Hello Fellow Educators,

Welcome to podcast #17. We have been talking about the integration of our Christian and Biblical worldview into every subject we teach. I also want to remind you that we are still sending out free copies of my book, Disciplining this Generation for a Digital World, to anyone that sends us an email. I will have the details at the end of the podcast.

Last week we talked about what it means to be committed to one’s worldview. The people who are changing the world today are not weak minded relativists who are calling for us all to get along. Jesus calls us to this cultural clash when he said, “Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.” (Matt. 10:34-35) When we are committed to our beliefs it means that we will take action, we will speak out and we will not sit idly by when truths, rising out or our beliefs, are being ransacked. We are in an all out, knock down fight to see who will ultimately influence our culture on issues of justice, equity, righteousness and the rights to declare our beliefs. We are in an all out war for the hearts and minds of our children and I intend to do everything possible to help and support our Christian educational movement in the midst of this war. I am not suggesting a radicalism that is based on any type of violence. Rather I am on this rant to illustrate how crucial it is to help our children embrace our Christian worldview. It is in this view of life and the world that they will find their role in Christ’s kingdom and they will be secure from the ideologies that are positioned to assail our beliefs. Any subversive activity on our part will come out of a genuine love for those who do not share our perspective and this will always be prefaced with the idea, what would Jesus have me do.

Last week I also spoke about the role that the Bible has in our efforts to integrate Christian worldview into every discipline we teach. There is a subtle difference between the ideas of “Biblical Integration” and “Christian Worldview Integration.” Theoretically, one could use Biblical concepts without going all the way to a Christian perspective. Certainly using ideas that emerge just from the Old Testament is integrating a Biblical perspective, but it is not a complete perspective. An example of this is the use of the verse of scripture on the Canadian parliament building from Psalm 72:8 “He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth.” This became one of the founding ideas in the creation of Canada as its own nation. Obviously, it refers us to the Sovereignty of God in our geographical context. It captures the universal idea that we have founded this nation on the idea that we believe and submit to a Sovereign God but the integrated idea doesn’t take us any further in understanding who this God is or what this submission means. Probably one of he most used scriptures is John 8:32, “you shall know the truth and the truth will set you free.” It is easy to see how truth and freedom are vitally connected and this holds true in almost any situation thus Biblical  integration is possible with this principle. Christian Worldview integration takes both of these concepts much further than their initial realities. We see the Sovereignty of God as a central truth to his justice and love. This revelation of his character defines the environment of his reign and, as Christians, we not only see that truth is central to all freedom but we know truth to be more than a concept, truth is a person. John 14:6 Jesus said “I am the way, the truth and the life…” In our context though, in most cases, when we talk about Biblical Integration and Christian worldview integration we are referring to the same processes.

Most people don’t intentionally sit down and decide we are going to construct a worldview. It comes out of our core beliefs and we all come to these core beliefs for different reasons. Most of us are raised with our core beliefs and it takes some dramatic experiences or theoretical confrontations to alter these beliefs. If, for whatever reasons we have lost faith in our parent’s perspectives, most people enter into a period of their lives where they are searching for the ultimate answers. This may happen for various reasons. Perhaps the young person sees an inconsistency between their parent’s beliefs and their values or lifestyle. In most cases the families beliefs where not made a significant part of their child’s upbringing. This can be the reason someone comes to Christ and it can be the reason someone leaves their Christian faith. This is why Christian education is crucial to the overall discipleship of our children, our beliefs are integrated succinctly into everything we see and say about our world. This is also why the most important place to live out our faith is in the home and why home education can become an excellent way we pass on our beliefs about the whole world to our kids.

As we see the theoretical constructs of worldviews there are many portals, or ways people come to begin define the big picture reasons they believe what they do. There is the scientific approach of Intelligent Design verses Naturalism. There is the legal approach taken by Josh McDowell in the 70s with Evidence that demands a Verdict” or more recently Lee Stroble’s, “A Case for Christ.” There is the more subjective entrance into the construct of worldview through appealing to a person’s sense of self, their falleness and the need for a Savior. In many of our lives these answers have been sufficient but they are built upon deeper assumptions that have been taken for granted in our Western culture. Unfortunately we are fast approaching a Post-Western or Postmodern culture that is quickly throwing out the important assumptions we have all taken for granted in the past.

We now have a need to go to the very foundations of our belief systems – the very presuppositions we hold to be our understanding of the world we experience. In a post-modern, pluralistic culture we cannot assume that we are starting with same basic ideas about our world. We have to first establish our assumptions and build from there. I have found that by using some of the main philosophical categories we can get to the actual assumptions of our world. It is important to note that all of the categories I am going to present speak directly to these basic assumptions. We cannot prove these assumptions are true we can only reason from them. Once we have settled in our belief of these ideas then we can construct the broader worldviews.

The first worldview category is our Ontology or the presuppositions of the nature of reality. It is how we answer the question, “is there more than our physical reality?” As Christians we believe there is both a physical realm and a spiritual realm. It is this belief that often puts us at odds with the naturalistic approach towards the sciences. Because modern science relies almost entirely upon empirical data that can be observed, measured and repeated those in the science fields often struggle with any idea that suggests there is a spiritual realm, a realm that you must use different methods to encounter. The predominant “new age” idea is that the physical realm is only a mere shadow of the spiritual realm. Some worldviews go as far as to say there is no physical realm and that the physical universe is only a mental construct. Then there is the simulation ontology. This is the idea that we are all part of a giant computer simulation and the world as we know it has no reality outside of the simulation. This idea gained popularity in the  recent movie trilogy, The Matrix. The scripture informs our worldview with passage and passage of referring us to a spiritual realm. Heaven is a spiritual place, angels and demons are spirit beings who are invisible to our senses. Finally and most importantly God is a Spirit. John 4:24.

The next category is our Theology. There are five different presuppositions one can hold concerning God. 1) Atheism – the belief that there is no God. Understand that this requires an act of faith to hold to this position because there is no way to prove that God does not exist. 2) Monotheism – the belief that there is only one God. This, of course is the position that Jews, Muslims and Christians hold. Some have tried to imply that because Christians believe in a Trinity that they are not actually monotheistic. But the strength of the Trinitarian position comes because of our strong belief in one God. We believe that God is one who reveals himself to us in three persons. 3) Polytheism – the belief in many gods such as in Hinduism and Greek Mythology. 4) Pantheism – the belief that everything is God. This has become popular with the rise of New Age mysticism. The Star Wars series features this idea that the force inside of all of us is the unifying presence of power and creation. The jedi teacher, Yoda tells his apprentice Luke Skywalker, “feel the force, Luke, it is all around you, it is in and through you. Become one with the force.” 5) Agnosticism – the belief that there is a God or may there isn’t a God. You just can’t ever know. This is really an anti worldview. The true agnostic does not have the courage to commit to a belief system thus they continue in a neutral position which becomes a theology in itself.

Our third worldview category is Epistemology or the presuppositions of the authority of knowledge. It answers the question, “how do you really know what you know?” or “By what authority can we really know truth?” As Christians we believe the authority of our five senses with limits, our reason together with logic, what we learn through tradition and culture, our feelings and our conscious. We also believe in special revelation, that is, God speaks to us and has spoken to us through prophetic manifestation, specifically he appointed, inspired and anointed the prophets of old who wrote for us the scriptures. We also believe that God spoke to us in person through His Son Jesus. In our postmodern world epistemology is the first casualty of a relativistic approach to truth. We will often hear people agreeing to disagree by invoking the mantra, “that may be true for you but it is not true for me.” Or, “It doesn’t matter what you have faith in, it is only important that you have faith.” At the root of postmodern relativism is a deconstruction of language itself. One can argue that your definition of a specific word doesn’t mean that another has to accept this definition so when you say something means one thing someone else can believe it means something else. The argument goes directly to the issue of authority. By whose authority do you claim the word or idea means this or that. If I want to redefine an idea like prayer or justice then I do not have to submit to outside authorities who tell me it means communication with God or supreme fairness. I will make it mean something that fits my own experience.

Next we have the category of Anthropology or the presuppositions of who mankind really is. Here we deal with questions, “What is man and what is his personal condition?” The Christian worldview sees man as created in the image of God. Man is a tripartite being of spirit, soul and body. We also see ourselves as somewhat moral free to make a limited amount of choices that determine our own destiny. This last idea of man is often disputed both inside and outside of Christian circles. Some believe that man is only another piece in this complex world that has no separate identity from creation. We may have the semblance of free will but really we are reacting to stimuli around us and in us. Naturalism has caused some of the most contrary interpretations of man’s experience as contrasted with the Christian Worldview. The ideas of evolution have replaced the Creator in the big question where did we come from. If man has evolved like all other animals then he has no special place outside of the animal kingdom. But if man has come from God and is His Image bearer then God has a unique role for mankind in the scheme of all creation.

The final category in our worldview is cosmology or the meta-narratives. These are the big story ideas of how we have gotten here? How the universe came to be? Where is everything moving towards? Our meta-narrative will have a beginning, middle and an end. Almost all worldviews have a view of some sort of utopia. For the Christian it is eternity with God, for the Buddhist it is reaching a state of peace and unity with the universe, for the scientist it is finding the answers that will take us into the next stages of evolution, for the Marxist Socialist it is building a perfect society here on earth.  The story we have developed in our worldviews gives us a place of context in our world and our lives. When this is altered it also alters the equilibrium of a person’s life or an entire culture.

All five of these categories cannot be proven by some historical or scientific search. They are the presuppositions we build our history and science upon. These beliefs are the paradigms, or building blocks upon which we see our world. Our specific epistemologies’ inform our worldview but they don’t create them. One might argue that all our beliefs come from the Bible but truth be told, most our basic presuppositions have to first be in place before we will allow the Bible to inform those beliefs. We need to believe in God first before we will accept his revelation. We have to value the human experience before we will seek out real answers in the scriptures. We must believe in the reality of the Spiritual realm before we ever trust a spiritual experience. When we are teaching our children we have to help fortify these essential building blocks of faith. We have to always sow into their presuppositions the sound ideas of faith. We also have to let them explore these ideas for themselves.

When my son was eleven he confided in me that he was struggling in his belief in the very existence of God. My wife and I, our church and his school all have carefully and consistently developed the presupposition of God’s existence in his life. But at this important point in his growth he had to decide for himself that he was going to embrace these assumptions as his own. I quietly told him that I was not in any way surprised or disappointed. I encouraged him that he would have to settle this issue in his own heart and I suggested that he relies on the logic and reason within himself to make the best choice in his search. Two days later he happily came to me and declared that he was utterly committed to the full belief in God. He explained that it would be foolish to think any other way that all creation, reason, faith all leads us back to Him. Today he has become a leader to many in their search for faith.

Next week we hope to have a great example of worldview and interdisciplinary integration as I interview several of our staff who have had greatest the educational experience of their lives.

We would love to hear from you and I deeply value your comments. If you would like us to mail you a free copy of my book simply send an email to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it and let us know what type of an educator you are, home schooler, classroom teacher, school administrator, or interested parent. Please let us know how you heard about the podcast and, of course, please include your mailing address.