11th October 2023

A clash of worldviews

See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.
Colossians 2:8 (NIVUK)

The resurrection is a central claim of Christianity and sets the Christian theistic worldview at odds with the worldviews of materialism, naturalism, and atheism. These three latter worldviews have influenced the secular culture of the West and claim that this physical universe (or multiverse), consisting of matter and energy, is all that there is, this is the ultimate reality, there is no supernatural dimension.

In a worldview where the physical universe, governed by the laws of nature, is all that exists, there is no room or explanation for miracles or the resurrection. 

In a world which normally operates according to natural law, dead bodies remain dead and do not rise from the dead. Jesus Christ’s answer to those of his day that did not believe in a bodily resurrection, or an after-life was, ‘You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.’ (Matthew 22:29).

Jesus revealed that it is by and through the power of God, not by some natural law that miracles and the resurrection can occur.

The militant atheist Richard Dawkins has given a bleak view of human life in a Godless world: ‘In a universe of blind physical forces and genetic replication, some people are going to get hurt, and other people are going to get lucky; and you won’t find any rhyme or reason to it, or any justice. The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is at the bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil and no good. Nothing but blind pitiless indifference. … DNA neither knows nor cares. DNA just is, and we dance to its music.’ ¹

The Christian worldview is that there is a transcendent God who is the ultimate reality – that God created the universe and that humanity and the whole of creation has a purpose and destiny. The bodily resurrection of Jesus was the first fruits of the restoration of the entire universe. Jesus said of himself, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die…’ (John 11:25).

 

The gospel is the good news that God has reconciled the world, including all human beings, to himself through Jesus Christ. It includes an appeal, by God, to all human beings to turn to him and believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour and have eternal life with God. In God’s world there is such a thing as morality and Christians are called to do good and reject evil.

Prayer
Father, we thank you that you have created a universe with meaning and purpose; inspire us to reveal that truth to an increasingly sceptical world. In Jesus’s name, Amen.

Study by Eddie Marsh

¹ Richard Dawkins: River Out of Eden (New York: Basic Books, 1996), p. 133

About the writer:
Eddie Marsh attends the Sheffield congregation of Grace Communion International.

Local congregation:
Please email the local congregational contact (see below) for information about the Sheffield congregation’s meeting venue and time. 

Local congregational contact:
Email: sheffield@gracecom.church

Word of Life contact:
wordoflife@gracecom.church