I appreciate you reading this shorter teaching article. This article is less devotional and, therefore, calls for a person to read and integrate truth into the broader culture. It takes maturity to do this. Thank You!
When the culture accepts a practice, it absorbs the worldview that justifies it.
A Biblical Total Truth Worldview Expressed in Several Ways
A BTTW is the full-orbed truth about total reality. The term means a biblically informed perspective on all reality. A BTTW is like a mental map that tells us how to navigate the world effectively. It is the imprint of God’s objective truth on our inner life and how we steer our way through life.
Below are two of many passages of Scripture, both in the Old and New Testaments, that encapsulate the Biblical Total Truth Worldview (BTTW).
“So remember this and keep it firmly in mind: The LORD is God both in heaven and on earth, and there is no other. 40 If you obey all the decrees and commands, I am giving you today, all will be well with you and your children. I am giving you these instructions so you will enjoy a long life in the land the LORD your God is giving you for all time.” – Deuteronomy 4:39-40 NLT
“All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right.”— 2 Timothy 3:16 NLT
Preliminary Comments About Worldviews:
Every person has a set of convictions about how reality works and how they should live. As Christ followers and covenant keepers who are made in God’s image, we seek to make sense of life in light of biblical realities. As humans, we do not hold purely to arbitrary opinions, nor do we make unprincipled decisions. Because we are rational and responsible beings, we sense that we need some creed to live by, or at least a map to chart our course. Other worldviews are always encroaching on the broader culture, and I believe it is vital to grasp and refute these massive false worldviews being taught and lived out in the public arena.
Here are eight worldviews: The original Marxist believes that human behavior is ultimately shaped by economic circumstances. The Freudian attributes everything to repressed sexual instincts. While the Behavioral Psychologist regards human beings as stimulus-response mechanisms. Islamism (political and radical Islam) espouses total submission to Allah and believes in an unbridled commitment to ushering in a worldwide caliphate (global dominance) by force. Critical Race Theory, which is the ideological engine that drives the Social Justice and Black Lives Matters movements seeing all American institutions, structures, systems, and foundational principles as being rooted in systemic racism and oppression, where the oppressed (black, women and marginalized identities) are being oppressed by the oppressors (the rich, males, whites, and those in authority … like the police). Transgenderism gazes through the lens of belief that all humans determine their sexuality by identifying with a particular biological sex. Choice and subjective feelings reign supreme as a person is the only one who can determine their identity. Scientific facts, like being male or female, are considered irrelevant as to who they are. Christ followers look at life through the lens of the Bible—both the Old Testament and the New Testament. By obeying the God of the Bible and following His will and ways, individuals and societies can be successful and thrive in every endeavor and discipline of life.
Many people treat morality as a list of rules. But every moral behavior rests on a worldview. Generally, we tend to work out the logic of our basic convictions. In every decision we make, we are not just deciding what we want to do. We are expressing our view of our purpose in life.
In the following teaching article, I will present two dominating worldviews regarding Transgenderism, and Darwinian Sexuality. I will contrast these two views with a BTTW about sexuality.
#1 The Worldview of Transgenderism
All sexes are viewed as social constructs (choices based on subjective feelings about one’s gender) and, therefore, it is open ended as to what a person identifies as, despite their biological sex. The transgender narrative completely disassociates gender from biology. If a person senses a dissonance between one’s body and mind, the mind wins. The body is dismissed as inconsequential. As SOGI, the Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity-laws confirms: “Gender is “a person’s gender identity and behavior whether or not they stereotypically are associated with the person’s assigned sex at birth.” (Look to “About SB 777” by scrolling down and selecting the desired information from the table of contents.)
What’s the operative word here? “Assigned,” as though a person’s sex at birth were arbitrary instead of a biological fact. What is being said here is that scientific facts do not matter. SOGI laws are being used to impose a two-level worldview that disparages the physical body as inconsequential, insignificant, and irrelevant to who we are.
It is important for me to clarify what the BTTW is regarding sexual identity. There is no dichotomy between body and person. The two together form an integrated psycho-spiritual-physical unity. Psychosexual means there is a psychological aspect connected to our sexual impulses. In addition, we are also spiritual beings who have the capacity to think abstractly and have a moral conscious able to discern right from wrong. In other words, we are physical, psychological, and spiritual beings all in one body.
“Now may the God of peace make you holy in every way and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again.” – 1 Thessalonians 5:23 NLT
Christ followers respect and honor their bodies as part of the revelation of God’s purpose for their lives. Their bodies are part of the created order that is “declaring the glory of God” (Psalm 19). As the psalmist confirms: “We are fearfully and wonderfully made.”–Psalm 139
The Sexuality Information and Education Council of The United States (SIECUS).
Have you ever wondered where all the sexual and behavioral directives originate from in the public square, and especially the world of academia?
FROM SIECUS!
Virtually all sex education curricula in America take their lead from the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the Unite States (SIECUS). Its pronouncements constitute the “official” view. And what does SIECUS say?
“Gender identity refers to a person’s internal sense of being male, female, or a combination of these,” and “people’s understanding of their gender identity may change over the course of their lifetimes.” – SIECUS “Guidelines for Comprehensive Sexuality Education,”3rd ed.
Their message and mandated policies represent a worldview that gets handed down to the State and the State passes these policies down as required curriculum and/or guidelines for the United States in all forms of public and private entities.
The only way people on SIECUS get to their positions is by elected officials in our government who place them there. This is why I have said over the years we must elect righteous people to public office who, in turn, will place righteous people in influential positions of authority.
“But select from all the people some capable, honest men who fear God and hate bribes. Appoint them as leaders over groups of one thousand, one hundred, fifty, and ten.” – Exodus 18:21 NLT
No person will bat a thousand but select the most righteous candidate, and who is closest to following biblical principles.
A most staggering lie of Satan is to convince Christian leaders, influencers, and, therefore, the average Christian, that believers don’t belong in politics or the halls of government. This is a manifestation of not having a BTTW. Judicial laws and policies are enacted and disseminated to the public in the form of public policy regulated by the government. These policies shape our culture, and most Christians wonder why our society is rapidly moving away from a Biblical Total Truth Worldview? The embarrassing truth is because we have relegated Christianity to the small niche of affirming our salvation, we have lost our voice in the public square. Many Christian leaders and influencers seem to have lacked the understanding that the whole Bible includes providing answers and actions that can right a society.
To summarize Transgenderism, look to the false split below.
Upper Story
One’s identified gender. Subjective-Feelings. The real me apart from my true biological sex.
If there is a dissonance between body and mind, the mind wins.
The authentic self is only the autonomous choosing self.
It is what you feel that defines you.
The body is dismissed as irrelevant.
Gender is a product of social forces.
____________________________
The Lower Story
One’s biological sex, the body, physiological facts and realities, scientific facts of the body—every cell has a sex, men and women are different down to the cellular and molecular level.
There is no scientific evidence that transsexuals or transgenderism is caused by any biological factor. Transgender activists themselves argue that biology is irrelevant to gender.
When the culture accepts a practice, it absorbs the worldview that justifies it.
#2 The Darwinian Worldview regarding sexual ideology
Darwinian Evolution was never intended to stay in the scientific arena. It was always intended to be transformative in all disciplines of life—educational, sexual expressions, science, law, and the arts to name a few.
Darwinian Evolution proposed the view that nature was purposeless and directionless and conclusively void of any Creator. George Wilhelm Frederick Hegel wrote long before Darwin and he popularized the view that every individual consciousness is part of a cosmic consciousness. The implication and application of this is that the mental realm is constantly evolving. All ideas, —law, morality, sexuality, religion, art, philosophy, politics—are products of Hegel’s evolution of consciousness. Every one of the disciplines I just listed have been influenced and are being transformed by a Darwinian Worldview. Because of Darwin, many people no longer have a moral basis for universal human rights. We are seeing right before our eyes the logical consequences played out in the denial of human rights to those deemed to be non-persons, such as unborn babies, and the disabled.
In essence Hegel and Darwin were the foundational personalities that spawned Postmodernism, which introduced and promoted no-absolutes.
Atheist, Richard Rorty, lecturing to UNESCO, noted that throughout history, societies have come up with various ways to exclude certain groups from the human family. Those who belonged to a different tribe, clan, race, or religion were labeled subhuman. Rorty notes, “Christianity gave rise to the concept of universal rights, derived from the conviction that all human beings are created in the image of God. Due to Darwin, we no longer accept the idea of creation. Therefore, we are no longer morally bound to maintain that everyone who is biologically human has equal dignity.”
A BTTW stands in sharp contrast to Darwinian ideology as Evolution teaches there are different races, and some are favored over others. This was popularized by the Nazis but it has its origins with Hegel. Even Darwin’s original title bears this out written November 24, 1859. The book’s full title is “On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life.” This book is a seminal work in scientific literature and a landmark work in evolutionary biology. The worldview is now dominating literally the whole world.
As an aside, the Bible in the original languages never uses the word “race” it uses the word “ethnos” (Matthew 28:19) referring to ethic groups, families, one blood (meaning humans), nations, people groups, and tribes.
Cultural evolution is alive and well! It would behoove us to grasp its implications in our culture and the public square and begin to speak into it and activate against it.
For example, In 2021 the Obama administration’s State Department announced that it was replacing “mother” and “father’ on passport applications with “Parent One” and ‘Parent Two.” (Look to Andre Malcolm, Obama State Department deletes, “Mother, Father from forms, Associated press, January 9, 2011.) People so protested, thank God, that the State Department adjusted it to “Mother or Parent One, and Father or Parent Two,” which is really not much better.
Most of us have heard how progressives are promoting a “Living Constitution.” This also is rooted in Cultural Darwinism.
As early as 1902, Supreme Court Judge, Oliver Wendell Holmes, said:
“The justification of a law for us cannot be found in the fact that our fathers always have followed it. It must be found in some help which the law brings toward recaching a social end.” (Look to Oliver Wendell Holes, Collected Legal Papers (New York: Harcourt, Bruce, and Howe, 1920) p.225, The Law in Science-Science in Law.) I took this reference from the Founders’ Bible page 1975.
Significantly, the Constitution deliberately excluded judges from any law-making role, for judges were unelected; the Constitution had ensured that only those directly accountable to the people would make the laws and policies under which the people were to live. But under a Living Constitution, this all changed. As affirmed by Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes: We are under a constitution—but the Constitution is what the judges say it is.” (Look to Charles Evans Hughes, The Autobiographical notes of Charles Evans Hughes, ed. David J. Danelski, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1973, p.144, speech at Elmira on May 3, 1907.)
Please refer to the article: “The Remedy for Restoration: Righteous Judges” Pages 1021-1028 in the Founders’ Bible.
When the culture accepts a practice, it absorbs the worldview that justifies it.
#3 The Biblical Total Truth Worldview regarding Sexuality.
The message of Christianity does not start with salvation but with creation. What God created has inherent value and worth. As I have said for years— “Jesus Christ is the main thing, but He is not the only thing.”
There is an intrinsic good or purpose (telos) of the human body.
“Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought with a price. Therefore, honor God with your body.” – 1 Corinthians 6:19
There is value and dignity in our identity as male and female (Genesis 1:26, 27). Gender theology is rooted in creation theology. What God has created has intrinsic value.
“God saw all that He had made, and said it was very good…”– Genesis 1:31
The destructive and divided worldview reduces the view of the body. Young people are absorbing the idea that the physical body is not part of the authentic self—that the authentic self is only the autonomous choosing self. This is ancient Gnosticism (the body is evil or inconsequential and the self is primary) in a new garb. Policies imposing transgender ideology on children as early as kindergarten, are teaching them to denigrate (treat as little worth, criticize unfairly) their bodies—to see their biological sex as having no relevance to who they are as whole persons. The two-story dichotomy causes people to feel estranged from their own bodies.
Popular cardiologist Paula Johnson says, “Every cell has a sex—and what that means is that men and women are different down to the cellular and molecular level. It means that we’re different across all our organs, from our brains to our hearts, out lungs, or joints.” (Look to Paula Johnson “His and Hers ….Healthcare” TED talk, December 2013.)
In other words, no matter what your gender philosophy, when you are ill and the doctors put you on the operating table, they still need to know your original biological sex to give you the best possible health care.
This last week I interacted with a professional in the medical field, who sells medical devices and then works with the surgeons to instruct them in how to use the device while operating. He said doctors understand that all this gender identity stuff means nothing when you are about to operate on someone. Is the patient a male or a female? That is the question. Once this is determined they proceed to provide the best care possible for the patient.
Regarding Transgenderism, today accepting treatment is not to help persons change their inner feelings of gender identity to match their body, but to change their body (through hormones and surgery) to match their feelings. The future detrimental physical, physiological, and spiritual complications will be staggering.
As followers of Christ, we ought to have compassion on these people and we ought to help these wonderful people before and after they make drastic life-altering decisions. Parents especially ought to be reinforcing their children’s feelings that align with their biological sex. They ought to help their children if necessary to change their inner feelings of gender identity to match their body.
All Love is Learned, and All Dysfunctional Love is Learned
The implications are clear: Once a culture abandons the conviction that all humans are created in God’s image, human life is up for grabs. Any category of humans is fair game to be excluded or even eliminated. That’s why the stakes in this debate are so high. As Wesley Smith writes, “If human life does not matter simply and merely because it is human, this means that moral worth becomes subjective and a matter of who has the power to decide.” And we already know what happens then: “History shows that once we create categories of differing worth, those humans denigrated by the political power structures as having less value are exploited, oppressed, and killed.” (Look to Zmirak, “Welcome to Our Brave New World.”
A Few Actions to Take
#1 Describe out loud the description of a Worldview. Be able to do this on the fly.
#2 Summarize, out loud to another person, a BTTW.
#3 Describe the Worldviews of Transgenderism and Darwinism.
#4 In what context can you voice a BTTW contrasting Transgenderism and Darwinism into your present environment like your work, the classroom, politics, or simply in everyday life?
To the Only Wise God manifested in the Lord Jesus Christ!
Dale