Walking Off the Map

In Saving Leonardo: A Call to Resist the Secular Assault on Mind, Morals, and Meaning, Nancy Pearcey argues that one question we need to ask of any worldview is “Does it fit the real world? That is, can it be applied and lived out consistently without doing violence to human nature?”

Because human are created in God’s image and live in God’s world, at some point every nonbiblical worldview will fail the practical test. Adherents will not be able to apply it consistently in practice—because it does not fit who they really are.

Pearcey calls this inability to live according to one’s worldview “walking off the map.” People who do this go into “terrain that their map does not account for.”

Atheist and naturalistic philosopher Richard Dawkins is an example of someone who cannot live in a way consistent with his worldview. Dawkins

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Round the Sphere Again: Explaining the Text

…or how not to interpret it.

Owe No One Anything
I’ve known Christians who use Romans 13:8 to teach that it is wrong to borrow money, including some say, taking out a mortgage or a loan to purchase a car. D. A. Carson explains why this verse, read in context, doesn’t say that.

For all kinds of reasons it may be best to avoid fiscal debt of all kinds. But that is scarcely the point the apostle is making here.

(For the Love of God)

Might Not Perish
Back in the olden days, I knew someone who insisted that “that whosoever believes in him might not perish” meant that there was a real possibilty that a believer could wind up perishing after all. But the text isn’t saying that at all. Bill Mounce explains that the above quoted phrase from John 3:16 is a purpose clause telling us that

the purpose of giving his Son was so that believers will most certainly have eternal life.

(Koinonia)

You’ll notice that some versions choose to translate it as “shall not perish” or “will not perish” in order to reflect this certainty; or, to put it more correctly, in order to not introduce an uncertainty that isn’t there. (My general use translation, the ESV, goes with “should not,” which is a little “iffy.”)

A Catechism for Girls and Boys

Part I: Questions about God, Man, and Sin

21. Q. What is your soul?
      A. My soul includes all of me that should know and love God  Ep 3:16-19).

(Click through to read scriptural proofs.)

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