Christian worldview and its fundamental principles

A worldview essentially denotes the framework of beliefs, ideas, philosophies, or ideologies that shapes how an individual or a group of individuals make sense of the world (Cosgrove, 2006). For instance, a three-year-old child believes that the world revolves around them. Equally, a secular humanist’s life is driven by the belief that only the material world exists. In essence, everyone has a worldview – whether conscious or unconscious. For Christians, the Bible is the ultimate influencer of their worldview. Christians believe that the sole reason for human existence is to serve God. This means that every action, decision, and emotion is driven by the desire to serve God. That is the fundamental attribute of a worldview – it influences every aspect of an individual’s life. It affects how an individual interprets the character of the world, human nature, and the purpose of life (Hiles & Smith, n.d.). Christians have their own worldview or beliefs with regard to the nature of God, humanity, Jesus, and restoration. This paper describes these beliefs, eventually analysing the strengths of the Christian belief and how it influences a person’s thinking and behaviour.

According to Christianity, there is only one God. The Bible describes God as a supernatural, eternal being responsible for everything in the universe. He commands the oceans, He makes the birds sing every morning, He makes the sun rise from the east and dawn in the west, He makes the moon shine over the earth at night, and He gives life to every breathing creature on earth – from human beings to birds of the air, animals, and insects (Acts 17: 24-27). Essentially, God is a divine, all-powerful being, whose magnificence and splendour surpasses human understanding. The Bible also teaches that God exists in three forms: God the Father, God the Son (Jesus), and God the Holy Spirit. This is the doctrine of the Trinity. Christians view God as not only omnipotent, but also omnipresent (He exists everywhere), omniscient (He knows everything), omnibenevolent (He is all-loving and means good in everything He does), and holy (He is righteous) (Schwarz, 2011). For Christians, no other being can take the place of God.

Christians believe humans solely exist to serve and worship God. By worshipping God, humans acknowledge His divinity, mightiness, intelligence, love, and purpose of creating the universe (Miller & Delaney, 2005). In His power, God has gifted humans with reason to comprehend their own nature and, most importantly, pursue the will of God. However, humans sometimes use reason for selfish purposes. Pursuing selfish ambitions in place of God’s will creates what Christians term as sin. Sin separates humans from God. The notion of sin is described in the second and third chapters of the book of Genesis. These two chapters are especially important for understanding the nature of humans. In spite of having everything they desired or wanted, the first humans – Adam and Eve – still disobeyed God. That sin is the root cause of human problems. Upon sinning, Adam and Eve were kicked out of the Garden of Eden, and condemned to a life of pain, hard work, illness, and eventually death (Wiegel & Prud’homme, 2015).

As mentioned earlier, Jesus is one of the three forms of God. The Bible describes Him as the son of God (John 3: 14). To bring man closer to Himself, God sent Jesus to die for man’s sins. By suffering humiliation, dying on the cross, and resurrecting on the third day, Jesus bridged the gap between God and humans. This makes Jesus central to the Christian worldview. Indeed, the entire concept of Christianity as known today originates from Jesus. Without the life, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus, Christianity would be non-existent (Hiles & Smith, n.d.). The events of Jesus on earth formed the foundation of the church, an instrumental element in the life of Christians. In John 14: 6, Jesus is described as the way, the truth, and life. This means that for Christians to gain the eternal life God promises in the Bible, Jesus must be the channel. They must accept Jesus as their only saviour.

Jesus died on the cross to restore man’s relationship with God. God intended Jesus’ death to bring back humans to the will of God. Based on this premise, the solution to human problems is to have faith that Jesus died for the sins of humans – salvation (Cosgrove, 2006). Such an acknowledgement means that humans get closer to God by following what Jesus did and said. In other words, Jesus serves as the role model for pleasing God. By adhering to the teachings of Jesus in their behaviours, actions, thoughts, and words, Christians are restored back to God. God in turn rewards them with blessings in various aspects of their life (Matthew 6: 33). For Christians, salvation is integral for not only self transformation, but also societal transformation. When Christians commit to the ways of God, they prosper as a society. Pursuing righteousness, however, is usually not a straightforward undertaking for Christians given the inherently sinful nature of humans. Nonetheless, God gives Christians the grace to overcome temptations (Ephesians 2: 8-9).

As seen in the preceding sections, Christians have their own beliefs about God, Jesus, human nature, and restoration. These beliefs strongly influence how Christians lead their life. They influence how they think and behave (Cosgrove, 2006). Christians innately seek to please God in everything they do. For instance, a Christian will avoid hatred, revenge, malice, lying, and crime because such acts violate the will of God. A Christian will act with respect, care, love, compassion, and empathy towards other people because that is what God desires. Such values evidently indicate that the Christian worldview is a positive worldview. It advocates for love, kindness, selflessness, and harmonious coexistence. There is really no loss in subscribing to Christianity. However, the Christian worldview can sometimes be confusing. For many people, for instance, understanding why evil happens yet God is all-loving and all-powerful can be difficult. It is quite confusing that non-Christians experience good even without believing in the Christian God. These are just some of the many confusing aspects about Christianity.

I am not a Christian, though I have been brought up in a Christian background. Numerous inconsistencies in the Bible and the nature of God have made me shift to non-belief in the existence of deities. Even so, I must admit that there are significant differences between the Christian worldview and my worldview. Just like Christianity, I advocate for humanity. I advocate for compassion, kindness, tolerance, understanding, consideration, sympathy, brotherhood, and many of the values that define the Christian faith. The major difference between the Christian worldview and my worldview stems from the fundamental reason for doing good or not causing evil. While Christians do good or stay away from evil so as to get eternal life, I believe that we should do good because it is good to do good, and that we should shun evil because evil inflicts suffering on others.