Christian Worldview, Part V - Ways We Allow Unbelieving Worldviews to Creep into Our Thinking

1. Counseling
Within most Bible-believing evangelical churches in Americaf there are those problems which are perceived as problems that go beyond the church’s capacity to handle. Problems that are often seen by the church as something requiring a professional counselor include addiction, depression, anger, low self-esteem, and a host of other things.

Approaches from the field of psychology are essentially rationalistic conclusions based upon non-Christian presuppositions. In this way they stem out of an unbiblical worldview. For example, while the Christian worldview recognizes the fallenness of human beings, the world of psychology generally believes that we are inherently good and, therefore, have the capacity to do well given the right direction, motivation, and education. Therapy sessions, therefore, in which a therapists seeks to provide this kind of direction, motivation, and education, apart from any requirement of a supernatural change in a counselee’s moral disposition, are viewed as something that will help a counselee to overcome his or her problems. And while this is only one example, it is generally true accrss the board that conclusions within the realm of psychology are the rational outworkings of a series of unbiblical presuppositions. The findings of psychology, therefore, are at odds with the way God has created and ordered things to operate (moreover, the kinds of issues with which psychologists often deal are the kinds of issues about which the biblical authors speak and to which the gospel itself applies).

2. Church Practice
One approach to church that has been successful by some standards is the seeker-sensitive model. As they began thinking about how to establish a church, what was to become Willow Creek Community Church conducted a six-week, door-to-door survey. In this survey they asked people who didn’t attend church, why they didn’t attend. They asked them what church would have to be like in order for them to attend. And the answers they received in this survey served as the basis for the establishment of this particular church.

Now, traditionally, Christians have sought to establish church practice based upon the teachings of Scripture. And while we have embraced different ecclesial forms, different forms of church government, different emphases in worship, and a host of other differences, biblical Christianity has always maintained that the Scriptures are the ultimate authority in church practice. This is because of our worldview—we believe that in order to know something truly that we must look to God to tell us. This is how we come to know things. But the seeker model I just described has actually incorporated something from existentialism in allowing human experience to inform us in regard to church practice.

3. Christian Apologetics
Christian apologetics is something to which Christians are called in 1 Pet 3:15. Peter tells us to always be ready to give an answer to everyone who asks us about the hope that is within us. And so Christian apologetics is the discipline which trains Christians to give an answer for their hope—it is the “defense of the faith.".

Now, traditionally, Christian apologetics has taken the form of arguments designed to prove to the unbeliever that the Christian faith is true. On one level, this is legitimate. But as Christians, we should not set our faith aside or adopt non-Christian presuppositions in order to make this happen. Unfortunately, this is what we have often done. We have sought to appeal to the unbeliever’s presuppositions in order to establish the Christian worldview. However, if we are appealing to the unbeliever’s worldview, then we are really just solidifying him or her in unbelief. What we really want to do is overturn the unbelievers’ worldview with the Christian worldview. But again, this isn’t what has always been done.