The conflict of worldviews and the Christian mind
Tackett: Live into the Christian meta-narrative or seek to write your own story
By Carmen Fowler LaBerge, The Layman, March 19, 2012
Are you going to live based on what you feel or based on what is really real? That is the underlying question in the worldview conversation led by Dr. Del Tackett at the Ligonier Christian Mind Conference held in Orlando, March 15-17.
Tackett asserted that “The real collision of worlds today is that between conflicting and contradictory truth claims. There are many worldviews, which is really just a set of truth claims that purport to paint a comprehensive picture of life. Christianity is one of them, but there are also secular humanism, Marxism and Islam.”
Tackett, the chief architect of The Truth Project told those gathered that “a worldview seeks to answer the question ‘What is really real?'” Then he stated the obvious, “And the truth is that they can’t all be right because they are contradictory. We have a conflict.”
Ultimately, the biggest conflict surrounds the acceptance or rejection of the Biblical meta-narrative. Tackett then quoted one of the founders of the post-modern ideology, John Frances Leotard, “Simplifying to the extreme, I define post-modernism as incredulity toward meta-narratives.” Tackett explained, “Post-modernism is a scoffing rejection toward any sense that there is a larger story.”
He then observed that “I would submit to you that what he is speaking of is not new … this is exactly what Satan was doing when he spoke to Eve. God had already framed the story but Satan sought to re-frame it. ‘You could be so much more than the character God has deigned. Embrace your own destiny. Write your own story. Eat the fruit.'”
According to Leotard’s post-modern ideology, “a meta narrative is a large story that pretends to give an all encompassing view of the world and … an attempt to legitimize some version of truth.”
Tackett said “this is what causes us to begin to believe that there is something more appealing about our own script. My story is going to bring me something more than God’s story. I contend that we do this every day.”
The question is then, Tackett continued, “Do we really believe God’s meta-narrative even if it brings hardship, pain, suffering, rejection and all the things we try to write our own script around?”
Jesus clearly believed God’s meta-narrative. He advocated it. He submitted to it. It was His story and it was His script. The question for Christians today is then, according to Tackett, “will we give up our script? Will we say not my will but Thine be done? Will we say not my story, your story; not my script, your script?”
God’s meta-narrative is revealed throughout the Scriptures and across history, but Tackett pointed to Isaiah 46 as a place where “it’s all summed up.”
Verses 9-11 read, “Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me. I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please. From the east I summon a bird of prey; from a far-off land, a man to fulfill my purpose. What I have said, that will I bring about; what I have planned, that will I do.”
The Bible declares that there is a meta-narrative, an over-arching story. “But,” Tackett asked, “what if it’s not a good story? What if it’s not a good plan? That’s what Satan says and then,” Tackett observed, “he proposes alternative stories: ‘What about this one or this one or this one … happiness, fame, fortune, everything under the sun.'” The problem is, as is noted in the book of Ecclesiastes, all those narratives are futile, fruitless pursuits.
Tackett pointed to Jeremiah 29:11 to remind his listeners that God’s plans are good plans, saying, “God is speaking to His people so although this is a promise to Israel it still reflects the goodness of God. God has plans with a purpose. You may think you have a future and a hope in your script, but God guarantees His.”
Tackett contended that too many Christians have lost that sense of God’s present, purposeful transforming power at work right here and right now. “Partly,” he said, “because we’ve lost a sense of the meta-narrative and replaced the main character with ourselves.”
He shared about his own awakening to that reality, saying, “The Truth Project was birthed when I was at that White House after reading the writings of the early founders who had a comprehensive view of life. They were not perfect but they carried this depth, the conviction that God has spoken in every area of life, there was not any inch of ground that they didn’t see as Christ’s.”
Tackett said, “That’s called a worldview.” He said with a tone of regret, “As we look across the Body of Christ in our culture, there is great contrast to the worldview of the early founders. We have lost their vision and their perspective on the grandness and the greatness of God’s sovereignty. We have shrunk Christianity down to a small slice of life and we have acted as if God were irrelevant in the other 350 degrees.”
He continued, “The result is that we are no longer salt and we are no longer light. We have indeed conformed to the patterns of this world. That’s when Romans 12:2 became a key verse for me.”
Tackett then unpacked the Biblical, theological and very personal concept of transformation. “The word transformed is so overused today, but the Scriptures use that Greek word in a very judicious way. Jesus was transfigured, metamorpho, before them and they saw His glory. The Christian mind is transformed, metamorpho, by the Word of God, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, we are being metamorpho, transformed, into the likeness of Christ (II Cor. 3). This is a deep meaning word.
When it comes to the apprehension, cultivation and defense of a Christian worldview, we dare “not fall into a passive mode,” Tackett warned. Instead, he exhorted, “As we hear the Word of God, we should be in a mode of great anticipation. God might do something in us!” It is a real encounter with the living God and Christians will not be left unchanged by that.
Truth is what is really real
John 18:37 “…I came into the world to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”
Tackett said, “This is the cosmic battle between truth and lies. It began in the Garden (for humanity) and it continues today.”
Tackett noted that Pilate’s response to Jesus is very post-modern in its scoffing rebuff of the very notion of truth.
Returning to his list, Tackett expounds on John 14:6, “When Jesus says ‘I am the truth,’ He is declaring that there is something about truth that goes to the transcendent nature of God Himself. The truth is eternal, immutable, inexhaustible, non-contradictory … and exclusive – it is ultimate reality – the really real.”
He explained that “we live in a world with a worldview that has lost touch with reality.” Continuing, “When you lose the meta-narrative, if you listen to the lie that every day you can write your own script, then you believe ‘It’s all about me,'” which, in real reality, couldn’t be further from the truth.
Tackett then pointed out that “Jesus said ‘I tell you the truth,’ 75 times. That means that truth is propositional, it is knowable and it can be communicated.”
Tackett concluded his message with a lesson about the wise and foolish builders described by Jesus at the conclusion of
the Sermon on the Mount. Tackett noted with Jesus that there are consequences of building one’s life either on the foundational truth of Jesus and His Word or on the shifting sands of individual idolatry. “Truth is consequential; when we reject the truth of God there are consequences.”
Turning again to the Scriptures, Tackett lifted examples as diverse as King Uzziah, David, Elijah and Moses. Losing sight of the meta-narrative in critical moments had catastrophic consequences for each of these men. Uzziah’s pride led to his downfall; David lost his son; Elijah was sent to appoint his successor; and Moses didn’t get to take the people into the promised land. Tackett noted, “One of the consequences of losing sight of the meta-narrative is pride.”
Pride is the central issue for Satan and the central issue for people today. Tackett warned, “If you’ve been raised in a world that says ‘it’s all about me’ and everyone thinks ‘it’s all about me,’ then you find yourself living in a world filled with manipulators who are seeking only to enhance their own story.”
This, Tackett lamented, “leads to the death of relationships.” The spiral includes “isolation, alienation, rejection of authority, loneliness, anger (because someone just stepped on my script!), envy, hatred, bitterness, depression, despondency and a lack of hope,” Tackett explained.
Speaking about the college students with whom he spends most of his time, Tackett said, “they are the most connected generation in all of human history, but they are also the loneliest.” Why? Tackett answers, “Because the lie pulls the rug out from under real relationships which are built on sacrifice.”
Tackett concluded with reference to the narrow and wide gates. “Jesus said, ‘enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.’ (Matthew 7:13-14)”
Tackett then amplified the picture asking the audience to imagine a sign on each gate. “The sign on the broad gate reads, ‘It’s all about you.’ The sign on the narrow gate reads, ‘die to yourself; it’s all about Him.'” The Christian worldview may not be popular today, but Tackett pointed out, it never has been. The conflict is not new. Neither is the story into which we are invited to live. His Story is, after all, history.
Del Tackett, author and speaker, is the architect, teacher and chief spokesman for The Truth Project – a nationwide initiative designed to bring the Christian worldview to the body of Christ. He previously served as president of the Focus on the Family Institute and was a former executive vice president of Focus on the Family.