Brad Alles

Unfortunately, many today confess Jesus as Savior yet don’t even realize how other worldviews have affected their own thinking. Whether it is Post-Modernism or Secular Humanism or whatever “ism” you want to name, Christians using other worldviews will be unconsciously shaped by their assumptions. Just like wearing someone else’s glasses affects your vision, so using another’s worldview affects your perception of reality.

That’s why the Bible tells us to be critical thinkers, using the Bible as the source and norm of measuring truth. We are to examine all thoughts thoroughly and test them with the Bible, rather than soaking them in like a sponge without discernment.

Paul commands us to “Test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil” in 1 Thessalonians 5:21-22. Furthermore, in 2 Corinthians 10:5 Paul says, “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”

Don’t just check your brains at the classroom door or when you read something—seize those thoughts, taking them captive to the Lord of Truth and His Word, and check them against Scripture. For example, if the discussion is on whether people are basically good or not, ask if is this a biblical perspective on the nature of man? The Bible, as well as our everyday experience, reveals that humans are not basically good or neutral; we are sinful, which explains the terrible decisions that people make each day.

These other worldviews are all around us, just as they were in Paul’s day. That’s why he told the Christians in Colosse, “See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ” (Colossians 2:8).

There are teachings based on human concepts that don’t ultimately satisfy the intellectual and spiritual hunger that all people have. Only Christ can fulfill those needs because in Him are “all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:3). So Paul warned his readers to not be taken captive by lying philosophies.

If we don’t analyze worldviews—the starting assumption, the philosophy of what’s real regarding the supernatural and natural realms, and the ethical standards of how to live—then we will buy the lies that people are selling. Once we’ve bought the lies, and our mind thinks a certain way, our actions continue down that path. That’s why we need to be enlightened by God’s truth through the power of the Holy Spirit to free us from this captivity.

Paul wrote in Romans 12:2, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is-his good, pleasing and perfect will.” Once God has revealed the truth to you and transformed your mind by renewing it with the light of truth, then you can live in accordance with His Word, testing with the Bible what is right and true as opposed to what is not.