by Elder Mike Chon

All true believers would affirm that the Bible is the Word of God. We may even affirm that the Bible is authoritative and sufficient for all of life…which actually is becoming much more rare in the current evangelical church. But for those that affirm these truths of God’s Word, we sometimes do not live by them. Especially in the many decisions we make in our life such as, where to go to school? Which career to choose? Which person to date and marry? Whether you want to have children or not? How to parent? Even though we affirm the Bible to be authoritative and sufficient, we usually go to every other source and person before looking at what the Word of God has to say about these things. In the following articles to come, we will evaluate how our worldview affects how we life our lives.

A worldview comprises one’s collection of presuppositions, convictions, and values from which a person tries to understand and make sense out of the world and life. A worldview is, first of all, an explanation and interpretation of the world and second, an application of this view to life. Everyone has one and is usually formed by presuppositions. For the believer, they would have two major presuppositions, “the eternal existence of the personal, transcendent, triune, Creator God. Second, the God of Scripture has revealed His character, purposes, and will in the infallible and inerrant pages of His special revelation, the Bible, which is superior to any other source of revelation or human reason alone.” (MacArthur, Think Biblically!) You would think that with these as the believer’s presupposition that all believers would turn to the pages of Scripture for all decisions in their life. But the reality is that for most believers they don’t believe that the Word of God is truly sufficient for the things of every day life. It is good for someone’s salvation, but in terms of addressing other matters of life, it is insufficient. That is why for many believers, they live their life following everything and anyone else other than the Word of God.

Pragmatism has become the new authority for many believers. Even in a church that holds to a high view of God and a high view of His Word, pragmatism has become king in many people’s lives. Pragmatism is the notion that meaning or worth is determined by practical consequences. As long as it works or the outcome is favorable we believe what we are doing is right. The problem is that far too many of us make decisions in our lives to accomplish our goals even though these goals and decisions are not ultimately consistent with Scripture. Our belief is that “if it works it must be of God”, for after all, the outward blessing of God is the criterion by which we often measure the approval of God. Have you ever wondered if your decision was truly God-glorifying? Do you base that decision on the outcome of your decision. For instance, I really want to date this person, even though he or she is a very immature believer, so I will ask them out and if they say “yes” then it must be God giving approval for this decision. Or give excuses such as if God really didn’t want me to do this He wouldn’t of allowed it to work out in this way. Or this worked for me, so you should try it. All of these pragmatic thoughts are based on secular thinking, and which are inherently relativistic, rejecting the notion of absolute right and wrong, of good and evil, and of truth and error. There is a great danger that has infiltrated the church in this culture and that is of pragmatism. I pray that the following articles to come will help you to examine how you live your life in light of the sufficiency of Scripture. It would do well for us to meditate on the warning found in Proverbs 14:12, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.”

to be continued…