was there to experienced and testify this cataclysmic and horrible event only Noah and his family had the priviledge to witness this catastrophy. The reason we know that there was a global (worldwide) Flood because the Bible describes it, and does so in considerable detail. But, not all accepts the Scripture as a reliable evidence about Noah, his ark and the Flood. I for one believes that the Bible is inerrant and infallible and is absolutely trustworthy in whatever it reports about the past (The Fall, the Flood, the Virgin birth and the Resurrection etc,). I’ll put more my trust in God’s word (the Scripture) than in science which obviously always changes and written only by fallible humans that undoubtedly makes greviously mistakes. Now do not misunderstand me to say that I rather rely in faith than reason and science because this is not what I’m saying here on the contrary there are good and overwhelming scientifical evidence for the worldwide flood. What I am emphasizing here is that if we always prioritize mans word over God then we’ll no doubt miss what God is trying to tell us. In short science should be evaluated under the Bible and not the other way around.

Noah’s Ark 

    The local flood defenders explains that the Flood was confined to somewhere around Mesopotamian region and never really covered the whole earth. Is this true? Let us now turn to our Scripture and find out what it really says. We read about Noah, his family and the Flood in Genesis 5:29;6-9. In Genesis chapter 6-8 is my main concern here. God saw the wickedness of men was great in the earth (v.5) and decided to destroy them (v.7) But not all were evil because God found Noah to be righteous and good and that he walked with God (v.9). Since God was disatified with his creature and decided to fall judgment upon them by flood He commanded Noah to build an ark (v.14). Not just any ark but enormous ark.

    God instructed Noah exactly what this ark should be and how it is going to function properly in any given circumstancies and eventually will serve its purpose. We read these instruction in how to build and this ark specifically in Genesis 6:14-16 and it read;

“Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch. And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits. A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it.”

    God knew what the flood would look like and therefore He made it sure that Noah get these instructions properly and if ignored will probably have great consequences. Noah was probably the first and best engineer during his life time and of course he did not build this giant ark on his own but was probably assisted by the rest of his family. This is only by far an assumption. It took Noah more than a hundred years to accomplish this task.

Animals Gathered and Transported

    After the great construction of the ark God gave a second command to Noah by gathering animals in pairs; male and female. Surely this order by assembling animals in pairs must have an ultimate purpose. Of course any given command by God has a purpose. But what I’m trying to say is why should God bother to let Noah build an ark when He could have just snapped His fingers then there is the ark! Or why should God bother to gather His former created animals when He could have just created new kinds of animals or species if you will. This is because the account of Genesis is not legendary or myths but a factual events. The writter of Genesis could have written that God snapped His fingers or something like that then there was ark and why bother causing flood when He could have just killed all the animals on earth by God’s power and created new ones. But this is not what happened and therefore further confirms that Genesis is not a myth but historical.

    God told Naoh to assembly animals two by two, male and female and this we read in Genesis 17-21;

“And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die. But with thee will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons’ wives with thee. And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female. Of fowls after their kind, and of cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind, two of every sort shall come unto thee, to keep them alive. And take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten, and thou shalt gather it to thee; and it shall be for food for thee, and for them.”

God’s Emphasis Universal

    After Noah finished his assignment by building the ark, and after Noah assemblied animals by pair God brough judgment upon mankind. In Genesis 7:19-23 we read God’s awful judgment upon mankind and creatures by the way of flood that will destroy most of the living organism which existed that day. It is quite clear and obvious that God’s intention wasn’t just a local flood but worldwide as we read the Bible;

“ And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered. Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered. And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man: All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died. And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark.”

    In the Flood narratives, the frequency of the word kol literally means “all,”or “every.” The words that God so frequently used “all” and “every” doesn’t occur in my understanding to be “some” or “few” but God said (all, every) it and really meant it that there were going to be a universal flood. Mountains (not just a few mountains) were “covered” or “drowned.” All that was on the dry land died. The Bible doesn’t just say few on the dry land, but All on the dry land died. And that All flesh died that moved upon the earth. All is a universal statement and this would not make any sense if every or all means some or few only statement. In his monumental book Encyclopedia Of Bible Difficulties, Gleason Archer is perhaps one of the leading Old Testament scholar who rejected local Flood and he wrote,

“And the waters prevailed more and more upon the earth, so that all the high mountains everywhere under heaven [lit. 'which were under all the heavens' or 'under the whole sky'] were covered. Now the most elementary knowledge of physical law leads to the observation that water seeks its own level…the episode here described lasted more than a year; and there is therefore far more involved here than a temporary surge.”¹

    Now that we have examined the scriptural passages rather abruptly questions arises at this very moment. If God intended for the flood to be local, why should have he commanded Noah to build an ark when He could have order him to take a hike somewhere where this flood could not reached? Why did God send these animals in pair male and female (probably to reproduce) or why should he bother assembling them when there where other animals that could have repopulate the area? Why would birds should be send on the ark when it only could have transferred and flewn away to the nearest mountain? Besides, why is there local floods that frequently happens worlwide if He had promised not to send such a flood once again? We could similarly ask, if the Flood where local, how could the waters rise to 20 feet (6m) above the mountains? “Water seeks its own level; it could rise to cover the local mountains while leaving the rest of the world untouched” exclaimed Ken Ham². In addition to our present subject the Bible uses an special word when it speaks of Noah’s flood: Hebrew mabbul and Greek kataklusmos (verb katakluzo) these words are not used when speaking of localized floods, such as Hebrew sheteph, nahar, nachal, zaram and Greek plemmura.³

Before closing this subject at hand allow me to qoute the comments of John Morris  about the Flood. He said that, “Let me urge you to read carefully Genesis 6-9?chapters dealing with the Flood. If God was really trying to describe a local flood, He surely could have written a little more clearly, for over and over again the wording demands a global flood. In fact, I have counted more than 100 times when the wording implies a global flood. It is true that some of the individual words could be understood in a local sense, but in the context, no other position than that of a global flood is defensible.”⁴

Resources

1. Gleason L. Archer, Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties, Grand Rapid, Zondervan, 1982, p. 82-84.

2. Ken Ham (General Editor), The New Answers Book, Master Books p. 137

3. Jonathan Sarfati, Refuting Compromise, Master Books, p.243

4. http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v12/i2/noah.asp

By L. R. R. 

Etymology

The etymology of the word “Protestant,” is derived from Latin, Pro “for” and testari “witness,” and/or protestatio meaning “declare.” The Protestant Church encompasses the Christian doctrines and practice that separated from the Roman Catholic Church emanated from the Reformation of 16th century. Although reform movements have been a feature of the Christian church throughout its history and were particularly evident in the 14th and 15th centuries, most Protestants date the beginning of their movement to 1517.

The Reformation

 The Protestant Reformation was a transition in Europe that began with Martin Luther’s activities in 1517, with roots further back in time. It ended with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. The movement began as an attempt to reform the Roman Catholic Church. Many western Christians were troubled by what they saw as false doctrines and malpractices within the Roman Catholic Church, particularly involving the teaching and sale of indulgences. The term Protestant was formerly applied to followers of an Augustinian monk Martin Luther, who protested at the Diet of Spires (1529) against the decree that prohibited all further ecclesiastical reforms, which reaffirmed the edict of the Diet of Worms against the Reformation. Since that time, the term Protestantism has been used in many different senses, often as a general term to refer to Western Christianity that is not subject to Roman Catholic and papal authority. Other influential reformers included John Calvin, Ulrich Zwingli, and John Knox. Protestantism rejected attempts to tie God’s revelation to earthly institutions and strictly adhered to the Word of God as sole authority in matters of faith and practice (sola scriptura).

When the Protestant Reformers of the 1500s began to emphasize justification by faith alone, the universal priesthood of the believer and the authority of scripture alone, they did not mean that individual Christians should dethrone the faith once delivered to the saints (Jude 1:3) through the Roman Catholic Church. On the contrary, Reformers such as Luther and Calvin discovered these doctrines through reading both the Scriptures and the writings of the Church fathers. They found that in Augustinian Christianity — sola gratia, sola fide, sola scriptura; were well known doctrines.

The Protestant Reformation Doctrines

The doctrines of the Protestant church which began from the Reformation can be summarized as the Five Solas (“only” or “alone”) and these are:

1. Sola Scriptura — Means, Scripture Alone,  is authoritative for the faith and practice of the Christian. The Bible is complete, authoritative, and true. “All Scripture is ‘God breathed’ (given of inspiration of God) and is profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, instruction in righteousness…” (2 Timothy 3:16). No traditions of churches  are nedeed. God’s Word is sufficiently enough.
2. Solo Christus – means by faith in Christ’s Alone are we saved. Thus, no need wasting our time in doing good deeds and asking forgiveness to a priest, hoping that you’ll eventually end up in heaven. It is enough by having your trust and personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Church cannot help you. No churches, no pastors, no elders, no institutions, or priests or anybody else can save us from our sinful state but Christ alone. Pope cannot help you but Christ alone!
3. Sola Gratia — means Salvation by Grace Alone A central cry of the Reformation was salvation by grace. The biblical doctrine of salvation by grace through faith (Ephesians 1:3-8). Our righteous standing before God is imputed to us by grace because of the work of Christ Jesus our Lord. In contrast to the doctrines of self-merit taught by the Church of Rome.
4. Sola Fide — Of course means, Justification By Faith Alone. The “Material Principle” of the Reformation was justification by faith alone. For those who are not familiar with the meaning of “justification by faith alone,” is God’s act of declaring or making a sinner righteous before God. Justification, from the Greek (dikaio¨­), “to declare/make righteous”, is a Scriptural term, occurring in the books of Romans, Galatians, Titus, and James; the root noun righteous occurs throughout both Old and New Testaments.
5. Soli Deo Gloria — means, Glory To God Alone, is the teaching that all glory is to be due to God alone. We should not rob God from our praise. Only God deserves our recognition and worship. The pope does not deserve to be praised nor worship or any other human being, because, this alone belongs to God our Savior.

The five solas above are the marks of an uncompromising Protestant and was stressed by the great reformers. Not only was the five solas emphasized and preached, it is also most likely what the Scripture teaches. While the faiths and churches born directly or indirectly of the Protestant Reformation constitute Protestantism, in common usage, the term is often used in contradistinction to Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy. The Anglican Church (also called Episcopalian Church), although born of the Protestant reformation, differs from the reformation principles of mainstream Protestants and is referred to as a middle path (a via media) between Roman Catholic and Protestant doctrines. Yet some other groups, such as the Mormons and the Jehovah’s Witnesses, reject Protestantism as having deviated from true Christianity and see themselves as restorationists. More radical style of Protestantism appeared on the left wing of the movement. Anabaptists, Mennonites, and others rebaptized Christians and initiated them into a reconstruction that drastically rejected Roman Catholic practices even where Lutheranism, Calvinism, and Anglicanism did not.

Protestant Denominations

Protestants often refer to specific Protestant churches and groups as denominations to imply that they are differently named parts of the whole church.There are many denominations within the Protestant church alone.  According to one source, there are 8,196 denominations within Protestantism. There are about 590 million Protestants worldwide. These include 170 million in North America, 160 million in Africa, 120 million in Europe, 70 million in Latin America, 60 million in Asia, and 10 million in Oceania. Nearly 27% of the 2.1 billion Christians in the world are Protestants. Each denomination has its own distinctive beliefs or practices, but they are commonly considered branches of the same religion because they agree on such fundamentals as the Bible, the Trinity, and the teachings of the Nicene Creed.

As far as I know the Protestant Reformers restored to the body of Christ the doctrine of sola scriptura. Christ and his majesty has been lifted up to its right place and so is the Bible. God gives a man right standing with Himself by mercifully accounting him innocent and virtuous. But this is not so with the Roman Catholic Church (RCC). The RCC teaches that If the sinner is granted right standing with God through faith (“born-again”), he will then experience transformation of character. The Protestant position, however, concludes that sinner becomes “born-again” (the regenerating, transforming process of character), he will achieve right standing with God. Finally, Protestant conveys that we receive right standing with God by faith alone and we achieve right standing with God by accepting the fact that He obeyed the law perfectly for us.

Written by L. R. R.

1. Biblical inerrancy
2. The divinity of Jesus
3. The Virgin Birth
4. The belief that Jesus died to redeem humankind
5. An expectation of the Second Coming, or physical return, of Jesus Christ to initiate his thousand-year rule of the Earth, which came to be known as the Millennium.