Let me begin our next installment with a poignant illustration from American life and politics. This is a refresher on what the typical American worldview looks like (postmodern, materialistic relativism). The issue is abortion. It has been shown that over 80% of Americans are against abortion as a practice. You may ask, “Why then is it happening?” Great question! The follow up response goes like this, “While a majority are against it personally, and would not have an abortion themselves, nonetheless they would not impose their own conviction upon women who want an abortion.” Do you see the worldview?

• * Postmodern: Abortion is morally wrong. / Abortion is morally right.
• * Materialistic: I can do what I want with my body; so can you; no one has authority over another’s body.
• * Relativism: Abortion can be wrong for me. / Abortion can be right for you.

As Christians we of course have a problem with this worldview. Although a majority in America still claims to be Christian, most Americans no longer hold to absolute truth. In other words, there is no truth for all times and for all places. Abortion was wrong prior to Roe v. Wade,1 but after 1973 abortion was right. Truth is flexible, fluctuating, and above all negotiable.

How many Christians do you know who are ruled by their wants, are wary of imposing God’s truth on others, and are morally schizophrenic? Are you? I know I am. I am influenced by all these things, and apart from Christ’s work of changing me, I think and act more like a postmodern than a Christian.

So let’s develop a Christian worldview that we can anchor upon in the stormy seas of our day. For each question asked2 we will see what postmodern, materialistic relativism says about us and what God says about us.

1) Who am I? Postmodern, Materialistic Relativism (from now on PMR) says that we are an accident. We are a random accident of evolutionary processes. There is no rhyme or reason to our existence. We are here, not by someone’s will, but rather by chance, by blind choices of nature that naturally selected what we see today. Peter Kreeft, a philosopher, says to hold this view “one must believe that an oyster has just as much right to eat you as you have to eat it!”3 There is no inherent hierarchy of persons or things according to PMR. All is equal—seriously! Do you see why a mother could sacrifice her child? Do you see why you lie and cover up your sin? This understanding of our existence leads to the deadly conclusion that existence is meaningless. The individual—you or I—is the one who assigns value to everything. It’s all about me, baby!

Let’s use oysters again to illustrate this. When I look at an oyster I think of cornmeal batter and Louisiana Hot Sauce, deep-fried and served with spicy french fries. You on the other hand, may see oysters as special prehistoric relatives worthy of life and health and protection from harvesting. Who’s right? No one. Who will win? Whoever gets power over the other.

So in the same vein, we will kill babies by tearing them apart piece by piece in their mother’s womb because we believe there is no truth which would forbid us to do so. We lie and cover up our sin to even our closest friends and family because we do not believe that others deserve the truth! To put it positively, believing our existence to be an accident of nature gives us license to do anything and everything to preserve our happiness. So, if I confess my lies, I will be unhappy, and people will think of me as a liar. If a woman has a baby she doesn’t want, she has considered having to raise, provide, and care for that little one as an obstacle to her happiness! Again, see how the ruler and judge of what makes us happy is me and you! According to PMR, we are god! Imagine that, 6.5 billion gods, all competing for happiness to be on top! Is it any wonder that the 20th century was the bloodiest ever? Surely you see and even agree that something is wrong with how our PMR worldview answers the question Who am I?

What happened to bring about such horrific thoughts? Darwin’s curiosity, our flesh’s desire to rule ourselves, and the Devil’s added deceptions stirred the last 150 years to produce such sordid confusion, leading us to ultimately forget who we truly are—the first step in a biblical worldview!

Listen to how God answers the question everyone is asking: Who am I? God says:

• * I made you. You are the crown and glory of my creation. (Ps. 8)
• * You are made in my very image, male and female. (Gen. 1)
• * You were carefully crafted by my power in your mother’s womb. (Ps. 139)
• * You have inherent (which means God given, nonnegotiable) dignity and value because I made you and own you. No one can take that from you, and if they do they must answer to me, the living God of the universe! (Gen. 4, 9, especially God’s warning to those who kill other men, and even his grace to those who do, i.e. Cain)
• * You exist always in relationship to me; you were created by me and for me, so that it might be evident that I am supremely valuable! (Col. 1:15–18)

Chew on those statements by God again. Each one speaks to the glory and splendor that God has freely shared with men. Each directly attacks the worldview we so often live under. Abortion no longer is something personal and private; it is very public and interpersonal (meaning between God and people, and between people and people). The living God has made each and every little baby conceived on this earth4 a blessing with the right to be blessed by God’s own sovereign Word, with life, dignity, and the pursuit of him as their supreme joy! Each and every one of us live unto God, and no one can look at the other and consider him less worthy of life, health and protection.

I encourage you to stop for ten minutes today and read the above passages and see who you are according to God. Then take another step, see who your friends are, see who you enemies are, see who those that are “unfit”—the weak, foolish, sickly, ugly, retarded, handicapped . . . whatever labels we put on people—and see who they are according to God! He says that every human being is made in his image, and they are the crown and glory of his creation! Have you thought about yourself in that way? Have you thought about others in that way? How great is our God that he would allow us to share in the divine image and as we will learn, will allow us to share in the divine nature, even after we have sinned and mocked him to his face!

Who am I? God’s answer to that is the beginning of a Christian world and life view. This is what’s true. According to God we exist by his will. That is meaning, and where there is meaning, there is also purpose. I hope you will read the next installment were I tackle the question of purpose, which we are also asking daily, Why am I here? This next step is just as important as the first in building a Christian world and life view.

Nate Smith is Assistant Pastor and Director of Youth Discipleship, Riveroaks Reformed Presbyterian Church, Germantown, TN