Why Contemplating Eternity Causes Random Black Outs and Major Panic Attacks in Those Who Ask the Question!

Ecclesiastes 3:11 "He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.

Arthur Stace was an ordinary vagabond. He liked his women, his beer and his lifestyle of freedom from authority and the "normal" life afforded to others. His life as a nomad was spent satisfying no one but himself. Then one day the Lord came knocking and asked him a simple question; "Where will you be in eternity?"

This one question so perplexed him, so made his life miserable, that he gave his life to Christ. He then took to the streets with a simple piece of chalk that wrote only one word..."eternity".

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One can't look at a newspaper these days without seeing the often-hysterical reactions to what is often described as a revolutionary and indeed heretical idea – intelligent design, a challenge to Darwinism. All sorts of horrible predictions come to the fore: science will be destroyed by the introduction of 'religion'; American SAT scores will be reduced even further; all science classes will be taught the Bible; natural selection will be obfuscated to religious indoctrination. The overarching theme repeated ad nauseum is “we must not mix religion and science.”

The saddest thing to me is that Christians sing that tune, also. They have accepted the lie that things spiritual and the secular must be strictly divided. And, as a result, the spiritual things are relegated to the 'less important.' This is seen when Christian parents insist their children excel in their performance in their state schools, completing the homework assignments and achieving a strong academic record. However, when it comes to Sunday School, it really isn't that important to attend, and perish the idea that any out of church activity be pursued. Surely one 45-minute period each week is sufficient to accomplish any 'spiritual' or religious teaching necessary in this world! This attitude is also seen when churches refuse to include the scientific in their pulpit speech, or risk the affront of their more academically minded parishioners by addressing serious worldview questions that arise as a result of the naturalistic indoctrination from the culture.

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As part of the 2005 Centurions Program, I have been inundated with information concerning worldview: lectures, books, teleconferences, personal discussions, more books and now my own teaching preparation. Don't misunderstand, I love it all. The intensive process has been great.

But what finally struck me after several months of reading and thinking about the Biblical worldview is its relationship to culture. Mr. Colson and his fellow instructors have mentioned this relationship often in statements such as, "Culture affects how people think and live, and that is why the Cultural Commission is so crucial." Yes, I thought, but exactly how does that dynamic work out? How does someone's worldview shape culture, or vice versa?

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Why is it that spiritual issues seem to be at the forefront of the national conversation right now? The current issue of Newsweek magazine carries a cover story on “Spirituality.” A recent issue of Time magazine carried a story about intelligent design and evolution, with a picture of God and a chimpanzee gazing into each other’s eyes. Recent polls show that religion is also a key factor in determining which party’s candidate a voter will support in an election.

The reason for this national conversation about spirituality is that people deep down sense that this matters in a very important way. When people talk about “spirituality” or “religion,” and or the lack thereof, they are using those words as shorthand to talk about their worldview. A worldview is the paradigm through which a person looks at the world and understands how he or she relates to it. People are not always consistent, but generally will think and act in accordance with their worldview. It is for this reason that a person’s worldview is so critical, not for intellectual debate, but for the implications of it for life in the real world.

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