My Worldview

No, there's nothing particularly special about mine. It's one drop in an ocean, a grain on the shore of decentillions. But in short, this is the best way I can explain the origin of life, the problem of evil, and the purpose for which the world exists.

GOD
In the beginning God. Stop. He was, He is, He always will be. No one spoke, thought, or somehow placed Him into existence. Who created Him? Well, if anyone did, it was a bigger God. But no one did. So He's the biggest God, the only God. He holds all power and every right. He is sovereign over all things, and He can do whatever He want, whatever is possible for Him - and He is all-powerful.

It would be logically incorrect to say that God is not good because all that means is that you don't like Him; He doesn't fit your moral standards. If you define good, then yes, God is bad. He is utterly bad. But if God defines good (which He does), then He is good. He can do whatever He wants and call it good. Everything He does is good by default because He says what's good and what's not.

CREATION
He spoke the world, and it was. He speaks the world, and it is. Ned Wilson, author of the wonderful book Notes from the Tilt-a-Whirl, tells me that atoms are made up of leptons. A lepton is the tiniest thing in existence. No one has ever seen one. But what are leptons made out of? Nothing. Hence, our entire universe is made out of nothing. We are words spoken by the all-powerful, all-knowing, all-creating, all-speaking Creator and Lord.

EVIL
Where did evil come from?
Man.
Where did man come from?
God.
Where did evil come from?
God.

Yes, this is why God is bad according to mankind. If God is God and if He knows all things and if He is truly all-powerful, then evil came from Him. It could not have possibly come from anyone or anything else.

How then can God be good?
Because although much of what He ordains may be evil, what He does (and thinks and says) is all good. All of God's senses are used only for that which is holy and pure, namely Himself. Yet somehow in His will, He has caused evil to cover the universe.

How can that be?
He's God. That's how that can be. The Potter has all rights over the clay. He can make toilets or He can make chairs.


"But man has free will."
God made man's will. Any "will" that we have is subject and bound by the sovereignty of God.


"I don't like this God."
Then it's a good thing His existence doesn't depend on your tastes. He created your tastes that dislike Him, your will that attempts to limit His, and your very mind that denies Him.

No, the God of the Bible isn't a nice guy. He's not a wimp and He doesn't have blue eyes and blond hair. (Jesus didn't!) He's not Santa, and He's not a teddy bear. He is greater than our feeble minds could ever conceive.

Why, then, did He create evil? So He could give us the gospel. Good news. The cross.

THE CROSS
The word became flesh. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, became a perfect man, subjecting Himself to the likeness of sinful flesh and all of its weaknesses except for sin. The God before whom angels and elders hide their heads, fall on their faces, and worship became an ordinary person.

He was terribly smelly, socially unacceptable, religiously a failure, socially awkward, relationally challenged, and mentally disordered. Today they would have told Him what they told me: "You say a bunch of weird things that normal people don't say, so you have a form of autism. Here, take this medication."

He was tempted. But He didn't sin. So He suffered more in the world than anyone ever has or will - always tested, but never able to succumb; always mocked, but never able to give in; always beckoned, but never able to answer.

The end of His life was one of misery and despair. Put bluntly, Jesus was a mess. He was so shaky He sweat drops of blood; He told His eleven friends - and they were pretty much His only friends - to keep watch.

And finally came the most terribly tragedy of all universe history. God was mocked, spit upon, and beaten. He was battered, and His beard was ripped off His cheeks. His back was torn to shreds. His head, juiced by thorns; His hands and feet, nailed; His side, pierced. And it was all for me. It was because "God so loved the world that He [sentenced] His only Son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish but will have eternal life."

ETERNAL LIFE
The story of life has the most brilliant ending of all time. It is greater than any Disney movie or fairy tale. Its joy is beyond what any artist, writer, or thinker could ever imagine much less create. It is more marvelous than a love story, more beautiful than a butterfly, and more colorful than a rainbow:

The very sinners for whom Christ died get to spend eternity with their Savior - Jesus Himself - having done nothing to deserve it. The thief and murderer who actually deserved the cross gets to walk into heaven with Jesus. Imagine the roaring crowds and multitudes and myriads of angels and men and women and children. Imagine Jesus coming in having done the hardest thing in all of history. Hear the applause; savor the rumble of Heaven; hear the proclamation of the Father, "WELL DONE!!! WELL DONE!!!!!"; behold the King - and now the Savior - sitting on a throne before a glassy sea at the right hand of God where billions worship Him; resound the Amen! And if possible, let it all bring tears to your eyes.

CONCLUSION
Once again, I cannot help but glean from the wisdom of Ned Wilson who stated that evil exists so that it can be defeated. In the Batman movie series, the dark knight hides when there is no crime to stop. For eight years, he secludes Himself because no one needs a hero. God has never had to seclude Himself; He is never bored. But He caused evil so that He, in effect, could save the world. He let the darkness come so that He could be the Light. He made sinners so that He could be their Savior. He initiated separation so that He could be the God who comes to us. He allows desperation so that He can be the Hero, the Remedy, the Redeemer, the High Priest, the Promised One, our Immanuel.

And all of life points to Him in some way (Paul). Every molecule of your being, every speck of dust, every grain of sand, and every lepton which is made from nothing screams that there is a God (David). God established Old Testament rituals so that He could compare Christ to something we can understand (Piper). He created a beautiful world and an unending history to try to describe Himself, an unending, beautiful God; it is His greatest challenge (Wilson). No, He never needed us, but He has always loved us (Platt).

He is beyond comprehension. He is the purpose of life, and the fulfillment of hope is the reason for the world.

Who am I?
I am a digit in God's sentence, a word from His mouth, a character in His play, a vessel for His use.

Where am I going?
Wherever God predestined before the foundation of the world, and if He predestined me for eternal life then I am going to an eternal weight of glory (Paul).

How do I get there?
"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved."

What is my purpose?
Savor the story. Tell it to everyone. Glorify the Author by enjoying Him forever (Piper).