Biblical Worldview Held by very Few (61 views) Subscribe   
  From:  David (DavidABrown)    Dec-5 3:23 pm  
To:  ALL   (1 of 17)  
 
  755.1  
 
Biblical Worldview Held 
By 4 Percent Of Adults 
( BP) -- Everyone has a worldview, but few have one that is biblical. That's the conclusion of a national survey by Barna Research, which found that just 4 percent of American adults have a biblical worldview. Additionally, only 9 percent of those categorized as born-again Christians have a biblical worldview, Barna said. 

The poll of 2,033 adults was conducted September through November. 

"Worldview" is a term used to describe the belief system by which a person understands or makes decisions about the world. 

One of the most prominent modern-day worldviews is postmodernism -- a belief system that rejects the notion of absolute truth. This is often expressed in the statement, "That may be true for you but it's not true for me." 

Not surprisingly, the Barna research found that adults without a biblical worldview and those with such a worldview had vastly different views of immoral and unethical behavior. For instance, those without a biblical worldview were: 

-- Around 100 times more likely to endorse abortion (46 percent of those without a biblical worldview believed it to be OK, compared to less than 1 percent of those with a biblical worldview). 

-- Around 80 times more likely to say exposure to pornography is morally acceptable (39 percent vs. less than one-half of 1 percent). 

-- 31 times more likely to believe living together before marriage is morally acceptable (62 percent vs. 2 percent). 

-- 15 times more likely to believe homosexual sex is acceptable (31 percent vs. 2 percent versus). 

-- 18 times more likely to endorse drunkenness (36 percent vs. 2 percent). 

-- 12 times more likely to accept profanity (37 percent vs. 3 percent). 

-- 11 times more likely to say adultery is OK (44 percent vs. 4 percent). 

-- 8 times more likely to gamble by purchasing lottery tickets. 

"The primary reason that people do not act like Jesus is because they do not think like Jesus," Barna said in a news release. "Behavior stems from what we think -- our attitudes, beliefs, values and opinions." 

Barna's definition of a biblical worldview included a belief that absolutes exist and a belief that the Bible defines them. Additionally, the definition stipulated a belief that: Christ lived a sinless life; God is the "all-powerful and all-knowing Creator of the universe and He stills rules it today"; salvation is by grace and not by works; Satan is a real being; Christians have a responsibility to witness; and the Bible is "accurate in all of its teachings." 

The research found that those who attended college were more likely to have a biblical worldview than those who did not (6 percent versus 2 percent). Married adults also were more likely to have such a worldview (5 percent for married people versus 2 percent for singles). Also, 10 percent of Republicans but only 2 percent of independents and 1 percent of Democrats had a biblical worldview. 

Respondents were not asked if they considered themselves to be born again, but instead were asked a series of specific questions. Born-again believers were defined as those who "said they have made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that is still important in their life today and who also indicated they believe that when they die they will go to heaven because they had confessed their sins and had accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior," according to a news release. 

 2003 Baptist Press 
 2003 Maranatha Christian News Service 

(Post date: December 5, 2003) 




David A. Brown
Basic Christian: Forum
www.BasicChristian.org

 
  
   Options  Reply Delete Edit   
Rate 
  
    
 


  From:  Strings17   Dec-30 3:39 pm  
To:  David (DavidABrown)    (2 of 17)  
 
  755.2 in reply to 755.1  
 
I dont want to nit pick but why is purchasing a lottery ticket worthy to be listed among all of those other real sins,if lottery tickets are a sin then so is playing the stock market and buying insurance or putting anything into anything hoping to get more out than what you put in.I dont play the lottery or the stock market,i am forced by law to carry insurance. 
  
   Options  Reply Delete Edit   
Rate 
  
    
 


  From:  David (DavidABrown)    Dec-30 7:57 pm  
To:  Strings17   (3 of 17)  
 
  755.3 in reply to 755.2  
 
Hi,

 

Great comments.

 

I think the sin in playing the Lottery and all gambling is that it is enabling an industry of degradation. Along with Gambling are all the crimes, drugs and prostitution. All of which is selling of the human soul.

 

Investing in the stock market is investing in a business and in jobs. Gambling is trying to get unearned money from others.

 

An interesting side is the many surveys that show that practically everyone who wins the Lottery ends up more miserable after they won than before they won. All gain weigh all lose friends and almost all are broke and bankrupt after they receive their last payment. The fruit of greed and selfishness of the Lottery and gambling in general is pretty bad.

 

But we are such a depraved society now that we can no longer identify goodness nor distinguish good from evil so of course gambling, pornography, drugs, lying, cheating etc. are just another day of American life and society.

 

I think this can be defeated one person at a time, one Christian at a time as Christians deny this world and live for God.

 

God Bless you,
David



David A. Brown
Basic Christian: Forum
www.BasicChristian.org

 
  
   Options  Reply Delete Edit   
Rate 
  
    
 


  From:  LenBenHEAR/LIFE_or_death:SEE: John 3:36 (franknsense)    Dec-31 1:19 am  
To:  David (DavidABrown)    (4 of 17)  
 
  755.4 in reply to 755.1  
 
"...and when the Son of Man returns, will He find 
faith upon the earth..." ? 

~ the great Apostasy is in full throttle. ~ 

============================================== 


~ CHOICES. ~


 
-----------------------------
* He is looking for REALITY: not pretense! * 


Daniel 12:10: Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried;

but the wicked shall do wickedly:

and none of the wicked shall understand; 

--> but the wise SHALL understand. <-- 


~ The wise receive; the wicked and proud go away empty, receiving nothing. ~ 
---> Isaiah 54:15-17 * Psalm 35:1-8,22,23 * <---

*LenBenHear/FranknSense/SEE: Romans 8:14 + John 3:8 and

~~~ I Cor.1:15-16; 4:3-5 ~~~

VINCIT OMNIA VERITAS: * There is a time for mercy...and a time for Judgement. * - (which one you get depends upon your honesty and humility before GOD)


sanctification. - who've got to have it: inwardly AND outwardly. fruit and motives are everything. 


 
  
   Options  Reply Delete Edit   
Rate 
  
    
 


  From:  David (DavidABrown)    Dec-31 7:30 am  
To:  LenBenHEAR/LIFE_or_death:SEE: John 3:36 (franknsense)   (5 of 17)  
 
  755.5 in reply to 755.4  
 
Exactly the verse I have been considering in this context!

Luke 18:7-8  And shall not God avenge His own elect, which cry day and night unto Him, though He bear long with them?  I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?


God Bless you,
David



David A. Brown
Basic Christian: Forum
www.BasicChristian.org

 
  
   Options  Reply Delete Edit   
Rate 
  
    
 


  From:  Strings17   Dec-31 5:00 pm  
To:  David (DavidABrown)    (6 of 17)  
 
  755.6 in reply to 755.3  
 
Well if poverty were not such a miserable existence and working so pointless maybe fewer people would play the lottery.The idea of working your whole life away and having maybe enough money for a nice funeral and the rest for somebody else to enjoy or waste after you are gone is not very appealing to most.The ones who win the lottery and loose it all are fools who would have been fools rich or poor.The chance to do something else in life except punch a clock and be stepped on does appeal to alot of people and that is why they play the lottery,for some its the only hope they will ever have of being anything in this life but a dirt groveling slave,did God make the world and everything in it just for the unsaved to enjoy,are the cattle on a thousand hills all supposed to be owned by them as well. 
  
   Options  Reply Delete Edit   
Rate 
  
    
 


  From:  David (DavidABrown)    Dec-31 5:24 pm  
To:  Strings17   (7 of 17)  
 
  755.7 in reply to 755.6  
 
Hi,

 

The message of the Bible is that God has made things more precious than money can every buy.

 

For example Love, commitment, integrity, the soul, the spirit, life, opportunity, giving, challenge, accomplishment, companionship, fellowship, understanding, learning, scenery, laughter, etc.

 

The option and opportunity of Christianity is to break away from the slave system of Satan and this word and to engage in Eternity and in a Real Life with God and His things that really matter and make life and existence worth living: Heaven  Paradise that is.

 

God Bless you,
David



David A. Brown
Basic Christian: Forum
www.BasicChristian.org

 
  
   Options  Reply Delete Edit   
Rate 
  
    
 


  From:  Strings17   Dec-31 6:06 pm  
To:  David (DavidABrown)    (8 of 17)  
 
  755.8 in reply to 755.7  
 
So its not possible to have any of those things and some money in the bank to.The material world belongs entirely to satan? I do not take the traditional sour grapes attitude towards money and things,beleiveing that they are just evil anyway and that i am oh so much more holy broke and busted than i am prosperous.I beleive there are two tyes of test we can take in this life,prosperity and trial,if we have much and think only of that and have all of our faith in it then we have failed,if on the other hand we are helpful to others and enjoy the freedom from drudgery that money provides we pass.The same is true for poverty and trials,if we grow bitter and resentful about our condition and are not able to find anything to be thankful for we have failed.I must ask again did God make the world specificly for the unsaved to enjoy and us to suffer in,or did he make the world so that all who beleive and are thankful could enjoy the fullness of creation. 
  
   Options  Reply Delete Edit   
Rate 
  
    
 


  From:  David (DavidABrown)    Jan-1 5:09 am  
To:  Strings17   (9 of 17)  
 
  755.9 in reply to 755.8  
 
Hi,

 

God made People for His fellowship and the world He made for His purposes so you will have to ask God what part He has in it for you.

 

God Bless you,
David



David A. Brown
Basic Christian: Forum
www.BasicChristian.org

 
  
   Options  Reply Delete Edit   
Rate 
  
    
 


  From:  Strings17   Jan-1 5:41 am  
To:  David (DavidABrown)    (10 of 17)  
 
  755.10 in reply to 755.9  
 
Well David maybe one day i will learn to appreciate the joy of drudgery and pointless toil along with watching my life being devoured by irritating people, stupid,idiotic and useless schedules and appointments with little or no time left over for anything that feeds the heart or soul,do this, do that, go here, go there, building other people's castles and dreams and accomplish absolutely nothing.The book of Ecclesiastes is my favorite book of the bible for it describes thsi life perfectly,it is part of the word of God and is absolutely true. 
  
   Options  Reply Delete Edit   
Rate 
  
    
 


  From:  David (DavidABrown)    Jan-1 12:53 pm  
To:  Strings17   (11 of 17)  
 
  755.11 in reply to 755.10  
 
Hi,

 

Yes it is the word of God given from the point of view of a Human with a worldly focus and therefore it is about the despair, disappointment and unfulfillment that this world has to offer for us.

 

God Bless you,
David



David A. Brown
Basic Christian: Forum
www.BasicChristian.org

 
  
   Options  Reply Delete Edit   
Rate 
  
    
 


  From:  LenBenHEAR/LIFE_or_death:SEE: John 3:36 (franknsense)    Jan-3 2:43 am  
To:  David (DavidABrown)    (12 of 17)  
 
  755.12 in reply to 755.5  
 
Once BIBLICAL standards and BIBLICAL authority is pretty 
much tossed out the window, 
it is a long, slippery slide into apostasy and deeper 
and deeper deception. 

"...so that (if it were possible) EVEN THE VERY ELECT 
WOULD BE DECEIVED, ... but FOR THE ELECT'S SAKE, 
those days will be shortened..." ! THANK GOD! He is 
my Keeper. ! 

Maranatha. 

Len 


~ CHOICES. ~


 
-----------------------------
* He is looking for REALITY: not pretense! * 


Daniel 12:10: Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried;

but the wicked shall do wickedly:

and none of the wicked shall understand; 

--> but the wise SHALL understand. <-- 


~ The wise receive; the wicked and proud go away empty, receiving nothing. ~ 
*LenBenHear/FranknSense/SEE: Romans 8:14 + John 3:8 and

~~~ I Cor.1:15-16; 4:3-5 ~~~

VINCIT OMNIA VERITAS: * There is a time for mercy...and a time for Judgement. * - (which one you get depends upon your honesty and humility before GOD)


sanctification. - who've got to have it: inwardly AND outwardly. fruit and motives are everything. 


 
  
   Options  Reply Delete Edit   
Rate 
  
    
 


  From:  David (DavidABrown)    Jan-3 12:19 pm  
To:  LenBenHEAR/LIFE_or_death:SEE: John 3:36 (franknsense)   (13 of 17)  
 
  755.13 in reply to 755.12  
 
Hi Len Ben,

 Agreed there is absolutely no good that is going to come from turning away from God and indeed only destruction.

God Bless you always,
David




David A. Brown
Basic Christian: Forum
www.BasicChristian.org

 
  
   Options  Reply Delete Edit   
Rate 
  
    
 


  From:  TOMMY9691   Jan-25 12:33 pm  
To:  Strings17   (14 of 17)  
 
  755.14 in reply to 755.10  
 
I think I fall in a little more with your way of thinking. I too think there is a place in our lives for material blessings, and would not (like some) be so dismissive as to just cast it off as being between me and God. That's not a proper answer, nor attitude. I understand what the Bible is saying just as well as anybody, but do not dismiss wealth as destructive unless that person has a destructive attitude towards it. 

King Solomon was blessed, true, but in the OT this was common. Today, we see more of a spiritual blessing than material - yet - we are not necessarily blessed in our poverty, IMHO, as some try to convince us, just as a way to soothe each other in our misery. 

Uh uh, I don't buy it, and I doubt you do either. 

Blessings, 

Tommy 

 
  
   Options  Reply Delete Edit   
Rate 
  
    
 


  From:  Locksheer   Feb-2 8:45 pm  
To:  TOMMY9691   (15 of 17)  
 
  755.15 in reply to 755.14  
 
I like Ecclesiastes myself and I think it offers a useful point to this debate. The world with all its material blessing will never give us complete happiness. Solomon with all his wealth, wisdom, and his love of God was still unhappy. So what hope can we have if he was unhappy? Our hope lies in God and in ourselves. Try and see the world as we once did with all it's hopes and possibilities. Above all count your blessing material and spiritual and envision your life without them. Then thank God you have what you do. It works for some and not others. But the best advice I could give is if you don't like your station in life either learn to like it or find another. 
Now to step down from my soapbox and wait for the bashing. 

Later. 

 
  
   Options  Reply Delete Edit   
Rate 
  
    
 


  From:  joyinexpressible (pamwitzemann)   Feb-9 9:14 am  
To:  David (DavidABrown)    (16 of 17)  
 
  755.16 in reply to 755.1  
 
David, 
It is hard to have a biblical world view when one doesn't read the Bible. I think many Christians feel they never have time to read it. Instead, television has become the moral quide in this country and I'm afraid it is leading us into the proverbial ditch. The economy is great but our morals are relative and have little meaning at all. We need the Lord to intervene. 

Pam
 
  
   Options  Reply Delete Edit   
Rate 
  
    
 


   From:  David (DavidABrown)    Feb-9 3:29 pm  
To:  joyinexpressible (pamwitzemann)   (17 of 17)  
 
  755.17 in reply to 755.16  
 
Very True,

 

Besides the Bible is a very Excellent read and very Easy to understand. It is not at all as difficult or impossible to read as people seem to think.

 

Also so many people think and assume that they already know the Bible and dont need to read it even for a first time.

 

God Bless you,
David



David A. Brown
Basic Christian: Forum
www.BasicChristian.org

 
  
   Options  Reply Delete Edit  
 
