The Power of Belief, Part 2
By Bill Watkins, Th.M., RMCA Middle School Teacher

Jesus of Nazareth ushered in Christianity, the fulfillment of Judaism. Essential to his message was the fact that he fulfilled the Old Testament prophecies that predicted his First Coming. He was the Savior of everyone, including the Jews. He demonstrated these truths in a number of ways: through his virgin conception and birth, his sinless and love-filled life, his authoritative teaching, his marvelous miracles, his betrayal and death, his bodily resurrection from the grave, and his ascension into heaven. He even promised that the Holy Spirit would come to empower new life in those who believe in him and to bring his church into the fullness of the truth. What Jesus declared came to pass. His word was true. Indeed, it was the very word of God.

His words and life were recorded, explained, applied, and defended in the writings that have come down to us as the New Testament. Through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, these works were written down and added to the Old Testament, thereby creating the Bible. What this library of books say God says, and what he says is always true.

This Bible also forms the primary basis for what Christians call the biblical worldview. I say “primary” because this same written revelation also tells us that there is the unwritten word of God called nature (Psa. 19; Rom. 1). The creation reveals truths about the Creator that the Bible confirms and supplements. For example, through nature we learn that there is just one God, and this God is eternal, infinite, intelligent, powerful, and good. However, through the Bible we discover that this Creator God is triune—three Persons (Father, Son, and Spirit) existing in the same divine essence. The Bible also makes it clear that the one God has sent his Son into the world to save it from sin, and this Son is Jesus the Christ.

So the biblical worldview has as its primary authority the written revelation called the Bible and its secondary authority is nature. Both revelations, when rightly interpreted, are always in harmony and always speak the truth.

And that’s the rub: interpretation. Believers from all Christian traditions share the same beliefs regarding the faith’s essentials (e.g., that Jesus is the Christ and salvation is by faith), but believers disagree over the faith’s nonessentials (e.g., the mode of water baptism and the age of the earth). We have such disagreements because we interpret nature and certain passages in Scripture differently. Our differences, while important, should not divide us or be treated as measuring sticks for our salvation. They do, however, pose instructional challenges.

At the Academy, we have chosen to meet these challenges by focusing on Christianity’s essentials, teaching those as authoritative truth, while explaining the nonessentials without taking sides on those issues. We agree with the age-old wisdom: in essentials, unity; in nonessentials, liberty; in all things, charity.

The biblical worldview definitely pervades all we teach and how we teach it and model it. And that, according to a recent poll by the Barna Group, is quite rare in America today. Barna found that only “4 percent of American adults have a biblical worldview,” and “only 9 percent of those categorized as born-again Christians have a biblical worldview.” These are disturbing figures, but we believe they can be changed—one student at a time. We are delighted to partner with you, the parents, to help raise up a new generation who knows and lives out the biblical worldview.

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