Why can’t we have a civil discussion on many topics today? This is a bit long, but read and consider this quote

“The basic problem of the Christians in this country in the last eighty years or so, in regard to society and in regard to government, is that they have seen things in bits and pieces instead of totals.

They have very gradually become disturbed over permissiveness, pornography, the public schools, the breakdown of the family, and finally abortion. But they have not seen this as a totality—each thing being a part, a symptom, of a much larger problem. They have failed to see that all of this has come about due to a shift in world view—that is, through a fundamental change in the overall way people think and view the world and life as a whole…

What we must understand is that the two world views really do bring forth with inevitable certainty not only personal differences, but also total differences in regard to society, government, and law.” – from A Christian Manifesto by Francis Schaeffer

I’ve said it before, but you would be doing yourself a favor to read Schaeffer’s insights from 40-50 years ago into the state of our culture and the church. Over the last few months, I’ve been reading more about the discord that is evident in our interpersonal relationships, even within our own families. What is going on? I think Schaeffer was right in that we have focused on the bits and pieces of individual issues and have missed the larger picture of the growing divide between many of us.

Notice that Schaeffer is speaking to Christians, not the larger society and I think especially we have missed the two world views until now. In the past few months, it has become more and more apparent that those who basically view the world through and  Us and Them lens or the  Oppressed and their Oppressors. But, these views are largely incompatible with Scripture because they ignore God in the process.

Viewing all of the world as either those who are oppressed or are oppressors leads us in a very different direction than what God has intended. Our horizontal issues between each other can not be effectively understood or addressed without first recognizing that our vertical relationship with God is broken. We are all (each one of us) in need of the Savior.

A couple of weeks ago, I referenced the following passage from 2 Corinthians 5:18-20 –

“All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Notice that we are called to reconcile others so that they are reconciled to God. Nothing can be in order unless the vertical relationship is reconciled first.

Does your worldview line up with God’s plan for humanity? Have you been influenced by another view or person that has drawn you away from a Biblical worldview?