Evaluating your Evaluating your Personal World ViewPersonal World View

© John Stevenson, 2008

Session ObjectivesSession Objectives

• To examine your own personal worldview

• To consider the components and implications of a biblical worldview

Your Personal World ViewYour Personal World View

• Upbringing

• Education

• Church

• Events

• Books

• Experiences

is influenced by a number of factors…is influenced by a number of factors…

What have been the most significant

factors in shaping your own world

view?

What Factors have been involved in determining your political outlook?

• Upbringing

• Self-interest

• What does the Bible have to say about government?

How would you respond to this question: Did God create AIDS?

Genesis 3 Genesis 3 ─ ─ The FallThe Fall

• Are there signs of God’s grace even in the account of the Fall?

• Why does evil often look good to us, even exciting?

• Why do we find the story of a bank robbery more interesting than the story of a bank deposit?

The CrossThe Cross

How is your view of life affected by your understanding of the incarnation, the cross, and the resurrection?

A Christian World ViewA Christian World View

Four Basic QuestionsFour Basic Questions

• What is real?– What is the nature of

ultimate reality?– Is this universe all

there is?– Is this physical

universe an illusion?– Who or what is God?

Timothy Phillips&

Sennis Okholm

Page 27

Four Basic QuestionsFour Basic Questions

• What is real?– What is the nature of

ultimate reality?– Is this universe all

there is?– Is this physical

universe an illusion?– Who or what is God?

In the beginning God created the heavens and the

earth.

Four Basic QuestionsFour Basic Questions

• What is real?

• Who am I?– What does it mean to

be human?– What is the purpose of

human existence?– What are we doing

here?Timothy Phillips&

Sennis Okholm

Page 27

Genesis 1:26-27

Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

Four Basic QuestionsFour Basic Questions

• What is real?

• Who am I?

• What is wrong?– What is the origin of

suffering and evil?– Why do we die?– What keeps humans

from utopia?Timothy Phillips&

Sennis Okholm

Page 27

What is Wrong?What is Wrong?

• The very idea that something is wrong is a Christian ideal.

• This world is not the way it is supposed to be.

• Sin entered the world and death by sin (Romans 5:12)

Four Basic QuestionsFour Basic Questions

• What is real?

• Who am I?

• What is wrong?

• What is the solution?– How does one remedy

this problem?– How does one attain

“salvation”?Timothy Phillips&

Sennis Okholm

Page 27

Four Basic QuestionsFour Basic Questions

• What is real?

• Who am I?

• What is wrong?

• What is the solution?– How does one remedy

this problem?– How does one attain

“salvation”?

What would be What would be your reply to an your reply to an

unchurched unchurched friend asking friend asking

you, “What is the you, “What is the Bible all about?”Bible all about?”

Major Themes in the BibleMajor Themes in the Bible

• Creation

• Fall

• Redemption

Major Themes in the BibleMajor Themes in the Bible

How do these categories

help to organize the “stuff” of the

Bible?

Matthew 6:24Matthew 6:24No one can serve two masters;

for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.

How is one’s world view impacted if he attempts to

serve two masters?

What is the What is the impact of impact of taking a taking a

“double vision” “double vision” approach to approach to

life?life?