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There is very little that impacts our daily lives and plays a role in them more than our worldview. What is exactly is a worldview? It is something we hear about from time to time but many of us do not understand it nor do we understand what kind of a role it has in our lives. I have the amazing privilege to be part of a Biblical Worldview training seminar called the “Cadre”. It is put up by the Creation Truth Foundation outside Oklahoma City and the program is a four-part series over a span of two years of intense training on Biblical worldviews with the goal of teaching the material to the next generation. I have completed the first of the four parts and will be returning to the Creation Truth Foundation three more times in the next two years.

In this program, I have learned in depth about what a worldview is. So this post is the start of a four-part series. Here I will explain what a worldview is. Next week, I will discuss what knowledge is and how we acquire knowledge. Then I will discuss truth and how we determine what is true. And in the end of the month I will address what a Biblical Worldview is and what it should look like.

To put it simply, a worldview is how one views his/her surroundings and the world around them. But it goes much deeper than that. Your worldview addresses many questions that you rarely think about. For example: Does God exist? If he does, is God involved in this world? Or with me personally? Many of the decisions you make, you do so based on the answer to these questions. Most of the questions a worldview answers are summed up by the acronym O.P.I.D.

O -> Origins: Where did I come from?
P -> Purpose: Why I am I here?
I -> Identity: Who am I?
D -> Destination: Where am I going?

Where did I come from? Am I specially created in my mother’s womb? Am I a descendent of an ape-like creature and ultimately a pile of goo that made a few molecules on its own, which became a few cells and eventually a fish, then an ape, then man? What’s my story? Was the world once a much better place? Or has it always been this way? Why am I here? Why am I alive? Is life meaningless? Do I have a reason to be alive? Why do I have this skill when I want to have that skill? Why am I going through this hard time? Why do I have all that I have? What I am going to do with what I have?

Who am I? Am I a special creation, made in the image of God? Am I just another animal on this planet taking up space? Am I worth loving? Am I worthy of doing anything? Am I a good person?

Where am I going? Do I have a destination? Do I have a vision of what I am to do? Do I have a dream I am pursing? Is all I have now the best it will be? Will I be going to heaven? What will my future look like?

All these questions and those that follow the answers make up your worldview. Most of the time, we don’t think about these questions in the same way we don’t think about our heart beating. Your heart will continue to beat whether you think about it or not. We usually only think about our heart when we are checking our pulse, after we just did some intense exercise, or when we are dealing with heartburn (though that is actually your stomach). And likewise, we don’t think about our worldview unless it is brought to our attention.

How does our worldview influence our thinking? Morality? If your worldview tells you that God exists and that he is involved with us every day, you will want to please him. If your worldview tells you that you are a pile of goo that evolved over millions of years, and that there is no ultimate consequence for your actions, who cares what you do? What about trust? Who can you trust? What can you trust? Your worldview will tell you what is trustworthy, what you can believe, who you can believe, and what/who you shouldn’t. Your worldview is your filter that determines what you consider to be valid or invalid, true or false. While some facts can help shape your worldview, for the most part it is actually your worldview that determines which facts you include and which ones you reject.

Think about these questions over the weekend and during the month of February. For many of you younger readers in your teens, your worldview is still being shaped. Who are you going to let shape it? Who are you going to trust will help you determine what your worldview will be? What filter will you use to sort out the good stuff from the bad? Next week, I will build on this post and speak about knowledge - what it is and where it comes from. Then I will talk about truth and two processes we use to come to believe the truth is. And I will wrap up the month with a post on what the Biblical Worldview is and why we at Worldview Warriors speak from this position. You don’t want to miss it.