{jcomments on}I have written recently a couple of articles on the subject of worldviews. An understanding of worldviews certainly reveals that there is a clear connection between what one believes about reality and the way one lives.
When something provokes a change in what one believes, there follows in tow a change in lifestyle.
Recently, I have been preparing some messages for my congregation with regard to the biblical doctrine of sin and the introduction of depravity upon humanity. During my preparatory studies I could not help but notice how one's view of reality orders their understanding of life and how it is lived.
When Satan approached Eve, he offered her an alternative view of reality. She previously had entertained only one view of things—God's view. Satan however offered a different way of looking at life. He offered a different version of God and of what happens when one abandons God's will. His offer was made in an alluring context of self-interest. It was not offered in a detached philosophical way. Instead, it was a twisted version of reality intending to lure her into a different lifestyle.
It was subtly twisted to suggest that God was overly restrictive in His demands. As a further intrigue it was a blatant denial of the divinely stated consequence of disobedience. It was a falsified promise that the “good life” was outside the will of God and not within it.
From this incident a predictable pattern of sin was laid. Eve saw what was forbidden, desired it, took it and gave it (Gen. 3:6). The consequences that followed were–and have continued to be–disastrous (Gen. 3-4; Rom. 5:12ff).
Observation reveals seven consequences which emerged, and each affects human existence and has affected the human story as it developed over time until the present.
They are:
1. Physiological: decay, sickness, suffering, and ultimately death (Gen. 3:17-19; Rom. 5:12)
2. Psychological: shame, guilt, fear (Gen. 3:7)
3. Sociological: blame shifting, hiding, alienation (Gen. 3:8,12-13)
4. Ecological: ground cursed, thorns and thistles thrive (Gen. 3:17-19)
5. Spiritual: hiding from God, enmity between seed of woman and Serpent (Gen. 3:8; 14:4:1-15; I John 3:12)
6. Epistemological (The quest for knowledge): distorted thinking, spiritual blindness (II Cor. 4:3-4; Rom. 1:28)
7. Criminality: Murder (Gen. 4)
Corresponding reality in the examination of lifestyles in any corner of the world and at any point in human history will reveal the same tragic expression of sinfulness which resulted when Eve sought to view life from life from a different perspective. Rebellion, anger, envy, hatred, bitterness, lying, and murder are all the common consequences.
That's the way we view things.
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Summit View Baptist Church is located at 31 N. Highway 25 Bypass, just south of Furman University’s golf course.