We live in an age when the preaching of the true gospel has largely been replaced with a message which is an amalgamation of the world’s varied philosophies and some scriptural truth. That which is truth will always be truth when it stands alone. Yet when men seek to mix the precious with the vile even that which is precious becomes a lie, since it is applied in a fashion which is contrary to the basic principles which form its context.
We are often told that we need to have a “proper world view” by many of today’s prominent foghorns of make believe. What they generally mean by their promotion of this “world view” is that we should be looking beyond our present sphere of influence and awareness and take on a broader consideration of the world at large. There is certainly nothing wrong with being more cognizant of the plight of others around our globe and it is definitely proper to help brethren who are experiencing needs of one sort or another, wherever they are found.
Generallly, however, their modus operandi is to use this supposed “proper world view” exhortation in order to extort money from their hearers to support their various “ministries” which are doing (according to them) fantastical works in all sorts of places. Without these works they tell us that many will wind up in hell who could have been saved if their hearers had only been more generous and diligent.
While they exhort us to have a “proper world view”, they espouse one which is built upon the error of man’s natural philosophy and the misapplication of the revelation of GOD’s purpose in the creation of this world. Their faulty world view sees the world as a grand but failed (or failing) experiment which GOD has created and set in motion, leaving the governance of the affairs thereof largely in the hands of a race of “free moral agents” who go about exercising their free will and either performing deeds with which HE is pleased or running afoul of HIS purposes in various scenarios by being disobedient and unbelieving.
They would tell us that HE is trying to get men to do HIS will but that HE either will not or cannot (dependent on their brand of philosophy) prevent them from going contrary to it, since HE has great respect unto their own free will. Thus vast multitudes of the human race slide headlong to destruction with HIM powerless to prevent it. In this view men hold the key to the salvation, not only of themselves but the salvation of multitudes of others who they either will or will not reach, and thus deliver, through their great missionary endeavors.
According to this “theo-osophy”, CHRIST has intervened into human history with an attempt (i.e.; HIS death on the cross) to rescue as many of these “free moral agents” as HE possibly can before the final bell tolls and many are swept away to endless torment. All the while HE is willing to save them and even desires to do so, but simply can’t because they will not cooperate with HIS plan to save them or either because evangelical christians neglect to tell them about HIS plan to save them, and thus they perish in ignorance, thwarting the purpose and desire of GOD to save them all.
These great “world view” proponents have no “world view” which can be discovered in the scriptures, and their philosophies are completely void of the TRUTH as it is in JESUS CHRIST.
A proper world view:
Recognizes whose world this is. “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” (Gen 1:1) HE was under no obligation to create the world nor is HE in any wise defined by HIS creation of the world. HE is the EXISTENT ONE as HE told Moses, “I AM that I AM”. HE “inhabiteth eternity” (Isa.57:15); and is in need of nothing which could be supplied by HIS creation. (see Ps 50:12) If it is HIS world, then what sort of platform would any of HIS creation be able to stand upon and question HIS doing? “Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?” (Rom 9:20-21)
Declares that HE shall not fail to perform all that HE purposes to do. “But our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased.” (Psa 115:3) “Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure: Calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man that executeth my counsel from a far country: yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it.” (Isa 46:9-11)
Magnifies the purpose of HIM whose world it is.“Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Php 2:9-11) “And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell.” (Col 1:17-19)
The purpose of GOD in the earth is to magnify the glory of HIS grace in the exaltation of HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON, through the redemption of a people which were chosen in HIM before the foundation of the world. HE declared this purpose by the mouth of the angel who was sent to Joseph saying, “And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.” (Mat 1:21)
To this end HE has come into the world, once in the end of the age, to purchase the redemption of that elect people which HE has loved with an everlasting love. “But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.” (Heb 9:11-12)
In order to magnify the glory of HIS grace in the sight of men and angels, HE has been pleased to cause the gospel of this certain redemption to be declared in the earth. HE has prepared and sent men into the earth with this message upon their tongues and this blessed declaration cannot be stopped nor in any wise fail to accomplish exactly what HE has sent it to do. “So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.” (Isa 55:11) (see Rom.10:15)
Thus the gospel is fashioned in HIS hands to enlighten those whom HE has awakened by HIS SPIRIT, which also causes them to believe that glorious message and thereby they find rest to their weary souls and deliverance from all condemnation. “Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel: (2Tim1:8-10)
mam