EVERYTHING DEPENDS ON YOUR WORLDVIEW

Worldview - a set of beliefs about the most important questions in life

About 14 years ago, I came across an excellent talk from Rick Warren, the author of “A Purpose Driven Life” –  a great read and here is a link to a summary if you don’t have time to read the book - https://www.shortform.com/pdf/the-purpose-driven-life-pdf-rick-warren  - In his talk about living a life of purpose

Warren talked about the importance of worldview which he defined as “everyone is betting their life on something.” Because Rick’s worldview is “ I believe that Jesus is who He says he was….and success is not about you”, this shaped his response to the success of his book which now has probably sold more than 100 million copies and has been translated into almost 100 languages. This talk was the first time I had heard the idea about a worldview and it had a big impact on me. Rick Warren’s talk focuses on purpose and in the video he uses the story of Moses to ask an important question: what are you doing with what you have been given? The YouTube video included here is only 20 minutes and is worthwhile watching. There are many important points made in the presentation but a key point for me was the concept of everyone having a worldview and this being critical to how we see the world and events around us. A few further definitions of worldview are those of Richard Lombard: “a way of looking at and explaining life and the world” -  and Ronald Nash: a “set of beliefs about the most important questions in life”.  The Sons of Issachar had a worldview with God at the centre as they sought to understand “what Israel should do” (1 Chronicles 12:32). This is a worldview that has become rare in our times as Western society has rejected God and sought to place man at the centre of the universe. A Christian worldview, which has Jesus at the centre and a historical perspective where He will return to rule and reign a renewed earth, is a view held by a very small minority. However such a worldview will impact how we see current and future events.

In a book from Masters University, “Think Biblically: Recovering A Christian Worldview”, John MacArthur writes that the following questions can be addressed by a Christian worldview: 1. How did the world and all that is in it come into being? 2. What is reality in terms of knowledge and truth? 3. How does/should the world function? 4. What is the nature of a human being? 5. What is one’s personal purpose of existence? 6. How should one live? 7. Is there any personal hope for the future? 8. What happens to a person at and after death? 9. Why is it possible to know anything at all? 10. How does one know what is right and what is wrong? 11. What is the meaning of human history? 12. What does the future hold?

These are all important questions and probably take a lifetime to answer. They all lie behind what we have adopted as our worldview – how we see the world and make sense of events. An important recent example of the impact of worldview is the Roe v Wade US Supreme Court judgment where your worldview determines whether you see the foetus as a blob of cells or a sacred human life. The commitment by many to the destruction of life, is a symptom of a worldview that believes that there is no meaning to life and we can do whatever seems good to us. It reminds me of a period in ancient Israel before there was a king when the Bible tells us that “every man did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25). In our current time, God’s law has become replaced with ideas of “social justice” where criminals are not prosecuted but rather protected because they are part of a minority that has been oppressed. Not surprisingly, crime has skyrocketed in US cities where this philosophy has taken root under the direction of so-called “progressive” district attorneys.

While many of us can’t articulate our worldview, we all have one and as Rick Warren says “we’re all betting our lives on something”. It seems good to know what we’re betting our lives on. I’m betting my life on the fact that the God of the Bible is who He says He is: He created everything, prescribed a way of living for our own good, sent a Saviour because we couldn’t save ourselves and will put everything right with the return of Jesus. This worldview includes an understanding that there is right and wrong, good and evil and that the family is at the centre of God’s purposes.

The idea of worldview came to the fore in a recent visit to our farm where some friends brought 2 people we didn’t know for afternoon tea. The 2 visitors were from Victoria, where there had been a draconian approach to COVID-19 in 2021 and huge numbers of arrests and fines for lockdown breaches resulting in many small businesses going bankrupt. The Victorian Premier, Dan Andrews, oversaw a dictatorial military-style state approach and Melbourne, the capital city, was locked down for almost 1 year. I made a negative comment about Dan Andrews and these lovely and well-educated people said: “we love Dan”. In fact there had been a media campaign, likely orchestrated by the Victorian government with the hashtag “I stand with Dan”.  However, Andrews was responsible for denial of freedom, destruction of small businesses and government overreach. Even a pregnant mother was arrested one morning in her pyjamas because she was organizing a protest. The view of the visiting Victorians was that: “Dan Andrews is looking after us and we have to do whatever he and his government need us to do”. I was astounded and asked a follow-up question: do you believe in the basic goodness of man? The couple answered – yes – don’t you? I said – no – that I believed that although we were made in the image of God, we are by nature evil and inclined to sin. They seemed astonished to hear this and I realized that no amount of discussion could bridge the gap. We had totally different worldviews – mine was that in everyone there is an inherent tendency for sin and corruption and theirs was that we are all basically good and so we can trust those who say that they have our welfare at heart.

It is clear that most people in the West have a worldview that: “the government in their planning, has our best interests in mind” and this informs people’s responses to government mandates for vaccines, lockdowns, facemasks, social distancing and government power. The majority of people seem prepared to hand over their rights and responsibilities to government in return for protection. Of course, the concept of protection can be manipulated by government to gain further power and control.

The US Founding Fathers were under no illusion about the “good of man” and developed a constitution and bill of rights that protected the rights of the individual. This including the Second Amendment which says: “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed”. They recognized that one area where the citizens needed protection was from government itself and that the “right to keep and bear arms” ultimately would allow the overthrow of a wicked and dictatorial government. The US founders also understood the potential corruption of power and so three equal but different branches of government were implemented: the legislative (Congress), the executive (President, Vice-President and Cabinet) and the Judicial (courts including the Supreme Court).

Joe Biden’s minders have sought to overthrow this constitutional order by a flurry of executive orders. In the last 17 months Biden has signed  91 executive orders, 86 presidential memoranda, 281 proclamations, and 54 notices. This is nothing less than lawlessness and an attempt at an end-run around the constitutional order.

In a world where information increasingly is censored to fit an agreed “trusted news” requirement - we need to be alert to an agenda of increased government control that ultimately seeks (knowingly or unknowingly) to implement a global government controlled by Satan himself.  How do we prevent ourselves being deceived by the “new world order” -  and a worldview that seeks the elimination of God and the deification of man?

Here is my 5 step plan for evaluation of any contemporary issue or proposal within a context of a Biblical worldview.

1. Does it uphold God’s standard of law and morality in the Bible? An important verse is from St Paul’s letter to the Romans where he says “do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind”. The world and all its key entities – education, media, entertainment, politics, religion, institutions, business – seek to conform us to a current worldview which is against God and His law. At its heart is the promotion of worship of the created order (eg “mother earth” and the environment) rather than the creator (God Himself). Ultimately this results in a death cult where mankind is the enemy, a concept widely promoted since the Club of Rome’s influential publication: “The Limits to Growth”

No matter what the idea is, if it against God’s law and morality, then we need to resist.

2. As you examine any current issue, ask the question: does this seek to give more responsibility and initiative to the individual or place initiative and more power with the government? The rise of Big Tech, Big Pharma, Big Media and Big Government all seek to take responsibility away from the individual. The COVID-19 “crisis” has enabled governments to take responsibility away from individuals in the name of “public health”. From first principles you know that this is wrong and must be resisted. The Bible tells us in St Paul’s letter to the Galatians 6:7 - “Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that will he also reap.” We need to encourage individual responsibility and the law of sowing and reaping is a natural law that enables us to make good decisions because we suffer when we make bad decisions. Governments, society and sometimes family aim to shield us from responsibility and so chaos, crime and increased disorder are the results.

3. Ask if the proposal leads to freedom or more dependence on the government? Jim DeMint of the Heritage Foundation wrote an excellent article on government dependency and quoted F.A. von Hayek, the noted Austrian economist and author of “The Road to Serfdom”. von Hayek wrote, "A society that does not recognize that each individual has values of his own which he is entitled to follow can have no respect for the dignity of the individual and cannot really know freedom." Freedom of choice is critical and we need to be alert to government mandates that remove individual choice. Special vigilance is required in the areas of education, health care, welfare, finance and religion. In all these areas, governments seek to control us. Then there is the additional problem of incompetence and mismanagement of taxpayer funds that are not the responsibility of the government employees. The Australian National Disability Insurance Scheme is a great example where voters supported the government to provide for people with disabilities. My assessment at the time  the scheme was proposed 6 years ago was that this would be a financial disaster. So it has proved with widespread rorting and management incompetence. Recent analysis has indicated a cost blowout to $64 billion per year by 2030 - or $2,560 for every man, woman and child in Australia.

4. Ask what the impact is on the value of human life and the family? The Bible reveals the family as the central unit of God’s plan for humanity and so Satan’s plan is to destroy the family. He has many and nefarious ways of achieving this outcome and often this is in the name of “social justice”. Recent examples include: simplified divorce, gay and transgender rights, “pride month”, “toxic masculinity”, promotion of in vitro fertilization, denial of differences between the sexes, abortion rights and euthanasia. All of these issues target the family and the end result is that in the US, 80% of single parent families are headed by mothers and one-third of these live in poverty. Financial challenges for most families have resulted in most children going into day-care before they are one year old which is part of the plan for state control of the minds of our children. The key question in every major issue is: does this promote the traditional family and support cohesion? If not, the proposal should immediately be rejected. Life is sacred in God’s view and we need to protect and care for the vulnerable, the elderly, the unborn, the poor and the disabled in additional to supporting the traditional roles of mothers and fathers.

5. Does the proposal require a digital identity? Promotion of digital identity is the most sinister and cunning mechanism of government control and overreach and we need to resist this wherever we can. Most of us have given up any digital privacy in signing up to facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter and other Big Tech companies. Furthermore, governments are attempting to replace traditional forms of identification with digital ID and the Gates Foundation has heavily funded and promoted ID2020. The COVID-19 scare campaign enabled the implementation by Western governments of a “digital” or “green” passport to monitor and restrict our movements. The next step is central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), which are the greatest threat to our freedom because of the potential they offer for government control.

These are a few of my thoughts in relation to worldview and its importance. It is critical to think about your worldview and its significance. I found the following article helpful - and there is a cute YouTube video you will enjoy watching.

with a link to a quiz

When particular issues arise, make an evaluation against your worldview and run the 5-step evaluation above.

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WORLD ROUNDUP

A Summary of Some Significant World Events in the Last Week

USA

The media has been awash this week with stories about the overturning of the 1973 Roe v Wade judgement by the US Supreme Court. This change is extremely significant because the original decision has stood for almost 50 years. The decision this week to overturn the 1973 opinion, has the “progressive left” declaring that the sky is falling in and a basic right of women has been removed. One wonders how a situation could have arisen in 1973 where the US Supreme Court decided, in effect, to promote a woman’s right to abortion, when the Constitution was silent on the matter. In the recent overturn of Roe v Wade, Justice Samuel Alito writing for the majority said “Roe was egregiously wrong from the start. Its reasoning was exceptionally weak, and the decision has had damaging consequences. And far from bringing about a national settlement of the abortion issue, Roe and Casey have enflamed debate and deepened division. It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives". The Supreme Court decision returns the responsibility to each of the US States, as was always the concept by the Founding Fathers with contentious issues like this. The result will be different approaches to abortion in states like California and New York to Alabama and Kentucky. It is then up to voters to make decisions through their elected representatives. The Democrat Party has become particularly radical in recent years and has moved away from the Clinton mantra of abortion being “safe, legal and rare”, to being available for any reason, up to and even after birth.

While I applaud the Supreme Court and the impact of the 3 Trump-appointed Supreme Court justices, the seeds of destruction of the US already have been sown. The Supreme Court was never intended to be a group that made policy but rather adjudicated about the constitutional validity of various decisions made by other bodies. Over the last 40 years the idea of neutral Supreme Court appointees, guided only by the constitution, has been completely discarded. The Democrats have appointed left-wing crusading progressives who have no regard for the US Constitution but only the liberal cause of the day. The Republicans, in contrast, favour originalist appointees who regard their role being to uphold the US Constitution as written. The gulf between these two groups has widened and now has become political in the extreme with Democrats openly proposing “stacking” the Court. Joe Biden’s minders have given him a statement to read in Madrid where he has condemned “the outrageous behaviour of the Supreme Court”, behaviour that simply upholds the US Constitution. The Democrats will not rest until they have neutralized the Supreme Court which they now see as an obstacle to the implementation of their “progressive” views. The control of the Supreme Court has become even more inflamed with the judgement this week limiting the power of the US Environment Protection Agency.

So the Supreme Court has become a political football to be kicked down the field by whichever party has control of the White House and Senate. Threats have been made against conservative justices, the draft Roe v Wade opinion was leaked by a court insider, senior Democrats have condemned rulings upholding the constitution and there will be further attacks on this body which is one of the foundational US institutions. When the US President himself denounces the Supreme Court rulings as “outrageous”, it encourages further protest and even violence. There is a train wreck coming in the days and months ahead as Democrats increasingly foster lawlessness and chaos. I pray that all Americans who love the country and the rule of law will stand against the Marxist agitators who want to see the destruction of the country and the constitution.

United Kingdom & Europe

Boris Johnson is pursuing an agenda of self-interest and declared that he is interested in governing until at least 2030, which seems to have frightened even his supporters! Meanwhile, the knives are being sharpened within the Conservative Party and it is doubtful that he can last more than a few months as Prime Minister. In an attempt at distraction, he is swanning around Europe  attending the G7 and NATO meetings, while being “besties” with President Zelensky of Ukraine.

I was amused to see that Australia has been dragged into the machinations against the British PM with the UK Telegraph reporting that Boris is facing a “kangaroo court”. It turned out that neither Australians nor kangaroos were involved but there is concern about the impartiality of the UK House of Commons Privileges Committee investigation. The Committee will investigate whether Boris misled parliament in relation to whether parties were held during lockdown at No 10 Downing St. The PM’s office is said to be concerned about a plot against Boris, with the inquiry allowing evidence from anonymous witnesses and the Labour Chair already having condemned the PM. If the Committee finds that Boris “misled the House” he would have to resign. There is also the bizarre possibility that the Opposition Leader and Deputy-Leader also may have to resign if found guilty of having breached lockdown rules in the curious “currygate” affair.  The two Labour leaders were filmed in Durham eating curry and drinking beer which may have broken lockdown rules. Negative findings in both enquiries would result in a cleanout of Conservative and Labour Party leadership.

Meanwhile, strike action continues in various sectors of the UK workforce and I thought that a recent UK Telegraph headline summed things up well: “Britain is fed up, bitter and practically broke – and it’s all going to get worse”. Allister Heath writes about the record number of people above 90 years of age and the serious decline in the number of babies and says young people are on a “baby strike”. His summary of the situation for young people in the UK is relevant to all Western societies: “Wages are depressed, higher education too expensive, housing obviously disastrous and it feels to many as if the old are too powerful, that their privileges, pensions, free bus passes and the rest – are being extracted from young workers. It is no wonder that they are depressed, turning to the far-Left, embracing a demented woke ideology that pits groups and genders against one another, and even the kind of extreme green death-cultery which advocates zero children.”

Russia and Ukraine

Russia continues to gain ground in Ukraine and now controls substantial areas of the country. I have been watching some videos in relation to Ukraine published by Defense Politics Asia. The site was recommended by UK Column. The analysis seems good and I have included a link to one of the recent posts (23 min) which focuses on the increase in Russian oil production and reduction in European gas supplies.

At the G7 meeting in the Bavarian Alps, leaders of the G7 nations committed to maintaining sanctions against Russia and continuing financial and military support for Ukraine with a promise of US$29.5 billion further support .

It’s hard to know where this ends but most Western voters will tire of their taxes being sent in perpetuity to Ukraine and there is certain to be a backlash by voters in G7 nations.

There was a good article in the Australian Spectator earlier this week by Ted Dwyer titled: “How We Bet the House on Ukraine…and lost”. In the article, Dwyer quotes an American general who estimated that 200,000 Ukrainian soldiers may have died or been injured. He notes that despite the sanctions, the Russian economy is strong and of course oil and gas prices have surged. In the article Dwyer wonders why Australia has taken a position against Russia when our support will have no impact and we are putting $515 billion of exports at risk.

NATO is “all in” against Russia and it now seems likely that Sweden and Finland will join NATO, after Turkey dropped its opposition. Both these nations had been neutral in the past but if approved there will now be a new 1300 km border for NATO with Russia. It does seem that the West is trying to further provoke Russia and with China continuing its support for Russia, a new international divide and further conflict seems likely.

China vs The West

President Xi has visited Hong Kong this week to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the handover of Hong Kong by the United Kingdom. As lockdowns continue in China, a number of Western countries reliant on Chinese manufacturing will be impacted. It is estimated that the cost to Apple could be up to US$8 billion.

It is interesting that the G7 has targeted China with criticism related to unfair trade policies and human rights abuses, areas that they have avoided until now. It seems that too late, the West has recognized that China has the upper hand in many areas and the G7 has pledged US$600 billion in support for less privileged countries to counter China’s Belt and Road Initiative.  All this seems a bit too little and a bit too late. China has outsmarted the West and holds all the cards.

Israel

Yair Lapid has become Prime Minister of Israel heading a caretaker government with elections to be held on 1st November – the fourth election in five years. In the background is the former Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu’s trial for bribery, fraud and breach of trust. The trial has been long running and seems likely to continue until the election. Netanyahu’s support appears to have increased and he says the charges are “a witch-hunt by the left, supported by the judiciary, law enforcement agencies and the media”. If Netanyahu’s party Likud  is returned to power, there will be a shift to the political right and a more aggressive approach to Iran. It is likely that Iran will seek an agreement in relation to its nuclear ambitions prior to the November Israeli elections. In the meantime, there has been a cyberattack against Iranian steel facilities this week . Continued cyberattacks and assassinations can be anticipated over the coming months.

Summary

Many difficulties beset the West and not the least are the financial ones, with share prices collapsing and interest rates rising. The Ukraine conflict seems intended to create further chaos and energy and financial instability. The rush towards the disastrous embrace of green energy will result in lights going out in the West and contrived food shortages will provide the context for further government regulation. We also can anticipate another engineered pandemic, although monkeypox seems now to be a less likely viral vector. In the Problem-Reaction-Solution framework  - that I wrote about in last week’s Newsletter, we can bet that the solutions to be promoted are lockdowns and further government regulation together with control of energy and the economy. In the last 24 hours there also has been a push by the new Australian Health Minister to promote a new COVID-19 Omicron scare with a fresh drive for additional vaccination. We all need to be on our guard.