Getting Started
Psalm 19:1
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom;
all who follow his precepts have good understanding.
Psalm 111:10
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Romans 12:1
But God’s angry displeasure erupts as acts of human mistrust and wrongdoing and lying accumulate, as people try to put a shroud over truth. But the basic reality of God is plain enough. Open your eyes and there it is! By taking a long and thoughtful look at what God has created, people have always been able to see what their eyes as such can’t see: eternal power, for instance, and the mystery of his divine being. So nobody has a good excuse. What happened was this: People knew God perfectly well, but when they didn’t treat him like God, refusing to worship him, they trivialized themselves into silliness and confusion so that there was neither sense nor direction left in their lives. They pretended to know it all, but were illiterate regarding life….
Romans 1:18-23 – The Message
10 As it is written:
“There is no one righteous, not even one;
11 there is no one who understands;
there is no one who seeks God.
12 All have turned away,
they have together become worthless;
there is no one who does good,
not even one.”
Romans 3:10-12
15 The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, 16 for,
“Who has known the mind of the Lord
so as to instruct him?”
But we have the mind of Christ.
1 Corinthians 2:15-16
Resources
Bible
Pearcey, N. (2008). Total Truth: Liberating Christianity from Its Cultural Captivity. Crossway, Wheaton, Illinois. Read Chapter 4, “Surviving the Spiritual Wasteland.”
Three Tests for Determining Truth” by Brent Cunningham: https://www.brentcunningham.org/?p=584
Worldview Chart Comparing Core Ideas of Worldviews: https://www.summit.org/resources/worldview-chart/
Background Information
As people, we all start in the same boat. The Apostle Paul explains in Romans 3, that none of us are righteous, understand, or seek after God. To even begin to understand truth Paul reminds us that we need God’s revelation. Without God enlightening us through the work of His Holy Spirit as we hear and read His word, we would all be without understanding and remain in darkness and the futility of our own thinking. However, once we come to a knowledge of God and salvation by faith in Christ, we are called to continue to grow in our understanding, seeking to be transformed by the renewing of our minds and to have the mind of Christ. Indeed, part of the greatest commandment is to love God with “all of our mind…”
Loving God with our mind means learning to think like Him, have His perspective, and view the world as He made it to be. We need to be grounded in a Biblical worldview. Especially when it comes to ethical and moral decision-making, evaluating issues, ideas, and theories using Biblical principles is essential so that as Christians we can continue to be the salt and light God wants us to be in the world. When we choose to live by the truth and follow Christ, everything we do is an opportunity to model truth and grace that brings greater freedom to others and the world.
Consider the following tests for determining truth: Truth by its nature is…
Non-contradictory – it does not violate the laws of logic.
Absolute – doesn’t depend on time place or conditions.
Discovered – it exists independently of our minds, we do not create it. It is there, whether we know it or not.
Descriptive – it is the agreement of the mind with reality. The evidence matches reality. Stated claims correspond with actual events or evidence.
Unchanging – it exists above all things.
Exclusive – if something is true then it automatically excludes other things. It may coexist with other things but it does not contradict them.
Over the last several weeks, you have explored specific worldview ideas that clash with a Judeo-Christian framework and how they can affect ethical decision-making. In this week’s devotion, you will complete a reading, giving you tools to evaluate all theories, worldviews, religions, and ideologies so that you can compare them to a Biblical worldview. You can also use this process as you continue in your social work career to evaluate any new practice models, policies, and theories that you encounter. All truth is God’s truth no matter who discovers it, and if it is truth, it will be consistent with the word of God. Using the truth tests above and evaluating ideas through the filter provided in this assignment will help you make strong ethical practice decisions.
Instructions
Read Chapter 4: “Surviving the Spiritual Wasteland” in “Total Truth” by Nancy Pearcey.
Read “Three Tests for Determining Truth” by Brent Cunningham. (https://www.brentcunningham.org/?p=584)
Review the Worldview Comparison Chart.
Navigate to the threaded discussion and respond to three of the following four discussion questions/prompts:
Describe the three sets of questions Pearcey describes to ask of a worldview, including Christianity. Identify them and explain in general how can you use them to assess the worldview of a theory, ideology, or religion.
Explain how a Christian worldview might impact one’s ideas about family or education as described by Pearcey. What thoughts do you have in response?
Summarize Pearcey’s evaluation of one of the following theories based on the components of a worldview (Marxism, Rouseau, Sanger, or Buddhism). Describe an insight you gained from assessing the theory through a worldview lens.
Finally, discuss how you can use a worldview approach to evaluate theories underlying practice or policy interventions as a social worker. Also, how can this approach help you to work with clients, families, or groups to evaluate their underlying religious or worldview assumptions and their ethical implications? Explain.
Your postings also should:
Be well developed by providing clear answers with evidence of critical thinking.
Add greater depth to the discussion by introducing new ideas.
Provide clarification to classmates’ questions and provide insight into the discussion.
