1. Thinking About Biblical Worldview Michael Goheen IDIS 102, TWU 2007

2. Popularity of Term Worldview  Popularity of Biblical worldview today among evangelicals: Response to comprehensive and powerful modern humanist worldview Response to comprehensive and powerful modern humanist worldview Establish a solid foundation for vigorous cultural engagement including scholarship Establish a solid foundation for vigorous cultural engagement including scholarship Retrieve gospel from ‘values’ category Retrieve gospel from ‘values’ category

3. Fact/Value Dichotomy

4. Starting point: Gospel of Kingdom  Jesus announces that the kingdom has come (Mark 1.15-16)  “God is acting in power and love through Jesus and by the Spirit to restore all of human life and all of the creation to again live under God’s loving rule.”

5. This announcement assumes:  Good creation (Creation)  Messed up by sin (Sin)  God is acting to restore creation to again be what it was meant to be (Restoration)  Battle for whole creation between power of sin and power of Spirit (Antithesis)

6. Illustration  Healthy child  Deformed by disease  Process of healing  Struggle between disease and healing power  Good creation  Deformed by human sin  Restoration  Struggle between evil and God’s healing power

7. Three Simultaneous Lenses  Creation: How was world meant to be?  Sin: How has the human rebellion perverted it?  Restoration: How is God restoring it?

8. Creation: How was it meant to be?  Creation ordered by God’s word All of human lifeAll of human life All of non-human creationAll of non-human creation

9. Divine and human wisdom  Divine wisdom: Way God orders creation  Human wisdom: Conforming ourselves to that order  ‘Wisdom [is] wrought into the constitution of the universe’ so that human wisdom is ‘ethical conformity to God’s creation’ (Fleming).  Kosmos: ‘the world held a divine order’ and therefore wisdom was ‘fitting oneself into’ this divine order. (Gladigow).

10. Creation: How was it meant to be?  Creation ordered by God’s word All of human lifeAll of human life All of non-human creationAll of non-human creation  Humanity as image of God Made to know and love GodMade to know and love God Made to serve and reflect GodMade to serve and reflect God  Cultural development  Very good

11. Sin: How has human rebellion perverted it  Power that twists and distorts all of human life (God, each other, nature)  Sin and its effects

12. Sin and Its Effects  Forms of sin (greed, lying, etc.)  Results of sin (sickness, pain etc.)  Death  Satan, powers of darkness SIN

13. Sin: How has human rebellion perverted it  Power that twists and distorts all of human life (God, each other, nature)  Sin and its effects  Idolatry  “... all sin is an expression of the basic sin of idolatry, of putting something else in the place of God.” (Paul Marshall)

14. Sin as idolatry

15. Sin: How has human rebellion perverted it  Power that twists and distorts all of human life (God, each other, nature)  Sin and its effects  Idolatry  Affects all of non-human creation

16. Restoration: How is God restoring it? “While justly angry God did not turn his back on a world bent on destruction; he turned his face toward it in love. With patience and tender care he set out on the long road of redemption to reclaim the lost as his people and the world as his kingdom” (Contemporary Testimony,19)

17. Redemption  Redemption flows from love of God  Redemption is restorative  Redemption is comprehensive  ‘Long road’ of redemption

18. ‘Long Road of Redemption’  Israel chosen to model restoration of human life vs. idolatry of nations  Jesus reveals in his life, deeds, and words God’s restoration  Cross: Battle and victory for creation  Resurrection: Beginning of renewal  Church called to make known God’s restoration  Christ’s return: Restoration complete!

19. Design-Directing power

20. Clash of Kingdoms Antithesis

21. Which ruler will you serve?  Scholarship and university education: Part of creation  Battle between idolatry and God’s kingdom  Default: Idolatry of our culture  Choose this day whom you will serve! “No one can be a loyal servant to two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot faithful serve both God and _____.” (Jesus, Matthew 6.24)