Out of the Driveway, Into the Game: Chapter 4

Chapter 4 – Putting on the Right Glasses

As a high school boy’s basketball coach, one of the biggest struggles that I had each new basketball season was in getting my players to think about the game of basketball and the concept of “team” in the proper way. My players often saw basketball as one of the few options they had to get out of the situation of their life. They also saw basketball as a means to get recognition, respect, girls, and the like. For them, then, the game was all about how much they could do. They had to get their points and look good doing it. They valued the aspects of the game that entailed long sequences of fancy dribbling, ankle breaking moves, and all-around flashy play. They hailed the players who talked the most trash and could execute high-flying dunks.

This is all well and good for the playground but it poses some serious impediments to building a team. The very skills that are most lauded on the playground are not at all conducive to team basketball. While they were dribbling all over and juking back and forth, looking for an opening so that they can drive in and get their own shot, their teammates just stood around watching, often getting upset with the player doing the showboating. Of course, the ironic part is that given their chance, they would do the exact same thing.

I spent several years attempting to solve this problem. We would run every kind of passing drill you could think of. I would have the players religiously run drills that emphasized the fundamentals of the game. I endlessly hollered at them about playing disciplined, team basketball rather than always being out for themselves, and we even disciplined and benched players that would not get the message of playing as a team. Like clockwork, though, they would get into a game and all of the drills; all of the plays we had worked on would go right down the drain. Presumably to the same mysterious place to where many of our team socks seemed to disappear. To my repeated horror, the game would degenerate into five separate games of one on one. So, we would go right back to our practice gym for more drills, more plays, and more talks about teamwork. To be honest, I had resigned myself to the fact that this problem could never be solved. It was very frustrating.
A few years back, though, the solution finally occurred to me. I was approaching the problem from the wrong perspective. My players were not intentionally choosing to play in a manner detrimental to the team; they were seeing the game through the wrong glasses. They did not really understand the concept of team. I decided to try to fix the root of the problem and stop worrying about the symptoms for the time being. We began conditioning a couple of weeks before we ever went to the gym and touched a basketball. My stated goal was to get the players in better shape, but my true intentions were to change the way they viewed the game, their teammates, and their own roles on the team. The conditioning drills that the team did were all centered on the concept of team. They had to do everything in groups or as a whole team. They ran sprints together and had to finish together. This forced a special awareness of where their teammates were. It did not matter how talented they were, they could only go as fast as everyone else on the team. We ran hills together. No one could be left behind. This encouraged them to identify the strengths and weaknesses of their teammates and to help those that were struggling. They even ran line drills (often called killers or suicides) while holding hands as a team. All the while I preached to them about being a team, being a unit, and being of one mind. As the days went on they drew closer to one another and began to truly care about and encourage each other. They knew that they couldn’t achieve the goals necessary to complete each drill until they reached them together.

Once it was time for the actual practices to start, I simply could not believe the difference. They were playing together. They no longer seemed to care about how many minutes of playing time they would get or who would start, or even who would take the shots and score the points. What was even more amazing was that when one of them started behaving selfishly, the rest of the team quickly took matters into their own hands and corrected the player on their own without the coaching staff having to get involved. This even culminated in the team captains requesting that one player be removed from the team for repeated selfish behavior.

That team came together like no team I had ever coached before. Their fundamental perspective of the game and the concept of team had changed. They overcame all kinds of adversity that season and accomplished more than any team in our school’s history. They won the Conference Championship and made it all the way to the State Championship game before finally succumbing. I could not have been more proud of that team of State runners-up than any State Championship could have brought. The difference in that team was not talent or ability. It was that they had learned how to think properly about the task that was before them. I did not have to worry about treating each individual incident that came up. As each new challenge arose, I simply reminded them of how they needed to think about things. They had learned to see the game of basketball from a team perspective and not from an individual perspective. Once they had adopted a team view of the game, they were ready for almost any obstacle that they would face.

The way we see the world can change everything. What we believe effects how we act. The way we look at the world, the glasses through which we see the entire world and everything in it, is our worldview. Everyone bases their thoughts, actions, and decisions on their worldview. They may not know that they have a worldview or be able to clearly identify it; it may even be very inconsistent, but everyone has one. The decisions that we make every day, even the seemingly small ones, are determined by our worldview.
Noted author and president of Summit Ministries, David Noebel defines worldview as “ . . . any ideology, philosophy, theology, movement, or religion that provides an overarching approach to understanding God, the world, and man’s relations to God and the World.”
Your worldview is the way you interpret all of reality. It is how you make sense of the world around you. You then make decisions based on how you interpret the reality of the world. Once my basketball players began to interpret every facet of the game of basketball in the framework of a team concept, they began to make decisions about everything they did from a team point of view.
It is impossible, however, to develop an effective and consistent worldview if one is not really aware of the concept at all. This is a huge area of deficiency in most Christian parenting in our fellowships. Worldview goes far beyond justification or believing in God, it is the application of the Christian way of viewing the world to every aspect of life.
At a fundamental level, every worldview must address these four areas:

1. From where did we come and who are we?
2. What has gone wrong with the world?
3. What can we do to fix the world?
4. What happens when we die?

Two things become readily apparent when looking at this list. The first is that every ideological system that attempts to answer these questions can not only be classified as a worldview but also as a religion. The second thing is that these questions are only the foundation for a worldview; they by no means constitute a comprehensive worldview.
Once these foundational questions have been answered, the remainder of the worldview can begin to form. The problem is that if you simply lay a foundation without constructing a building on top of it, someone will come along and put a building there. Mark 9:50 says to “have salt in yourselves . . .” This implies that we are to be filled up with salt. It is our job then to fill that saltshaker up for our children. The Bible mandates us to train our children in the proper way. If we don’t fill them up with a Biblical worldview, someone will fill them up with a worldview of their own. A majority of Christians that I know do not really see worldview as a major issue of the Christian life. According to George Barna, only 9% of adult Christians possess an authentic Christian worldview. The danger in this is that there is a very real, very aggressive segment of the world that is very aware of their worldview, and is extremely adamant about proselytizing.
Christians must learn to take the message of the Bible and apply it to every aspect of reality. In his work God, Revelation and Authority, Carl F.H. Henry speaks to the ultimate importance of teaching Christians a Bible-based view of the world:

“The task of Christian leadership is to confront modern man with the Christian world life view as the revealed conceptuality for understanding reality and experience, and to recall reason once again from the vagabondage of irrationalism and the arrogance of autonomy to the service of true faith.”

As the leaders of their household, it is up to the parents, then, to teach the concept of a Biblical worldview to their children. We must not only train them in the Biblical worldview but it is vital that we teach them about opposing worldviews. The most prevalent worldview that we face in America today is, of course, Secular Humanism. Parents must not minimize the importance of this worldview education nor be afraid of it. The big advantage that Christian parents have is that Christianity is the only worldview that provides a consistent explanation to all of the facts of reality.
None other than our first president, George Washington, said “Truth will ultimately prevail where there are pains taken to bring it to light.” If we train our children to think Biblically they will see the holes in the other worldviews and reject them. If we ignore this aspect of their training they will end up with a worldview that is a hodgepodge of Christianity and the various forms of Humanism.
We cannot expect our children to survive very long in a battle in which they do not know they are engaged. Francis Schaefer warns of this failure to apply a Christian worldview:

The basic problem of the Christians in this country in the last eighty years or so, in regard to society and in regard to government, is that they have seen things in bits and pieces instead of totals. They have failed to see that all of this [immorality, pornography, problems in public schools, the breakdown of the family, abortion, etc.] has come about due to a shift in the world view – that is, through a fundamental change in the overall way people think and view the world and life as a whole. This shift has been away from a world view that was at least vaguely Christian in people’s memory (even if they were not individually Christian) toward something completely different – toward a world view based upon the idea that the final reality is impersonal matter or energy shaped into its present form by impersonal chance.

Schaeffer’s point is that we are losing ground in the morals of America and ultimately in the lives of our children because we are not holding fast to a biblical worldview. Henry adds to this truth noting, “With some few gratifying exceptions, neither home nor church has shaped a comprehensive and consistent faith that stands noon-bright amid the dim shadows of spiritual rebellion and moral profligacy.”
Kids are attacked every day with opposing worldviews. They must be made aware of how, when, where, and why these attacks are coming from and who is responsible for them. They will receive differing values from their friends, TV, radio, media, teachers and even textbooks. They must realize that authentic Christianity can and must be applied not only to theology, but also to philosophy, ethics, biology, psychology, sociology, law, politics, economics, history, and many other areas
How can our children protect themselves when they don’t know they are in a fight? David Noebel refers to this fight as the “Second Great Civil War.” James Dobson and Gary Bauer classify it as a struggle “in the minds of people. It is a war over ideas.” The class worldview of the Secular Humanist and the burgeoning post-modern faction of Secular Humanism don’t agree on every point but they do agree on their radical opposition to the Christian worldview.
This constant attack on the Christian worldview results in value erosion. There are four aspects that become obvious in the life of Christian young people from this erosion:

1. Christian young people are not intellectually well grounded in their faith and therefore do not recognize the truth and power inherent in their worldview.


2. Parents have a premonition something is wrong, but cannot put their finger on it. Rarely do they realize their child is being seduced out of one worldview (Christianity) into another (Humanism).

3. Hostile or lukewarm educators stack the deck against Christians. The traditional family values and the Christian point of view seldom are justly represented. A 900-page biology textbook, for example, may contain 200 pages about evolution and only a line or two admitting that some “fundamentalist” Christians believe God created the heavens and the earth.

4. Christian parents are paying the salaries of Secular Humanist professors (through taxes and tuition) for the seduction of their own children! Taxpayers’ school children are taught almost exclusively the Secular Humanist religious worldview.

We must, as parents, rethink the techniques that we have been using to train and educate our children. Hosea’s words, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge,” (Hosea 4:6) can truly be applied to our children and their worldview. We must heed the words of Paul to the people of Colosse. “See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.” (Colossians 2:8)
This is not to argue that educating children in worldview training, or comparative theology, should be the only religious aspect in which they are trained. In fact, it need not be the most important aspect of their theological training. It should, however, be a present theme in all of the other theological aspects in which we train our children. These would include Biblical theology, systematic theology, philosophical theology, historical theology, covenantal theology, practical theology, and eschatological theology. This comparative theology is focused on the day-to-day living out of the Bible through every word, thought, and deed. What is poured into a person’s mind, matters.
Let me explain it like this. When my oldest son was about three we had a flight of stairs in our house that was about eight stairs high. He loved to take a running start, jump off of the top of the stairs and dive into my waiting arms where I was standing at the bottom. Of course, my wife hated that game, but we did it anyways. He could have played that game all day if I would have agreed to it. Why did he jump without hesitation every time? He jumped because he knew that I would catch him. What would have happened though, if while in midair during one of his leaps, I had been distracted, turned away and let him smash face first into the carpet? He may have gotten up and walked to the top of the steps, but I guarantee you that he would not jump. Why would he not jump? He would not jump because he was not a fool. His mind would have told him that this was a bad idea. In his heart he would love his daddy, wouldn’t he? Of course he would. But his mind would tell him to do something different, despite what was in his heart. What you pour into a person’s mind determines how they act, despite what is in their heart. This is the key to understanding the importance of teaching our children the proper worldview.
Sending our children into the world without proper preparation in worldview is setting them up to fail. We must develop their own comprehensive worldview, all the while teaching them the competing worldviews that they will face in the marketplace of ideas. Only training them in Bible stories and Christian beliefs is the equivalent of a young person shooting by him or her self in the driveway all the time. When the attack comes, they won’t be ready. The same will be true for our children if we don’t properly prepare them.
Misconception, assumptions, and presuppositions can be powerful things. They can give us a false sense of security. They can lead us to believe that we are safer or stronger than we really are. They can also leave us totally unprepared for the situation that is truly before us. They can leave us blind to the real world around us.
I believe one of the most powerful misunderstandings in the world today has to do with this clash of worldviews. Sadly, most Christians don’t understand the magnitude of the battle or the ferocity of the opponent. They have a vague idea that the ‘world’ can be a bad influence on us and our children, but most Christians I talk to have very little idea what the ‘world’ is or what they are up to.
Our culture today has bought into a very serious lie with some devastating repercussions. Our society has convinced the majority of Americans that religion can and should be separated from the rest of reality. We talk about keeping religion as a personal and private thing. We believe in separation of church and state. We turn our kids over to schools to educate them in the areas not covered by the Bible. In short, we have put our religion into a box. Oh, most Christians do not want to admit that, but the fact remains that for a large portion of us it is true. The earlier statement that only 9 percent of adult Christians hold a Biblical worldview provides evidence for this. That is, less than 10 percent of Americans who claim to be evangelical Christians attempt to apply the precepts of the Bible to every area of their life.
In broad terms there are two major competing worldviews in the United States right now: Biblical Christianity and Secular Humanism. Succinctly stated, Biblical Christianity is a religion and it is a worldview. Secular Humanism is every bit the religion and worldview that Christianity is.
Each of the two worldviews has supposed answers to the four central questions stated earlier that must be answered in order to have a complete worldview. They are the questions of how we got here, what went wrong, how do we fix it, and what happens when we die.
The Biblical worldview of course answers the question of how we got here with the special creation by God described in Genesis. The opening verse of the Bible tells us “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1) God reminds Job that it was indeed the almighty God who created the universe. He asked Job straight out, “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?” (Job 38:4) Scientists still struggle today to explain the origins of the universe and yet according to the Christian worldview this question is already answered. Paul reveals to us in Romans 1:20-21, “Since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.” Paul explained that the creation reflects and reveals the power and glory of God. Men are without excuse in ignoring the Creator because he has gone to great lengths to reveal his nature to us through his creation. One of the founders of modern science, Francis Bacon, said, “I had rather believe all the fables in the Legend, and the Talmud and the Koran, than wrought miracles to convince atheism, because his ordinary works convince.” He further added, “a little philosophy inclineth man’s mind to atheism; but depth in philosophy bringeth men’s minds about to religion.”
The Biblical worldview’s understanding of the Creator carries with it certain obligations. If there is a Creator then it is prudent for us to find out who He is and what He expects from us. Because there is a Creator, we know that there is a moral law giver. His law is sovereign over the universe and trumps any of man’s opinions or desires.
The Bible answers the question of what has gone wrong in the world in Genesis 3. Satan came to Eve in the form of a servant and attempted to convince her that God was lying to her and Adam and that they could become like gods if they ate from the forbidden tree. Eve was deceived and she also convinced Adam to eat from the tree. Before this the earth was perfect. God’s creation was very good. (Genesis 1:31) Before the fall of Adam and Eve there was no sin and no death. (Romans 5:12) Since the fall of Adam and Eve the entirety of creation has been twisted from its original perfection. (Romans 8:22) The Biblical worldview acknowledges that man is sinful by nature and that all have sinned and broken God’s law. (Romans 3:23, I John 3:4) The heart of man is wicked and deceitful beyond what we could ever fathom. (Jeremiah 17:9) This view of the nature of man greatly affects the Biblical worldview of almost every aspect including politics, law, ethics, etc. It was due to this very acceptance of the natural wickedness of man’s heart that led the founding fathers of America to institute the system of checks and balances. They wished to protect the people from the potential evil of individuals.
This aspect of the Biblical worldview helps us to understand the true nature of man. If left to his or her own devices, mankind will tend towards evil. This means that although humans should be given free choice, these choices must be tempered by morality. If man is left to his own devices to invent and interpret morality as he sees fit, chaos will ensue. There is no hope for utopia for man apart from God’s redeeming grace.
The next question resolved by Biblical Christianity is that of how we fix what has gone wrong. The obvious answer for the Christian is that we do not fix anything. It is the resurrection and redemption of Christ that will fix our individual problem. The problem of course is that due to the fact that we have all sinned, we deserve the punishment of death. By dying on the cross and becoming our Passover lamb, Jesus has given us the opportunity to have our sins forgiven and join him in heaven one day. The fact of the resurrection is really the fundamental tenet in the Christian worldview. Creation and the fall are both foundational and important but it is the resurrection that is truly the key that makes Biblical Christianity different from any other worldview. Paul informs us in his first letter to the Corinthians, fifteenth chapter, that if Christ is not raised from the dead then preaching is useless, faith is futile, he and the apostles are liars, death still has dominion over us and the earth, we have no hope of rescue from sin, and this life on earth is all there is. A world with no resurrection leaves an extremely bleak and depressing picture.
It is only through the redeeming blood of Jesus Christ that humans can fix what has gone wrong with the world. The root of all problems in the world is sin; only Jesus’ blood can fix it. Jesus has been given all authority in the world , however, and has commissioned His followers with that authority and dominion to not only save the world in eternity but also to transform it in the present time (Matthew 28:18-20; Matthew 5:13).
The final answer to the four worldview questions that lay the foundation of the Biblical worldview is what happens when we die. The Bible gives a clear answer on this topic as well as it does the previous three. The Bible says that a “man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). Every man will die but once. The Bible clearly denies any belief in reincarnation. This verse also shoots a hole in the belief that when man dies, that is it, we are extinguished. This Bible is clear that the duty of man is to keep God’s commandments and then be judged according to them (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14). Those who are clothed with Christ will receive the eternal reward of eternal life with Jesus, while those who remain dead in their sins will experience the second death (Romans 6:23). The second death will consist of being sent to Hades (Luke 16) until such time as Christ returns and they are cast into Gehenna (Matthew 25:41).
The Christian understanding of what happens when we die has large implications for the way we live while on earth. The righteous will receive eternal rewards while the unrighteous will be punished for their sins and their rejection of God. What we do here in temporal time while here on earth has eternal repercussions.
Proving that it is also a complete religious worldview philosophy, Humanism posits answers to all of these questions. The solution they propose for how we got here is naturalistic evolution. Naturalistic evolution presupposes six different types of evolution: Cosmic evolution, stellar evolution, chemical evolution, organic evolution, microevolution, and macroevolution. Microevolution, or small changes in species (variation) is the only type of evolution that has been specifically observed by science.
There is debate in the evolutionary community between two camps in the field of macroevolution. There are Darwinian evolutionists that argue that macroevolution happened extremely slowly over millions of years. More recently there has been another group that has developed primarily due to the weakness of the fossil record to support the Darwinian evolutionists. This idea is called punctuated equilibrium. It proposes that changes in species happened so quickly and freakishly that it left virtually no record in the fossil record. The belief in evolution is vital to Humanism. Without evolution, the Humanist religion basically crumbles. This is why the issue of creation and evolution, largely ignored by a majority of Christians, is so vital in the battle of worldviews.
The Secular Humanist’s rejection of a Creator God has major implications. If there is no God then there are no rules. Every human is left to their own devices and their own morality. Life is meaningless and we are here by pure cosmic chance if evolution is true. According to the Humanist view based on evolutionary theories, man is just a human animal. We have many vestiges of animal instinct and should have no more rights than do any animals.
In answering the problem of what has gone wrong with the world, the branches of Humanism differ slightly. They mostly agree that ultimately it is society that has caused the problems of the world. Humanism views the individual man as inherently good and he, therefore, cannot be blamed for society’s ills. Humanist Carl Rogers describes it this way: “I am not in the least blind to the brutality, cruelty, deceit, defensiveness, abnormality, and stupidity of much of human behavior. Yet there is nothing in my experience that would cause me to regard these as the most basic elements in human nature. Indeed I find that when the individual is given even an imperfect opportunity to grow, to develop, to become his potential, it is precisely these characteristics which he tends to leave behind.” Fellow Humanist Erich Fromm agrees: “The position taken by humanistic ethics that man is able to know what is good and to act accordingly on the strength of his natural potentialities and of his reason would be untenable if the dogma of man’s innate natural evilness were true.” Paul Kurtz, author of the Humanist Manifesto II, finds man to be “a perfectible human being.” Psychologist and Humanist, Abraham Maslow, sums up the view that persons are good in nature and society is to blame for the state of our world when he says, “Sick people are made by a sick culture; healthy people are possible by a healthy culture.” Due to this belief, Humanism calls for the abolition of all traditional societal institutions including the state, the traditional family, and the church.
The Humanist solution to fixing what has gone wrong in the world is implied in the very nature of the problem. If man is inherently good and it is society that has corrupted him, then we must simply wipe out our existing evil societies and create a new utopia. Different branches of Humanism diverge at how this utopia will be reached and what it looks like but they all agree that it is possible; that man can and will evolve to a god-like state in a perfect society. For the Communist Humanist it is the state of true Communism and the continuing dialectic. For the Secular Humanist it is the New World Order. For the New Age Humanist it is a utopia created by the self-actualization of each human who has evolved into a god-like state. In each instance it is the traditional family, the traditional church, and the state that is hindering this realization of utopia. For the Humanist, it is man himself who will realize salvation; there is no need for God.
The Secular Humanist answer to what happens when we die is simple, nothing. We are here by chance, this life is all there is, and then we cease to exist. There is no judgment after life. What we do here carries with it no implications for eternity because there is no eternity in the Secular Humanist worldview.
Very few Americans realize or believe that Humanism is in fact a religion. Biblical Christianity is so easy to identify as a religion. They have churches, and a Bible, and doctrine, and, of course, a set of clear and visible clergy that lead and direct the religion. What most people do not realize is that Secular Humanists have all of these things. They do have somewhat traditional style churches, which are becoming more prevalent. Many “Christian” denominations have also become so liberal that they are much closer to Humanism in belief and practice than actual Biblical Christianity. The Humanists also have one other type of place of worship and indoctrination that we have already discussed at length: The public school system of the United States. The Humanists have sacred books of sorts, which contains their beliefs and doctrines. They are the Humanist Manifesto I, Humanist Manifesto II, and Humanist Manifesto 2000. The clergy of the Humanist movement is not probably who you would expect. For the most part, however, the men and women who lead the education, direction, and belief system of the Humanist movement are none other than scientists. Please be very clear here. I am not bashing science, nor am I trying to stereotype all scientists. Science is a wonderful way to reveal the creation and order of God. I do not have an ax to grind with science, I am not afraid of science. I am not anti-science. The fact remains, however, that evolution is the undeniable foundation for Secular Humanism. Most scientists perpetuate evolution. Without evolution, there is no major Humanist movement. It is in reality the scientists, then, that lead the ever-growing faith of Humanism. The evangelists of Secular Humanism are the teachers of the public schools.
It would be good here to give a definition of religion. According to the American Heritage Dictionary, religion is “A cause or activity pursued with zeal or conscientious devotion.” According to this definition, Humanism would definitely fall into the category of a religion.
The extremely unfortunate part of all of this is that most people do not recognize Humanism as a religion. Most people perceive scientists, a majority of whom are ardent Humanists, as unbiased, objective, nearly infallible arbiters of truth and fact. Most people are deceived into believing that evolution is science. In fact, it is not science at all. The American Heritage Dictionary defines science as “The observation, identification, description, experimental investigation, and theoretical explanation of phenomena. Knowledge gained through experience.” Evolution fails to meet either of those criteria. Leading creationist, Ken Ham, points out about evolution that “It is a belief about the past. We do not have access to the past. We only have the present. All the fossils, all the living animals and plants, our planet, the universe – Everything exists in the present. We cannot directly test the past using the scientific method (which involves repeating things and watching them happen) since all evidence that we have is in the present.” Special creation by God cannot be observed or repeated but neither can evolution. Both, therefore, fall in the category of faith not science.
Evolutionists have, by and large, run a classic bait and switch. They convince people of the wonderful qualities of operational science and then trick them into believing that evolution falls under the same category. Operational science is the wonderful everyday type of science that produces medicines, makes discoveries, and even allows space travel. In fact, evolution is a part of a different kind of “science” called origins science. This is, by definition, not science at all. It cannot be tested, observed, or repeated.
Humanist evolutionists have bamboozled the public into thinking of the knowledgeable, fact-based scientist in the white coat versus the Bible thumping, black robed, religious fanatics. They have turned the debate so that anyone who disagrees with evolution is considered to be anti-science, ignorant, and someone who prefers mythology to fact.
We must shed this misunderstanding. Evolution is religious in nature. Humanism is a religion. Creation is religious in nature. Biblical Christianity is a religion. Science and religion are not enemies. In fact, modern science was founded by men with a Christian worldview; men who believed that the universe was an orderly place because God had created it. We could, therefore, discover God’s truths throughout the universe.
For far too long the Church has focused only on religious education and left the sciences and any other subjects in school to the world assuming that our children are receiving a neutral, fact-based education. Due to this compartmentalization of Christianity we have turned education over to the Secular Humanists. They have had nearly 75 years of controlling the American education system and have now convinced most of the country that their beliefs are based on science while ours are based on religion and myth. “Under the guise of science, Humanism has been granted a reputable position in American society.” The Biblical Christian worldview has been completely marginalized in education based on this belief that the two faiths are not equals.
We must first realize for ourselves, as a Christian community, that each faith is equal parts science and belief and then we can begin to understand and teach a comprehensive biblical worldview.
If you are not yet convinced that Humanism as a worldview is a religion with a complete set of dogmas and beliefs then you need look no further than the comments of Humanists themselves. Humanists consider themselves to be the next great religion that will eventually overshadow all of the religions that are based on mythology. They have the advantage, they believe, because theirs is the only religion based on scientific knowledge.
In 1933, Roy Wood Sellars authored the book known as the Humanist Manifesto, but as early as 1918, in his book The Next Step, he said, “The coming phase of religion will reflect man’s power over nature and his moral courage in the face of the facts and possibilities of life. It will be a religion of action and passion, a social religion, a religion of goals and prospects. It will be a free man’s religion, a religion for an adult and aspiring democracy.” 8 Sellars went on to clear up any doubts about his views of Humanism as religion: “Now I am convinced that the humanistic religion into which Christianity will gradually be transformed will correct the mistake.”
Charles Francis Potter who founded the first Humanist church in New York City and gave his endorsement by attaching his to name to the original Humanist Manifesto wrote, “So Humanism is not simply another denomination of Protestant Christianity; it is not a creed; nor is it a cult. It is a new type of religion altogether.”
In 1934, John Dewey called for a new religion in his book, A Common Faith. “Here are all the elements for a religious faith that shall not be confined to sect, class, or race. Such a faith has always been implicitly the common faith of mankind. It remains to make it explicit and militant.”
Tolbert H. McCarrol, executive director of The Humanist magazine wrote an article titled “Religions of the Future,” in which he predicted that Humanism would join the other major faiths as a recognized religion. He foresaw a time when Humanism would be the “largest religious body of the future.”
Julian Huxley, former president of the British Humanist Association wrote in his book Religion Without Revelation, “Twentieth-century man needs a new organ for dealing with destiny, a new system of beliefs . . . in other words, a new religion.” He, of course, was referring to the new religion of Humanism. A religion based on man as the ultimate arbiter of truth rather than God.
To make matters more convincing many universities list Humanist groups on campus along with the other religious associations. This parade includes Harvard,
Auburn University, and the University of Minnesota. In fact, federal tax exemption rulings have been given to many Humanist groups.
The clincher, though, came in 1961. None other than the Supreme Court of the United States officially recognized Humanism as a religion. In Torasco v. Watkins, Justice Hugo Black observed: “Among religions in this country which do not teach what is generally to be considered a belief in the existence of God are Buddhism, Taoism, Ethical Culture, Secular Humanism, and others.”
In their insightful work on the topic of Humanism and worldviews, Mind Siege, Noebel and LaHaye make this startling statement:

The religious worldview of humanism is so well-defined that if it were expelled from our public schools and its disciples were retired from government service through the ballot box, they would immediately declare themselves a religion and enjoy their tax-exempt religious status. They cannot do so now because they receive billions of dollars annually to operate their vast network of churches, schools, colleges, and universities. Why should they collect donations to support the propagation of their religion when, through our taxes, we pay for everything?

Those in the field of evolution prove that they see evolution, the foundation of Humanism, as being religious in nature. Carl Sagan says that, “It makes good sense to revere the Sun and the stars because we are their children.” Sagan also states, “It is said that men may not be the dreams of the gods, but rather that the gods are the dreams of men.” This of course bolsters Humanism because it has no need for the one, true God.
Leading evolutionist, Theodosius Dobzhansky quotes Pierre Teihard de Chardin: “Evolution is a light which illuminates all facts, a trajectory which all lines of thought must follow.” 18 Instead of Jesus being the light of the world (John 8:12), the Secular Humanists have set up evolution itself to take that place.
Humanists, Whitehead and Conlan sum up the Humanist position perfectly:

While Secular Humanism is non-theistic, it is religious because it directs itself toward religious beliefs and practices that are in active opposition to traditional theism. Humanism is a doctrine centered solely on human interests or values. Therefore, humanism deifies man collectively and individually, whereas theism worships God. Moreover, while humanism draws its values and absolutes from the finite reasoning of relativistic Man, theism has received its values and absolutes through the revelation of the infinite Deity or Creator. Both theism and humanism worship their own “god.” The difference is the object of worship, not the act. Therefore, Secular Humanism is a religion whose doctrine worships Man as the source of knowledge and truth, whereas theism worships God as the source of all knowledge and truth.”

The Biblical Worldview in Every Part of Life
One of the most important aspects in teaching a biblical worldview is the fact that belief in the Bible should have implications in every aspect of life. The Christian worldview is not just limited to salvation, our knowledge of the Bible, and morality. It extends into every aspect of life and academia. Far too many Christian young people do not realize this. They might accept the basic tenets of Christianity all the while buying into the Humanistic worldview in areas like history, psychology, sociology, or philosophy. In the remainder of this chapter, we will look at eleven areas in which students should be taught the biblical worldview in order to properly meet the challenges that will be presented by the Secular Humanist worldview.

Theology
The very basis of the biblical worldview is the belief in the existence of an all-powerful, personal, loving, just, and holy God. Christians affirm that God is one in essence and nature but exists in the three persons of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. God is the Creator of everything in existence and is the foundation for all meaning. This same intelligent and all-powerful God came to the earth 2,000 years ago in the human form and person of Jesus Christ and died for the sins of all humans everywhere. God is both mind and heart. He created the world but also loves it so much that He sent His own Son, Jesus, to die for it. Christian theology believes in the Trinity of God, but is not tri-theistic. It denies the existence of three separate gods, and believes that God is the only, one, true God. There are no lesser gods of some sort in the Christian theistic view. The Christian worldview affirms that God has been revealed through His holy Word in the Bible, and that through this Word, we can know Him personally. The Bible, then, is the foundation for everything the Christian does, thinks, and is.
The Secular Humanism of modernity asserted that there was no God. Science and knowledge made God obsolete. They believed that only matter exists, and is all that has ever existed. Man is only matter and has no soul or spirit. They would deny any supernatural explanation for the existence of matter.
Many of the post-modern Humanists have deconstructed science and knowledge to the point that they have re-opened the possibility of existence beyond matter, which opens the door to spirituality. Many of these so-called New Age adherents believe that all things are divine, or a part of God: people, rocks, trees, stars, etc. All we have to do to get in touch with god is to attain total unity with the cosmos. Much of this thinking is, in reality, based on ancient occultic beliefs and practices.

Biology
The belief of the person holding the biblical worldview is that God created all life. Creationists look at the design, order, complexity, and vast amounts of information in the universe and conclude that there must be a designer and information giver. The biblical worldview says that the universe and the life in it are not a result of blind chance but are the result of intentional and special creation. Christians believe that God created a basic number of “kinds” of animals as recounted in Genesis 1, and that each animal brought forth after their own “kind.” Each “kind” has a great deal of genetic variance programmed into their information which accounts for the many different types of humans and animals within their own kind. Thus, it is very likely that all dogs could be traced back to one original dog “kind” on the sixth day of creation.
Naturalistic evolution is the Secular Humanist’s explanation for life. A large explosion of unidentifiable materials exploded billions of years ago; the result was the matter of the universe. On this planet which was nothing but molten rock, it rained for hundreds of millions of years creating a primordial soup. From this soup came the first traces of life which eventually evolved into the world that we see today. Without naturalistic evolution, there can be no Secular Humanist worldview. If evolution did not happen, then a Creator would be necessary. Humanists believe that through the evolutionary concept of natural selection, death brings life. The Christian would argue that death is an enemy not the very process through which life if propagated. Although it is still usually labeled a “theory,” Secular Humanists believe that evolution has been proven to the extent that it is now settled fact. According to their worldview, man is at the apex of evolutionary development and now has the responsibility of directing and aiding the evolutionary process.

History
The Christian worldview is rooted deeply in history. The truth of the Bible is linked, inextricably, to history. If the historical roots and claims of the Bible are proven to be false, then there would be no Christian worldview. The history of the Bible has been shown repeatedly, through historical study and archaeology to be extremely accurate and factual. The historical Bible and the fact of the human life of Jesus Christ form the foundation of the Christian worldview. If the Bible isn’t an historical document or Jesus was not raised from the dead, as the Bible claims, then Christianity falls flat and is not worth following (1 Corinthians 15:12-19).
Classic Secular Humanism believed that the history of the world has been one of constant progress through the vehicle of evolution. It would deny any supernatural influence in history; all history is a result of random natural processes. The post-modern Humanist would assert that this belief in the constant progress of humanity is little more than perspective and the result of the Western meta-narrative. There is no evidence, they would argue, that would support the constant progress hypothesis, and it would be impossible to tell because everything is perspective. Some may appear to be progressing at time, while others are not, but it is all perspective.

Law
The Christian worldview believes that divine law has been passed down from God. This law originates from the character of the holy and loving God. Because God is the Creator, humans are under obligation to obey God’s law. He has written this law on the heart and conscience of every man (Romans 2:15). Each human has a moral law imbedded into their conscience because the Creator placed it there. God ordains and establishes human governments and the rule of law to keep in check man’s fallen nature (Romans 13:1-4). Since the Fall, human history is an ongoing attempt by men to replace God’s law. The biblical worldview maintains that when God’s laws are obeyed, men and societies flourish. The very basis for human rights, morality, and right and wrong only make sense if they come for the moral Law-Giver. These rights are given to each man by God and so are inalienable. God’s Word and these natural laws are adequate for mankind to establish societies that allow man’s free will and creativity to flourish, but still keep in check man’s fallen nature.
In the Secular Humanist worldview, the state is the sovereign authority and the source of all law. There is no higher power than the state; it is the only source for legal truth. Morality, justice, and legal truth are what the state says it is, period. If an act is legal, the Secular Humanist would maintain that it is right. There is no concept of morality that transcends the law. Humanism asserts that crime is a symptom of societal shortcomings rather than an inherent flaw in the nature of the individual.

Philosophy
The philosophy of the Christian is to “demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” Any philosophy or school of thought that is not based on the Bible is based on the “traditions of men, after the basic principles of the world, and not after Christ” (Colossians 2:8). Secular Humanists claim that the philosophy of the Christian is unscientific. Christians would counter that argument, claiming that all Christian doctrines are consistent with true science, history, and personal experience to a degree and manner that the vain philosophies of the world could never be.
The philosophy of the Secular Humanist rests totally on their belief in materialism. Materialism is the belief that only matter exists and it is eternal. Things that cannot be perceived with the senses, do not exist. The scientific method is the only way to discover truth. Things of the spiritual realm cannot be observed, tested, or experimented on, and so do not exist.
Many post-modern Humanists would reject the old-school materialism, and instead embrace the belief that God is everything, and that everything is a part of God. Everything, therefore, is spiritual and is a manifestation of the spiritual. All matter will one day be gone once universal consciousness is achieved. Matter can be controlled by an enlightened mind. Health, prosperity, and happiness can all be achieved as a result of “mind over matter.”

Psychology

Christianity is the only worldview that emphasizes the spiritual aspect of mankind and our fallen nature. Because of this, the biblical worldview is the only one that can comprehensively address all that ails the human condition. The focus of Christian psychology is not to point fingers external from the individual but to help people recognize their own sinfulness and their need for a Savior. Rather than stressing the need to build up one’s self-esteem, the Christian psychologist realizes that all people are sinners estranged from and in rebellion against God. The purpose of Christian psychology is not to artificially boost the self-esteem, but to help people realize that we are under God’s wrath and in need of reconciliation and His grace in our lives. The problem with humanity cannot be solved by liking yourself more, but by dying to your self in order to live for Christ. According to the Christian view of psychology, one should not ignore or repress the conscience but should recognize their guilt before God and repent. Christianity does not blame the society, environment, or background, but rather, emphasizes personal responsibility.

Secular Humanism believes that every individual can achieve good mental health through physical or material needs. This is called self-actualization. All of man’s actions are the result of mechanical (material) impulses, which is known as behaviorism. This seems contradictory to the belief that man is the master of his fate, because it means that man is really at the mercy of biological forces out of their control. According to the Secular Humanist, however, it is societal institutions that are at the root cause of all that ails the individual.

For the post-modern, societal institutions are all to blame for man’s problems. These institutions stifle the true knowledge and godhood that each person possesses. The true aim of psychology is to cause each individual to realize their full potential.

Sociology

The biblical worldview stresses that God loves each individual and has established a certain social order for the betterment of mankind. God established three primary institutions of social order in order to accomplish this goal: family, church, and state. These institutions are to teach each individual the value of love, respect, discipline, and hard work. Societies will function best when they cooperate with God’s will and His law, which are administered through the family, church, and state.
Sociology is difficult for Secular Humanists because they must explain the gap between the evil that exists in society and their belief that man is capable of perfection through their own means. Evil in individuals is caused, they assert, by the evil that is inherent in societal institutions. Evil is society’s fault, not the individual. Society corrupts man’s inherent goodness. Public education is the means through which the social institutions will be fixed. At a basic level, most Secular Humanists would like to dismantle any traditional notions of family, church, and ultimately state.

Ethics

The Christian view of ethics is simple. God hates evil, loves good, and defines the two concepts in the Bible. Both evil and ethical relativism lead to destruction (Matthew 7:13). Christian ethics cannot be distinguished from the character of God because it is derived from His very nature. The Christian’s system of ethics is based on the immutable Word of God rather than the changing winds of society.

In the Secular Humanist worldview there is no God, so there is no standard on which to base ethics. Standards and values become a wild-west environment where every man makes his own rules. Ethics is based totally on the situation, so the standards will change based on the situation and the individuals involved. “We affirm that moral values derive their source from human experience. Ethics is autonomous and situational, needing not theological or ideological sanction. Ethics stems from human need and interest.”

Education/ Knowledge

The Christian worldview stresses that knowledge begins with the fear of God (Proverbs 2:5). Christian parents are mandated to teach children about the Bible and God (Deuteronomy 6:6-9) or the results will be disastrous for the people of God (Judges 2:10-11). The correct biblical worldview will give equal priority to life (relationships and praxis) and doctrine (education and knowledge) (1 Timothy 4:16). The Bible stresses the importance of Godly knowledge but is otherwise rather negative about the knowledge of the world as it has a distinct tendency to puff up pride and lead people away from God (1 Corinthians 1:19-21).

The traditional Secular Humanist worldview values knowledge and education as a means to transform society. Even the post-modern Humanist that rejects objective knowledge still tends to value public education as a way to transform society and indoctrinate the virtues that they value. Tolerance and relativism are stressed as two of the most important values to be transmitted to the next generation.

Politics

The biblical worldview recognizes that the state as a God-ordained institution (Romans 13:1-7; 1 Peter 2:13-17). Government is necessary due to the depravity of man in his fallen state. Although God is sovereign, he allows the state a certain amount of dominion to rule over the immediate affairs of men. The Bible endorses limited government as Jesus Christ is the ultimate King. Christians are mandated to be salt and light in their societies. To do this fully, they cannot withdraw from any aspect of society, including politics. The Christian must always remember, however, that their primary allegiance is to the Kingdom of God and not the state of which they are a part.

The ultimate goal of Secular Humanism is utopia. They believe that world peace can best be achieved through world government. The allegiance of the Secular Humanist is towards the goal of a New World Order rather than their country of origin. The seeming contradiction of the Humanist view is that they feel society is to blame for all of man’s problems, yet hold to the belief that they can fix all of man’s ills through a one-world society.

Economics

The Christian view of economics believes that man is sinful and that God values justice. Systems like socialism and communism are based on the assumption that man is inherently good. Believing that man is fallen leads the Christian to promote a system which protects the rights of individuals from infringement by others. The best economic system, then, is one that contains checks and balances to protect basic human rights. Based on this criterion, it would appear that the free enterprise system is more compatible with the Christian worldview than any other.
Secular Humanism believes that the Humanist-controlled state will eventually fix society’s problems. Because of this, most Humanists favor some form of socialism. Because there is no God, man must save himself through the state by controlling all aspects of society. In their vision, the world’s economy would be controlled and managed through the central planning of the one world government. They are, consequently, in favor of anything that puts more economic control in the hands of the government.

Detecting the Worldview

One of the simplest and most effective things that a Christian parent can ever do is to teach their children to constantly ask themselves one question: what are they trying to teach me? This question is one of the best things with which we can arm our children. It is not enough to simply teach our children a comprehensive Christian worldview, although that is invaluable. We must provide them the ability to detect and decipher the worldview in everything. We began doing this with our eleven-year-old when he was about five. We have already begun with our three-year-old.

What my wife and I have done is to teach our children to realize that every action taken by a human is influenced by their underlying worldview. That means that every movie, newspaper article, book, magazine, TV show, commercial, song, advertisement, etc., has an underlying worldview.

We have taught our children the simple concept of asking what everything they encounter is trying to teach them. What is the worldview behind that TV show, movie, or commercial? Everywhere we look we see the secular world’s ideas of sex, materialism, tolerance, religion, etc. A child who is trained to ask the important questions about the worldview of those who created these things will be able to identify and discard that worldview. When we understand something, it loses its power over us. A worldview that has been identified and quarantined in our child’s mind is far less likely to influence them. I love nothing more than to watch my older son discard a commercial or TV show, while correctly identifying that there was a clear message of materialism, or a message that sex is okay before marriage, or a pro-evolutionary way of thinking. Once taught this subject, kids can often be better at discerning these underlying worldviews than we are.

The Psychology of Worldview and Worldview Changes

The concept of young people developing and changing their worldviews is not just a concept that we have invented. There is actually a fair amount of psychological research and theory behind the development and transition of worldviews and belief systems. We can gain some valuable insight into our own children on an individual basis by looking at the more universal theories and psychology of worldviews
Cosmology is the study of the origins of the universe, or in other words, how did everything get here. This is, obviously, one of the four major questions that a worldview must address. In a research study on the development of cosmology, it was discovered that there are four basic cosmology levels. At Level 1 (approximately 5 to 8 years old), God makes everything, including human artifacts. At Level 2 (7 to 9 years old), God still makes most of nature but no longer artifacts. At level 3 (10 to 13 years old), nature functions primarily on its own and human beings are largely autonomous, but believe that God somehow acts behind the scenes. At level 4 (15 years and up), scientific and theological concepts are reflected and coordinated.
This particular study also showed that no cases of regression in the cosmological worldview of the young people. The point here is that as children grow older, their concepts of God and the world become more complex. This process begins to happen as early as 7 years old and is in full swing by the age of 10. Studies have shown that all children have changed their beliefs at least once. As children grow older they will add new information to change their worldview. That it will develop and change is a fact. If they are not provided ongoing information that will challenge them at the level they are currently at, chances become increasingly slim that parents and youth workers will be able to have an ongoing influence in their worldviews.

Worldviews develop only when the information the person is given continues to answer the challenges of the world that they are experiencing. This is why Jesus said, “Have salt in yourselves” (Mark 9:50). In other words, if we are to be salt in the world, then we must first be filled with salt. Our children have to have salt poured into them or else the world will fill them up with something else.
When it comes to studies of how children acquire knowledge, studies have shown that pre-school children rely almost exclusively on their own experience, supplemented by reason. Grade schoolers tend to appeal to authority on issues of fact and subjectivity on issues of taste or opinion. As early as 7-years old and nearly all 10-year olds “believed that diversity of opinion was legitimate but gradually discovered consensus as a way out of some cloudy issues, Thus, a collapse of absolute conviction occurs as early as childhood.” In contrast to young children, pre-teens and teens are prone to have doubts about the validity of their worldview. Unless they are specifically taught otherwise, the natural tendency of children will be to gravitate towards the consensus worldview of their peers. It could also be said that when kids understand the process of forming their worldview, they form a more advanced and solid worldview.

By the time children become middle and older adolescents, they have come to the point, though, that they need to filter information and strengthen or change their worldview based on their own logical thought. In piecing together the aggregate statements of all adolescents studied, Reich, Oser, and Valentin created the following summary quote from the perspective of the adolescent.

It is up to me to know what is the case. Although others can give some indications, and although it may be useful to check what they have to say, basically, in most cases, I can find out by myself all that is needed, if I use the right methods. They include logical thought, analysis of my experiences, testing my ideas in various natural and human environments, and improving my knowledge in an iterative bootstrap manner, enlarging my horizons, reviewing my knowledge possessions from time to time, and replacing the obsolete ones.

What this means is that it is vital for parents to not only give a firm foundation of biblical knowledge for young people, they also need to be taught the proper methods of critical thinking so that they can examine information and continue to craft their own worldviews. By the time of their adolescence, young people need to be presented information and let them accept it or reject it into their worldview using their own logic and critical reasoning. If they haven’t been taught these skills, their levels of discernment are likely to be low.

Another aspect that will be helpful is to consider the area of identity development and the crisis. In this context, crisis refers to situational opportunities that arise and challenge the individual to examine and possibly adjust their belief system or worldview.

James Marcia, in building on Eric Erikson’s theory of identity formation in young people, identified four identity statuses. The first is the identity diffusion stage. In this stage of adolescence, the young person has not experienced any significant crisis and is yet to make a personal commitment to any belief system.
Stage two is called foreclosure. In this stage the subject has not yet experienced a crisis but has made definite commitments to a worldview system. This is the stage in which we find many young people. Their identity of beliefs comes primarily from their parents. They believe what their parents believe without really examining it for themselves. This stage can give adults a false sense of security. The young person in this stage seems quite set in their beliefs but it can really be nothing more than smoke because the subject has not really been tested in their beliefs nor have they engaged in serious self-examination.

The third stage is called moratorium. The young person is in a very real crisis of identity and is actively searching for values to eventually claim as their own. They are actively searching to define their own personal identity. They have not, however, made a commitment to their worldview in this stage. Many parents get extremely “freaked out” when their children go through this stage and it is often perceived as abject rebellion. This is a time, however, when a prepared and patient parent can find themselves of great use to the searching young person. Rather than fighting the adolescent’s search, the parent can provide a gentle and guiding hand to help them on their journey. As with anything else, when we understand something it loses its power over us. When parents explain to young people that they need to search and form their own worldviews and the process through which they must go, kids are far more likely to make wise choices. It must be stressed again, though, the advantage of having already taught children proper methods of examining other worldviews such as the previously mentioned road runner technique.

The fourth stage in adolescent development is identity-achieved. This is where the young person has gone through the process of exploration and crisis and has resolved their identity issues on their own terms. By this stage the student has developed a worldview that has been parent taught, self-examined and able to stand the test of time and other crises.

Another helpful way to look at the young person’s process of changing worldview comes from William G. McLoughlin’s analysis of religious awakenings, Revivals Awakenings, and Reform. McLoughlin attempts to describe what great awakenings are, what causes them, and what effects they have on the culture. He identifies five separate great awakenings in the history of America. He asserts that great awakenings are the result of cultural disjunctions between our norms and our experience. In other words, the institutions of our society no longer match what we experience everyday in our culture. Once faith is lost in our institutions, leaders, and religions, revitalization is needed to restructure our institutions, leaders, and religions so that they meet the demands of the changing culture. The first stage of a great awakening is the realization of this gap between norm and experience and the call for a revitalization movement. Second, is when people conclude that the problems are a result of institutional malfunction which seemingly cannot be fixed by any current element or institution within the society. Third, according to McLoughlin, is when “accumulated pressures for change produce such acute . . . stress that the whole culture must break the crust of custom . . . and find new socially structured avenues.” During this time a prophet that epitomizes the crisis of the culture arises to lead people in a new direction. Fourth, the prophet of the “new-light” vision begins to attract younger and more flexible members of the society. They are willing to try new formulations to meet the crisis. Finally, the prophet succeeds in garnering a large group of adherents to their new guidelines and practices. As this group becomes dominant, considerable changes are made to the institutional structure of the society.

These same stages can often be observed in the lives of individuals who have not been taught a comprehensive Christian worldview as well as societies as a whole. A gap happens in the life of the teen when what they have been taught about life and the Bible and what they are really experiencing in their own life. When a one-dimensional Christianity is taught that does not comprehensively touch every area of life, gaps are sure to occur. The second stage happens when the teen concludes that the reason for this gap lies in the deficiency of the Christian worldview itself, rather than their shallow understanding of it. While the teen is beginning to question the validity of the incomplete Christian worldview, someone else comes along and offers a new solution to the very real experiences they are having. This may be a new group or friends, but can also be a new teaching or idea. In the fourth stage, the child begins to believe that this new worldview meets their current experiences. It may not be comprehensive or even logical but it becomes very appealing if it offers answers to the current experiences. Finally, they leave their old worldview and join the new worldview camp wholeheartedly.

Let’s see these five stages working in a real-to-life example. Let’s imagine a scenario in which a young person has grown up in the church but has never been taught specifics about the importance of believing in absolute truth or how to defend the concept. They get into middle school and meet friends who think decidedly differently than they do. These friends challenge the Christian-based beliefs on which they have been raised. At the same time, they are being flooded with concepts at school like evolution which challenges the truth that God created the universe. They are also given moral dilemmas which they cannot answer, so they begin to question the absolutes of moral right or the sanctity of life. In Social Studies class, they are told that we must never judge the worldviews, beliefs, or morals of anyone else. Suddenly, the version of Christianity they have been taught is incomplete. It doesn’t seem to offer answers to these new mental challenges. They begin to look at the fun that their friends who aren’t bound by any Christian principles are having. The worldview of their friends seems to be summed up by the famous “do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.” This seems to make a lot more sense in a world where there are no absolutes. To tell them that they shouldn’t do what everyone else is doing simply because God supposedly said so, doesn’t seem to be enough any longer. The way that their friends are living seems to fit better with this new view of the world that has been offered in class. This new worldview better meets what they have been experiencing, so it is embraced and the old worldview is rejected.

Much of this can be avoided if the parents and their children understand this process, prepare for it and present a version of Christianity that is comprehensive and complete. This is a complete worldview that will be far more likely to meet the many experiences and crises they will have. A worldview that meets the experiences of the individual will most likely not be cast off for a new worldview.

Conclusion
One thing is very clear; the Christian community faces a pluralistic society like no other time in the history of the United States. Although this certainly presents its own challenges, it also offers some wonderful opportunities. As we live in and raise children in a pluralistic society, there are four guidelines that we should remember.

First, we must learn to distinguish between conviction and opinion. Convictions are things that cannot be compromised by the Christian. Convictions differ from opinion in source and the degree to which we defend them. Convictions come as specific directives from the Word of God. Opinions are the ways we try to best define the way we should fill in the gaps between biblical directives. Convictions define us, we define opinion. Convictions need to be rooted in love or they become repulsive. Convictions without love become blind dogma that will attract no one to the life of Christ.

Second, we should understand that pluralism can be a good thing. When man is bent on self-satisfaction and aggrandizement, unity can be catastrophic. One needs to look no further than the incident at the tower of Babel in Genesis 11. Pluralism presents many challenges for the Christian but it does temper society in many ways. It also forces Christians to really think through our doctrines and be able to defend them.

Third, it really is a great opportunity to live in a society where we can learn different perspectives from different people. It stretches us and induces us to discover new ways to apply our faith to people of different backgrounds and cultures. Sharing the gospel is a tremendous privilege. It is exciting to have the opportunity to share our faith with many different people in many different cultural settings without ever having to leave our own cities.

Finally, we must be careful to not politicize the gospel. Societies and cultures are not truly changed by the imposition of law but by the power of the Holy Spirit working through the lives of individuals as they share the gospel. As we seek to apply a comprehensive worldview and truly live a life where Jesus is King of every aspect of our lives, we need to be careful to not take areas of opinion and turn them into convictions. The gospel changes lives, societal institutions do not, no matter how biblically-based they are.

Although it is important to teach children that the Word of God is living and active and relevant to every area of our lives, it is more important that they have a truly biblical worldview as it applies to their own spirituality. Unfortunately, we tend to present a version of Christianity which does not prepare young people to have their own souls transformed by God. One must first be transformed by the Spirit of God, before they can face the challenges of the world and attempt to apply their biblical worldview to every area of life. For the remainder of the book, we will turn our attention to presenting the gospel to our own children in a way that is relevant for the young people of today.