Perhaps the biggest Achilles heel of evangelicalism is the lack of a robust Christian worldview. This is true for many Christians from the pulpit to the pews, and it isn’t a new problem. Francis Schaeffer’s words ring true, “The basic problem of the Christians in this country in the last eighty years or so… is that they have seen things in bits and pieces instead of totals.” Christians are not good at looking at the big picture with a Christian worldview. That was 1981, and it has only gotten worse.
Those cracking the whips of the secular chariot have ravaged our country, and part of their success is that they did see the big picture. It has been our inability to think with a wider scope which has allowed secularists to outmaneuver Christians again and again. We spend so much time putting out fires that we never get around to playing offense.
The solution is to break what Nancy Pearcey calls the secular/sacred divide. What is this divide? It is the tactic of secularists to exile religion, especially Christianity, to the private realm. Secularists assert there are secular and sacred areas of life. The sacred areas, where religion is allowed (for now), is the private realm. The public realm is to be secular, that is devoid of religion. Christians have unwittingly adopted this dichotomy in much of our thinking as we have reduced following Jesus to our private devotional life. The problem is, this isn’t the religion found in Scripture. In scripture, all of the world is under the lordship of Christ (Col. 1:15-20).
To free us from the chains of this bondage, we need to reclaim a robust Christian worldview. Every facet of life must be examined through the lens of the lordship of Christ. He rules over all of it.
I have been encouraged that as secularism spins out of control, there has been a renewed interest in the Christian worldview, but the problem is that sub-Christian ideas have influenced many who speak and write about it. Many of their ideas and philosophies aren’t rooted in Christ at all. What we have are Christian institutions which churn out Christians who have sub-Christian worldviews, but who are convinced they are thinking biblically.
The infiltration of secular ideologies under the guise of Christianity is troubling because ideas have consequences. We reap what we sow. A Christian worldview which gets many things correct, but which still sows the seeds of progressivism will lead to a weak and eventual heretical Christianity. It has happened many times throughout church history, so much so we should have learned our lesson by now.
Francis Schaeffer has impacted me more than any Christian I have never met. I have learned much from reading his works, and among the most important things is that ideas have consequences. I’ve been amazed when reading many of the predictions Schaeffer made 40-50 years ago about the direction of America and how he got them right. Many in his day surely thought he was alarmist as who could have foreseen our current realities so long ago? But here we are, the unthinkable has not only happened but is praised as virtuous and unquestionable. How did Schaeffer know things like the worship of homosexuality was coming? He understood that ideas have consequences, and he understood the ideas of his opponents. To put it simply, he didn’t think in parts but saw the whole picture because he arduously filtered the world through the Christian worldview. We need more men like Schaeffer.
In our decaying society, we must recover a robust Christian worldview. Not a fake Christian worldview which is nothing more than a halfway house for the latest progressive doctrine, but one which seeks to submit to Christ alone in every area of life. This is a tall task, but it is imperative for Christians as we reach out to this dying world that we start building families, churches, and institutions which promote and live by this worldview. Christians must start to see all of life, not in pieces, but in the fullness of the Christian worldview with the lordship of Christ at its center.
Levi J. Secord