The Christian worldview starts with the one true and living God, who is good and purposeful, who keeps His word, and who is the creator of all things: The God of Scripture. As soon as we invoke the notion of Scripture, we are beginning to talk about the big story of the Bible. This story provides a basic Christian worldview.
The Bible has one big story. Throughout the Bible, this big story is the underlying, foundational plot, or–if I can change the picture a little bit–the overarching story. Philosophers sometimes call it the meta-narrative, but I prefer to call it the big story. A Christian worldview assumes this large story of the Bible. Allow me to outline the story for you.
The Big Story of the Bible
- A Christian worldview assumes that the God of Scripture is the God who made all things and made human beings, male and female, in His own image (Genesis 1-2).
- The story of the Bible tells us of a great rebellion, when the human creatures gave in to a dark power and rebelled against their Maker. They failed to live out their mandate of extending the frontiers of God’s power and sovereignty into all the earth (Genesis 1:26-28). Instead, they wanted to be like God and ended up making idols for themselves and serving the things that God made and not God Himself (Genesis 3-11).
The Bible tells the story of God’s plan of rescue. It is a plan that begins with the entry of Abraham into the story of Scripture. Starting with Genesis 12, we learn that God promised to restore the world and bless all its nations and peoples through the children of Abraham. The promises to Abraham are in effect God’s way of dealing with the disaster of the human rebellion against Him described in Genesis 3-11.
- The promise of God to restore and rescue the nations and indeed the whole world through the children of Abraham – who grew into the nation Israel – went through many twists and turns in the story of the Bible, including Israel’s own abject failure to live up to the mandate God gave her. That is, until one son of Abraham was born who ended up fulfilling God’s mandate to Israel (see Matthew 1:1; Galatians 3:16, 23-4:5).
- That son of Abraham, according to Scripture, is none other than Jesus, who by the surprising storyline of God turned out to be not only a descendant of Abraham but also the eternal son of God (2 Corinthians 8:9; Philippians 2:6-8; Colossians 1:15-20; Hebrews 1:1-3). This pre-existing heavenly son of God was born of a woman at the time God planned. His own story is full of many twists and turns, including his rejection by his own people, his gruesome death, and then his surprising resurrection from the dead.
- Following his resurrection, Jesus poured out his Spirit – also in fulfillment of the ancient Scriptures (Ezekiel 36:26-27; Joel 2:28-32 and Acts 2) – upon all those who would pledge allegiance to him as their sovereign King and Lord. This pledge of loyalty – a commitment of faith in Jesus – produces a body of people, a new “tribe” of people. The resurrection of Jesus and the creation of this new people by faith and the Spirit are the beginning of God’s new creation.
- This company of believers who have pledged allegiance to a new sovereign, Jesus, are empowered by the Spirit of the Creator God to do His work in the world. They are commissioned as men and women to fulfill collectively and individually the work that the human beings originally balked at doing – indeed, refused to do. That is, to do God’s work in the world (Revelation 1:5, 5:9-10).
- The final event in the story of the Bible is as yet unfulfilled. At a certain point in the future the same crucified and risen Jesus will be unveiled and revealed for all to see. Then, all the nations and peoples of the earth will alternately mourn or celebrate the appearance of the earth’s rightful Lord. At that point, there will be, according to Scripture, the restoration of heaven and earth, and human beings will once again in a fuller and more complete way, having been raised from the dead, take up their original mandate to be God’s agents and images in the restored creation (Titus 2:11-14).
A Christian worldview is the basic story taught in Scripture.
It is the foundational story that of course is something we teach, just as we have to look for the correct set of eyeglasses, occasionally clean and adjust them, and put them on. Once having taught the story and learned the story, once having put on our eyeglasses, this story becomes the set of lenses through which we see the world and come to understand our role in it.
In our following blogs, we will talk about the different areas of HBU, including the different schools and disciplines within the University. We will try to see how each one of those disciplines operates as an expression of our overarching Christian worldview.
Related Blogs in the Faith and College Series:
- Faith & College: Humanities and Humility
- Faith & College: Mental Health in Scripture
- Faith & College: Business & Decisions
Edited by Joannah Buffington