Worldviews in Our Witnessing Encounters
Comprehending religious beliefs as worldviews rather than as pieces of practices allows believers to be aware of the overall picture surrounding a point of discussion. World religions, such as those originating from Asia, Africa and the Middle East, have explanations and codes of living for reality, for viewing life and death, and for existing in the world that are fundamentally different from the Judeo-Christian viewpoint.
A worldview determines what value judgments are made. In listening to the Lord Jesus, the Samaritan woman asked, “Art thou greater than our father Jacob?” (Joh 4:12).1 The Athenians responded to Paul’s preaching, “He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods” (Act 17:18). Defying Moses, Pharaoh said, “Who is the LORD, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go?” (Exo 5:2). And in justifying the veneration of the statue of Artemis, the local official in Ephesus spoke of “the image which fell down from Jupiter” (Act 19:35).
On Areopagus in Acts 17, the Spirit-inspired message of the apostle provides a recognition of the elements in worldview thinking which he employed: 1) God, 2) humanity, 3) reality, 4) destiny and 5) morality. A true worldview must be able to satisfyingly deal with these five elements. In witnessing to friends having religious professions, our approach in evangelism where the elements of worldview are best expressed is, I suggest, in the heart of our worship, our handling of the Word, and the honesty of our walk with God.
Our Worship in Our Witness
Many followers of world religions firmly believe in the transcendent, the mystical and the supernatural out of terror and doubt rather than trust and thanksgiving.
In Acts 16-17, Paul illustrates how our worship of God is the first impressionable testimony. To the women by the river, he showed acquaintance with their worldview of prayers; with the damsel’s deliverance, Paul was in the posture of approaching God; to the prison warden, the servants of God were singing psalms of the exalted divine Messiah; and to philosophers who limited their knowledge of God, Paul proclaimed the infinite God of revelation and judgment. How God is adored and accessed in our lives becomes the ready witnessing “tool,” furnishing us with both content and character that are absent in the worldviews of religions.
The second element in worldview thinking is how we view humanity. Created in the image of God, man is preeminently a worshipper. The fall of Adam brought about a sin nature. However, the born-again believer has an eternal relationship with the Father and is a worshipper waiting upon his God. In Paul’s message exposing worldly philosophy, he gave the Christian worldview of humanity: “For in him [God] we live, and move, and have our being” (Act 17:28). Life’s meaning, motivation and moments are a whole new world.
The view that wrong desires can be denied by sheer willpower as the way to “peace,” or the call to suppress humanity in order to achieve “peace” are but two sides of the same coin – both void of any real value.
The Word in Our Witness
Thirdly and fourthly, belief systems attempt to make sense of reality and destiny. The worldview furnished by our God in His wholesome Word is that He communicates and acts clearly, consistently and with a conclusion in view, through His Messianic purpose and promise.
Paul summarized the completeness of the gospel as being “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col 1:27). The reality and destiny presented is that the Christ who was promised has come. His work in death and resurrection has brought deliverance from sin and the hope of a new humanity with a glorious future. The present wonder is His spiritual indwelling in the individual believer.
Missionary H.R. Weber, who labored in Indonesia in the 1950s, used four passages (Genesis 3, Exodus 19, Luke 2 and Acts 1) to take his indigenous audience from Creation to the Kingdom in the book of Revelation, “with Christ as the centre of the whole, including the fall, the covenants with Israel, the Church and the second coming.” The results were not only sound conversions but also an adoption of the Christian worldview in place of the ones held by their ancestors. Three simple principles were derived as a guide to mission work: 1) Give a Comprehensive worldview, 2) Choose Continuing and Connected Bible stories, and 3) Compare and Contrast with cultural myths and errors.
Bodie Hodge, in World Religions and Cults: Volume 2, shares that with the Bible as a solid foundation, false worldviews can be spotted by their 1) Arbitrary ideas, 2) Inconsistency, 3) Absurdity and 4) Inadequacy in basic reality.
Our Walk in Our Witness
The Commission of Matthew 28:19 to make disciples of all nations contains the fifth element of morality in our worldview. In Acts 17, Paul’s audience did not anticipate encountering God in judgment. Resurrection life makes the present life accountable, responsible and consequential. Christian living is thus a regaining, a restoration, a response, a relationship and a rejoicing of knowledge with God forever. “Christ liveth in me” (Gal 2:20) is an existential reality unknown in all forms of human vision for life. “Doing the right thing” because of what we believe and in Whom we have believed, especially when unpopular, may cause our religious neighbors to question and challenge their own worldviews. Our acts of virtue are seen as not coming forth out of a monastery but from a worldview that matters where we live our lives.
Our walk is guided by a morality grounded upon the foundations of God’s manifestation of Himself, His interest in humanity, His repair of creation from within reality, and His victorious return as King over a restored earth with a destiny where righteousness reigns through grace.
What has caused us to admire the Man Christ Jesus, who is “the Lord from heaven,” is that there is none like Him in what He has done for a sin-cursed world, what He continues to do for His people, where He will bring us, and what He will yet do to turn around the sad story of creation.
Ultimately, we witness to the only worldview that will prevail eternally as we join the chorus of all creation in Revelation 5:13: “Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.”
1 Bible quotations in this article are from the KJV.
