Wisdom and Folly – The Christian Worldview

Every time we have a conversation, whenever we read a book, watch a film, or even an advert - our worldview is affected - either by direction or confirmation.

Allow me a sentence of dullness while I define - Jim Sire describes a person's worldview as:
"A set of presuppositions (which may be true, partially true, or entirely false) which we hold (consciously or unconsciously; consistently or inconsistently) about the basic make-up of this world."

It is our worldview that dictates the 'assumed truths' we hold - the instinctive, and rarely thought through, socio-philosophical positions ("Sexuality definitely is/isn't genetically decided") bizarre platitudes ("I think you should be true to yourself") or simply snap judgements (TV personality arrested...).

The idea behind this blog is to engage with the assumed ‘truths’ that lie within our worldview – those that lurk unchallenged in our minds because they are so deeply set. First, though, this post is about how to do that, and why it's important.

Listening to the voices

The place I want to start is at perhaps one of the most ill/mis-used verses in the Bible:

“Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?”

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ion - Who'worth thus: od e and adopt and hold them  oceans of the revealed Word of God.

ty with 'Does this simply mean that we’re playing topsy-turvy? That if the world says something is wise, then it’s foolish; if it says something’s beautiful, it’s ugly and so forth?

Certainly not! What it means is that God has actually spoken – and that the Creator’s folly is surely wiser than the created’s wisdom (1Cor 1:25).

What I’m saying is that it matters hugely who it is who's speaking - who issues  the ‘wisdom’. That we may have a more fruitful discernment if we judge the safety of the water by the source, rather than the sweetness.

Two examples

A few years ago, I decided to start reading Seneca’s letters. I had kept coming across him in my reading: the old Christian theologians seemed to love him, despite the fact that he was a pagan philosopher: Saints Augustine and Jerome quoted him regularly, and Tertullian referred to him as ‘saepe noster’ (‘often one of us’).

I read. I loved it. There is ink all over my copy. He had so much wisdom. He reflected the Bible’s call to be wary of vice when defences were low, he echoed St. Paul’s warning not to be blown around by the winds of doctrine, He talked of the importance of friendship and unity with ‘moral men’. It seemed that there was so much we could learn from him. I felt myself becoming wiser and more learned as I read.

But, here again, I should have remembered that if a well has two sources, the purity of one stream does not guarantee the purity of the other. The shared destination of Seneca’s and Paul’s writings did not indicate the same holy source.

It was not until I had waded through to his 48^th letter that I reached the poison in the stream.

He wrote:

“For that is what Philosophy has promised me – that she will make me God’s equal. That’s the invitation and that’s what I’ve come for; be as good as your word.”

I’m sure many of you are ahead of me by now. The promise to become God’s equal? The wisdom-quest that I had joined Seneca on was one to be like God and know good from evil. There was no trueness of purpose in this oldest of sins.

We are all too easily duped in this way - The serpent in the garden said ‘Take and eat’. He promises you will be like God.

Jesus says at supper ‘Take and eat’. He promises you will be with God. That you will be made righteous.

Look who’s talking

Look beyond the words to the speaker. Any man, good or wicked can drip honey from his lips, (Prov. 5:3; Ps. 119:103) but there is but one source that gives only Grace and Truth.

This blog will explore ideas and assumptions that we see and adopt, coming from both the press and the pulpit. It will hold them against the sharp blade of Scripture and assess their worth by asking the question – ‘Who’s talking – Christ, or the Serpent?’

I am absolutely not going against ‘common grace’ – there are no doubts in my mind that the world can produce truth and beauty – but I am saying that if you are fishing for Truth – cast your net into the calm oceans of the revealed Word of God, rather than the stormy ponds of the fallible human mind - the catch will be far greater.

“For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.”