The Theistic Option

The story of the Western world begins as an expression of a basically Theistic worldview. We think back to a previous discussion about starting points and this chart:

Theism affirms the existence of God. Who that God is and how He/she/it is defined is another story. In our times the three main expressions of a Theistic worldview are Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. Because both Christianity and Islam are “proselytizing” religions, they have been struggling for dominance in the Western world for the past 1200 years. That is a story in and of itself that goes beyond the scope of what we are doing here.

Sire gives a treatment of Christian and Islamic Theism in The Universe Next Door. We want to note that no matter what popular opinion says, the God of Christianity is NOT the same god represented in Allah of Islam. It is important to understand these distinctions, but we will not address them here.

From here on, I will refer to Biblical Christian Theism as the worldview which affirms two fundamental truths:

1. The Bible is a revelation from the One True God. (Biblical)
2. Jesus Christ is the Creator, Savior, and Lord of Creation. (Christian)

It is sad to say, but I even hesitate using the term “Christian.” In our times, this term has been hi-jacked by many who claim the name but deny the teachings of The Master that it points to. Instead of rejecting the term, we should take it back.

Since this is the main worldview that we will be presenting in this study, we will not say much here.

There are, however, two concepts that Biblical Christian Theism affirms about the nature of God that will be debated from here on:

1. God is Transcendent meaning that He stands outside, over, and beyond Time and Creation.
2. God is Immanent meaning He has personally entered Creation and History to be a part of it.

Biblical Christian Theism took hold of the Western world around AD 400 and shaped its history in a fundamental way until about 1750. Even before that, most human cultures have their origins shaped by a belief in god, gods, or hight powers. There have many perversions of Biblical truth and abuses during throughout history. Nevertheless, the cultures of the Western world were shaped by people who generally believed in The God who had communicated to humanity in the Scriptures and in the person of Jesus Christ.

But all of this began to change in a significant way in the late 1600s during the so called Age of Enlightenment.