The Western world is in debt up to its ears. Western nations are steep, steep into borrowing, and they evidence no intention either of acknowledging their debt or moving to pay it off.

But I’m not talking about monetary debt – although the West is up to its ears in that as well. I’m talking about an indebtedness of ideas, culture, ethics, and fundamental life assumptions. The Western world, and in particular the United States, has borrowed to the hilt from an alien worldview in order to prop up its secular convictions and materialistic bad habits. That plundered worldview supports neither; however, its most basic premises lend themselves to abuse by all sorts of thieves and robbers.

The foundations for Western society were laid by the Biblical and Christian worldview hammered out from Augustine to Aquinas and Calvin and implemented through faith communities all over the Western world. Fundamental to that worldview are ideas such as the dignity and value of human life, the orderliness of the cosmos, the value of scientific endeavor, the necessity of law, the appreciation of beauty, and the importance of education, industry, humaneness, and culture.

None of these ideas – none – is inherent in the secular, evolutionary view of the world. Yet they’re all there, operating to prop up a false worldview that cannot stand up to scrutiny based on its own fundamental premises. Unbelieving secularists are only able to pursue their anti-theistic agenda because they use the foundational truths of the Christian faith without acknowledging the provenance of these convictions.

Meanwhile, Christian pastors and teachers have allowed this situation to go on uncontested for many years. As Mark Noll has observed, “The issue specifically is whether there is any good reason, apart from an active deity, to take for granted the regularity, communicability, universality, durability, and repeatability that are so basic to so many intellectual endeavors. But even that significant contextual assertion has been advanced only rarely by Christian thinkers in the modern marketplace of ideas.”

Resources for this topic

Kerby Anderson, “American Government and Christianity”
Sue Bohlin, “Christianity: The Best Thing That Ever Happened to Women”
Derek H. Davis, “Jesus vs. the Watchmaker”
Charles Colson, “A Christian Consensus on Culture Matters”
T. M. Moore, “Ideas Have Consequences”
T. M. Moore, “Perspectives: Explaining Beauty”
T. M. Moore, “The Sense of Beauty”

Next steps

1. How do your unbelieving friends and co-workers feel about the basic assumptions behind Christmas – peace on earth, joy to the world, good will and charity, and so forth? How do they account for their views of such matters? Can they explain such things from the “tooth-and-claw” perspective of evolution? And if not, why do they continue to believe in these ideals? Try asking a few of your friends these questions, and see where the conversation goes.
2. Choose one or two of the resources above and make copies for several Christian friends. Ask them to read the articles and to get together with you to discuss them. Consider ways that you might encourage one another to become more consistent during the New Year in speaking out on behalf of a Christian worldview.
3. Email today’s Talking Points column to several Christian friends. Challenge them to read some of the resources, watch the Two-Minute Warning, and take on one of the activities.

A conversation starter
You should be able to use this conversation starter just about anywhere: “Why do evolutions preach ‘chance” and ‘chaos’ and ‘relativity’ yet act like the universe is orderly and knowable, and treat one another as though they had a keen sense of right and wrong?”

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