Christian worldview

In a recent interview with Life Today host Shiela Walsh, four-time Emmy Award-winning actress Kathie Lee Gifford addressed how Western Christians are often skeptical about the gifts of the Spirit.

Even though progressivism has taken hold in most of America’s institutions, it remains extremely unpopular with most people. Conservatives have an excellent opportunity to make gains in the next few years and advance serious policy initiatives. Will we take advantage of it, or will we squander it by majoring on silly side issues?

According to a new Pew Research Center survey, most Americans say they believe in "God as described in the Bible."

This Sunday marks the beginning of Advent. It’s the season historically set aside by the Church to help believers prepare to receive the fullness of Jesus’ coming. By “Jesus’ coming,” Advent refers both to Jesus’ Incarnation and “His return as the ‘Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory,” who will “send his angels to gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of the heavens.”

Transactional religion, from the Greco-Roman world to today, treats God’s word and power as instruments to be used for our purposes. We need to measure the news and everything else we experience in this fallen world through the prism of God’s unchanging, authoritative, completely true word. We need to read, pray, and worship for God’s glory rather than our own, to live for his honor above our own, to commune with our Creator for no reason except to be with our Father, to love our Lord and our neighbor for their sakes rather than ours. Anything less makes the King of the universe a means to our end. This is idolatry, and it is dangerous.

Last week, the Republican National Committee (RNC) announced the “Pride Coalition.” The coalition is a partnership with the “Log Cabin Republicans,” an organization that describes itself as “LGBT conservatives and straight allies who support fairness, freedom, and equality for all.” Although many find the move disheartening, it will only shock those who haven’t been paying attention.

It is conventional wisdom today that all truth is personal and subjective. As a result, sharing Christ in public is viewed as the imposition of our beliefs on others. This view of truth extends especially to the claim that non-Christians need to trust Christ to escape hell for heaven (Acts 4:12). Such a claim is increasingly seen as intolerant in the extreme, a view that is affecting and infecting Christians as well as the larger secular culture.

According to one Cambridge academic, permissive attitudes about sex, marriage, drugs, and religion are “luxury beliefs; more status symbols for cultural elites than blueprints for the way they live. Rob Henderson first floated the idea of “luxury beliefs” in an essay in the New York Post, later at Quillette, and most recently in a podcast. He argues that beliefs that tend to be disastrous for poor and middle-class communities have become the modern equivalent of buying expensive clothes or hiring servants. It’s a way of showing off your wealth and signaling your status to fellow members of the upper class.

In the days after 9-11, Chuck Colson offered an incredible gift to God’s people: A Christian worldview framework for understanding what had happened and a roadmap for Christians to both speak truth and love to their neighbors. Colson warned against out-of-control anger and against seeking revenge instead of justice, in both our personal and national responses.

Romans 1:22-23 says that we make a foolish exchange. We replace worshipping the Creator with the impressive stuff he created: “Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man, birds, four-footed animals, and reptiles” (NLT).