How each of us sees the world is a particularly interesting thing. It’s interesting because we all have a worldview—we’ve all developed something. But for a lot of us, we haven't developed it based on some careful, scientific, or even intentional evaluations. For some of us, it’s simply just something we’ve adopted as we grew up, picking up a little bit here and a little bit there. We kind of gather these pieces from various places until they eventually conglomerate into a worldview. And the surprising part is (though maybe it’s not too surprising), sometimes the beliefs we hold actually contradict each other, and yet, we don't even realize it. That’s what makes our worldviews so fascinating.

       A lot of these contradictions seem to stem from relativism, which appears to have traveled far and wide across our society. It has this dominant impact on how we think. We feel like it’s okay for that person over there to believe what they believe, and it’s okay for someone else to believe something else—even if those beliefs flat-out contradict each other—because we’re told they’re "equally valid and true.” But, logically, that doesn't really add up. And that’s why it’s so important to try to clearly understand why we believe what we believe. It’s not about trying to be the "rightest" person in the room, if you will; it’s about having beliefs we can actually depend on—beliefs that aren't prone to constant contradiction. And if we don’t want to go that deep—if we really don't care—well, that’s a different problem altogether. That might be a problem no one can fix for someone else until they decide to do it for themselves.

       The main concern with living on a set of beliefs that doesn't align with truth is that, not only do those beliefs fail to help us in life, but life can start to feel wayward, like it’s not going anywhere. It can feel like there’s no inherent meaning or purpose. Do we really want to live that way? Just consuming this or that? It seems like so many people are searching for meaning, but they just don't know where to go. A lot of people might glance over at Christianity, but they get turned off by the clichés or the negative reputation the church has from politics. With our natural biases, it can be so easy to just square in on those negative things.

       Unfortunately, many people in America don't seem to grow up with the best upbringing. Sometimes people are fully aware of this, and sometimes they aren't. We’re not just talking about "broken families" here—not just the married couples—but parents who simply don’t provide their children with a clear vision forward, or any real morals to live by in the first place. That often leaves children to pick up whatever they can from their peers, and a lot of the time, those things aren't the best. And while it’s not ideal to learn things on the playground, it’s also not great to learn them from social media. That’s a big one. Social media has become so dominant in kids' lives that it can almost replace what is learned in school—or even parental guidance. Doomscrolling and just adopting whatever appears on a screen doesn't teach us anything real about life.

       The thing of it is, we’re going to go through life, and we probably should be sure that what we believe actually makes sense. We want it to make sense because if it doesn't, there are consequences. Sure, we can wing it. We can just go through the motions haphazardly without ever knowing why we believe what we do. But doesn't it actually seem wiser to square in on those beliefs? To be sure they make sense? After all, if there is a Creator of this world, couldn’t it be possible that we would be accountable to that Being someday? And if we’re going to be held accountable, then we should probably make sure we’re believing in something sound—something that actually correlates with reality.

       Another factor is that what we believe about the world influences how we treat ourselves, and how we treat others, right? If we believe that things don’t matter—that everything is just chance—that’s going to affect our behavior. If we say we believe everyone we see is just a product of natural processes versus a product of a Creator, then doesn’t that change things? Because if people are just products of natural processes, how do we ascribe meaning to anything? That’s a big question. If, on the other hand, we deeply inscribe meaning into the world—if we believe we truly value ourselves and others to a high degree—how does that look?

       Let’s take a brief evaluation of what some of these worldviews actually are, just so we can lay them out and see what’s going on. What are the different options people can choose? Or, to put it another way, the different ways the world can be viewed? This isn't an exhaustive list, but it hits on some major points:
The world is a dream.
The world is relative to your own mind.
Because our minds are limited, we really can't understand what we see.
There is a Creator who created people to live in the world.
The world is total randomness brought about by a random beginning, continuing via evolution.
The world is a predetermined place—created, but everything happens according to a Divine will.
This is one world of many parallel worlds.

We can see some of the different options here, and within these options, it’s likely we may overlap some of them in our personal beliefs. Let’s fly over these and see what we think of them.

       So, the world is a dream. Sounds familiar, right? Probably the first thing that comes to mind is The Matrix (1999), where that was basically the premise. In our day of video games, it feels like something a few people could actually believe. With a love of gaming, it could be possible to take that interest and combine it with a way to see the world—that perhaps someone created this simulation, and we’re all just going through it without any real choice. It’s conceivable. And yet, if this is the case, what are the implications? How do we derive value out of anything if everything is just a simulation? It seems like nothing would matter.

       What about the idea that the world is relative to our own minds? We could define that as meaning the world just is what it is based on how you individually see it. That would mean the world is different things for different people. Someone might conclude, then, that all religious beliefs are equally valid and true because they're based on personal belief. It sounds really good on the surface. It fits in well with human compassion, and our Jeffersonian minds here in the United States. We hold that principle that all people should be allowed to believe what they want, at least, when it comes to religious matters anyway. So, it fits that mold. The concern, though, is the idea of "objective" truth. For instance, as a society, how can we decide what is just or evil for the practice of law under that view?

       Then, we could be the ultimate skeptic and just say we really don’t know—because we can't understand everything we see with our eyes or feel in our hearts. Our minds are too limited, so "just" and "evil" are just labels that don't really make any sense. This seems to fit with a lot of modern science, which has shown that our minds aren't as trustworthy as we think they are. They’re prone to errors. We contradict ourselves in the span of a few minutes! Whatever origin story people take on, or that our minds are affected by a fallen world—whatever it is—it can be believed that our minds are just not dependable. Yet, on the flip side, we do know our minds are capable of some good things—really, many good things—so how does that work alongside this—that the mind is not dependable?

       We could also adopt the position that there was an original Creator, and most of us will probably develop some variation of this viewpoint. But as we know, there are all kinds of variations of that position. That’s what we call religions. With Christianity being the most predominant religion here in the United States, a lot of us probably take some variation of it. Yet, there are other avenues—Islam, Hinduism, and others. A lot of these systems have origin stories of where we came from. Some of us will adopt that specific spelled-out story, and some will hold the religious belief but not adopt that particular origin story of the said religion. So, things get mixed up a bit.

       This leads to another prevailing belief in American society—and around the world—which is the theory of evolution. The idea that the creatures we see, including ourselves, evolved from a common ancestor. And that ancestor depends on how far back you go. There has been a tremendous amount of scientific research to try to show the truth behind this—that one species evolved from another. This only adds to the strength of the argument because, after all, if you’ve got all this data to back it up, it must be true, right? Some people just look at the overwhelming amount of data as evidence itself. Some see order in the structure, because animals seem to go "in order" from one to the next in a coherent fashion. Does this mean we should combine evolution with Intelligent Design?

       Much like the dream or video game idea we talked about earlier, a lot of people also believe that everything that happens is predetermined. The world is a predetermined place. This makes a lot of sense because it means the Creator can have everything figured out—they're ahead of everything because everything that's going to happen is supposed to happen. So, the world becomes a completely safe space. And because our minds are prone to making stories out of everything—or attributing meaning to them—it feels good to think this way. It’s coherent to the mind. It makes sense. And besides, if everything is predetermined, then truly there is nothing ever to worry about, because what is going to happen is supposed to happen.

       Finally, let’s consider the idea that this world is just one of many parallel worlds. It appears a lot of us are familiar with this now, especially with all these new superhero movies and comics revolving around “multiverses.” So, it could be that there is a Creator, and what we see with our eyes is just the manifestation of this one particular world. It’s just whatever God decided to do in this space, or perhaps it happened by chance. But there could be other worlds out there—similar, yet different. Maybe every new choice leads to a different world, like the world just keeps branching out based on every choice we make. Regardless, it’s an interesting concept, and honestly, it’s a pretty hard thing to wrap your head around. And when you think about it, this whole "multiple worlds" idea sounds very similar to the idea that the world is a dream or a simulation. But then again, so does the idea of a predetermined world.

       Now, it’s beyond the scope of this message to try to evaluate every single one of these theories in detail—to lay out all the pros and cons and everything else. But what can be done here at this point is share the personal beliefs, and why they are held. Perhaps, at the very least, we can get to the point of thinking seriously about our own worldviews—because that’s really the heart of this message. Your personal worldview may be correct, but it’s also possible that it’s not as robust as it should be. And as we grow, it’s likely going to be tweaked along the way in whatever ways are necessary. The important thing for all of us is that we seek the truth, because as Jesus told us, “the truth will set you free” (John 8:32, ESV). There’s no point—and no good in—avoiding the truth, even if it feels a bit uncomfortable when we first encounter it.

       To answer the question of why what is personally believed is believed, well, a lot of it comes down to the order of creation we see around us. If we look at the earth, it seems pretty clear there was a Designer. Look at the way the Sun is positioned in outer space—giving the earth light and the exact right amount of temperature. It just seems to make sense. Or look at the earth itself: from the oxygen in the atmosphere to the trees and plants and the animals. It looks like a design. A human doesn’t look like a bug, and a four-legged animal doesn’t look like a human. Those are just basic observations, and they seem to match what is described in Genesis chapters 1 and 2. Everything seems to work in perfect harmony. The systems of the earth just work—the sunlight, the water, the air, and the way we eat. It appears only a Creator could have set them up.

       A second big reason why this it is personally believed is a Creator has to do with, well, morality. Or rather, the lack of it we could say. When we look at life lived without an awareness of a Creator, it seems like the human mind and body just do whatever they want, driven by selfish motives without much of a reason. But we eventually discover that just doing whatever you want is—at the end of the day—pretty empty. It feels like life has no real "meaning" because it’s just too random, too much by chance. When first coming to believe in Christianity, what this religion said about morality just made sense. It made sense that we shouldn't be sexually immoral. It made sense that we should control our anger. It made sense that we shouldn't just care about ourselves, but about how our actions affect others—and what we can actually do to help them.

       Now, unfortunately, due to a lack of understanding a great deal when first starting out—which it seems was partly due to a general disdain for "schoolwork"—there was a bit of a "storyization" of things in the early beliefs. It was believed that God controlled every little single thing that happened, and that there was zero chance in the world. That was the idea: it had to be that way for meaning, and for God to be totally in control. But over many years of reading and studying, the realization came that the outlook was actually very unlikely. Because of free will and the way the world works, a lot of things are due to chance. Not because God isn't there, but because of the systems He set in place. That’s the balance that happened within the personal beliefs, and it truly feels much more robust and likely representative of what we see with our eyes every day.

       To pause there for a second and elaborate—sure, we could say that nothing is too small for God to control. And that might be true. But that doesn’t seem to really be the point. The point is that God desires freedom for people. It’s believed He wants us to make free-will choices. So, it wouldn’t really make sense for Him to "control" every single detail. Beyond that, the idea is that we are created in His image, as Genesis 1:27 tells us. And if we’re made in His image, it makes sense that we do things like He does. In some sense, our experience represents His experience. We don’t control every little thing in our lives; for example, a car’s engine runs on its own once you start it. So, why would we assume God is micromanaging every single little detail in the universe?

       Of course, while studying over the years, other religions were examined in terms of their truth versus Christianity. One position that has proved itself to be true is that many things contain elements of truth—not just Christian things, but other religions too. And that’s what makes things difficult sometimes. You might wonder, "If they all have some truth, why is any one religion considered incorrect?" But we know from the Christian Scriptures that Jesus Christ is God incarnate. And if that’s the case, He represents the highest and most accurate truth. And, of course, many other religions don’t believe that.

       Early on, the teaching received was that Christianity is the exclusive group—that those outside the "faith" will spend eternity separated from God, or punished in Hell. That always seemed problematic to the mind, because we’re also taught that God looks at the heart. At the same time, we’re told to "shine our lights" and share the Gospel message with those who don't believe. That’s what the Great Commission tells us. That’s what seems to be pointed at in other parts of the New Testament. That sharing can make it seem like Christianity is an elite "chosen" group, and that everyone else is doomed. But in the Scriptures, there are hints that God works with people groups outside that "chosen" realm. Look at Melchizedek in the Old Testament or Cornelius in the New Testament. They suggest that people believe in God outside the focused group. And we know God sends people to align persons more accurately—like how Priscilla and Aquila did for Apollos in the Book of Acts.

       But why Evangelical Christianity specifically? Why believe in what the Evangelicals believe? Well, besides it being the group first introduced to, it was found that their beliefs align most closely with what feels logical and coherent to a Western mind. When you look at the different sects, a big contender is the Eastern Orthodox, mainly because they claim to be the "original" church, going all the way back to the Apostles. But there doesn’t seem to be any way to prove that other than the ‘faith’ that they hold about it. To take a random example: they note that their churches today look like the first churches, yet we know most of the first churches met in homes or synagogues. Besides, knowing the character of Jesus, it doesn’t seem He would be overly concerned with what the "front altar" looks like anyway. He didn’t establish that kind of stuff in His earthly ministry, and the Apostles didn't lay out any physical designs in the New Testament like God did at times in the Old Testament.

       Yet, what Martin Luther accomplished in breaking away from the Roman Catholic Church feels like something Jesus would have done Himself—it feels logical and reasonable. We need to consider that the idea that salvation, or even a lesser punishment in eternity, could be bought feels particularly abhorrent; it felt like a way for leaders back in Luther’s time to gain money. That worked in conjunction with the belief that "works" were a necessary part of people’s salvation. When Luther read the Scriptures, he saw a totally different perspective: that works are not required for salvation, as the Apostle Paul says in Romans. This led him to the conclusion that the Bible itself should be the standard for our beliefs, and not what leaders come up with in their own minds. It was the belief that the Bible alone could tell us how to live—and that traditional beliefs weren't strictly necessary.

       Concerns about the practices of the Roman Catholic Church are still held, even though some personal ancestors were Catholic—including the grandfather on the mother’s side—mostly because it often doesn't seem to come from the right motives. Looking at the big picture, it doesn't seem like Jesus would approve of all the nooks and crannies of their specific requirements. It just feels too complex. That’s not to say anything against Catholics—there are definitely good, God-fearing, devout Catholics. But in the personal experience, the Evangelical side just seems more likely. Of course, you could counter with Jesus’s saying that whatever is established on earth will be established in Heaven and so on and so forth. But regardless, it is believed the Lord Jesus Christ is in a personal relationship with Catholic people. There doesn’t seem to be any doubt about that.

       To bring this back roundabout, it seems best to look at the world in a practical way, which is the personal belief. To look at the world as a dream, or a fantasy, or just a product of total chance, that doesn't seem very likely at all. Relativism doesn't seem likely either, because something as simple as gravity shows us that truth is true regardless of who is involved. (Except maybe for angelic beings, from the personal beliefs.) It is believed that there has to be one highest truth—the truth that encompasses everything. And a good place to anchor that is the Christian Bible. A lot of people try to anchor that in the theory of Evolution, or try to combine the two, but that doesn't really make sense under careful evaluation. Of course, one can go "total sci-fi" and argue for parallel universes or a multiverse, but why? What’s the point? While it’s theoretically possible, it doesn't seem to hold any inherent value or help us in our lives.

       In light of everything we've discussed today, there is something everyone here can do—and some need to do it more than others. Everyone should seek the truth at face value, and not be afraid of what you might find. We should never be afraid of where the truth leads. And sure, that’s easier said than done. But from the personal vantage point, it is believed this is something God wants us to do. It is good to consider these things, to really ponder them when you have the time—whether that’s just sitting and thinking, or carrying it with you throughout the day. This is the only way to feel confident in what you believe. Because yes, we might feel confident right now, but if we know deep down that we aren't anchored in what you believe—if we know we have lingering doubts—then we aren't going to feel very good in those quiet moments of life.

       Personally, it just makes sense that Jesus came to earth to help us. It makes sense that God would do that—that He’d take care of His creation by dying to free us from the guilt of our sins and gaining victory over our enemy for us. And that’s something else for you to really sit with: just think about the character of Jesus. It seems like He actually lived out what He told us to do—you know, ““as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them” (Luke 6:31, ESV). He practiced what He preached. That’s exactly what He did when He died on the cross for us. And then, after the resurrection, He promises that same thing for us—so that we, like Him as the Creator, can live forever. That is such an incredible thought. To be able to live forever in peace, surrounded by people we love, that’s awesome. What greater thing could there be?