Influence of Christian Worldview - Essay Sample

Worldview is defined as a belief that people or a person build(s) in life. It is how someone views everything in life. Therefore, Christian worldview is how someone who has become Christian views the world in respect to the Biblical teachings and stories. Second Corinthians 5:17 explains that when someone becomes a Christian he/she becomes a new person because he/she leaves behind the old life and starts a new journey. Becoming a Christian has shaped my worldview in various ways as I am going to discuss in this portfolio. I have come to realize that changing the ones life requires that the person changes his/her thoughts and mindset. Becoming a Christian means that one has started a new journey and therefore, he/she needs a new identity because God forgives and forgets about the wrong things that one has done. Gaining this new identity means that we as Christians have to forget the past and start a new journey with Jesus Christ. However, this new journey starts with confession as explained in James 5:16 that therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed.

The worldview is the basic perspective that people use to understand the things around them and how they experience them (Lindemann, 2016). It is important to understand that Christian worldview does not mean theology. Before becoming a Christian I have always asked myself the question that whether religion is true or not. After this class, I have come up with an answer to the question that I have asked myself for as long as I can remember. Religion has been defined in various ways by different people. However, all the definitions revolve around the same concept that religion correlates different understanding of religious beliefs and practices in regards to divine powers. What I have learned is that religion revolves around the human life and aspects such as beliefs, attitudes, practices, feelings, commitments, morals, and duties. Some of these aspects may have institution expression but what is clear is that Christian worldview helps to understand how human beings approach the issues of life such as death and other things that human beings cannot explain scientifically.

Science has been part of our lives for as long as we can remember. Science existed even the time Jesus and even before. However, with the advancement of technology and new discovery, the world has changed and together with the peoples opinions regarding life issues. However, what is still not clear is that fact that human beings are unable to explain some of the things that science does not have a theory to explain. The Bible stories have always been used to explain the things or events that human mind cannot possibly comprehend or understand (Baniszewski, 2016). Understanding the significance of the Bible to Biological science has greatly helped me to understand the concept of God and the creation. Even though science also provides the creation story through the evolution theory, it is difficult to establish some concrete understanding of the story.

Biological science does not provide explicit explanations to how human beings are able to be born and die. Even the science has come to acknowledge that God exists and religion is part of many theories that help people understand the world better. In a video clip that I came across about creation vs. evolution where a scientist was debating another scientist regarding the difference between religion and science. What came out to me very clearly in the debate is that many people accept the significance of the Bible and religion. The only place where the differences emerge is the interpretation of the Bible itself in terms of the environment and experiences. In the video, Dr. Kent Hovind explains the characteristics of God as timeless and that He is not affected by matter and space. Of course, what every Christian is able to agree on is that God is immortal and He does not think the way human beings do.

The book of Genesis chapter 1 verse 1 of English Standard Version explains the features of God as related to what Dr. Kent explained in this video clip; In the beginning, God created heavens and earth. However, to be able to understand this creation and deduce the qualities of God from it requires one to look at from the Christian point of view that God existed before the creation time and that is why He created heavens and Earth. From this we can conclude that God is timeless; He existed in the past, He exists in the present and He will exist in future. Therefore, as Dr. Kent explains in the video clip if someone claims that God is limited by time then that is not God. God designed the universe in a complex way that we, human beings, cannot possibly begin to comprehend.

Brickhill (2010) explains that human beings have a responsibility to adhere to the teachings of God and the provisions of the holy book, the Bible. Jesus Christ died for the human beings so that their sins may be washed away by His blood. However, we have not shown the kind of empathy that Jesus showed to us when He died on the cross in Golgotha. Everything that we are today is out of Gods mercy and He still hopes that we will change our ways to come to Him. Based on the creation story from the book of Genesis, God created everything including the universe; this automatically grants Him the ownership of everything that we own. The authority that God gave man over the other creation has been misunderstood to mean taking control over things (Wright, 1991).

Wright (1991) explains that even the Bible is not there to control the church because it does not consist of rules and regulations or list of commands that need to be followed. The Bible is just a guide that helps people understand what God expects from them as stewards. It is not the book that people should focus on but the concepts or ideas from the Bible. As explained in the book of Isaiah 40:14-14, God knows every part of thoughts even before we get them. Therefore, it is the Bible that sets the premises to understanding God and His divine power as it explained everything that man can use to understand and know God. Becoming a Christian requires not only faith but also commitment to walk in the paths designed and explained in the Bible. In Romans 1:19-22 it says that what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them. This verse explains that God is willing to help anyone who wishes to understand or know Him through the Bible because He will give him/her the intellectual abilities to clearly perceive and learn about Him.

Stewards have a responsibility to abide by the teachings of God because God owns everything including our lives. After the creation of man, God gave man authority over the other creations. However, this is what human beings have misinterpreted to mean that they own the things that they have. We are just but managers of the things we have because after we die we leave everything here on earth. No one goes with anything even the Egyptians that buried their Pharaohs with gold and servants in the royal tombs. Gousmett (1996) argues that Jesus did not come to create a relationship between man and God; he came to renew the bond between man and God that had already been tarnished with sinful acts of mankind. The relationship between God and man had already been in existence but it was characterized by rejection, disobedience, and rebellion. Therefore, Jesus Christ came to renew the relationship through love and obedience (Gousmett, 1996). Jesus Christ died on earth and ascended to heaven after his resurrection to show that He was not an ordinary man. Jesus was a representation of God here on earth because as explained in Hebrew 1:3 of the English Standard Version, Jesus sits together with God in the majestic throne in heaven. Jesus possesses the power that ordinary man does not possess. Science has significantly changed the worldview of many people. According to Anderson (2017), even the scientists find it difficult to defend their faith especially with the influence from the scientific community which advances the agenda of evolution theory.

The Bible is a holy book that was ordained by God as He inspired the authors of different books in the Bible. People have developed different opinions and perceptions towards the Bible and some people argue that it is just a book that was written by men. Of course, no one is denying the fact that the Bible was not written by supernatural being like God but mortal men just like us. However, what become difficult to interpret are the things explained in the Bible and their significance in our daily lives. The Bible speaks of the things that have happened, some are still happening and others are yet to happen. As much as science has assisted human beings to make life easier and simpler through various discoveries and innovations, it has also affected peoples worldview.

Reyes (2008) argues that some of the challenges people experience today have been contributed solely by scientific studies. As mentioned earlier in this paper, science has been in existence even before the time of Jesus. In Genesis 1:11-25 the concept of biodiversity is widely discussed. The chapter explains Gods creation and how He appreciated His work. However, what we have done today in the name of science has caused more harm than benefits. Today, the rate of people getting affected by unfavorable climatic conditions continues to rise. Reyes (2008) acknowledges that the present research has left out the religious institutions ability to create a better worldview that can help orient and change the action and normative behaviors of people. If God created everything and after finishing stepped back and looked at what He had created and appreciated it, why should man refuse to accept the fact that even the little that he has done is causing harm than benefit?

Bufford and Sisemore (2014) assert that worldviews involve beliefs about what is good and evil or right and wrong. Christian worldview helps to determine what is religious wrong and right. Bufford and Sisemore (2014) argue that every person has a worldview even if they have not realized it yet. Science continues to influence the way people think and perceives the environment in which they do not see whether it is wrong or evil. Science is about exploring the environment and trying to understand what it is composed of. However, in the process of exploring the environment very little attention is given to the possibility of its impact on the surrounding and the living things negatively. Wood (2008) states that if a person does not possess the Christian or Biblical worldview then he/she possesses a secular or pagan worldview. However, when this is a teacher then he will instill the same worldview in his students.

According to Wood (2008), teachers have a great influence on students or learners and they can only deliver what they possess and not that which they do not possess. God gave man dominion over all the creation and what man depicts today clearly shows that he is out of control. This can be compared with a manager who has been left to manage an organization and turns around and misuses the resources then turns to the business owner for more resources. Man was put in charge of the other creation because of his superiority. God did not create the ecosystem for anything; He must have a valid reason especially to provide a means of survival to the other animals that could depend on the vegetation. What man does today by cutting down trees and clearing forest to build big industries and factories and real estate is a clear indication that man has not only disobeyed the directive of God to be in charge of the other creations but has also shown disrespect to Gods creations? The man has completely forgotten a...