Building A Solid Christian Worldview

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Check out some of the exciting job opportunities with Focus on the Family when looking to fill positions in marketing IT in marriage counseling work with other talented believers enjoy meaningful Christ centered work environment and use the skills God gave you to encourage others and help families thrive. To learn more visit focusonthefamily.com/careers that's Focus on the Family.com/careers C is for giftedness for everything we've ever done wrong and God misses nothing. That's the good news and those who deny God, and they deny his gift, and they decide I'm getting stand before God on my own. This is not going to be a pretty picture in there that we banished from God's presence forever in a place of unspeakable terror and pain, but those who receive the gift who accept the forgiveness are made, a member of God's family forever. And then they are able to spend the rest of eternity with God in the kind of world that our hearts have always yearned for. That's Greg Koegel and he's our guest today on Focus on the Family with Jim Daly. Thanks for joining us today.

I'm John Fuller, John a phrase we often use in the Christian community is to have a Christian worldview.

And that's not to intimidate, it's not complicated. Actually it's just a way of looking at things the way God would look at things. What's the lens that he sees it all through and working to talk today with the gas to really brings clarity when were talking about that lens in the Christian worldview and I'm looking forward to the conversation, and as I said Greg Koegel is here. He's been with us in the studio before.

In fact, our conversation with him last time was the best of 2021 episode of the program. A Greg is an apologist founder and is the president of stand to reason ministries is also the host of the talkshow and the author of a number of books including one will be really dialing into today is called the story of reality, how the world began, how it ends and everything important that happens in between. Click the link in the show notes or give us a call or numbers 800 the letter a in the word family.

Greg welcome back to focus that is such a treat to be back with you guys again just seems like yesterday announced. Thank you so much. I like the Mike drop title of your book.

The story of reality that says it all right there right now were always in this constant battle with the world about what their story is and they think it's offensive to say well, actually we've got the real story and that is kind of the contrast between worldviews. That's right. Look at when it comes to understanding the nature of reality. Everybody's got their point of view and everybody thinks their point of view is accurate. But it turns out it's only the Christian. It seems for being faulted for thinking that their point of view is accurate in the title to me is really important. I was having a conversation with a stockbroker once on the airplane to fly a bit, so I have these conversations. He asked me what I did for a living and so I told him I'm a writer.

I do radio.

He wanted to know what I write about and talk about and I am at a crossroads now because I want to tell my right about religious topics, especially Christianity in making the case for Christianity, but I don't want him to think about my view of the way most people think about religion in the way most people think about religion is a kind of a religious fantasy club and that's not my view, were not just following something that makes us feel better now choosing that we're believing the Christian worldview because we think it is the accurate view of reality. It's true in the sense that gravity is true when talking about our Christian fantasy were talking about events that really took place and people who really lived or events that are going to take place. So were talking about history here of course we need to defend that and that's what apologetics are for sure, but the key here is communicating the kind of message that were trying to defend. This is true, and we mean is true, the way gravity is true.

Not my truth or your truth. But true to the real world. And this is why chose the title of the story of reality, how the world began, how the world ends and everything important that happens again that's so good. Let's cut back the tape up a little bit and thought I got and how you became Christian. What was the details of that and what was your mind like you seem like a critical thinker. So before you encounter the Lord. Were you a skeptic or what can a person worry well I was raised in a Christian home modestly Christian.

I was raised Roman Catholic home, but for us it really had no depth to it and so when everybody grew up all the five kids we all left and so to my parents okay and then I spent mid 60s at time of engaging the culture and when you're 18. In the mid 60s and you have the, the, this new culture emerging and all the things that are associated with that.

You don't want to think about God and Jesus in purity and that kind of stuff. So for about six years I embraced the ideas of the world. And then there's some dramatic things that happened in my life I one of them is my girlfriend of five years broke up with me and that caused me to face the reality of my own worldviews, which are relativistic. I didn't believe in objective morality.

II didn't believe in any ultimate meaning to life. But then I realize that that's the case I'm all alone in the universe and so that creates a kind of annexes denture crisis for me. I did become a Christian immediately but what it showed me is that the ideas that I was holding that sounded so cool at the time, so popular with the culture were not anything that was going to sustain me through the real challenges of life and during that time my younger brother Mark and become a Christian through the Jesus movement and we are both on the West Coast.

At this time we are raised in the Midwest, but through different circumstances. We ended up in Los Angeles and he just hammered away to Epping for months and months and to be honest with me got me thinking, and the Holy Spirit was working on me.

At that time and to make a long story short, I just came to the realization I don't know how else to explain it. Fellows that Christianity was true. I know it now is the Holy Spirit working powerfully in my life and then a September 28, 1973.

That's when I gave my life to Christ and I've been following him ever since.

But the thing that made the big deal for me. The big difference is understanding the grace of God which I never understood before. Why understood the law I understood all the demands that were on me, but in the system. I was raised in before this was when you gotta work your way through those laws and do as best you can and then hope that you're going to have and that is the good news. That's what's so exciting about how she's a lately that's what makes it a joy to share with others. You know when you talk about that all other religions are man trying to reach up to God right Christianity is the only one where he's reaching down that's right and see. That was news to me right and that was really the good news because I was just sharing with someone the other day was in a similar circumstance and I said do you know what you're going to heaven or not. And he said no, maybe, maybe not.

I said is that good news. He said no. I thought good news. I said that the gospel is good news. So what you believe is not the gospel will let's get into that because I think in the book you just raise some outstanding concepts here and let's take a look at the pieces of this puzzle as you describe in the book 1st about God and who is God as they first starting your is God real is God.

There is yes, then what yes will I break down the story of reality in the five components just to make it easy to follow and easy for Christians to communicate with others and this is the backbone of the story and it is the basically the outline as well. Okay. And those five words are God, man, Jesus cross resurrection here. I'm in the final resurrection to reward judgment. Notice that you have all the components of a good story.

You have all the components of a worldview creation fall redemption and restoration but you also have our story written large, so to speak. So our story starts with God that he creates man to be in friendship with him and human beings get themselves in a heap of trouble and so God initiates a rescue plan and this is key about the Christian worldview. This is the only worldview in which man does not rescue himself because he cannot exactly God would do it exactly so funny. So God sets up a rescue plan and becomes a human being himself to be able to rescue us and he does that by the way he lives his life. So now we got God man Jesus and the way he dies on the cross. That's the fourth point and what we do about what he did for us determines what happens to everyone in the final resurrection.

So we have how the world began, how it ends and everything important will hit.

So yes, the concept of God. Again, God is the beginning and the reason that God is the beginning is because he's the first person the first character, so to speak, of the story and the reason is because the story is about God. It is not about us.

We come second, and this is why turn a certain Christian slogan on his head a little bit, meaning no disrespect here. I really don't think it's about so much about God's wonderful plan for our lives as it is about our lives for God's wonderful plan is aware, expendable in this program is really well said that's that's critical for people to slow down and hear that again today at the culture doesn't go there. Yeah so it's more about our lives are God's wonderful plan and so this emphasizes what the Bible emphasizes that God is first.

So when we start the story out and this is explanation. Gentlemen, not just for the Christian to get it straight because for a lot of Christians there. There story there picture of reality is like a puzzle that's in a pile of pieces they never put it together before and this is what the story of reality is meant to do. Put it together in a sequential form so we can see the big picture and the first part of that story is God. He's the center he's the most important player.

The stories about him, not us.

Yeah.

And you've addressed I think the second, which is man in his or her place and that relationships right. Let me ask your questions so common about evil. If God is so good, why does evil exist in this world will that comes up all the time was a classic question regarding Christianity and Christian theism, and in a broad sense, I'll say this about the book. If you do not understand the story of reality, how it all fits together in an elegant way, then you are and can have a hard time with this question, but it turns out that the problem of evil is not the problem for the Christian that people think it is. And the reason is our story is entirely about the problem of evil.

It starts in chapter 3 it doesn't get solved until 66 books later right.

I mean if there was no problem of evil there be no story. Our story is all about how God deals with evil in the world.

All right.

And the important thing about evil is that first role as part of our story. And secondly, our story is not over yet and we find ourselves right now fellas in the middle of the story. And so we see all of these awful things happening. Why does this happen, it's because of something that happens in the beginning of the story, the world wasn't always like this.

God made the world just exactly the way his noble mind intended. It was all good and that means it was all operating just the way he wanted it to operate, but what happened. There's another figure in the story and that figure is a very dark figure who tells our first parents a terrible lie. He says that the king cannot be trusted. He says that he's holding out on you do your own thing. Make your own rules. Follow your own way and freedom awaits you. And so they consider the temptation to give in to lie and they disobey and in disobeying they betray the friendship that God has made them for an everything changes the world gets broken, their broken relationship with God, their broken relationship with each other, their broken relationship with the environment. In fact, what human beings do their in violating the command of God breaks the entire world.

And this is why there's a problem of evil, and it happens because God has given something valuable called moral freedom. We are made in the image of God we have a moral character and because were made in the image of God.

We are able to have friendship with God would not like the other creatures but that also has a liability to it and that is we could do good, but we could also do wrong and man did not use the liberty that he was given well and this plunged the world into darkness. Now what everybody knows by the way that the world in darkness and this is something you can count on. It doesn't matter who used talk to or when when they lived, or where they left.

Everybody knows that something is wrong with the world. Okay and we have a way of explaining why the world is that way, but not just why how to solve it. And that's one of the most powerful elements of the Christian story of reality that's so good. Greg and man it's really succinct the way you're laying this out. So God man now Jesus right 1/3 part of this story. What is Jesus's role what he come to do so. Here's a situation man's in a terrible circumstance he has broken off from God. He has no hope in the self. He's lost.

I mean he's in trouble. He needs to be rescued. He can't rescue himself. He's unplugged from the only source of life that's available for himself and he can't plug himself in, so now what God initiates a rescue plan and it's the most remarkable idea imaginable, God decides to become a man in the person of Jesus. And so we have a question now who is Jesus, who was he well he was a human being. I mean, he had all human qualities at home all human emotions. He went to the kinds of things that you and I went through. He was one of us.

Therefore, he can identify with us as a human we can identify with him as a human. He knows what it's like to be in our shoes as we walk a difficult life day by day, but he was more than that. It's interesting when you look at the beginning of Jesus story.

His story starts in the beginning was the word and the Word was with God and the word was God.

In other words, the beginning of Jesus story is the same beginning as the story itself that is this person that's called the word is the very same one that was there at the beginning making everything and then later he says he became flesh, he dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory as of the only begotten of the father full of grace and truth.

In other words, God stepped down and I want to think about. If you have children or grandchildren and their scared there crying they're in trouble there frightened. How would you comfort them. How would you meet their need.

If there were injured in their skin, their knee, would you bode now down a little bit would you get down you get Ida I and this is exactly what God did, he came down he got low. He got small by becoming a human being, so he could be there with us. Emmanuelle God with us is such an important thing yeah let me just add Greg. I mean, you're really hitting it out of the park. I'm in your right there there so much depth to what you're saying you were not a bill to cover it and that's one great reason to get the book, but there's so much in there about covenant relationship to the blood sacrifices that were given which is part of the Jewish culture and tradition and part of God's relationship to the Jewish people. These are things you have to continually dig into to better understand and what you'll find is, it gets more and more awesome right amidst it the way it fits together the things that you're saying at this level right now. The more you dig into it the more you realize while God really did have a plan. It is a mind blower when you think about that.

It is it is and I you know, we gotta keep it moving here tonight. You could just sit and talk for hours about these concepts in these realities, your book reality and I think what this is a strength of the book and that it's a primer of sorts. It touches on the key points of theology that are central to the Christian worldview. But it doesn't way that's accessible not only to the Christian to the younger Christian to the older Christian who doesn't have it all together hasn't put all the pieces of the puzzle together in one picture, but II wrote this book constantly for the non-Christian, who is reading it. It's not thick with Christian lingo, it is very easy-going it is. It's a narrative kind of feel and no one will ever be embarrassed to give this book to their non-Christian right, which is great and again. It's much like an onion. You just keep peeling spiritual truth and it just keeps going in right. It's wonderful. Let we talk about God, man, the rescue plan in the form of Jesus.

God coming to be with us and being the sacrifice for us shorts moved to the cross. Okay now this is the next step. I asked the question who was Jesus. Now what he come to do and first thing he did as he came to live the life that we never lived. He lived the perfect life for us. Okay. And then he took on that cross all of our bad stuff so that we can get his good stuff. There's an exchange that took place there okay and this is sometimes hard for people to understand. So was explaining to a young lady on an airplane from Jacksonville to Miami. She was Muslim. She was a sweetheart. We got into this conversation about God and was just trying to simply show the difference between her God and our God. And I said if somebody had was a terrorist who came on this plane and was going to drag her off the plane.

Of course when I say this word I'm whispering now you know on the airplane but I put my arm in front of you and I said don't take her take me instead. What would you think about that and she said I can't imagine anyone ever doing that for me and I said that is what God is done for you, Yahweh, not Allah. Jesus, not Mohammed. God came down in the person of Jesus and he said to the father take me instead.

That's the trade and that trade took place on an outcropping of rock that the locals called Golgotha, the place of the skull. But we know it as Calvary, the place of the cross and that is where Jesus took the trade we got his righteousness and he got our sin. Every sin that every person it ever committed the weight of that was poured out upon Jesus and the wrath of God in those three hours when when darkness shrouded the cross so that at the end, Jesus could say it is finished. In other words it's accomplished I paid for it all. We are now in a position to release ourselves of all of that guilt the kind of guilt that I was concerned about is that as a non-Christian and then I realize there was grace for me as a Christian we release that to Jesus and we receive the goodness that he has earned in his own life. That's the trade. He gets our badness we get his goodness skull justification is called substitutionary atonement. But I like the word gospel Greg this is so good and me. What a basic good concept to cover and I'm just the bubble in here with things to talk about working a wind down here. Unfortunately, with the time but okay so we fit God man Jesus crucifixion the cross, the need for that I am going to the resurrection know what Jesus did on the cross is available to us. All we have to do is take it as a gift put our trust in him and that's what the story calls faith, not a leap of faith, but a step of trust and I have soft apologetics all through the book to tell why we should believe these things are actually true, but this takes us to the last step.

The final step of the story, God man Jesus cross resurrection.

Final resurrection at the end of time. One of two things is going to take place.

Everybody's giving grace for the dead, that's for sure.

But one of two things is going to happen either perfect justice or perfect mercy. Perfect justice is punishment for everything we've ever done wrong, no atonement, no atonement, and God misses nothing. By the way he's making a list of these checking it twice, but perfect mercy is forgiveness for everything we've ever done wrong and God misses nothing. That's the good news and those who deny God, and they deny his gift, and they decide I'm good stand before God on my own. This is not going to be a pretty picture and they are going be banished from God's presence forever in a place of angst equal terror and pain, but those who receive the gift who accept the forgiveness are made, a member of God's family forever. And then they are able to spend the rest of eternity with God in the kind of world that our hearts have always yearned for CS Lewis. Again, the door that we've been pushing on all of our lives will finally open.

That's the best news. It is an Greg.

I think I just want to convey for that person that is struggling right at that point, that hasn't really understood this that you know that the issue of human pride in flesh and try you know I would never has God to do that for me.

If God is real I mean I should take care that stuff myself right that the net is a form of pride and I think the hearing you express it the way you did, which is correct and true and right. Some people are going wait a minute. I don't know why that would be necessary.

Why would God have to die for me. I mean pull that together little tighter all right.

Every because you know feels like guilt. Yes, of course, while everybody knows I mentioned earlier that there's something wrong with the world. But there's something else that everybody knows that the problem with the world is them that everybody realize there's something inside that's broken okay and that thing that's broken is madness and they'd hold it from other people, but they can't get away from the guilt themselves.

So we have this need and God loves us enough to satisfy what's required so that he can forgive us of that guilt pulse that he was the greatest of sinners.

But God forgave him, which means he can forgive any body else and and gentlemen.

If there's anyone thinking right now. God can't rescue me. I promise you what Jesus did on the cross on your behalf is fully adequate to forgive even the sins that you have.

If you turn to him and ask him to do so.

That's the good news and that will save you so that at the end you will know that you will be with him forever. Just the way he intended. In a wonderful friendship with him. Yeah you Greg, this is been one of the best half hours in terms of spiritual truth that we've done a focus and we always talk here in Dr. Dobson even would say this so often that you know we can help a family improve their marriage improve their parenting. But if we haven't pointed people to the author of the family. We had a failed and I certainly have continued that tradition of recognizing that truth that salvation and embracing the gift meaning.

Jesus that he is the son of God. That's what Greg means by that that you say yes yes and you confess with your lips and believe in your heart that Jesus is the son of God is God. That's the distinction, and this is why by the way, Jesus is the only way of salvation.

Karen is the only one who solved the problem and so when you see the big picture. The story of reality. You realize how God solves the problem of evil in a singular solution to the person of Jesus, which is why he is the only way so listen if we haven't captured your imagination here then keep praying for him that the Lord not opening up your eyes, but if you know somebody or if it's you that really needs to read this written book. The story of reality which, again, Greg. I love the title. Just, lays it out there forget the news… The real news. The good news and that we want to get it in your hands if you can support Focus on the Family monthly would be great but if you can make a one-time gift that's great too and will send your copy to Greg's book the story of reality as our way of saying thank you and all those proceeds go right back and all this effort, introducing people to Christ, helping a marriage survive and to thrive in helping parents do the job. The need to do in addition to saving pre-born babies anymore almost near half a million babies saved through that program. We are about life because God is created each one of us unique and in his image as you said. So were going at it every day on every cylinder that we can an Greg you really have set the foundation think pleasurably with go ahead and follow-up on what Jim was offering.

Contact us to get a copy of this book to learn more about Jesus Christ and eternal life. I will here are numbers 800 K in the word family and online. We have also to great resources. The starting link is right here in the showdowns on behalf of Jim Daly and the entire team.

Thanks for joining us today. Plan to be with us next time I have hope. Those were trying to survive.

And once again help you and your family thrive