General Views and Approach

Whether or not the best things in life are free, the most important things sure seem controversial. And for better or worse, many of them fall under the worldview topics that I feel called to talk about. It’s not that I like controversy. I’m Canadian, and confrontation usually makes me want to run and hide in the nearest snow tunnel. But the reason why worldview issues are so controversial is because they’re so important. After all, we’re talking about some of the things that humanity holds most dearly: knowledge, beliefs, justice, autonomy, life, death, eternity…

Any personal ideas I might have on these issues don’t really matter if they just came from me; what counts is what’s true. So, I’ll try to remove personal opinion from the picture by accepting one trustworthy, external premise as an absolute basis from which to deduce all other perspectives.

The premise: What Scripture says is true. 

Scripture refers to the canon of 66 books, the Bible, in which all the key tenets of historical Christianity are founded. The reasons why this foundation is trustworthy and absolute are heavily-documented elsewhere. True, meanwhile, means literally true, and literal means taking the historical-grammatical approach: accepting the most straightforward interpretation of the text based on how its original audience would have understood it. That might be a literal narrative, or it might be non-literal poetry, metaphor or symbolism, depending on clues like context, content and grammar.

For example,  I regularly tuck nonfiction inside fictitious or metaphorical frame stories in my own writing. People responding to these pieces have never yet said “Wow, I can’t believe that story actually happened!”, but rather, “Hey, I liked that illustration!” They were applying the historical-grammatical approach.

Accepting Scripture this way entails siding with God’s word when mainstream culture says one thing and a straightforward reading of Scripture indicates another. What this doesn’t entail is ignoring data and observations–it just might mean applying an alternative interpretation to the data, one that is as consistent as possible with both the observable facts and a biblical worldview. It’s about intellectual honesty without scriptural compromise.

And certainly, it’s about love. The Bible shows over and over that love is the crux of everything that matters, commanding us to love God and others with everything in us (Deuteronomy 6, John 15, 1st John 1), to speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15), and to do everything with love (1 Corinthians 16:12-14). Without love, in fact, the most eloquent words, convincing argument, or noblest deeds neither achieve nor mean anything (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).

So whether we’re on exactly the same page about everything, I pray that love doesn’t fail to travel through these words. I pray you find the articles, resources and critical thinking tools here useful, informative and encouraging. As we talk about the tough things, the best things, and the controversial things, I pray those messages remain founded in Scripture, seasoned with grace, and focused on the best thing in life: love.