Volume 2 Number 19 October 10, 2007

MarketFaith Ministries is an equipping ministry which is focused on helping Christians become more effective
in living out their faith in the midst of the increasingly diverse worldview environment of modern society.
About Today’s Article

Before you forget, how about forwarding this article to a friend of yours right now. We appreciate your help in sharing the
ministry of MarketFaith Ministries with others.

Today we are looking at reasons why an understanding of worldview is important. We keep harping on the idea that
worldview is not some abstract principle, but is a practical tool. Today we are going to try and spell that out a little more
clearly. Even if you never intend to become an expert in the field, you can, at least, become knowledgeable enough to use
it as a tool to strengthen your faith.

It is my deep hope that you are finding the MarketFaith Ministry resources helpful. Let us know whenever we can be of
help to you in answering questions or pointing you to specific resources.

On another note, we are continuing our campaign to raise $7000.00 to grow the ministry. Would you consider partnering
with us to help us reach this goal? Any amount would be deeply appreciated. MarketFaith Ministries is a registered non-
profit Christian ministry, so your gift is tax deductible. To show our appreciation, all who contribute during this fund
(Continued on page 2)

How Can a Knowledge of Worldview Help Your Spiritual Growth?

There are people who really get into the study of nutrition
and can tell you what all of the vitamins and minerals are This principle concerning knowledge is true in many areas
and what they do for the body. I deeply appreciate the peo- of life. But today we want to see how it applies to our spiri-
ple who do this because that is not a topic that I want to tual lives. Sometimes people don’t pay much attention to
spend much time studying. I do, though, want to have that the topic of worldview because even the word itself seems
information available. Let them do all of the research and to express some kind of abstract concept which doesn’t
just tell me what foods are good for me and what kinds are have much relevance to real life. Nothing, though, could be
bad, right? further from the truth, and to counter that impression we
want to take a moment to explore the practical implications
Wouldn’t it be great if it really were that simple? I certainly of this topic. How does knowing, or not knowing, about
don’t need to know the kind of detail a nutritionist knows. worldview affect your everyday spiritual growth.
But if I don’t at least learn the basics I am setting myself up
to allow my body to deteriorate. A young person can get There are two arenas where the practical expressions of
away with bad nutrition for a time, but there will come a day worldview can be vividly seen. The first area relates to your
when it will catch up. And the damage that a long term lack personal spiritual life. The second is connected with how
of good nutrition causes will make ones later years awful. At
every age people need to know what foods deliver the (Continued on page 2)
kinds of nutrients that the body requires for optimum health.

Contact MarketFaith Ministries

312 Anton Dr. Toll Free: 888-883-0656
Tallahassee, FL 32312 info@marketfaith.org Phone: 850-383-9756
http://www.marketfaith.org Fax: 850-514-4571

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(Introduction - Continued from page 1)
raising effort will receive a free copy of our next book, Worldview Witnessing, when it is released later this fall. You may
send your contribution to: MarketFaith Ministries, 321 Anton Dr., Tallahassee, FL 32312.

God bless,
Freddy

(A Knowledge of Worldview - Continued from page 1)

you express your faith toward others. Lets look at these two areas and explore how we can use worldview to make our
personal faith lives stronger in every respect.

Know What You Believe

What is it that causes a person not to have confidence in his or her faith? A lack of confidence is a direct result of not
knowing two things – what your faith consists of and why it is the truth. Let’s consider what this means. The “what” part
can be addressed simply by a study of the doctrines of the faith. The “why” part, though, is the domain of worldview.

Suppose someone begins attacking your Christian faith. It may not even be directly to your face. It may be simply some-
one blabbing away when you are in a small group in an informal setting. What will you say, if anything? If you truly don’t
know how to articulate what you believe and why, you will probably not say anything because you have no idea what to
say. However, if you have the ability to express your beliefs that way, you get to decide whether or not it would be appro-
priate to respond at that time. If you determine that it is, you have the ability to say something.

There is another place where consciously knowing our belief foundation is important. God is a person and it is possible
for us to interact with him in a personal relationship. However, if we don’t know much about what he is like, and believe in
our heart of hearts that he is a real person, it becomes difficult to interact with him.

I’m sure you have been in situations where you had to interact with someone that you really didn’t know well. If it turned
out that this other person came from a culture that you were totally unfamiliar with, you, no doubt, found it even more dif-
ficult to connect well. God is a person who has a particular personality. If we do not know what he is like, it is hard to
know what to talk to him about and how to interact with him. It is essential for us, as Christians, to know all of the ele-
ments of our faith so we will be confident as we interact with God.

There is a third area where knowing what we believe, and why, is important. This relates to knowing what our faith teach-
es about lifestyle. It is not enough to know what God is like, we must also conform our own lives to the requirements for
interaction with him. God is a holy person and cannot allow sin into his presence. If we insist on living a life that is con-
trary to his teachings, we have relegated ourselves to living outside of fellowship with him. To solve this problem, it is im-
portant for us to have confidence that our faith position is the truth. This is massively enhanced by an understanding of
worldview.

(Continued on page 2)

Find these books along

with other great world-
view resources at
www.marketfaith.org

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(A Knowledge of Worldview - Continued from page 2)

Know What Others Believe

The second category where the practical expressions of worldview emerge relates to sharing our faith with others. With-
out confidence in your personal beliefs you might doggedly hold on to your faith, but you can bet the farm you won’t be
spending any time and effort sharing it with others. Even knowing our own faith will not give us confidence to share if we
don’t have a way to evaluate the truth of our beliefs in relationship to the truth claims of other beliefs. If we want to be able
to effectively witnesses for our Lord, it is essential for us to know what others believe and why the other beliefs are not the
truth. Worldview gives us this understanding.

We know that two opposing beliefs can’t both be true at the same time. They can both be false, but both cannot be true.
Worldview gives us a set of tools to not only compare various belief systems with one another, but also to help us under-
stand the truth of our own Christian faith and evaluate weaknesses in the truth claims of other beliefs.

For instance, if a Naturalist approaches you and begins giving all kinds of “scientific evidence” as to why Darwinistic evo-
lution is true, how will you deal with it? One possible approach is to go point by point and refute each argument. It is pos-
sible to do that, but there are literally thousands of arguments you might have to deal with and you will always be on the
defensive. But, if you can show that the worldview itself is not valid, it throws into doubt all of the arguments they make as
they try to defend it.

As an example, Darwinistic evolution requires for matter (or, at least, the building blocks of matter) to be eternal. If you
can demonstrate that this belief is, itself, is nothing more than a philosophical assumption (rather than a scientific certain-
ty) all of the arguments which are built upon it are shown to
be suspect. The Naturalist’s belief is demonstrated to be
just as certainly a faith position as our own. All that is left,
then, is to determine which faith position has more support. Subscription Information
Using worldview tools, this is a relatively easy thing to do.
If you would like to receive Worldview Made Practical as a
This is just one example using one worldview, but the prin- free email subscription, simply go to www.marketfaith.org
ciple applies to every belief system. If we can understand and click on the sign up link.
worldview and demonstrate how the various non-Christian
belief systems are suspect based on their faith assump- Past Issues of Worldview Made Practical are available
tions, our confidence in our own faith skyrockets. This con- free of charge in .pdf (Acrobat) format in the archives at
fidence makes us more comfortable and confident to share http://www.marketfaith.org.
the truth with others.

What Are You Going to Do About It?
It is possible to delve into both of the areas above in a
scholarly manner. Realistically, though, not everyone is
interested enough in the topic to become a scholar in that
field. There is nothing wrong with that, but it would be a
tragedy to take that sentiment too far. Just as a basic un-
derstanding of nutrition is important for our long term physi-
cal health, at least a basic understanding of worldview is
important for our spiritual health.
PERMISSION TO REPRINT: If you wish to reprint this
month’s article in your own print or electronic newsletter,
please include the following paragraph:
Reprinted from Worldview Made Practical; a free e-zine
produced by MarketFaith Ministries featuring practical
teaching and life tools to help Christians become more ef-
fective in their faith life. Discover MarketFaith Ministries at
www.marketfaith.org.

God is deeply interested in having you develop an ever

deeper relationship with him. He is concerned that you not
be lured away from your relationship with him in any way.
He also wants to use your life to touch others and lead
them to a relationship with himself. Our grasp of the practi-
cal implications of worldview will provide us the tools to
conform to the purposes and ways of God.
You don’t have to become a professional Christian apolo-
gist. But at the very least you ought to put yourself on the
road to gradually learning the basics. The practical expres-
sions of this will be that your personal relationship with God
will grow deeper and your witness to others stronger.
Support MarketFaith Ministries
The purpose of MarketFaith Ministries is to equip the Body
of Christ to become more effective by sharing the practical
applications of worldview. We are involved in developing
training and resource materials for that very purpose. If
you would like to partner with us in this effort, you may
send your tax deductible contribution to MarketFaith Minis-
tries, 321 Anton Dr., Tallahassee, FL 32312.

Next Month’s Article: How Never to Be on the Defen-

sive Regarding Your Faith in Christ
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