Name: S Victor Nyonsiea-li000020
Course Title: Hum 230 Worldview
Module 5: A Worldview Grounded in Revelation
June 20, 2018
A worldview grounded on Revelation
“A worldview that admits special revelation holds that reality embraces both physical and spiritual realms and allows for the spiritual to be primary and superior to the physical” (P 131, HUM 230 Worldview). As followers of Jesus Christ, I am glad to share my worldviews grounded in revelation which include the followings but not limited to: the meaning of life; the existence of God; God, the Creator of the universe; reasons for the existence of the universe; and reasons why God did not show himself more clearly as other people want him to do. It is well stated that “Revelation assumes a Creator who has revealed a standard for human behavior” (P 16, HUM 220, ETHICS). This gave rise to a view called a biblical worldview.
During the incarnation and stay of Christ upon earth, two forms of revelations come together, he spoke the divine word of truth, he was the truth and he was God. What he did was a showing forth of the truth and of the reality of God. He made it clear that his ministry will be continued and completed by the Holy Spirit. The Spirit will be sent in Jesus name, and he will teach his followers all things and bring to remembrance all that he had said to them (John 14:26). And will guide them into all truths. clearly and directly (I Corinthians 13:12), when he appears believers will see him the way he is, then all barriers to a full knowledge of God and of the truth shall be removed.
Firstly, does life really have any meaning? This question can be disturbing, particularly when your own friends ask it. We respond by wishing it away. “You don’t mean that,” we say, effectively stopping an important conversation before it starts. We sense it will take us rapidly into areas where we are in over our heads. But when our friends ask such question sincerely, they deserve our full attention. Asking the question may be the beginning of a true religious quest. If our friends have been brought up in the Church, even if they have accepted Christ as their personal Lord and Savior; this question may still be part of their growth in spiritual understanding.
No one, man or woman, boy or girl can live for long without a sense of purpose, without an understanding of life’s ultimate meaning. Something within us tells us there has to be more to life than mindless relaxation. Something within us drives us to find life’s meaning or to go extraordinary lengths to create our own. I mean human beings cannot live without a sense of purpose. Scripture teaches that we were made to know God and to return God’s love; that is the sum and substance of every person’s reason for living. Made in God’s image (Genesis 1:26-27, King James Version), we sense this truth about ourselves even when we cannot explain it clearly. Our built-in-sense of purpose is so strong that when people turn away from God, they will turn to something else in order to make sense out of their lives, to define some purpose for their existence (Romans 1:18-22, KJV).
The earliest chapters of Genesis set forth this purpose and extend its meaning into our work and daily activities. We are to cultivate the earth, to name the animals (as we do even today in discovering new species), to exercise dominion, becoming co-creators (partners) with God in caring for the earth’s resources. Our work actually furthers God’s creative purpose. When we do our work well, it reflects God’s glory and gives him praise. God’s purpose can sustain us in triumph or tragedy, in despair and disappointment, and in moments of great joy. Our life and work indeed have a purpose: to bring glory to God.
So when your friend asks, “Does life really have any meaning?” answer, “Yes! To know God and return his love!” And then go on to discuss how this gives purpose to people’s lives in the present. If we cannot understand humankind’s ultimate purpose, the meaning of our lesser purposes will always, become distorted and assume either too much or too little significance.
This leads me to the next question about God’s existence-Is there really a God? This is a huge question which can be approached in several ways. Firstly, the scriptures teach that God has revealed himself so clearly that only a fool denies God’s existence (Psalm 14:1; Romans 1:20, NKJV). Then the Bible says that we can discover God’s reality through (1) the testimony of creation and (2) the witness of conscience-for we are made in the image of God (Romans 1:20, KJV).
The entire Bible, both Old and New Testaments, echoes Paul’s argument, which in philosophical terms is known as the argument from design. “The heavens declare the glory of God,” the psalmist writes (Psalm 19:1). And Christ asks us to consider how God cares for the sparrows and the lilies of the field. What we see testifies to what we cannot see. (Romans 1:19-20, NKJV). Paul alludes here to a foundational scriptural notion that goes back to Genesis. The human person is made in the image of God. In other words, when God created us to be mirror images of himself; we are creatures who resemble our Creator in distinctive ways. We have free choice; we are creatures of reason; we are creative; we are made for meaningful work; we are meant to exist in relationship. In all these ways and others, we are made in God’s image. For this reason, we sense, without being taught, that there must be a God.
Just before Bertrand Russell, an avowed atheist and author of Why I Am Not a Christian died, he sent a letter to a friend. He wrote in his autobiography, “something in one seems obstinate to belong to God, and to refuse to enter into any earthly communion-at least that is how I should express it if I thought there was a god”. God is there. We know it even if we are in rebellion. The inherent truth that God’s existence is evident to everyone reveals itself, especially through conscience. One of the most profound ways in which the image of God in us testifies to our Creator. The Apostle Paul refers to this as the works of God’s law written (natural revelation) on our hearts, which justify or condemn our particular behaviors (Romans 2:14-15).
C. S. Lewis, an Oxford scholar, was one of the great intellectuals of the twentieth century was an atheist; who set out to prove that there was no God. Lewis instead became a deeply professing Christian. In his book Mere Christianity he says that a sense of right and wrong, a sense of “oughtness,” is universal. Where does this sense come from? Lewis argues that it does not come from biology, neither genetics, nor psychology. It comes from God.
Ultimately this question also deals with God’s existence. The popular theologian and apologist Francis Schaeffer used to say it is the first question: why is there something rather than nothing? Through the centuries people attempted to answer this question. Astonishingly, the deepest thinkers in all of human history have been able to come up with four possible answers. Out of these four possible answers, I personally agreed with the fourth view, which states “A pre-existing and eternal force outside the universe or the cosmos-namely God, brought the cosmos into being. People did not make-up God; God created the world and us, too. God’s existence is the most reasonable assumption, especially when compared with the alternative. So when you are asked concerning God’s existence-Does God exist? Help that person to see the evidence of history and the conclusion of great minds concur with what creation and conscience declare: Yes, God exists, without a doubt.
Consider the nature of God and character of the God revealed in the Bible. If we, Christians were making up our own god, does it make sense that we would create one with such hash demands for justice, righteousness, service, and self-sacrifice as we find in the biblical texts? Would the members of the pious New Testament religious establishment have created a God who condemned them for their hypocrisy? Would even a zealous disciple have invented a Messiah who called his followers to sell all, give their possessions to the poor, and follow him to their death? Let me say, the skeptic who believes that the Bible’s authors manufactured their God out of psychological need has not read the scriptures carefully. That skeptic may have penetrated to the heart of New Age religion, but he or she has not understood the teaching of the Bible.
The reasonableness of God’s existence cannot be equated with knowing God. But the best arguments on the subject may motivate us to spend our lives seeking to glorify God and enjoy him forever. Our friends may be encouraged in their seeking to know that belief in God is neither irrational nor out-of-date. This can help one to keep him/her active in the quest to know God.
This leads to another point on whether someone has created God-who created God? An eleventh –century clergyman named Anselm of Canterbury said, “God is that being, the greater than which cannot be conceived.” This is called the ontological argument for the existence of God. If we cannot conceive of anyone or anything greater than God, then nothing and no one could have created him because that creator would have to be something even greater. The idea of God is the logical end of human speculations; for the Bible says, God, is the Creator of the universe-the heavens and the earth, and everything therein (Genesis 1:1, KJV)
The early seventeenth-century philosopher Descartes, who was an influential figure at the beginning of the Age of Reason; expanded on this argument by saying that the very idea of God could come only from God because we could not conceive of a God if God did not give us the ability to do so. We humans cannot conceive of nonexistence. The highest thing we can conceive of God is God. We may not know God yet, but we know that he is there. Because we exist, we realize that we cannot exist unless something or someone has brought us into existence.
I remembered in one of my religious classes at the Grand Gedeh County Community College, during a question and answer period; one of the students asked “Why doesn’t God show himself more clearly? If God exists, ask him to perform miracle now that will convince me” he lamented. In response, I said two things. First, I referred to Jesus’ wilderness temptation. “If you are the son of God,” Satan said, “throw yourself down” from the highest roof of the temple, so the angels will save you. Jesus replied, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test” (Matthew 4:5-7, KJV). God does not need to perform miracles to validate his witnesses or prove himself to anyone. God is not under our command; if he were, he would not be much of a God. But I went on to say that if the man really wanted to see a miracle, all he had to do was to look at me. If someone really knew what had been in my heart before my conversion, he would have to say, “Here stands a miracle.”
Revelation means that God has communicated (spoken) to man. The Lord does not want mankind to misunderstand that He has spoken (Hebrew 1:1-2).God’s revelation to mankind is guaranteed by inspiration. All of this is called communication. It is the expression of the heart. The scripture says, “Deep calls to deep.” I believed very strongly that God has communicated with His creatures to whom He has committed a certain degree of intelligence, and whom He created in His likeness. May I say, if we did not have a revelation from God, right now I think that you and I could just wait and He would be speaking to us, because we could expect God to speak to us. God in the Old Testament spoke through the prophets, and now has spoken or revealed Himself through Christ. And both the revelation to the prophets in the Old Testament and the revelation of Christ in the New Testament are the Word of God, of course, and that is the only way we would know about the communication from either one. The Bible has six-six books, and God has spoken to us through them. The final and complete work of Jesus lies in the future, a time he will return, believers shall see him. God made Himself known through (1) the testimony of creation and (2) the witness of conscience-for we are made in the image of God; this means God revealed Himself to mankind through natural law (General revelation) and through His written Word-the Holy Bible (Specific revelation)
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