9) Your Worldview Shapes Your Understanding
What is a Worldview?
A modern Westerner quickly realizes many assumptions and presuppositions held by biblical writers that are totally foreign to us today. What then lies behind and dictates the presuppositions of the biblical writers? The answer to this question unlocks many confusing aspects of biblical hermeneutics. That answer, I believe, is a worldview, which is generally defined as "an interpretive framework through which or by which one makes sense out of the data of life and the world. A person's worldview creates intuitions and presuppositions about life, which dictate our broad interpretation methodologies.
The individual worldviews of the biblical authors may have indeed been flawed. Men such as Moses, David, and Paul were obviously fallen and broken. Their sins are plain to see (e.g., Ex. 2:12; 2 Sam. 11; Acts 9:1). As believers, however, we fundamentally hold that the oracles transcend the stewards, even at a worldview level, and as such, the Scriptures deliver to us the divine worldview itself.
Since differing worldviews produce differing intuitions and presuppositions, which in turn create differing methods of interpretation, the task of biblical hermeneutics must begin by addressing the nature and function of worldview. As a modern-day Christian, you will have a specific worldview as well. Likewise, the authors of the Bible, at various points in history, have had their own worldview. The worldview can be broken down into individual components. For example, metaphysics (structure of existence), protology (study of origins), eschatology (study of final things), and soteriology (study of salvation). These essential worldview components then provide human beings, within their various traditions, a conceptual framework for existence that answers life's most fundamental questions concerning identity, purpose, origin, destiny, etc. Moreover, the study of worldview gives us an interpretive window into the ancient mind.
Consider life as a game. Most games have rules, goals, players, and fields upon which to play. In the game of life, one's worldview assumes a cosmology, ultimate reality, or "metaphysics," which is much like the field of play. It is often taken for granted, and in the larger scheme of the game, it is usually considered less important. Yet, playing soccer on a basketball court raises significant challenges. Often, the field of play inherently shapes the understanding of the rules and purpose of the game itself. Most people rarely think about their construct of reality. They are simply on it.
The most basic component of our worldview is our metaphysical construct, the sum total of what we understand to exist. It is an attempt to explain the ultimate reality of our existence. For example, Ancient Hellenism (which later informed both the Christian and Islamic traditions) viewed reality dualistically: material versus immaterial (subsequently termed "natural" versus "supernatural"). Conversely, ancient Judeo-Christianity regarded the universe as integrated and vertical: "the heavens and the earth" (Gen. 1:1). These are examples of different views that make up the sum total of reality. Think of it like the field of play in a sport such as football or basketball.
There are also various "players" on the playing field of worldview: for example, God, gods, avatars, spirits, ghosts, humans, animals, etc. Players have an identity and purpose and interact with each other.
The game of life itself is represented by the interaction and movement of these players on the field in time. Time dictates so many aspects of our existence, and worldviews broadly facilitate an explanation of history. History generally involves three things:
When things began (protology).
Where things are ultimately going (eschatology).
How things became wrong and how they will eventually be made right (soteriology).
In other words, worldviews attempt to explain all creation's origin, remediation, and conclusion within the sum total of reality.
Our worldview answers many existential questions concerning our identity, origin, destiny, purpose, ethics, etc. As such, they become the "controlling stories" to which we unconsciously conform our own story. Each major religion in the world has its own "story."
The Judeo-Christian Worldview
The Judeo-Christian worldview is something we will develop in future sessions. Still, for now, I will give an overview of this worldview. Whether you realize it or not, as a Christian and disciple of Jesus, you adopt a worldview consistent with your Christian beliefs. The question is, does your worldview coincide with the worldview consistent throughout the biblical narrative? Or, has your worldview been influenced by extra-biblical sources?
The biblical worldview frames reality within "the heavens and the earth," which are integrated, continuous, and dynamic:
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. (Genesis 1:1, ESV Bible)
The heavens and the earth represent the "playing field" in the game of life. The protology, or origins, of this worldview, involves a sinless creation without death and suffering:
Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— (Romans 5:12, ESV Bible)
For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. (1 Corinthians 15:22, ESV Bible)
The Biblical worldview eschatology (where things are headed) seeks "the renewal of all things" (Matt. 19:28) or "the restoration of all things" (Acts 3:21):
Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago. (Acts 3:19-21, ESV Bible)
Jesus said to them, "Truly, I say to you, in the new world, when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name's sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life. (Matthew 19:28-29, ESV Bible)
There will be "new heavens and a new earth" (Isa. 65:17; Rev. 21:1), which will be inaugurated by the "day of the Lord" (Isa. 13:6; Mal. 4:5; 2 Peter 3:10):
"For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind. (Isaiah 65:17, ESV Bible)
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. (Revelation 21:1, ESV Bible)
Wail, for the day of the LORD is near; as destruction from the Almighty it will come! (Isaiah 13:6, ESV Bible)
"Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction." (Malachi 5:5-6, ESV Bible)
But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. (2 Peter 3:10, ESV Bible)
This salvation (how things are made right) is carried out by Jesus Christ, "judge of the living and the dead" (Acts 10:42; 2 Tim. 4:1; 1 Peter 4:5), who also suffered sacrificially for the forgiveness of sins (Eph. 5:2; Heb. 10:12):
And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead. (Acts 10:42, ESV Bible)
I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: (2 Timothy 4:1, ESV Bible)
But they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. (1 Peter 4:5, ESV Bible)
And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. (Ephesians 5:2, ESV Bible)
But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. (Hebrews 10:12, ESV Bible)
This messianic suffering before eschatological glory (cf. Luke 24:26; Heb. 9:28; 1 Peter 1:11) defines the essential storyline of the Judeo-Christian worldview:
Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?" (Luke 24:26, ESV Bible)
so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him. (Hebrews 9:28, ESV Bible)
Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. (1 Peter 1:11, ESV Bible)
A Primer on Competing Worldviews
The Hellenistic Worldview
Comparing the Christian worldview to the worldview of Plato (c. 427-347 BC) is critical because, as Alfred Whitehead is known for saying, "The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato." This Plato influence on the early church can be traced to the works of early Christian theologians like Augustine of Hippo (354-430 AD), who incorporated Platonic philosophy into Christian doctrine, particularly in areas such as the nature of God, the soul, and the material world.
Plato's universe was fundamentally dualistic: the immaterial "intelligible" world versus the material "perceptual" world. The former is eternal, consisting of ideal "forms," while the latter was created, comprised of corrupt "copies." Platonic protology involves the eternal, perfect state and a debased material creation, which sets up its eschatological return to immateriality. Salvation is thus found in transcending materiality by enlightenment and/or death. Those who have enlightenment of the greater metaphysical reality (i.e., the philosophers) should rule over the earth to help liberate the unlearned.
This dualistic world of material versus immaterial (later termed "natural" versus "supernatural") slowly became the playing field upon which Judeo-Christianity was played. Thus "Christoplatonism" was born. Some of you may not even realize that Plato has influenced your worldview! Instead of a storyline that ended in the restoration of all things and the resurrection of the body, the church began to look forward to the soul's eternal existence in an immaterial heaven. Princeton professor J. Christiaan Beker described this shift as "a fall from the apocalyptic world of early Christianity to Platonic categories of thought."
The Worldview of Naturalism
Another modern-day opponent to Christianity is Naturalism. Naturalism is a broadly monistic construction of the universe, with nature functioning as its existential matrix (often personified as "Mother"). Its protology is found in the "Big Bang," and its players are strictly materialistic. Nature's existence holds intrinsic energy and functioning patterns, generally articulated as "laws." As nature is materialistic and purely random, "survival" constitutes its highest purpose. Though ultimately meaningless, the purpose of life boils down to fitness and reproduction by any means. Naturalistic soteriology is "progress," which is accomplished by death and the weeding out of the unfit (i.e., "natural selection"). Naturalistic eschatology is thus assumed to be perpetual fitness and progress.