Life in the world and living for yourself are painful. Living for God brings hope and joy.
TIFFANY A., AGE 19
Until now, your life has been a matter of multiple choice. From now on, life will be more like an essay test.
Throughout your life, people have told you what to do and what to think. Much like a multiple-choice test, you’ve been making choices between options prescribed by someone else. Don’t feel bad. Until now your body and your brain—in that order—have been in development. People who have been giving you advice—your teachers, your parents, McGruff the Crime Dog—have all thought that the only thing you could handle was multiple choice. Usually the answers were pretty clear, so you could successfully pass the various “tests” in your life and move on to the next level. No one really cared how or why you knew what you knew (as long as you weren’t cheating). They just wanted to know that you knew.
Now that you’re moving on and possibly moving out, this whole business of knowing is going to change. This is when the “essay test” of life begins. All of a sudden, what you believe and why are going to become important. You’re going to be required to do some independent thinking.
Your worldview shapes what you believe and why. What is a worldview? Simply put, your worldview is the framework or context in which you consider the world at large and your place in it. A worldview is a perspective on the significance and consequences of issues in all aspects of life, which affects your thinking and behavior. And everyone has one. Even the poor slob who says, “Hey, I don’t need no stinkin’ worldview; I do what I want, when I want,” has a worldview (although it is not one we endorse).
We agree with David Noebel, who wrote what we think is the definitive book on worldview, Understanding the Times. Noebel writes:
Every individual bases his thoughts, decisions, and actions on a worldview. A person may not be able to identify his worldview, and it may lack consistency, but his most basic assumptions about the origin of life, purpose, and the future guarantee adherence to some system of thought.1
That definition may do nothing more for you than make you yawn, but you need to know that this is HUGE. Your worldview really does matter, and it really does affect the way you think and act.
Look at it this way: Each day, you have a limitless number of options, which are all affected by your worldview:
1. Moral decisions
2. Political views
3. Social options
4. Scientific views
5. College selection
6. Career paths
7. Choices of friends
8. Artistic preferences
9. Financial decisions
10. Time management
11. Leisure activities
How do you decide what to do? What is your guiding principle? What is it that’s turning your rudder in the right direction and telling your conscience to do the right thing? It’s your worldview. That is what’s guiding you in your choices, whether you know it or not.
A person’s worldview is evident by what one does with his or her life. Life is a sacred trust, and choices must be made in relation to proper purposes, which require a worldview.
DR. PAUL COX
It’s not an oversimplification to say that you only have two worldview choices. Your worldview either includes God or it doesn’t. Here are two handy checklists.
• God is not in the picture.
• All things in the world, including humanity, evolved by naturalistic means, without any supernatural input.
• As the highest evolved species, humanity is the measure of all things and the ultimate authority.
• There is no absolute truth; personal choice is what’s most important.
• The government is the highest law, and government can and must decide what’s best for people in areas ranging from business to moral behavior.
• God is the creator of and the supreme being in the universe.
• God created all things, including human beings.
• Because humans are created in the image of God, we all have dignity and purpose.
• God’s revealed absolute truth comes first; we build our personal beliefs and choices around it.
• God has ordained government as a means of keeping order in an imperfect world.
The Big Lie
You’re going to hear the “everyone goes to heaven” argument more than you’ll hear the “God doesn’t exist” argument. It’s very fashionable in today’s culture for people to talk about spiritual things. They’ll even talk about God—but not the living, personal God who is involved in history and, more specifically, in your life. To them, God is more of a concept or an idea that wouldn’t exist if humanity hadn’t invented Him. In fact, many people believe that they are God and God is them.
This is what we call the Big Lie, and it’s nothing new. Satan used this argument in the Garden of Eden when he told Adam and Eve, “You will become just like God, knowing everything, both good and evil” (Genesis 3:5).
Adam and Eve bought into the Big Lie. But rather than becoming just like God, they became enemies of God—and so did the rest of the human race (which is why nothing has changed today). The Big Lie didn’t die with Adam and Eve. You are likely to come across people who give the same message in books and on talk shows: You are God. What these misguided individuals are saying may be clever and appealing, but it’s still the Big Lie.
True Truth
But you know better than that, don’t you? You know that in order for something to be true, it must be true for everyone. Truth is not something that’s true for you but not for everyone else. The common argument you will hear today is that, even though people have different ideas about truth, it’s okay, as long as they agree to disagree.
We’re not talking about opinions, such as, “I thought the movie was good.” That’s not truth—it’s an opinion—because someone else may not like the movie. Truth goes something like, “If I jump off this 10-story building, I’m going to really hurt myself and probably die.” No one can say, “Well, that’s your opinion.” It’s truth for everyone.
When it comes to God, you must operate in the area of truth, not opinion. Better yet, you need to think about true truth, because God is the ultimate source of truth. There will always be other voices—your college professors, the media, your friends, some mystic writer, a guest on Oprah—who will say they have the truth. It will be your job to sort out the voices, which is no easy task. But you must do it, and you must get good at it, for one simple reason: Your life depends on it!
Faith Matters
Wouldn’t it be great if you could put God under a microscope or view Him through a telescope and actually see Him with your own eyes? Then you could say, “Look, there He is. There’s God. Now I believe!”
The truth is, people have seen the evidence for God under the microscope and through the telescope. The incredible order and design of the universe—from the tiniest molecule to the most distant stars—point to the existence of a personal, intelligent, loving designer. The Bible puts it this way:
From the time the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky and all that God made. They can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse whatsoever for not knowing God (Romans 1:20).
Still, none of us has actually ever seen God, which means that ultimately you have to have faith to believe the evidence about God, which comes through nature, through your heart, through the Bible and ultimately through Jesus Christ.
What is faith? It is the confident assurances that what we hope for is going to happen. It is the evidence of things we cannot yet see (Hebrews 11:1).
Faith, which is the same as trust, is what ultimately matters. Faith in God through Jesus Christ is what counts. But it isn’t a blind faith. It’s faith based on evidence.
As you get out in the world, whether that’s college or a job or just living on your own, your beliefs are going to be challenged by the skepticism and the lifestyles of just about everyone around you. In your classes and in your work, you will probably encounter indifference—if not hostility—toward belief in the one true God (that’s why it’s so important to surround yourself with Christian friends).
That’s okay. Don’t be discouraged. God has you there for a reason, and that reason is to represent and glorify Him. And don’t be offended. Many people in the world are hostile to the things of God. The apostle Paul, a brilliant thinker and debater, received this hostility personally after preaching the truth about God. He wrote, “I know how foolish the message of the cross sounds to those who are on the road to destruction. But we who are being saved recognize this message as the very power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18).
You’ve probably heard the expression that the best offense is a great defense. When it comes to the things of God, that is true. You don’t need to go on the offensive to attack those who don’t believe. Simply study the Bible diligently, and be ready to give an answer when someone asks you about your faith (see 2 Timothy 2:15; 1 Peter 3:15-17).
It’s one thing to study the truth about God on your own and quite another to find other people who are doing the same thing. You need to fellowship with (which means to communicate with) other believers who can encourage you and pray for you (and you for them).
If you are planning to attend a Christian college, it’s going to be easy for you to find people who believe the things you believe. If you’re planning to attend a secular college or university, or if you’re joining the workforce, then it’s going to take a little effort to find other Christians. Fortunately, you can find at least one of several outstanding Christian ministries on most college campuses. We recommend these:
• Campus Crusade for Christ (www.ccci.org)
• InterVarsity Christian Fellowship (www.intervarsity.org)
• Collegiate Navigators (www.gospelcom.net/navs/collegiate)
For information on Catholic churches and ministries near you, check out RCNet (www.rc.net).
In addition to the fellowship these campus ministries can provide, it is absolutely essential that you find a local church. Even if you have had a negative experience at a church in the past, you need to give going to church another chance. Realize that the Church isn’t a building or a program. The Church is you and all believers. The Bible says that Christ loved the Church and “gave up his life for her” (Ephesians 5:25).
Having a worldview that includes God has tremendous implications, not just for your future, but also for your life right now. You don’t just live with that worldview when you go to church or when you’re around other Christians. It’s something that is a part of you every single minute of your life. Sure, you have questions and concerns and worries about what you’re going to do both now and in the future. That’s normal. But you can’t let them dominate your life and hinder your relationship with God. You need to trust that God loves you and cares for you in every detail of your life.
In this chapter, we’ve asked you to consider what your life would be like without God and why you’re so much better off with God in your worldview and your life. You could say that we’ve given you the macro view of God.
In the next chapter—yes, the last chapter—we’re going to look at the micro view of God (no, that doesn’t mean God is a tiny speck). What we mean is that we’re going to look at what it takes to have a daily, practical and very real relationship with God. These are the details of your life that you can’t just push aside—not if you want your life to be as exciting and effective as it can possibly be.