THE BIBLICAL WORLDVIEW: The Transforming Story:
- nigelfareed
- Feb 12, 2025
- 24 min read
Updated: Jul 5, 2025
THE POWER OF STORY
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God's Transforming Story is Creation- Fall- Redemption-Consummation (Restoration)
There are only four chapters in the Bible where there is no sin, no rebellion, no sorrow, no pain, no tears, no suffering, no injustice, and no groaning of creation...as Romans 8v22 tells us. Genesis chapter 1 and 2 and Revelation chapters 21 and 22. In other words, the beginning points to the end. God is declaring the end FROM the beginning.
CREATION: First- A Definition of Worldview:
A Worldview is like a pair of glasses that we interpret the world through. The glasses represent our presuppositions, what we presuppose or assume reality is. We normally do not look AT our glasses; we look THROUGH them without thinking. So also, we look through the glasses of our assumptions to interpret reality often without thinking.
However, it is crucial that we understand the times in which we live, and therefore we need to understand two things:
First: The Biblical Worldview- Creation-Fall-Redemption-Consummation (Restoration)
Second: The competing Worldviews we have to live with in our everyday lives.
Spectrum of Worldviews:
If you picture a spectrum, there are Three main Worldviews that have characterised Western Culture for the most part- But for this spectrum, picture a diagonal line that travels downward beginning with Biblical Theism at the top. We will assess these in relation to a Key Question for each of the 4 chapters (Creation, Fall, Redemption and Consummation) of the Transforming Story.
Of course, there are many other offshoots of these main Three worldviews but these Three are the major ones in the history of Western culture.
Taken from ‘Discipling Nations’ by Darrow Miller who studied under the late Francis Shaeffer.
Biblical Theism (1st-18th century)
Deism (18th-19th centuries)
Secular Humanism (Late 20th-21st centuries)
A Worldview has to be able to answer these 4 Questions:
Where did the Universe come from/What does it mean to be human? Creation
What is wrong with the world? Fall
What is the solution to what is wrong with the world? Redemption
Where is history going? Consummation
A Worldview can also be likened to a Tree:
When you look at a tree, you observe the Trunk, the branches, the leaves and the fruit. But you cannot see the roots of the tree. A Worldview is similar to a tree.
The Roots= Beliefs
The Trunk= Values
The Branches= Behaviour
The Fruit= Consequences
Obviously if you plant apple seeds, you will eventually get an apple tree. The seeds or the roots are the beliefs that a person holds to in which to interpret the whole of reality.
There is a reason why the 3 main Worldviews in the history of Western culture travel downward.
Because only the Biblical Worldview of Creation, Fall, Redemption and Consummation (Restoration) corresponds with ALL created Reality as it really is.
How does the Biblical Worldview on the above Spectrum answer the first of these 4 questions-which is a Twofold Question?
Where does the Universe come from/What does it mean to be Human?
The Gospel begins at Genesis 1v1- Creation
The Biblical Worldview begins with this categorical statement:
And it ends in Revelation 22 with a New heavens and a New Earth. This means that history is linear, and is moving toward its consummation, its endpoint. It means that there is a purpose to human history because it has a destiny.
God's arch enemy, aka Apollyon the devil also has his deceptive counterfeit 'end to history'.
It has usually come in the form of tyrannical empires throughout history.
Right now, the worldview of Globalism combined with an ever-increasing Technocracy ruled by an elite appears to be the contemporary 'Tower of Babel' that the enemy is working through. We must not only understand the times in which we live but we are to 'expose the works of darkness (Ephesians 5v11)
3 CRUCIAL WORDS
There are 3 words that are crucial in this first verse in Genesis 1v1 if we are to understand the whole scope of redemptive history from Creation to New Creation. This will be covered in the next Blog>
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THE BIBLICAL WORLDVIEW: TRANSFORMING STORY #2
The unpacking of these 3 words comes from a series called ‘Dust to Glory’ by the late R C Sproul, the founder of Ligonier Ministries in Orlando, Florida, USA.
1. Beginning
2. God
3. Created
In these Three words we have the central affirmations of Biblical Christianity-
These Three words sets the Biblical Worldview apart from all interpretations of reality including not only the other two Worldviews on the above Spectrum but ALL FORMS of Atheism, all forms of Naturalism, Secularism, Humanism, and all other isms that compete for the allegiance of people in our day.
It could be argued that this is the most controversial verse in all of Scripture.
The first of these crucial words is:
BEGINNING
Any physical object will obviously remain in a state of inertia until it is acted upon by an outside force. If a football is not acted upon by an outside force, it will remain indefinitely in a state of inertia. For the football to move and serve its purpose it needs to be acted upon by an outside force. It needs someone to literally kick the football or pick it up, then and only then will it move.
The Law of Inertia: Things that are static stay static unless acted upon by an outside force
The central point is: If there was a beginning then ‘HOW DID IT BEGIN’?
If the Universe was Eternal in a constant state of inertia like the football and the atoms and molecules (physical matter) came together in a ‘Big Bang’, the question/s then become:
· Where did the atoms and molecules come from?
· Where did the laws of physics come from that sustain the physical universe-like gravity?
· If there was a ‘Big Bang’ that exploded into a vast Universe, without a Creator you are left with Nothing as the Cause of the Big Bang.
· How then does ‘Nothing’ explode because Nothing has no Being?
· ‘How did Physical matter move? Why did physical matter move? This leads to another question: Why is there even a Universe at all?
· This idea that the Universe is Eternal is rooted in Greek philosophy and it means that everything goes around and around without a beginning and without an end.
· This is captured in the book of Ecclesiastes- that for example addresses the Pagan notion of Scepticism that is tied to this idea that the Universe is Eternal. This is a cyclical view of history (like reincarnation)
So the conclusion is that there is no purposeful beginning and no purposeful end point to existence hence ‘All is Vanity, a chasing after the wind’. So humanity is locked into an eternal cycle of going around in cycles and going nowhere (We’re on a Road to Nowhere’)
KEY POINT: In Western culture since the 17th-18th century, the Biblical Story changed to:
In the beginning Nothing- meaning Nothing by Chance produced the Universe through billions of years of evolution and therefore humanity comes from Nothing, is going to Nothing after death and so we must ‘be’ Nothing. This is the logical conclusion if NOTHING produced the entire Universe.
KEY POINT>
But at the very outset of Scripture there is the affirmation that there is a beginning-meaning that there was a time when the Universe did not exist.
In the Progress of the history of Redemption from Creation to the New Creation we are making an assertion that is radical for:
Our whole understanding of who we are as human beings &
What our lives mean and what our reason for being is meant to be about.
There is a radical difference then between all creaturely existence and it’s Creator
The statement in Genesis 1v1 states that History has a beginning point in time and that time itself has a beginning. We probably take this for granted but it must not be taken for granted in relation to competing worldviews in our culture today.
Each Worldview must be able to answer what was the Outside force that caused Physical matter to move and why.
The answer to this question will then answer the twofold question of:
‘Where did the Universe come from and ‘What does it mean to be human’?
· The answer to the question of Origins is inevitably connected to the other 3 crucial questions that all Worldviews must be able to answer in a way that corresponds with all reality-
· What is wrong with the world?
· What is the solution to what is wrong?
· Where is History going?
The Biblical Worldview's answer to the question: ‘What caused physical matter to move and why’ is stated in this propositional statement in Genesis 1v1 ‘In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth’.
For further information on the crucial issue of Intelligent Design in creation:
The second crucial word in Genesis 1v1 is:
GOD
This is why the Biblical Worldview does not stop by simply saying ‘In the beginning’. But ‘In the beginning…GOD.
So Scripture starts with a categorical proposition that God is the Creator and Author of everything in existence. That which has a beginning IN TIME must have a beginning PRECEDING IT.
To say IN THE BEGINNING…GOD, we are now talking about the beginning of SPACE AND TIME. For there to be a beginning to the created Universe there must be something that stands above and beyond the created Universe- something or Someone that has no beginning.
Something or Someone that in and of itself is Eternal and Self-Existent, something that has the very power of being in itself. This is the proclamation and affirmation of Scripture, the reality of the existence of God.
This is the answer that Biblical Theism gives to the first of our Twofold question. The personal infinite Creator Triune God created the entire Universe out of Nothing. He did not use pre-existing materials, for He created the pre-existing atoms and molecules.
See Genesis 1:1ff, Psalms 33:6, Psalms 148:5, John 1:3, Colossians 1:16, and Hebrews 11:3 for a more complete picture of how God created the world.
For further information: https://www.theopedia.com/creation-ex-nihilo https://www.reasonablefaith.org/media/reasonable-faith-podcast/creation-out-of-nothing
http://resources.thegospelcoalition.org/library/topic_index Click on Topics, then click on Creation, then Revelation in Nature for an interesting talk on God’s revelation in creation.
Institute of Creation Research: https://www.icr.org/who-we-are
Genesis 1v1-3 and the Trinity
· Genesis 1 doesn’t yet indicate the full significance that the names "Word" and "Spirit" will have for the Trinity. The full significance of these names ‘Word and Spirit’ only comes with the appearance of the Word made flesh and the outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost. (John 1v14; Acts 2)
· Nevertheless, by including God’s Word and Spirit within Genesis 1v1-3 Genesis 1 puts the first building block into place for the doctrine of the Trinity that is hidden in the Old Testament but more fully revealed in the New Testament.
· These points above are essential because when we refer to ‘God’ we cannot leave it there, because there are countless numbers of definitions of ‘God’ from countless numbers of different religions and philosophies. So we have to unpack who God is based on His revelation.
John 1v1 echoing Genesis 1v1 states ‘In the beginning was the Word (Logos) and the Word (Logos) was with God and the Word (Logos) was God’.
Logos means Word but it also means rationality-thus the rational structure of the Universe reflects the Mind of the Creator.
Genesis 1v1 states that God, who alone is uncreated and eternal, has formed and given existence to everything outside of Himself. He did this from nothing by the word of his power, and all of it was very good (Genesis 1v31)
For further information on the Role of the Trinity in Creation: https://www.icr.org/article/trinity-creation/
The Third Crucial Word in Genesis 1v1 is:
CREATED
Scripture introduces God in Action, he is a God of Action- God is doing something and what He is doing is the greatest thing that has ever been done in terms of activity- which is the Creation of the Universe….out of Nothing
Everything that man creates is a mediated creativity meaning that man has to use materials that already exist. But the Scripture presents God as creating the Universe when there is no medium, there are no pre-existent materials to work with-He created out of Nothing- ex nihilo. God alone can bring life out of death and something out of nothing.
· Creation of the Universe out of Nothing is the Supreme work that is not just Natural but Supernatural. It takes us beyond the glorious theatre of Nature to not only the beginning of Nature but to the Author and Creator of Nature who creates out of nothing.
· The Bible does not give us a Scientific description of how God does it. All we are told is that God creates the Universe out of Nothing by the Speaking of His Word.
· The Eight Fold Rhythm of Genesis 1 simply means a divine transcendent majestic holy command- where He speaks into the Void and says simply ‘Let there Be’. The sheer power of One who has the Eternal power of being in and of Himself, a Universe begins.
The Triune Creator God is both Transcendent and Immanent
‘In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth’ means that the one true personal infinite Creator God is both Transcendent and Immanent at the same time. This is so crucial to maintain both God’s Transcendence and Immanence, because if you disregard either, you will have departed from the one true God and have another ‘god’.
Artificial Intellligence is the devil's 'Consummation' or the end point of humanity. Of course, this is the natural direction that the Worldview of Evolution would be moving in. (https://www.techhuman.org/resource-bank/john-wyatt-cambridge-paper-7rg2g)
The rationale is that AI is the natural next step of our evolutionary process. God has his 'eschatology', His endpoint, and it will be when Jesus Christ returns to inaugurate the New heavens and the New Earth (Revelation chapters 19, 21 & 22). The devil always tries to counterfeit what God does, because he cannot create out of nothing like God can.
We must not only understand the times in which we live but we are to 'expose the works of darkness' (Ephesians 5v11). In addition, Western society has legislated that Transgender is the direction that it desires to move toward. Transgender some argue will lead to Transhumanism. There is an actual Transhumanist movement. (https://whatistranshumanism.org/)
This is really about an Unseen Cosmic War (Ephesians 6v12-18; Revelation 12) The Ekklesia, the Body of Christ has had several different battles to fight throughout its history.
The battle to maintain the two natures in the person of Jesus Christ in the Early Church. (Jesus as both fully God and fully human)
The battle of salvation in the Reformation period (God is sovereign in regeneration because we cannot cooperate with Grace in our fallenness)
The battle of how did the Universe begin in the 17th-19th century when Darwin's 'Origin of Species' resulted in belief in evolution and this is the story Western culture has been living in ever since.
It is crucial that we understand what the real battle is in our own time. And it is this:
What does it mean to be human? #3 will address this.
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THE BIBLICAL WORLDVIEW: TRANSFORMING STORY #3
John Stonestreet, the President of the Colson Centre for Christian Worldview gave a lecture with the title:
'The Image Restored- The Gospel in a Culture of Identity Crisis'.
He made a statement that is profoundly relevant for the immediate crisis in Western Culture. He said that ‘The Number One Quest of our culture is:
‘What does it mean to be Human’.
It is crucial that we understand what the real battle is in our own time
In this lecture, John Stonestreet provided some very helpful clarity about how ideas have consequences, and therefore why the number one Quest of Western culture is 'What it means to be human'.
When did you last hear a sermon on 'The Imago Deo' or the Image of God in humanity that also included the Biblical Worldview of:
Creation (Glory Bestowed)>
Fall (Glory tainted) >
Redemption (Glory Restored) >
Consummation (Glory consummated/perfected)?
Have you ever thought why this is so conspicuous by its absence in most sermons?
This is essential because if you leave out Creation, especially the creation of Male & Female in the Image and Likeness of the Triune God, it means that you don't really have a true Biblical Worldview. So here, I want to briefly focus on some implications for 'The Imago Deo' in human beings.
As Christians express the love of God in the world, one common thread holds it all together. The Biblical story has a mystery within it and it lies deep within every human being.
God spoke the Universe into existence out of nothing by His Word, but when He created man, he sculpted them by His hands and His breath unlike anything else in all creation.
Human beings are created in the Image of God according to His Likeness. It means we are His Masterpiece. We have the ability to create, worship, reason, communicate, choose, relate, think, feel, and are capable of love and are responsible for our actions (Genesis 1v26-28; 2v7,21-22; Psalm 8v5)
The Biblical story also includes that although Human beings were created for Intimacy with God and were created to Reflect God, but instead human beings Replaced God. This brought sin and destruction into the world and resulted in a profound 4 fold alienation (Genesis 3v7-24)
The entire Biblical Story unfolds this four-fold alienation between God and humans, alienation within ourselves, between each other individually and nationally and between humanity and creation/nature.
The Fall is not the end of the Story for God sent a Redeemer, the perfect Image of the Invisible God, to restore the broken Image and to reconcile and renew our relationship with Him.
THE BIBLICAL WORLDVIEW: TRANSFORMING STORY #5: FOURFOLD ALIENATION-STRUCTURE & DIRECTION
There is nothing in human life that does not belong to the created order. Everything is creational. There are many creational Structures but only 2 Directions-This means that Human beings are either oriented TOWARD God through His Grace as shown in the Redemption of Jesus Christ in His Death and Resurrection.
Or they are oriented AWAY from God because of the fallen nature that they have inherited from Adam as Romans. The Four Fold Alienation as a result of the Fall in Eden (Genesis 3v16-19) implies that we need to grasp the complex and profound meaning and the ramifications of this 4 fold alienation in Genesis 3v7-24.
Beyond the mere fact of this 4 fold alienation, a key point is the way these alienations interweave, interconnect, and mutually reinforce each other.
There are many Structures in Creation, but only 2 Directions as Romans 1v25 points out.
Romans 1v18-3v20 is the first section in Romans after the initial introduction in v1-17.
Chapter 1 is about the 'Wrath of Abandonment' where God says three times that 'He gave them over' in v24, 26 & 28 to face the consequences of the lusts of their hearts, which is basically idolatry.
The verse in 1v25 means that nothing is neutral in all creation, human beings either worship the Creator God or they worship the creature.
The word 'Culture' from Latin means 'cultus' meaning worship.
Therefore the kind of culture that human beings build will reveal what or who they worship. In other words the culture will reveal in its Institutions especially, the reality of the truth of the one true Creator God or the particular idols that it worships.
By 'Exchanging the truth of God for the lie and worshipping the creature rather than the Creator' any culture will reveal its foundation of Paganism, which in turn will lead to cultural decay as Romans 1 shows clearly, in particular v29-32. Paganism basically rejects any belief in a Creator and defines Reality from Nature alone because there is no Creator God or a Transcendent realm. It also rejects the opposites that God has put into creation.
So in Paganism, there is no Creator and creation distinction, no heaven and earth distinction and no Male & Female distinction.
The physical world is all there is. Of course this means that the Secularism of Western culture is therefore a form of Paganism, because 'All of reality is only physical'.
You just need to observe the ways that Western Governments in particular has redefined God's creational structures of Male & Female as the Image of God, Marriage, and the Family.
Also a key question is whether the Church historically has been faithful to not only the Great Commission but also the Creation Mandate.
If Governments in Western culture have redefined God's creational structures for creation, in the laws that they pass, the inevitable Direction that the culture then moves in is AWAY from the one true Creator God into a form of Paganism/Humanism across the entire spectrum of its institutions.
The redefining of God’s creational structures such as the binary and complementary distinctions of Male/Female in particular, Marriage, Family, and also Government in terms of how it is called to function by the Creator are directly related to two major themes that run throughout the Scriptures: Identity and Idolatry.
These two themes are fundamental to the Second Question of what a Worldview must be able to answer:
What is wrong with the world?
For more information on the decline of Western Culture: The Four Horsemen Documentary is worth looking at.
Remember ever since Eden, fallen humanity defines ‘Good and Evil’ for themselves, including redefining God and therefore makes up Reality through his own interpretation of it. This is called Idolatry
The above documentary shows how the richest people known as the Global Elite covet 'Dominion' of the whole world and where it is heading.
In terms of the Direction that Western Culture is moving in the 21st century, Patrick Wood, a Christian whose main area of expertise of Technocracy reveals how this Global Elite by merging Science and Technology are moving in a very dark Direction indeed....toward a Technocracy and Transhumanism.
In his book 'Technocracy Rising, the Trojan Horse of Global transformation' he discusses the roots of Technocracy from the 1930s.
Alexander Solzhenitisyn a Russian Christian who suffered terribly during the Bolshevik Revolution under Stalin in the Russian Gulags, who lived in Exile in the West for many years in America, put the bottom line problem of Western culture very simply:
Globalism and the Great Reset
The world has been characterised by chaos and confusion since March 2020- Confusion reveals the spirit of Babylon because Babel means ‘confusion’. Ephesians 6v10-18 is a clear passage of the spiritual war we are in and reveals the satanic hierarchy-
The spirit and principality of Babylon is clearly at work in the world.
Key Point:
We must not be SILENT LIKE ADAM in Genesis 3v6b. We must move and speak into the confusion according to our conscience.The serpent holds out to them the prize of knowledge. In other words, to take of this Tree is the path to knowledge-
The serpent was effectively saying ‘Be your own god’ by determining Good and Evil for yourselves. They came into agreement with the serpents lie of what was Good and what was Evil.
So immediately after the Fall, there is murder and from that point, humankind defines what is Good and what is Evil for itself.
The Tower of Babel in Genesis 11:
In Genesis 9v25-27 Noah cursed Canaan because of what Ham had done to him. Canaan was the grandfather of Nimrod. It seems that deep resentment of this curse came down the family line and was reversed profoundly with Nimrod. It was as if Nimrod said ‘Instead of receiving this curse of being a servant to other people, I will rule over all people’. The beginning of his kingdom was Babel.
At the Tower of Babel, God separated the nations into distinct nations with distinct languages. Globalism seeks to unite the nations under a World Government and a world leader and a one world Global religion.
Globalism is therefore antithetical and in rebellion to the Creator God. This is the spirit of Babylon.
In the Table of Nations in Genesis 10, 70 nations can be observed from the 3 sons of Noah- Shem, Ham and Japheth. Bible.org notes there are 30 nations from Ham, 26 from Shem and 14 from Japheth. Every nation on earth can trace their roots back to these 70 nations in Genesis 10.
Babel/Babylon means the forces of confusion. Forces that want to divide and tear apart the family, marriages, Governments, humanity, nations reveal the spirit of Babylon.
It is revealed in anything which DIS-INTEGRATES and results in chaos, in particular through the power of speech and language under the leadership of Nimrod. All satanic occult religions can be traced back to Egypt and Babylon including Freemasonry which came out of the Jewish Kabbalah in Babylon
As noted above- this reveals that the confusion in the world since March 2020 is that the spirit of Babylon is at work.
Acts 17v26 And He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their lands and territories.
In Genesis 11 Humanity tries to unite through the same language in rebellion against God.
This means that national boundaries are creational. Therefore a Globalist One World Government that does away with national boundaries and national sovereignty-is rebellion against the Creator God.
Then in Genesis 12 God focuses on one man and from him, every nation, tribe, tongue and people will be truly united in Christ through the Gospel.
Key point: This is the only way for humanity to be united- and that is by the blood of Christ.
Patrick Wood in his book ‘Technocracy Rising, the Trojan Horse of Global Transformation’ makes some interesting points in Appendix 1 at the end of the book entitled ‘Transforming Christianity’. In relation to the Tower of Babel he says
(QUOTE)
‘As they strategized on how to build a tower all the way to Heaven, they discovered a new technique for building tall structures. Whereas rocks and mud had been used previously, now uniformly fired bricks and tar would prove to be far superior. Simplistic as this sounds, it was a new technology to them and one so exciting to them that they were deceived into thinking they could actually build that tower right into Heaven. He continues…My only point here is to point out the connection between technology and a common language that apparently enabled their rebellion.The Trans-human dream is no less than to escape the laws of sin and death and to assume qualities reserved for God, such as omniscience, omnipotence, eternality etc…And the language used to construct this modern-day Tower of Babel? It is digital’ (UNQUOTE) 2
Digital language he says is the new common language spoken by those who would build a modern Tower of Babel (ie Transhumanism) to displace God in the same manner as the account in Genesis 11.
Key point:
New Technology as in Mass Surveillance, Drone technology, Digital language, digital technology and digital currency all relate to the modern Tower of Babel being pursued by the Global elite.
In Genesis 11v4 at the Tower of Babel, a united humanity declared ‘Come let us build a city for ourselves’. God said ‘Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them or be impossible for them’. In v7 God says ‘Come Let Us’ go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech’.
A united humanity at the Tower of Babel declared ‘Come let us build’ and God responded with ‘Come Let Us go down….To judge and confuse and scatter them.
The leaders of the world since March 2020 have been declaring ‘Let us build back better’ and this can only result in God’s Judgment. The following Quote is taken from TruthXchange- a Christian Think Tank in the United States.
Pam Frost is a researcher and speaker for TruthXchange and her main topic of research is Globalism.
She was interviewed earlier this year on the subject of ‘Globalism and the Great Reset’.
Pam Frost asks a Question:
'What does it mean that nothing will be impossible for them- because God is the only One who is Omnipotent and all powerful and all knowing?
She answers:
(QUOTE)
‘A united Pagan humanity working together as one on the earth, with no boundaries of the depth of evil to which they would go. It was an act of preservation and protection that God confused the languages. So God scattered them throughout the earth and drew boundaries around them as nations’
However, God’s purpose in the Gospel is that He would redeem a portion of humanity from every tribe, tongue, nation and people. ONLY IN CHRIST would humanity become One in Him, but he does not eliminate our cultural and language distinctions. So God separated the nations for a redemptive and protective purpose. But Globalism seeks to undo all of the national distinctions and uniqueness of nations to reunite the nations under a One World Global Government with a one world leader.
Totalitarian, dictatorial, authoritarian, Communitarian under a one world united religion. This is Globalism in a nutshell’. (UNQUOTE) Pam Frost (www.truthxchange.com)
Communitarian is the merging of both the political Left and the political Right. It is also known as 'Hegel's Dialetic' or Problem- Reaction-Solution.
Thesis (Communism)
Anti-thesis (Capitalism)
Synthesis (Communitarian)
Click here Spreaker CMS then click 'Continue' for a podcast on 'Relevant Ideologies to Globalism' Scroll down and click Session 3.
Romans chapter 1- Humanity without God
Romans chapter 1 is one of the most, if not THE most penetrating and most accurate description of human beings without God.
1v21-22 shows how human beings came to be in this position.
‘For even though they knew God, they did not honour Him as God or give thanks, they became futile in their thinking (reasoning) and their foolish heart was darkened’.
The fall of man began IN THE MIND and this is where the downward spiral begins:
In the way people THINK without the Spirit of God.
When this passage speaks of human beings as foolish, it does not just mean they are foolish only in a religious sense. It means that all human beings including human cultures have interpreted all of reality in a way that is Futile, Foolish and Dark. Romans 1v18-32 applies to not just the original Fall of man in the Garden of Eden- It speaks of ANY period in human history when humanity knew the truth of the one true and living God and deliberately rejected it.
The Question then becomes:
‘What should our perspective be as we observe our own contemporary culture in light of Romans chapter 1?
There is only ONE perspective we can have of Western Culture today- which is not just a Post-Christian culture but an ANTI-Christian culture. Western Culture is under the wrath of God
For example, these are just 4 areas that have resulted in a Culture of Death.
1.Birth- The comprehensive practice of abortion- The death of babies- In the Bible the god of Molech which is also Baal, demands child sacrifice- the fallen angel Lucifer aka satan, apollyon the devil is obviously behind this idol called Molech. The
2.Male & Female as different biologically- Transgenderism-The death of Gender
3.Marriage- Same-sex marriage- The death of Procreation
4.Euthanasia- The death of the elderly and the inconvenient.
Romans 1v18-32 reveals one of the forms of God's Judgment on rebellious humanity. 3 times in this chapter, in v24; 26 and 28 God says He 'GAVE THEM OVER'. From the original Greek 'Depraved' means rejected. In other words, the final 'Giving Over' of the Wrath of Abandonment.
Romans 1v25 says they ‘Exchanged the truth of God for the lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator’.
Humanism, Paganism, and a depraved mind.
This verse shows us that there is NOTHING NEUTRAL in all creation. Human beings will either worship the one true Creator God or they will worship the creation or something within creation.
By 'Exchanging the truth of God for the lie and worshipping the creature rather than the Creator' any human culture will reveal its foundation of Paganism.
This in turn will lead to cultural decay as Romans 1 shows clearly, in particular v29-32 because human rebellion against the one true Creator God always starts in the mind.
Paganised Humanism
After the Three-fold ‘God giving them over’ in v24, 26 and finally in v28 of Romans chapter 1- God gave them over to a depraved mind’. So in 1v29-32 God shows us the characteristics of a depraved or debased mind. In other words, the MIND has been given over and this is where Western culture is at and has been for a long time.
When the minds of the leaders of human Government become depraved through rejecting the Word of God-and actually legislate to dismantle the creational norms that the Creator God has put into Creation which He declared to be ‘very good’ (Genesis 1v31)....
....The inevitable outcome is a culture of decay and a culture of death through the State becoming a fundamental form of both Totalitarianism and Paganised Humanism.
In other words, a Totalitarian Paganised Humanist State becomes deified. It replaces the Eternal God as the only source of ultimate authority on all of life.
Structure & Direction
There are many Structures in Creation, but only 2 Directions as Romans 1v25 points out.
For example, Male & Female as Image bearers of God, marriage, family, the Church, human Government, business, commerce, health, the arts, education, in short the whole realm of human affairs are all creational structures that have their own sphere sovereignty, because a State that understands boundaries will not have a tyrannical overreach into these spheres.
Toward or Away from God.
The 2 Directions that humanity moves in is very simply either toward the one true Creator God or away from Him and will define ‘Good and Evil’ for themselves which of course was the serpents deception in the Garden of Eden.
Joe Boot who Founded ‘The Ezra Institute of Contemporary Christianity ' based in Canada gave a lecture on ‘The Road from Eden’ and the meaning of culture. He points out that The word 'Culture' from the Latin is 'cultus which means 'worship'. www.ezrainstitute.ca 4 (Ctrl + click to follow link)
Therefore the development of human culture reflects not only what it means to be human as Genesis 1v26-28 reveals- but any human culture will reveal what it worships in terms of how it is oriented-
It is crucial to especially speak into the DIRECTION that Western culture in particular is moving in today in 2022.
The kind of culture that human beings build will reveal what or who they worship. In other words the culture will reveal in its Institutions especially, the reality of the truth of the one true Creator God or the particular idols that it worships.The Almighty and Everlasting Creator God or idols? There is no neutral ground at all in all creation.
If Governments in Western culture have redefined God's creational structures for creation, in the laws that they pass, the inevitable Direction that the culture then moves in is AWAY from the one true Creator God into a form of Paganism/Humanism across the entire spectrum of its institutions as I have already highlighted. The redefining of God’s creational structures such as the complementary distinctions of Male/Female in particular, Marriage, Family, and Government etc as noted above, in terms of how it is called to function by the Creator are directly related to two major themes that run throughout the Scriptures:
Identity and Idolatry.
Battles that the Church/Ekklesia has faced in history:
The Early Church: Christology- the Person of Jesus Christ and the union of His two natures as Fully God and Fully Human
The Reformation: Soteriology- Are we saved ONLY by the Grace of God alone or are we able to co-operate with the Grace of God by 'Choosing to give our lives to Christ'?
21st Century: Anthropology- What does it mean to be Human? This is the main fundamental battle that God's people are in today.
In a talk by John Stonestreet of the Colson Centre for a Christian Worldview with the title:
'The Image Restored- The Gospel in a Culture of Identity Crisis'.
said that the Number 1 Quest of our culture is 'What does it mean to be Human'?
Genesis 1v26-28- Clarify the disruption in the narrative of Genesis 1v26 after the 8x Let There Be's to create order and structure out of the Formlessness, Chaos and Darkness of Genesis 1v2
God spoke the Universe into existence out of nothing by His Word, but when He created man, he sculpted them by His hands and His breath unlike anything else in all creation.
Human beings are created in the Image of the Triune God according to His Likeness. It means we are His Masterpiece. We have the ability to create, worship, reason, communicate, choose, relate, think, feel, and are capable of love and are responsible for our actions (Genesis 1v26-28; 2v7,21-22; Psalm 8v5)
Globalism which we shall see is inseparable from Transhumanism and Technocracy is basically fallen mankind worshipping itself. It is the culmination and the ‘eschaton’ of Evolution where humans merge with machine to be immortal. This is the End Game of the Evil One.
Is Globalism connected to the Great Reset ?
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