John MacArthur - Think Biblically!: Recovering a Christian Worldview

Think Biblically!

Original edition copyright 2003 by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue

Published by Crossway Books
a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers
1300 Crescent Street
Wheaton, Illinois 60187

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided by USA copyright law.

Cover design: Kirk DouPonce, The DesignWorks Group,
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Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from the ESVBible (The Holy Bible: English Standard Version), copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

References marked NASB are from The New American Standard Bible, copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, and 1995 by The Lockman Foundation and are used by permission.

References marked KJV are from the King James Version.

First printing, new cover 2009

Printed in the United States of America

Trade paperback ISBN: 978-1-4335-0398-6

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

MacArthur, John, 1939

Think biblically! : recovering a Christian worldview / John MacArthur and the Masters College faculty ; John MacArthur, general editor ;

Richard L.Mayhue, John A. Hughes, associate editors.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 13: 978-1-58134-412-7 (HC : alk. paper)

ISBN 10: 1-58134-412-0

1. Christian lifeBiblical teaching. I. Mayhue, Richard, 1944II. Hughes, J. A., 1941- . III. Masters College. IV. Title.

BS680.C47 M335 2003
230dc21 2002151364

LB 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09
13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

DEDICATED TO

the Board of Directors, friends of The Masters College,
faculty, staff, alumni, and present/future students at
The Masters College who are committed to
living for Gods glory and pleasure according to the
Christian worldview shaped by Scripture

CONTENTS

PART ONE
THE BIBLICAL FOUNDATION

John MacArthur

Richard L. Mayhue

John MacArthur

John MacArthur

John MacArthur

Mark A. Tatlock

PART TWO
THE BIBLICAL FORMULATION

Brian K. Morley

Stuart W. Scott

Patricia A. Ennis

Paul T. Plew

John D. Street

Taylor B. Jones

13 WHY CHRISTIAN EDUCATION AND NOT
SECULAR INDOCTRINATION?

John A. Hughes

Clyde P. Greer, Jr.

John P. Stead

R. W. Mackey, II

Grant Horner

THEMASTERSCOLLEGE
CONTRIBUTORS

Patricia E. Ennis, Ed.D, Northern Arizona University
Chairperson, Department of Home Economics
Professor of Home Economics

Clyde P. Greer, Jr., D.A., Carnegie-Mellon University
Chairperson, Department of History and Political Studies
Professor of History

Grant Horner, Ph.D. (A.B.D.), University of North Carolina
Assistant Professor of English

John A. Hughes, Ph.D., Brigham Young University
Vice President for Academic Affairs
Professor of Education

Taylor B. Jones, Ph.D., University of Texas
Chairperson, Department of Biological and Physical
Sciences Chairperson, Department of Mathematics
Professor of Chemistry

John MacArthur, Litt.D, D.D., Talbot Theological Seminary
President
Professor of Bible

R. W. Mackey, II, Ed.D., Pepperdine University
Chairperson, Department of Business
Administration Professor of Business Administration

Richard L. Mayhue, Th.D., Grace Theological Seminary
Senior Vice President and Provost
Professor of Bible

Brian K. Morley, Ph.D., Claremont School of Theology
Professor of Philosophy and Apologetics

Paul T. Plew, Ed.D., Nova Southeastern University
Chairperson, Department of Music
Professor of Music

Stuart W. Scott, D.Min., Covenant Theological Seminary
Associate Professor of Biblical Counseling

John P. Stead, Ph.D., University of Southern California
Professor of History and Political Studies

John D. Street, D.Min., Westminster Theological Seminary
Chairperson, Department of Biblical Counseling
Associate Professor of Biblical Counseling

Mark A. Tatlock, Ed.D., Nova Southeastern University
Vice President for Student Life

In keeping with the mission of The Masters College to empower students for a life of enduring commitment to Christ, biblical fidelity, moral integrity, intellectual growth, and lasting contribution to the kingdom of God, this volume has been written to instruct and exhort all those who will eventually read this material to embrace a Christian worldview. Without apology or reservation, The Masters College is committed to the absolute authority, centrality, inerrancy, infallibility, primacy, and sufficiency of Gods Word. Thus Scripture is by far the single most important source that informs and shapes our view of God and His created world.

Think Biblically! targets students and nonstudents alike. In an era of postmodern influence that advocates that there are no absolutes and that everyones opinion is of equal value, this volume issues a serious call to recover a Christian worldview that is absolute and exclusive. As many individual believers, conservative evangelical churches, and Christian schools drift away from a high view of God and His Word, their worldview will be compromised by error. These essays are intended to reaffirm and restore a biblically-based view of lifes reality from Gods perspective; some of the content is intended to be prescriptive and some proscriptive. Whether the reader is a student in high school or college, a pastor or professor, a missionary or biblical counselor, a layperson or Christian worker, this book will help refocus proper attention on Gods understanding of the world in which one lives.

This volume is not intended to be an unabridged treatment of the subject. For instance, the explanations of and defenses against other worldviews have not been included. Further, no single chapter exhausts its subject but rather furnishes a suggestive, general treatment. Each chapter could have been expanded into a full-length book. Also, additional disciplines could have been treated had space permitted. However, the broad sweep of this presentation is its intended strength.

This work is divided into two major sections. Part One presents The Biblical Foundation, which deals with six major ideas that frame the basics of a Christian worldview, including a special emphasis on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Part Two illustrates The Biblical Formulation, in which many, but not all, of the more important contemporary outworkings of a Christian worldview are representatively and briefly treated.

The reader will also note a diversity in the levels of style in treating the different topics. At one end are chapters whose documentation is extensive, and at the other are those in which documentation is minimal. To some extent, this diversity results from the nature of individual subjects, and to a lesser degree, the choice of each contributor. Even though the reader might perceive a minor difference of opinion, The Masters College Faculty is unanimously and wholeheartedly committed to a biblical worldview as presented in Scripture.