The Battle of Worldviews

³ For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. ⁴ For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. ⁵ We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, ⁶ being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.

2 Corinthians 10:3-7

           

            One of the most difficult battles in the world is the battle of worldviews.  When someone grows up and starts constructing the framework of his/her life, a worldview will be adopted and used to govern ways of thinking and behaving.  Often, children unconsciously adopt a worldview that is available as they need it.  The closest worldview to adopt is the worldview of the closest person to the children in need.  Commonly the worldview of the parents is the one that is conveniently available for the children to pick up when they need it.  Once the worldview is used and repeated and implemented in their life, the worldview becomes theirs.  It soon takes roots in their hearts.  And once it takes roots, the children’s entire action and reaction – be it thinking or behavior – will be governed by the worldview.  As the children grow up and
mature in the use of the worldview that they have adopted since they were little, they then develop different angles and perspectives.  But the core of the worldview seldom changes.  Unless something very dramatic is at work, the worldview will remain for the rest of their lives.

            Paul understands this matter very clearly.  The battle that he is dealing with in the Corinthian church is the battle of worldview.  There are many competing worldviews in the life of the congregations.  For sure, the people there are converted from various worldviews at work in their era.  Paul admits that he is engaged in a war.  But his war is not war of flesh.  The war he is engaged in is in the mind.  This is the most difficult battle.  To change one’s mind is not an easy matter to do.  To educate the mind is easier when it is done in very young age.  The young mind is not yet firm on a certain worldview.  But by five year old, usually someone is pretty firm in a worldview already.  Although mostly the five year old is more instinctive in their worldview, but the root has grown deep enough.  It might not be as strong as a twenty year old, but it is the first foundational stage.  The battle is dealt with in many different levels.  We have touched a little bit about the level in relation to age development.  Another level is one that relates to the sociological context of the person.  In that setting, the battle is engaged in either the individual or the community.  The battle in the community is way more difficult compared to that of the individual.  But before we deal with these matters, we will discuss about the process of the battle.

            Paul talks about destroying arguments and every opinion that is set against the knowledge of God.  The next step is to take the thought captive in order to obey Christ.  And once the mind has obeyed Christ, then it is ready to punish every disobedience.  From here we may know that the first step is to recognize the worldview.  It is important to know which is which.  And the thing Paul indicates to recognize is whether the worldview is set to obey God or against God.  Clearly if the worldview is obeying God, we do not need to demolish it or anything.  Only the worldview that is against God that needs to be destroyed.  This means that we need to know God.  John Calvin speaks of the importance of the knowledge of God.  All theologians recognize this truth.  Knowledge of God is the foundation of all knowledge.  Without knowing God, all other discovery will only perpetuate worldviews that disobey God.  This knowledge of God is primary compared to other knowledge.  This knowledge of God is supreme.  No other knowledge is more important than this knowledge.  Gaining the knowledge of God is prerequisite to the first step.  Without this knowledge we will never be able to recognize which worldview is against God or not.

            The second step is to destroy the worldview that is against God.  This step is fundamental for all levels (individual, communal, young, and old).  Jack Mezirow discovers the truth about the dynamics of learning, in which disequilibrium is necessary for learning to jump to the next level.  Disequilibrium is also necessary for the change of the mind or thought category.  Without disequilibrium, the change can’t be initiated.  Destroying the worldview is necessary for the impartation of the true worldview.  If the old worldview is not destroyed and thus uprooted, the new worldview can’t be implanted.  Before farmers seed, they must till the land first.  One of the purposes of tilling the land is to uproot the old roots – old plants and also weeds.  This step is necessary if the farmers want to gain valuable crops.  If the land is not tilled, and the old plant roots and the weed roots stay, then they will compete with the plants that the farmers seed.  In that scenario, successful harvest will be hard to obtain.  In the same way, in order for the true worldview to grow in a desirable manner, the old worldviews must be uprooted/destroyed.  Destroying a worldview is not a simple matter.  Often people make inference of this to mean apologetics.  They are not wrong, but apologetics is not the only interpretation of this.  Winning arguments through apologetics is often one of the most difficult ministries to do.  Implanting new worldview through winning arguments most of the time is almost impossible to do.  However, it is a very important step to go through.  Paul too, in his ministry, encounters this difficulty.  He often has to demolish arguments that are set against God.  His letters show his fierceness in battle.  Arguments against God must not stand, and must not be let alive influencing simple minds.  So it must be demolished at all cost.  However, apologetics alone often is not enough.  The collaboration with the Holy Spirit is extremely important for this step.  People change their worldviews usually after going through some dramatic events in their lives.  Creating dramatic events is not within our power.  God alone can do that.  Their worldview can be uprooted completely only when they begin to realize that their worldview is not working in light of the problems they are facing.  In the failure of their worldview, then they will start compromising it in order to remedy their situation.  Paul mentions about the divine power as the weapon for the war.  This is precisely it.

            The third step is then to capture the thought in order to obey Christ.  After the worldview is demolished, the thought remains.  The thought can’t be left alone without any process of rebuilding.  It must be rebuilt.  It just lost its stronghold, so the thought is in need of guidance.  In Mezirow’s theory, after disequilibrium, the next step is re-equilibrium.  Re-equilibrium is necessary in order to keep the sanity of the person.  If disequilibrium remains too long, the person suffers.  The suffering is internal.  Internal suffering destroys the soul.  The thought is to be re-equilibrated.  After losing its stronghold, it is now wandering and in great trouble.  It can’t rest easy until it finds a place that it considers to be safe enough.  This step must be carefully done.  On top of that, this step must also be done swiftly before other worldviews start coming in and taking over.  The re-equilibrium process must be done in the manner of taking the thought captive to obey Christ.  The true master of one’s thought is Jesus Christ alone.  The thought is created in such a way to serve a master.  Instinctively the thought has the tendency to seek a master, attach to him, and serve him.  Even though when it thinks that it can be its own master, it actually never does.  It cannot establish its own authority.  Its nature is always to seek a master.  Thus it will continue to seek a master that it feels it can serve and thus be safe.  This is a time of vulnerability.  This is the time when it is at the utmost vulnerable.  It is needy, and thus it is so easily exploited.  Since we know the truth that the only true master is Jesus Christ, it is our duty to lead the vulnerable thought into the true place of safety, in Jesus Christ.  Naturally, the vulnerable thought follows the built in compass to seek a master, attach to him, and serve him.  But since the built in compass has been corrupted in the Fall, it can’t distinguish which is the true master and which is the fake.  It is then important for the thought to meet the true master.  But when it meets its true master, the only proper attitude is obedience.  The thought, since losing the old worldview, is restless.  A restless thought is anxious.  It can’t stay still.  It wants to run and be attached to the first master it can find.  Thus it must be captured.  Once the anxiety shows, it must be captured right away without delay.  Only then it can be led to the path of obedience to Christ.

            The re-equilibrium process will then lead to the new equilibrium that was lost when problems shattered the equilibrium state into disequilibrium.  The completion of the re-equilibrium process is seen only when the new equilibrium settles in.  This equilibrium is understood to be settling in only when the thought is completely obedient to Christ.  The only way the thought is completely obedient to Christ is when it adopts completely the way Christ thinks, feels, and behaves.  In other words, the thought must adopt the view of Christ – or what we call as the Christian worldview.  Cornelius Van Till speaks about the true knowledge as interpreting the world according to God’s interpretation.  In this world we deal with many kinds of knowledge.  But true knowledge is the one that corresponds with reality.  Many times there can be found the so called knowledge but yet it corresponds not to reality but to imagination.  Such knowledge is not true knowledge.  Thus adopting the interpretation of Christ is a must for it to gain true knowledge.  Only with true knowledge the thought can settle in.  Only in God, the soul may be at peace.  St. Augustine says that God created us for himself, our soul is restless until it finds its rest in him.  The process of settling, naturally follows its design order, that is after finding the master, it attaches to him, and serves him.  It can only serve the master through complete obedience.  Once the obedience is complete, the thought gains strength and confidence.  It has found the true stronghold in Christ, the true master.  Once it is strong, it is then ready to punish every disobedience.  This is the final phase of the victory of the battle.  The once an enemy is now converted to become family.  Once one becomes family, he/she defends the family.  Punishing every disobedience is the expression of obedience to Christ and the defending of the family of God.  Therefore, the battle is won.

            Now, it is easier to plant the worldview of Christ into a very young person – an individual.  The worldview planting becomes successively more difficult as the person grows older and as the person is surrounded by the community, if the Christian worldview is not readily available for the person as he/she grows up.  If other worldview gets in first and grows, and if the community where the person lives is filled with other worldview, then the battle of worldviews is nonnegotiable.  The older the person and the stronger the community, the harder the battle of worldviews will be, if the person is not yet adopting the worldview of Christ.  Therefore, the more radical and dramatic the problem, the better it is at disequilibrating the person.  The disequilibrium – that is the destroying of worldview that is set up against God – negative and distressing as it may sound, is necessary for the person to be led to the true master, Jesus Christ.  So, when God creates suffering in the life of someone, it should not be seen as something that is bad or even morally irresponsible.  It must be seen, on contrary, as God’s grace to battle the false worldviews.  Only through the destruction of the false worldviews then one may enter into the re-equilibrium process that leads to God.

            In the Christian education philosophy, this battle is unavoidable.  Given the fact that the entire universe has been contaminated by sin and thus false worldviews, we are always in the worldview battle all our life.  This is why we are told to keep alert.  The battle is real.  We engage in battle for ourselves, for our family, for our friends, for our community, for the kingdom of God.  Literature, movies, media, school, home, and so on and so forth, are the battlefield for the battle of worldviews.  But we must engage in it.  As Christians we then do not seek comfort in this world.  Our worship, our bible study, our discussion, our behavior, our thinking, must not neglect the attitude of a soldier that must engage in battle.  24/7 we must be alert of this battle.  The world relentlessly bombards us with false worldviews.  We can’t stay relax and let the world win the battle.  We must fight back.  The devil never stops wreaking havoc in the world.  We too must not quit standing by.  God himself works every day to keep us holy and to spread the seed of the word of God and the worldview of Christ into the minds of his people.  In the end, when the world comes to an end, God desires to find the valuable fruits from us.  We bear fruits that please him only through our total obedience.  This is the mark of the victory of the battle of worldviews.  Praise God for his grace.  Amen.
-The Business of Christian Education LXXXII-