Worldview

Millions of Christians pray: ”Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” all over the world every single day. On markets and in souvenir shops worldwide you can buy cutting boards and beautiful wall decorations that show the Lord’s Prayer as it is found in Matthew chapter 6. In many Christian homes you’ll find this prayer on the wall somewhere. We have the prayer memorized in our different languages and can recite it at 3 in the morning if needed.

Maybe we have forgotten what we are praying? Do we honestly believe what we pray when we pray “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven”? Do we see God’s will in our nations? Do we believe it is possible to experience the will of God in our nations, in our neighborhoods, in our families, in our friendships? Or is it just empty words? I sadly think that a vast majority of all Christians are thinking that “your will be done” is a prayer about the future. A prayer about heaven. A prayer about a new re-created earth. Because we don’t see God’s will here on earth as it is in heaven, and it’s never gonna happen anyway...

But Jesus wasn’t teaching his disciples to pray about something impossible. And he wasn’t teaching them to pray about something that wasn’t possible to achieve on earth either. There is no real reason to pray for God’s will to be done on the new earth. It’ll be done anyway. We know that from the book of Revelation. That’s a done deal. But what about our lives here on Planet Earth? Is the will of God possible?


What's your worldview?

Do you have a Biblical worldview? Or do you just follow the world and agree with everything non-Christians say? I sadly know a good number of Christians who never seem to have any problems in the company of non-Christians. They never seem to disagree with what non-Christians say or do. Sure, they’ll tell you that they don’t have sex with their boyfriend or girlfriend and you can hear that they don’t swear and you know they have secret opinions about being against abortions (but it’s not something they would ever share with a non-Christian....”we’re not called to be condemning...”, they’ll tell you...), but other than that they watch the same movies and soap operas, vote the same way, go to the same concerts and clubs, view society the same way, drink the same way, have the same heroes and read the same books and magazines. They see no problem in having a non-Christian girlfriend or boyfriend. And why should they? They are not that different from non-Christians anyway. There is no real significant difference. They are born-again Christians, but their worldview is not a Christian worldview. Their souls are saved, but their minds are unchanged by Christ and his teachings. A more scary thought is that I think that a lot of people who think themselves Christians because they said a prayer once probably are not Christians at all. If there is never any fruit from a tree of faith, is it even a tree that God has planted?


Dualism

Most likely these Christians I mentioned are caught up in dualism. Dualism seems to be one of the biggest challenges for the Church in the 21st century. Dualism tells you that as long as you’re spiritual, sing the right worship songs, lift your hands in church and maybe even witness, it doesn’t really matter what else you do. Following dualism you can lead worship at church on Friday and sleep with your girlfriend on Saturday. You can talk about God, love, unity and humility until the cows come home, but you’re still hard, you’re still hostile to other people; you still think that American Beauty, Wedding Crashers, Sex in the City and Friends are wonderful to watch and semi-pornographic tabloid magazines are okay and fun. “It’s just entertainment”, you say, “and besides everybody watches it”. This type of dualism is known as Gnosticism and is hardly a new concept. A lot of the New Testament and especially John’s letters are written to battle the understanding that as long as you are doing fine spiritual things, it doesn’t matter what you do or what you don’t do.

Dualism also comes in other ways into our Christian circles. Many Christians believe that there is a clear and strong line between what’s secular and what’s Christian. Jobs are neatly divided into Christian or spiritual jobs such as being a pastor, a Bible teacher, an evangelist and a missionary (I notice how many Christians think that only a pastor or at least somebody who has studied theology can tell them anything worthwhile about God and his will). The secular jobs are the rest: teacher, nurse and doctor are okay because at least you can help in missions. Carpenter is kind of cool since it was Jesus’ occupation. But working in a bank, owning a business, selling clothes, working as a journalist, working with kids or old people and all other regular jobs are considered secular and seen as a necessary evil that you have to get through in order to earn money for the church and to earn your Sundays with God’s people away from the annoying non-Christians......I realize that few people would express it exactly this way, but isn’t that how many of us think? But is that Biblical? Has God labeled some jobs Christian and some jobs secular? No. God wants all of us to work and witness wherever we are. God wants us to be in the world and influence the world. God wants us to show Kingdom of God-values to a world which desperately needs it. God wants us to be in the world yet set apart from the world. Jesus’ longest recorded prayer in John 17 talks a lot about this. Jesus realized that it would be difficult to be a Christian in the world. If you never find it difficult to be in the world and be with non-Christians you probably don’t have a Biblical worldview, and you’re probably not living out your faith.

“It’s all going to hell anyway”

I could write a lot more about dualism, but I also want to mention two other obstacles that we as Christians face in coming to a place where we have a truly godly worldview. Fatalism is a big problem. Many Christians are fatalists. They’ll say things like “it’s all going to hell anyway, we can’t do anything, we’ll just have to make sure that we’ll be saved on Judgment Day”, or “I’m the way I am and I’ll stay this way” or “things have never been worse than they are today and they’ll continue to get worse, we can’t do anything”. In Denmark where I grew up there are many Christian fatalists. I’ve grown up believing that there is no hope for Denmark. We were one of the first nations to legalize abortions and pornography. Where other nations are post-modern or maybe even modern still, Denmark has moved way past that and today it’s a post-post-modern country where Christianity is as irrelevant as belief in the old Nordic or Greek gods. And Danish Christians have given up. Not officially of course. Not many people would admit to have given up, but that’s still the case for many Christians. Christians will say things like “God has moved his lamp from our country, there is no light left and all we can do now is to hope and pray that we’ll be saved ourselves”. There are very few visions for making a difference in society. Obviously there is some talk about witnessing to non-Christians, but there is not a lot of talk about making a real, lasting difference in society at large. “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” we also pray in Denmark. But few believe that God’s will can be done in Denmark. Few believe that positive, godly things can happen. Some take up the challenge and fight for kingdom values and righteousness, but most have given up due to fatalism. Denmark is like many other countries. Many American Christians are fatalistic and dream about the good, old days where everything was much better....The same applies to Christian in many other countries. Romantic fantasies about how wonderful life was 20-70 years ago control a lot of Christians’ mindsets. But are these romantic ideas realistic? Were things really that much more wonderful 50 years ago in the West. Sure, most evil was hidden from the public sphere. But were there less immorality, more godliness and more true faith in God 50 years ago? I doubt it! Maybe there was more religious Christianity. But religious Christianity doesn’t save anybody. To put it frankly: a nice religious grandmother-type is just as eternally lost as a young, hard child rapist if none of them know Jesus Christ as their personal savior! There is no difference.

Individualism is another challenge, especially in the West. The individualist says that he doesn’t need other people, she’s got her own little “personal Jesus” and he certainly doesn’t need the fellowship of other believers. The individualism is within the church where it’s all about me: “What can I get out of this? When will I see a miracle? When will cool things happen to me?” Me, me, me, me. God’s Word tells us about the Body of Christ being the Church. The Church is God’s tool to reach lost people. Whether we like it or not. We need each other. We need each other to sharpen each other. As it is put in Proverbs 27, 17: “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another”.


God’s will?

Where are you in all of this? Are you dualistic? Are you a fatalist? Are you living your individual Christianity? “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” – do you believe that God’s will can be done in your country? In your neighborhood? In your family? Among your friends?

So what is the will of God? Hmmm....that’ll require a very long blog or maybe a book:-) I might come back to that topic later on, but for now I’ll leave you with these thought-provoking Bible quotations:

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 7, 21)

“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will” (Romans 12, 2)

“Be joyful always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1. Thessalonians 5, 16)

...and finally....

“Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is” (Ephesians 5, 17) ...and then the rest of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians is a wonderful instruction book about living according to God’s will!