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ALTERNATIVE WORLDVIEWS
WHITE PAPERS CRITICAL CONCEPT SERIES: VOLUME 1
The reason for the Critical Concept series is that there are important
topics not covered in our Transferable Concepts that are, for any
number of reasons, of critical concern to us today.
Important concepts like this require more in-depth treatment, which
is a discipleship challenge when so few are reading books. And so we
have the Critical Concept series. Each article is roughly the length
of a book chapter-about 16 pages. So its not a book, but its not a
pamphlet either.
P OS TCA RDS F RO
WHI
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Critical Concept
Series
V O L U M E
O N E
WHITE
PAPERS
WAR OF THE WORLDS
W A R
WAR OF
THE WORLDS
by Bayard Taylor
O F
T H E
W O R L D S
W H I T E
W A R
P A G E S
O F
T H E
W O R L D S
W H I T E
P A G E S
W A R
O F
T H E
W O R L D S
W H I T E
P A G E S
Diagram 1
SPIRITS
SPIRITS
SPIRITS OF THE
DEPARTED DEAD
Diagram 2
SPIRITS
SPIRITS
SATAN AND
HIS DEMONS
W H I T E
P A G E S
W A R
W O R L D S
T H E
O F
YANG
EVIL
YIN
W A R
O F
T H E
W O R L D S
Designer Religion
A lot of people today do not consider themselves to be a part
of any organized religion or thought-out philosophy. They like
to pull from various traditions and come up with a religion of
their own. Its known by various names: religious syncretism, the
New Age movement, the Age of Aquarius, new religions, and a
new religious consciousness. I call it Designer Religion.
As the absence of a diagram 6 illustrates, this worldview is
whatever you want it to be. Here you can worship an earthworm,
believe your dog embodies the departed soul of Abraham
W H I T E
P A G E S
W A R
that God can wipe away our tears and we can have
victory over death through Christs resurrection
These are not idle talking points. They speak powerfully
to our deepest needs as human beings. Small wonder that
wherever in the world the gospel is preachedeven where
there is great persecutionpeople respond. Compared to the
alternatives, the Biblical Worldview has no comparisons.
Quiz Show
A benefit of understanding the major worldviews is that it
makes at least some of those perennially difficult questions,
whether from hard skeptics or honest inquirers (or ourselves),
easier to respond to.
Lets take just one example. One of the Big Questions that
comes up in spiritual conversations is, how could a good
God allow such massive suffering in the world? The further
development of the question is this: because of innocent
suffering, God cannot be both all good and all powerful. You
have to give up something. Either God has to get weaker or
God must become less good.
O F
T H E
W O R L D S
Youre
par tnering
amazing
with
process.
God
Nature
in
and
an
the
And Gods doing these things not just for us but for others, too.
Gods Holy Spirit is the ultimate persuader and enabler.
Therefore, an essential part of decoding a persons worldview
is depending on the Holy Spirit. When we do that, we can
trust that God is using us as we talk with confidence to
absolutely anybody.
Bayard Taylor spent four years on staff with Campus Crusade for Christ
at Northwestern University (Evanston, Illinois). Hes participated in
several short-term cross-cultural missions projects (Chicagos inner
city, Poland, India, a country in the Middle East, and Albania); earned
an master of divinity degree from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School;
and served a stint as a biblical and theological editor for a Christian
publishing house. The author of Blah, Blah, Blah: Making Sense of the
Worlds Spiritual Chatter (Bethany House) and the accompanying website
blahblahbook.com, hes taught worldviews for CRU movements at Brown
University, the University of Kentucky, and the Great Lakes Region
winter conferenceand hes available to come speak at your campus. He
can be contacted at bayard@bayardtayloronline.com.
Published by CruPress
To Order go to:
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www.CruPress.com
division of the Campus Ministry. Or call 1.800.8272788
2008, CruPress
All rights reserved.
Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible,
New International Version NIV
1973, 1978, 1984 by
International Bible Society. Used by
permission.
ISBN 1563992493