The Christian Worldview

Where did this world come from? Why am I here? Where am I going? Your answer to these questions will determine the choices you make. The choices you make will determine your life.

Atheists say that you evolved from primeval goo (But they have a problem explaining where the goo came from). They say that your life is the product of random chance and finally, after your meaningless life is over, there is no future.

Christians believe in an all powerful, all wise, ever present God, who created and carefully designed this world with intelligence far beyond our comprehension. A god who loves us, his children. He placed us in this world to glorify him, to take care of the world for him and to share a wonderful eternal future with him. He loves us so much that he lets us choose to be with him or not. The choice is up to us.

Genesis 1:1-4 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty. Darkness was on the surface of the deep. God's Spirit was hovering over the surface of the waters. God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. God saw the light, and saw that it was good. God divided the light from the darkness.

God created a beautiful world with no pollution, no sin and no death. He placed our ancestors, Adam and Eve, in a garden with many good fruits to eat and with pleasant work to do taking care of the garden. They even had access to the tree of life. But they wanted to be wise like God, so they chose to disobey God, to sin, and brought down the curse of death on all mankind. Now we are all sinners.

Many years later, God told a man named Abraham to leave his homeland and take his family and go to a land he would show him. Abraham did as God said and was willing to offer his son to prove his devotion to God, but God provided a ram instead. God blessed Abraham and his descendants, but they were rebellious and chose to worship idols instead of God. He sent prophets who warned them to repent, but they refused to listen and so were defeated and killed or carried off to Babylon.

Isaiah 59:1-3 Behold, Yahweh's hand is not shortened, that it can't save; neither his ear heavy, that it can't hear: but your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue mutters wickedness.

Their sins kept their prayers from getting through to God. Today, our sins can do the same thing to our prayers. God loves us, but he is holy. Our sins are like smoke in his nostrils. God's justice and his holiness demand that he swat us like flies, but his love yearns to forgive us. He cares so much for us that he devised a plan to save us, a costly plan. He sent his son, Christ, to pay the penalty for our sins by dying for those who believe in him.

John 3:16. For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God didn't send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through him.

Instead of implementing his plan instantaneously, God did it over hundreds and thousands of years and gave his servants, the prophets, many predictions of what would happen. These prophecies are scattered throughout the Old Testament. Christianity is not an illogical faith, but rather one based on very good evidence. Christ's fulfilling the prophecies about him is one of the main reasons to believe in him.

God's plan for our redemption was a strange idea, a suffering servant who would be despised and rejected by mankind. When Christ came into this world, he was not born in a king's palace, but in a stable with a manger for a cradle. The people misunderstood the prophecies. They expected a messiah who would be a military leader and defeat all their enemies and make them the dominant nation in the world as they had been at the time of Solomon. Here is one of the most famous prophecies, written hundreds of years before Christ was born:

Isaiah 53:2-6 For he grew up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. He has no good looks or majesty. When we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised, and rejected by men; a man of suffering, and acquainted with disease. He was despised as one from whom men hide their face; and we didn't respect him. Surely he has borne our sickness, and carried our suffering; yet we considered him plagued, struck by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought our peace was on him; and by his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. Everyone has turned to his own way; and Yahweh has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

About 30 years after his birth, Christ began his public ministry preaching that the kingdom of God was near, healing the sick, feeding the hungry, and helping the poor. He spoke to the people in parables and only explained what the parables meant to his disciples, so to most of the people he seemed crazy. Just as Isaiah had prophesied, Christ was despised and rejected by men. He refused to follow the Pharisee's carefully developed rules and traditions, which made the Pharisees hate him. He offended all the powers that be in Judea at that time. So they arrested him, arranged a kangaroo court and railroaded him to be crucified. When he was arrested all of his followers ran off. Even Peter, whom he had named the rock, denied him. The Roman governor, Pilate, tried to free him by having Jesus scourged (brutally beaten) to satisfy the Jews. Scourging would make the victims almost unrecognizable. But that wasn't enough to satisfy the mob, they threatened a civil disturbance and threatened to complain to Caesar, so Pilate reluctantly gave in and had Jesus crucified. The Roman soldiers pierced the side of this suffering and beaten man, scourged till he was nearly unrecognizable; a man who was pierced for our transgressions and who bore our punishment; a man who was the Son of God. This is just one of many prophecies that Christ fulfilled, there isn't time to cover all of them here.

A second reason to believe in Christianity is the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Either it's true or it's false. Consider the evidence. Christ's disciples ran off when he was arrested. Peter denied him. They were hiding in a upper room terrified by their fear of the Romans. A few days later, after they saw and spoke with the risen Christ, we see these same timid souls standing up to the government saying that "we must obey God rather than men" and rejoicing that they were beaten for the name of Christ. What would it take to take a bunch of trembling fearful men to suddenly become brave? A miracle!

All but one of the apostles died as martyrs for the Christian faith, only John lived to reach old age. These men were in a position to know if the resurrection was faked. But they clearly believed it, believed strongly enough to suffer and die for their belief. People don't endure persecution and die for a lie. So the resurrection is one of the strongest evidences for Christianity.

Christians not only believe in a creator, God, who gave his son, Jesus, to die for our sins; we believe in a final day of judgment where the good will be rewarded and the wicked punished. When Paul told the pagan Athenians about God, who created the world and who has appointed a day of judgment so that we all need to repent; he used the resurrection as his final proof.

Acts 17:24-31 that they should seek the Lord, if perhaps they might reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 'For in him we live, and move, and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'For we are also his offspring.' Being then the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold, or silver, or stone, engraved by art and design of man. The times of ignorance therefore God overlooked. But now he commands that all people everywhere should repent, because he has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he has ordained; of which he has given assurance to all men, in that he has raised him from the dead."

Even though we have committed really bad sins, terrible sins, we can become children of God and escape his judgment. Peter told the very ones who had killed Christ that they could be forgiven of their sins, if they would repent and be baptized. We all need to do this. Notice that we Gentiles are the ones "far off" about which Peter spoke.

Acts 2:38-39 Peter said to them, "Repent, and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you, and to your children, and to all who are far off, even as many as the Lord our God will call to himself.

Once we have faith to become children of God, we need to remain faithful to him and to keep his commandments. This will be better explained in the lesson on basic Christianity. Peter and Paul and the other Christians we read about in the New Testament who were preaching and teaching the gospel were just fulfilling Christ's parting command:

Matthew 28:18-20 Jesus came to them and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I commanded you. Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. " Amen.

For those who like their information really condensed, Paul gives us a summary of the basic facts of the gospel in the following:

1 Corinthians 15:1-4 Now I declare to you, brothers, the Good News which I preached to you, which also you received, in which you also stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold firmly the word which I preached to you--unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,

So we have good reason to believe that Christ is the Son of God, that he lived, preached, was crucified, died, rose from the dead and gave his disciples the mission to make disciples of all men.

It is not possible to define Christianity in such a few verses, but hopefully after reading this lesson you understand the fundamental points of Christianity. The "Basics" lesson will cover what Christ expects us to do, the wonderful benefits he has provided for us and will offer a third compelling reason to believe in Him.

Make God your choice!

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