By Dave Breese

Throughout life, we hear that we need to develop a “world view.” By this we usually mean a comprehension of the facts of life, an understanding of reality. This world view will then be the picture of life that keeps us straight. By this picture we judge life itself. Things are true or false when fitted into our world view. We see things as valuable or worthless, sensible or silly by the standard of our world view.

Now, the interesting development which has come upon us is that we are permitted, even encouraged, to believe that there are any number of worthwhile world views. We are then told that there is an American world view, an Islamic world view, and atheist world view, and perhaps a hundred more, all of which are to be respected by all. We are to duly revere anyone’s set of first principles, for one set is as good as another. There are many moralities, so there are, of course, no absolutes.

“There are no absolutes” is today’s theme. But this theme comes from the west side of hell. Such a non-principle floods the culture with what C. S. Lewis calls “the poison of subjectivism.” No absolutes—is this true? Is there not but one single view which is true?

The answer is that there are absolutes. Yes, there is but a single world view which is true. There is but one final reality by which we can properly understand life. So we need, therefore, to remember again those main points of that single world view. To forget that world view is death. What are the imperative points of that world view? They are...

1. There is a God. Behind all perceivable reality there is a magnificent Being, God. He is allpowerful, all-knowing and everywhere present. He is above all things and in everything. He is not “a god” among others. Rather, He is God over all. Other gods simply do not exist except in human fantasy.

2. God is a Trinity. He is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Each person of the Trinity is co-equal and co-eternal with the other persons of the Trinity.

3. God created all things. The universe and all that is in it and every part of it was designed and brought into being by His power. Having created, Jesus Christ sustains all things. All things, while having been created by Him, are not a part of Him. God and His creation are separate. God is to be worshipped while creation is to be respected as an instrument of the divine will.

4. God created man in His own image. Man is a special creation of God. Man is, therefore, not to be confused with the animals of the field. Having been made in the divine image, man is “like God.“ He possesses intelligence, volition, comprehension of the divine and other attributes which make him similar to God. He is not to be demeaned as a mere part of the animal kingdom.

5. God has given us the law, the rules by which we must live. Man is not given the right or the privilege of inventing the rules. Only God can do this for only He knows all. The law which applies universally to all mankind is clearly delineated in the Bible, the Word of God. It cannot finally be broken. However, man can break himself against the law of God. No life can be called successsful or significant which violates or even ignores the universal law of God.

6. Man has broken the divine law. Man, therefore, is a sinner. By sinning, he (man) came short of the glory of God. By man’s sin, the world system became infected by a deadly moral virus—original sin. The ultimate causes of the world’s problems, therefore, are not simply economic, social or political. They, at root, are moral. The world is in its dreadful condition, not because of a capricious God but because of deliberate human wickedness.

7. God has provided eternal salvation for all men. He did so in the coming of Jesus Christ who came into this world as the sacrifice to bring forgiveness to all mankind and to take away the sinfulness of man. It is the sufficient and sacrificial death of the Son of God on the cross of Calvary which represents for mankind the only hope of salvation. There is no other provision for human iniquity save the sacrificial death of Christ on the cross.

8. God offers salvation by grace to all who believe in Christ. Faith in the person and the work of Christ at Calvary is the sole and only hope for the individual and for the culture. No attempt at human improvement can succeed apart from being built on the divine foundation of Christ and His sacrifice. All other efforts are bound to fail for there is no other foundation for anything,“save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.”

9. God will judge the world. Every person who will have lived in the world—until the end of time—will one day stand before God in judgment. The saved—those who have believed in Jesus Christ will appear at the Judgment Seat of Christ. The lost—those who have not believed in Jesus Christ—will appear at the Great White Throne Judgment. This judgment will reveal the final, moral state of every person, which is the determinant of individual, eternal destiny. The certainty of divine judgment is the great stabilizing factor in life.

Therefore, we conclude that the world is filled with hope, provided that hope is founded on Jesus Christ. Conversely, there remains only despair for all other efforts which are not built on the stated will of God and, therefore, not empowered by the strength of the Lord.

We assert also that this picture of life in reality is more than just “a view.” Rather, it is “the way it is.” These are the facts of life and reality and are the non-negotiable truths by which alone life can be understood.

. . .

There have been many lessons that we have learned since the terrorist attack of September 11th—not the least of which is that tomorrow is not promised to any of us here on earth. Just a touch of the head, a clutch of the heart, or the crash of a plane into a tall building could bring our time here on earth to a sudden and unexpected end. Life remains a very fragile thing that has been given to us by God and for which we should daily give thanks.

But there are other lessons that we have learned as well—important lessons about the nature of the human heart, about the power of religious fanaticism, and about the forces that will drive society to a New World Order at the end of the age. And we would do well to think upon such things, for those lessons will affect the way we live, and those forces are already at play in the world today.

The Reality of the New World Order
It was less than two decades ago that former President George Bush proclaimed the advent of a “New World Order.” Communism had failed to produce Utopia in the Soviet Union, and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev had instituted “glasnost” (the new openness). Democracy was spreading rapidly, Europe had agreed to unite politically and economically, and a sense of inexplicable euphoria gripped the hearts of many of the diverse peoples and rulers of the world.

But agreement upon what a “New World Order” really meant was far from universal. In fact, President Bush did little to explain what he intended by the use of the term. Over time, as reality set back in and people were forced to continue dealing with the not-so-happy exigencies of life, the term lost its luster and fell out of common use.

That, however, did not stem the tide of the massive changes that were moving upon the world. A New World Order, heretofore undefined, began settling in and bringing with it a new paradigm—a shift in the way that life and human values are perceived. The New World Order (whether it is described as such, or not) has rather quickly become a reality.

The prophet Daniel painted a vivid picture of how events would progress as we move to the end of the age: “and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and to the end of the war desolations are determined” (Daniel 9:26). But how do we then reconcile this with the promise of God in Genesis 9:11, that “I will establish My covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of the flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth”? Remembering this, we can be sure that the flood of which Daniel speaks is not a flood of water. Rather, we would suggest that Daniel is speaking of a flood of change, using the picture of a raging flood to describe the irresistible force and humanly unpredictable path of the change that is to come.

The Growing Success of Europe
Take, for example, the recent developments in Europe. Europe has continued to pursue the path to unity, amidst a seemingly unending series of meetings and conferences, for many years. And now, we are beginning to see the fruit of all that hard work. On January 1, 2002, the euro became the common currency of 12 nations in the European Union. Gone were the mark, the franc, the lira, the drachma, the peseta, and other legendary currencies with which we had become so familiar.

The Europeans are not the only ones wrestling with the question of national identity. Will you and I soon be carrying a national ID card? Perhaps! Will it be inherently evil? Not really! Technology, in and of itself, is neither good nor evil. It is the application to which it is put that determines the moral status of any technology. But could it be the precursor to the mark of the beast? Only time will tell.

A Word About Religious Extremism
There is another development that has grown out of the terrorist attacks. We have become acquainted with some radical religious convictions that are diametrically opposed to ours. We have come to understand that there are people who so hate our way of life and our faith in God and in Jesus Christ our Savior that they would gleefully wipe out our entire civilization in order to assure our demise.

This is a chilling reminder that extreme religious commitment outside of Christ can be a very dangerous thing indeed! In fact, even among the numbers who profess to be Christian, there are those who are willing to sacrifice everything for a truth that is less than anything, a creed that is outside of what the Bible really teaches.

Indeed, many antichrists have been with us since the time of Christ. But that number is now growing rapidly, paving the way for the arrival of THE Antichrist and his false prophet. And we, as Christians, must watch carefully that we are not subverted, nor our faith shaken, by the lies of these denizens of the Devil.

So, while we doubt that there is a direct connection between the events of September 11th and the appearance of the satanic trinity, we do believe that we, as Christians, have received a wake-up call in these amazing last days of the Church Age. There are lessons to be learned about evil, about heartless calculation, about the power of deception, and about what we must do to triumph for Christ in a world like this.

Our Role in the Battle for the Universe
There is a great battle going on in the universe. It is the battle between God and Satan, between good and evil, between the ambassadors of heaven and the minions of hell. You and I are soldiers in a battle that eclipses those of mere men.

Let us then live each day as though it might be our last. Let us use the stubborn ounces of this life to tell others about Jesus, while there is yet time. The Lord could come for us at any time. Are we ready? Let’s work together as never before, to tell a world that Jesus saves and is coming back again. I pray that we will.