[Part 4]
The world sees a two dimensional worldview. Jesus saw three dimensionally. Worldview, just like every other view, is affected by the sight of the seer.
I am near sighted in one eye and far sighted in the other eye. This affects how I respond to the world around me. I can’t read without my glasses, but I can drive. Do you want to take a ride with someone with one eye that sees things at a distance just OK?
The world sees this way. They cannot make out the difference between religions. That’s why they paste those near sighted bumper stickers that spell out coexist with religious symbols. To nearsighted people that looks profound but to someone who sees into eternity it’s blind.
Jesus said, “Unless you are born again you cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). There is an entire dimension of sight that the world cannot see. This affects everything they do by limiting the parameters of their sight.
The world has a two dimensional worldview. They see inward and outward, but not upward. Looking inward the world sees self. Self-fulfillment, self-actualization and self-esteem are world’s way of describing their inward view of self.
Looking outward, the world sees humanity. Human kingdoms and human suffering are the foci of their vision. They can be ruthless in accumulating power in the human kingdoms of politics, business and religion. Then, they can demonstrate great acts of benevolence to relieve the suffering of humanity. The two dimensional worldview creates a schizophrenic world.
Once you are born again, a whole new dimension opens to you. You see the upward dimension for the first time and that changes the inward and outward view. The stars get brighter, because behind them you see the Creator. People are elevated from selves to souls, because you see their Savior.
Jesus saw God as Creator and people with souls. He looked at the world with a three dimensional worldview. The circumstances of our world are different than His world but the view is the same. The world looked the same in the day of Jesus as it does today. It only looks at two dimensions: inward and outward.
Jesus looked at things differently than the world and it showed at His temptation.
[to be continued]
Michael Peters
Dr. Michael Peters is the lead pastor of Christ the King: TheCellChurch.com. He is married to Linda, and they have two children and seven grandchildren. Dr. Peters graduated from Covenant Seminary with an MA and obtained a PhD in historical theology from Saint Louis University. He has written several books. His most recent is titled Cell Vision. It’s about organic discipleship and how to develop supporters into disciple makers. He taught critical thinking and Biblical worldview at Missouri Baptist University. His favorite course textbook was Closing of the American Mind by Allan Bloom. His favorite philosopher is Nietzsche because postmodern people are just catching up with premodern Nietzsche. And his favorite Christian writer is G.K. Chesterton because he understood the difference between a poet and theologian. “The poet,” he wrote, “only asks to get his head into the heavens. It is the theologian who seeks to get the heavens into his head. And it is his head that splits.”