World View - God's Workman - Essay Example

MY WORLD VIEW Submitted MY WORLD VIEW My worldview is the set of values in relation to fundamental aspects of Reality that ground and influence all my perceiving, thinking, knowing, and doing). My worldview includes my beliefs regarding the nature and sources of knowledge (my epistemology), my beliefs about the nature of Reality (my metaphysics), my beliefs about the beginning and nature of the universe (my cosmology), my beliefs about the gist and purpose of the universe and its inhabitants (my teleology), my beliefs about the existence of God (my theology), my beliefs about the nature a of Man (my anthropology), and my beliefs about the nature of value and the value of things (my axiology). The general beliefs that are my worldview outline not only how I see the world, but also intensely manipulate the particular beliefs I come to hold, the choices I draw and decisions I make, and all that I think, speak, and act. My worldview is so basic to what I do, and in fact, what I am, that it would be rationally deceitful for me not to offer it for examination. If you are to comprehend me and to know what I say and do, you must know something of my worldview. So I set it forth for you here, not in the form of an extended argument, but as a set of assertions. My epistemology entails my beliefs about the nature and sources of knowledge. I deem that I can recognize the truth and that the truth can set me free. My knowledge, my faith, stands on authority, empirical evidence, reason, and intuition. I know by authority, the authority of the Bible, whose modern translations are in line to its ancient manuscripts, some dating back to the first century AD, and which has been tested and confirmed by more than 100 generations of Jews and Christians. The Bible is flawless in all that it teaches and an ever authentic guide to my knowing and doing. Just as I know by the authority of the books and journals that are the basis for my profession, I know by the authority of the Bible. I know by the authority of the Church, whose foundation has been faithful to the teachings of Jesus for nearly two millennia. Just as I know by the influence of the social and professional communities of which I am a member and in whom I place my trust, I know by the authority of the Church. I know by pragmatic evidence, just as I know how to muddle through in everyday life by way of direct sensory experience, so by the personal experience of many otherwise incomprehensible personal blessings do I know of Gods grace. I know by reason, just as I use reason in my profession and to deal with daily existence, so reason informs me that this multifaceted universe is not the product of chance and that Jesus Christ must be who He said He was. I know by intuition, reality and its direct apprehension, unmediated by sensory practice. My intuition validates what the Bible teaches and my intuition has directed my elucidation of Johns Preamble. But so does my intuition guide my everyday life particularly where reason fails and intuition has been the resource of the best contributions I have made to my profession. I know by the logos to the extent that my intuition is an accurate, direct presentation of reality which I deem it to be much, if not most, of the time my instinct has its source in the Logos. The Logos, being the beam of the Light that is Truth, Intelligence, and Reason, is the base for true knowledge. I participate in the Divine Reason by participating in the Logos. My metaphysics incorporates my beliefs about the ultimate nature of Reality. I believe that there is much more to Reality than the matter, energy, and information of the material universe. Ultimate Reality is divine and spiritual, and the extraordinary universe is derived from it, dependant on it, and subordinate to it. The two are separate, but intimately entwined, for the mind of God gave rise to the phenomenal through His Logos, His eloquent thought. But the two did not go off singly and independently, as the dualistic Greeks did contend, for the divine Logos became rare flesh and made His place of abode among us; God remains warmly involved in His creation. My cosmology consists of my beliefs regarding the origins and nature of the universe and, above all, life. I believe that God created the universe through His divine Logos. By the Logos all things have come into existence and all things come to pass. The Logos is the starting place of order in the universe and the source of rationale by which it may be comprehended. The creation account in Genesis chapter 1 is perfect with respect to Who (God) and what He did (created the universe). But it is not intended to be a thorough account of the mechanisms of creation. A literal construal of Genesis 1 may be correct, but it is not essential to my worldview. My teleology consists of my beliefs with reference to the meaning and purpose of the universe. I believe that there is a gist, plan, and purpose to the universe, and it is the Logos. All things happen in agreement with the order and Divine Reason of the Logos. God formed the universe in a state of absolute Goodness, with the world in perfect harmony, and Man in cherished fellowship with Him. However this faultless condition existed in a context of darkness and disorder, and Man fell from God. Gods plan and purpose is to reinstate the creation to its perfect state, and to resolve man to Himself. His plan and His means are His Logos, and especially His Logos personified (Pinker, 1999). My theology consists of my beliefs about the existence of God and his nature. I believe that there is one God, the maker of the universe. He is a Person, and as we are shaped in His image, we can know something of Him. He loves and wishes a warm fellowship with us, so much so that He became one of us and died and ascended again in an act of compensation for our unrighteousness and a means to re-establish our fellowship with Him. But He is vast and unfathomable, we can know Him intimately through His Logos, but we cannot completely know Him, for our minds are finite and He is not. Although One, He exists in three facets or persons, or Personalities: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Of the Person of the Father and the Person of the Son or the Logos I have already mentioned. The third Person is the Holy Spirit, to whom Jesus refers as a distinct Being, but also as Himself. The relevant roles of the Logos and the Spirit are not wholly clear to me yet, but just as the Logos can articulate mind and reason, so can the Pneuma has the power to articulate spirit and the soul. My anthropology consists of my beliefs about the nature of man and his purpose. I believe that Man was formed by God in His own image, in His resemblance, to fellowship with Him in an intimate, jointly indwelling relationship. Man was made a warden of the creation to enjoy, but also to care for it. By determined selfishness, man has individually and collectively separated Himself from God and put himself at acrimony with the rest of the creation. So according to my understanding man is not basically good and merely in need of empowerment to realize his true potentialities, as so many of my contemporaries holds, But man is basically self-centered, selfish, even wicked, and in need of liberation and settlement to God. And this can come through faith in the Logos. My axiology consists of my beliefs on the subject of the nature of value and the value of things. I believe that value is "fabricated into" the universe. God created the universe with a normative over and above a physical order. Intrinsic or inherent value is objective and absolute. The widespread belief that intrinsic value is simply subjective and relative is mistaken (Nash, 1999). Human beings are moral instruments and, as moral instruments, we have a compulsion to know what is good and do what is right. What is good and right is explained in the Bible revealed by the Light of the divine Logos, and manifested through the witness of the Holy Spirit. To sum up and to put concisely, the standards of intrinsic value educated by the Bible are these: the creation is good, men and women are created in Gods reflection and are intrinsically valuable and God is the summum bonum, the highest good. The highest good we can recognize is to be born from above into the realm of God, where we can enjoy intimate fellowship with Him. The value of everything must be adjudicated according to these standards of intrinsic value. The instrumental value of anything else like human attributes, characteristics and behavior, human institutions, knowledge, art, technology is relative to its contribution to the realization of these intrinsic goods. Conclusion I believe that I am created by God, and not only that, but that He designed me in a very special and unique way to fulfill a very special and unique roll on this earth and this is what that brings meaning to my life. I believe I am Gods workman, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for me to do. Not only I am unique and have a special purpose, but God even thought of me and premeditated for that purpose before He even made the earth. Not only I am created by God, but every single day of my life matters to God. God has created my inmost being, knitted me together in my mothers womb. I praise God because I am fearfully and wonderfully made, God’s works are wonderful and I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from God when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, God’s eyes saw my unformed body. All the days intended for me were written in the divine book before one of them came to be. God also has a very great plan for me. What I do with my time, my days, my life matters to Him. I am extremely rare, and special. I dont make up my own destiny nor do I determine my purpose. If I did, I would live in mediocrity. Yet, if I seek God with all my heart, He will reveal and lead me into His purpose for your life. It will be a purpose that will prosper me and I will be prosperous in the ways that really count as it is what is prosperous in the sight of God (Sparrows, 1975). I believe that when we finally sought God and for the first time found true, long-lasting peace. That bottomless depression that resided in our hearts, that emptiness, that desperate loneliness could only be filled with God. Ultimately, the foundation for my worldview is what I believe about origins. What I believe about where I came from, where I am going and Who decides that. I have a reason for my existence, a reason to live, to keep on going, to pray and to seek God. References Dawkins R. & Pinker S. (1999). Is science killing the soul? Retrieved on January 31’ 2012 from http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge53.html Nash, R. (1999). Life’s ultimate questions. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan. Owen, I. & Sparrows, M. (1975). Conjuring up Phillip. Toronto: Harper & Row. Read More