Colson: Christian worldview
disproves all other beliefs
By John H. Adams, The Layman, November 12, 2008
CHARLOTTE – “I’m one of the guys who believes that the existence of God’s law can be proven empirically and that all other worldviews can be proven wrong,” Chuck Colson declared at the National Conference on Christian Apologetics in Charlotte Nov. 7-8.
Chuck Colson With that sweeping statement, Colson touched on politics, economics, liberation theology, redistribution of income, and the Biblical ignorance of Christians who claim to be evangelicals but hold beliefs that are contrary to Scripture.
“How do we defend the orthodox Christian faith?” he asked. “It’s our judge. We’re not doing very well.”
He cited findings by the Pew Charitable Trust. “They asked evangelicals, ‘Do you believe your way is the only way to heaven?’ and 57 percent said, ‘No.’” The professed evangelicals who believe in many paths to God are Universalists, he said.
He added, “53 percent of evangelicals said there is no such thing as truth. That’s cognitive dissonance, a disconnect of the brain. I don’t get it. It’s schizophrenic.”
“The emerging church movement is throwing out the Bible,” he said. “They just want experience. They just want Jesus. How many times do you hear this? The Bible’s not just a story. It’s God’s revealed truth.”
He compared that confusion among evangelicals to the nation’s political response to the economic crisis. “Spend their way out of bankruptcy? Nobody’s ever done that. The process of doing this will erode the structures of society.”
“You and I know more,” he said. “We know the problems of today are moral problems that can’t be dealt with politically.”
“Christianity is not just a relationship with Jesus. Christianity is a worldview. It’s the way we see life. A relationship with Christ is an understanding of all reality.”
He cited object lessons – “what happens with a wrong world view. The idea that there is no human sin … motivated the Congress to pass funding for Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae that was absolutely untenable. … You wonder how they could have been so stupid.”
Wall Street was at the other end of the problem, he said, in a frenzy of buying and selling mortgages, blinded by the realization that debt would bring them down. “The old-fashioned way of lending money and caring about the lender paying it back was suddenly gone.”
“It comes down to us, those of us in this room,” he said. “What is a worldview? It’s like a road map. We’ve got to get grounded in what we believe.”
Colson has written extensively about a Christian worldview and he suggested Christians read his books. He quickly added that all of the proceeds go to charitable causes and not himself.
Besides, said the former Watergate defendant who spent time in prison during the Nixon administration, he doesn’t need books to buoy his ego. “I’m 77 years old. I’ve been to the bottom of society—in prison society in a prison cell—and the top of society next to the Oval Office, and the only place I want to be is in Jesus.”
He said the Nicene Creed was an example of Christians bringing their worldview into the political and social structures.
Other elements of a Christian worldview, he said, include:
- The certainty that God is.
- The belief that the Scripture reveals propositional truth.
- The incarnation of Jesus Christ.
- Death, atonement and resurrection of Christ.
- The Trinity – Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
- The belief that “when we die our souls will be enfolded into the love of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.”
- The belief that the Great Commission is to make disciples and not converts. “Jesus said, ‘Go and make disciples.’ You’ll be a Christian when God lets you know you’re a Christian.”
- Don’t just go to church; belong to the Church.
- The purpose of the church is holiness.
- Christ will return in judgment and justice.
“Why does all this matter?” Colson asked. “The church is exploding where people take truth seriously. It is dying where people are trusting government. Get back to the fundamental doctrines of the Christian faith.”
“Reform the Church,” he said. “Don’t try to come up with manifestos that don’t mean anything. We need to defend our faith in the public square. The sophisticates want nothing of message, but it has thrived.”