Christian Worldview Essay

Back in the day before and during the days of Judaism 90% of the Mediterranean was pagan. By the time Paul arrived in Corinth, pilgrims have been worshiping for centuries in shrines. Arriving in Corinth with one mindset, Paul was trying to bring the message of Christianity into pagan areas, especially the Mediterranean area. Known as

Paul visited Ephesus on his first missionary journey, on the way from Greece to Syria. After his third missionary journey, he stayed there and pastored the Ephesian church for 3 years (Easton, np). “Though Paul was not the first to bring Christianity to Ephesus, for Jews had long lived there, he was the first to make progress against the worship of Diana” (Orr, np). Because of his strong ties to the church, Paul cared deeply about the faith of the believers there (Macarthur, np).

Worldview is defined as the concept of how one envisions the reality. It is the framework of ideas concerning the world, humans, and life in general. The concept of worldview tends to describe a comprehensive set of beliefs which govern people’s perception of the world. There are some worldview questions that seek to determine the origin of man, the existence of God and much more.

Paul, a missionary, established many Christian communities as he traveled around. One church he founded in Galatia began to stray away from the Christian teachings that Paul left for them. Because of the people abandoning their beliefs, Paul writes letters to the church to set things straight. The letters he wrote to this church is now contained in the book of Galatians in the Bible.

The people who whisked Paul from Berea took him to Athens, and that is where we find him in the situation we formerly described (Acts 17:15).

As we open the text this morning, remember Paul is now in the intellectual city of Athens (show map) after escaping from vicious enemies in Berea. In this city, the great philosophers, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus, and Zeno lived and taught.

In Thessalonica, Paul and his companions worked primarily with Gentiles to convince them that there was only one God, the God of Israel, who was worthy of devotion and worship and that Jesus was his Son. The majority of Paul’s converts seemed to be from the lower classes. If we assume that some members of the community came from the upper classes, we can better understand some of the

Having a worldview contributes to each person’s evaluation of origins, which in return will impact each individuals life choices. Holmes defines a worldview that “is not disengaged theology; rather it represents the beliefs and values and purposes that guide our work, play, family, and society.” While many worldviews seek answers to life’s fundamental questions, Christians stand on the foundation of a biblical worldview. A biblical worldview is an overall concept of the world and humankind’s part in it, grounded on God’s authority, which He reveals to each person through the Bible. Specifically, Paul addresses the issue of the Christian worldview

The problems and questions created by each community necessitated Paul’s writings. For he Paul’s writing to the Thessalonians was to convince them to turn away from the idols. Moreover, writing letters were important to Paul as it was one of the effective way

Among the many New Testament characters recorded in Scripture, the Apostle Paul, by far, is one of the most intriguing. Like the twelve apostles who were companions of Jesus during His earthly ministry, the Apostle Paul was far from perfect but he possessed an extraordinary zeal for God that stood out against the other apostles. Consequently, Jesus likely took notice of Paul’s zeal as well, thus it is no surprise, at least to this author, that Jesus would choose Paul to take the gospel to the Gentiles in faraway lands. Unfortunately, little is known about Paul’s early life. However, and according to Scripture, Paul was likely born around the time of Jesus’ birth (Acts 7:58) in the City of Tarsus, Cecilia, which was a providence of the Roman Empire (McCray, 2003). Tarsus, being a providence of Roman Empire, also made the young Paul a Roman Citizen and Diaspora Jew which Paul would later use to his advantage when facing three separate cases of persecution (Acts 16:37; Acts 22:25-29; Acts 24:27) in the Book of Acts (McCray, 2003).

The Apostle Paul (formerly Saul) is responsible for the spread of Christianity throughout the areas of Asia Minor and Greece. Through his 3 mission trips to the region Paul created a base of support for the Christian faith and implemented a support strategy for future growth. The time period for his journeys was 45 AD – 58 AD. The story of Paul is interesting from the perspective that the man best known as the author of most of the New Testament started out as a devout Jew and despised the Christian faith. After his conversion he made it his life’s work to spread the Christian message throughout the world. To this end, Paul made several mission trips to the area of Asia Minor and Greece.

To summarize the rest of Paul’s second missionary journey, he eventually went to Athens where he created another church then to Corinth where he created a third Christian church. In Paul’s third missionary journey, he revisited Asia Minor and Greece. His success in converting Ephesians brings him into conflict with the worshippers of the goddess Artemis. Yet again Paul was found innocent of any wrongdoing. On Paul’s journey back to Jerusalem, he meets a prophet which foretells his fatal “binding” in Jerusalem. Upon his return to Jerusalem, Paul bowed to the wishes of James for him to participate in purification rites in the Temple to prove his faithfulness to Torah regulations, but his presence in the Temple incited riots. The Roman soldiers that intervene save Paul’s life, but place him into protective custody where he remained a prisoner of Roman authorities

Paul's life has a great impact on all Christianity after him through his letters, and if I can state, he was like a prophet for gentiles, bringing the Jesus the Messiah to them. Paul's passion for Jesus that happened after he met him on the way to Damascus, made him having a strong assurance that the message of the Jesus is true and is offered for everyone. His calling was to be spread the good news of salvation through Jesus, the Messiah first to the Jews then to gentiles. In Acts, 13-28 are recorded three of Paul's trips, started to the Antioch and concluded with the trip to Rome called to stand for his trial. Due to his faith-based on the life, death and resurrections of Jesus Christ, he experienced much suffering and persecution. His

One’s worldview, as the term implies, represents the, way one views the world and all that exists therein. In the case of the Christian, his/her worldview is shaped by the divinely inspired, infallible, and inerrant Word of God which serves as the lens or prism through which the Christian views the world and everything therein: and it is through this lens that those profound questions regarding human origins, identity, meaning/purpose, morality, and destiny are seen with a deeply satisfying clarity.

Today’s society consists of many worldviews. Most people tend to pull beliefs from different religions, but often stick to one main worldview. A worldview to me is the gathering of beliefs that shape what we do on a daily basis and forms our overall view on life. When I look at my beliefs critically, I am able to see my worldview and see how it compares to different worldviews, but also how it compares mainly to the Christian Worldview.