I wonder if you would mind commenting, or pointing me to where you have commented, on the Cornelius-Van-Til/Francis Schaeffer way many of us have been brought up to see the world and its clash of worldviews.

Is it proper to see the philosophical, religious, and ideological marketplace as a clash between:

a) the “Christian worldview” — which is arguably based on total submission to God (manifested through total submission to a literal inerrantist view of the Biblical text) versus a group of “anti-Christian worldviews” that are all rooted in man’s ill-fated quest for autonomy from God?

and

b) a worldview that arguably puts “God at the center of all things” (but is really just one view of God) versus a host of “humanistic” worldviews that put “man at the center of all things.”

I think that these concepts — and these concepts are powerful ways of looking at things — are very much behind the typical Evangelical urge to show the world how wrong it is.

But IMO, this way of looking at the world frequently leads Evangelicals to falsely and unfairly caricaturize the world about them.

IMO, extreme sensitivity to anything one might perceive as “humanism,” i.e., putting “man at the center” has led many (not all) to so demote man that he is essentially stripped of made-in-the-image-of-God dignity, to the point where the Second Commandment (love neighbor) has been distorted into the antithesis of the First (love God).

And when you posit a suspicion about the heart of Jesus, don’t forget to back up what you are saying with evidence from the scriptures, evidence that causes you to suspect that the Pharisees “were, of the various religious parties of the day, the closet to his heart.”

Thanks.

I am amazed at those that think they have a corner on the Holy Spirit, Jesus, and the truth. I am even more amazed when those that claim special awareness of his Spirit and love, are so quick to critique there fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. If we are truly calling others Pharisees, then as Jesus said, we are also saying, “You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”

Ken, thanks for your gentle response.

I don’t think your critique is fair. At least not for me. I came from a fairly fundamentalist background. Reading “Extreme Righteousness” a few years ago really got me thinking.

That I and the tribe I had spent so much time defending were so very much like the Pharisees.

It was a self-critical turning point.

I bet many of those reading and contributing to Ken’s threads have similar experiences.