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Introduction

Merry Christmas. As Christians it is a wonderful time of the year for us to focus on what God has done for us through Je-sus Christ. It is also one of the greatest opportunities that we have to share a witness of how others can enter into a per-sonal relationship with God.

Todays topic delves into why the incarnation of Christ is so important. We are taking, though, a worldview perspective onthis so that we can delve deeper into the significance of the Christmas event. It is our prayer that you will come away witha deeper understanding of Christ and a greater appreciation of the real meaning of Christmas.

Before we move to the article, though, let me share with you a free worldview training on CD that we are in the process ofdeveloping. This should be ready shortly after the first of the year. The training will be a PowerPoint presentation that canbe run on any PC.

It is our desire to make this available in as many ways as possible. We will make CD copies to give away, and will alsoput it on the website so that it can be run from the site or downloaded to your own computer. You will also be able to burnit onto a CD yourself, if you like. At this point, I would like to ask if you would be willing to (Continued on page 2)

It is that time of year when our attention is drawn to the in-carnation of Christ - the act of God where he stepped out ofglory and put on human skin. I think we are all pretty muchaware of the of the story of the birth of Christ. But there is asignificance to this event that goes well beyond what wenormally think about. Typically our focus is primarily on theevents surrounding the birth of the baby Jesus. But there isa significance that goes well beyond the story - even be-yond the fact of its miraculous nature.

You see, when we speak of God stepping out of eternityand into time, we are talking about an actual person whoinjected himself into our earthly physical reality. In that act,he did something that had, and continues to have, an actu-

al, objective effect on the operation of the world.

The profound meaning of this act cannot be overestimated.In fact, if you dont get the significance of the reality of thisevent, your personal faith will end up being shallow andyour excitement about living out your faith in daily life will bedeficient. That is because people dont put their whole effortinto things that they dont believe are real in an objectivesense. For instance, would you go on a worldwide searchfor an actual unicorn? Of course not! You know it is animaginary creature and you would be wasting your time andmoney. On the other hand, would you train to run a mara-thon if you were assured that you would receive one milliondollars just for completing it? Absolutely yes! In fact youwould likely put yourself thorough all kinds of strain and suf-fering in order to condition yourself enough to run the re-

quired 26 miles, 385 yards. Why? Because one milliondollars is real and tangible to you. (Continued on page 2)

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

Contact MarketFaith Ministries312 Anton Dr.Tallahassee, FL 32312 info@marketfaith.org

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Toll Free: 888-883-0656Phone: 850-383-9756Fax: 850-514-4571

Volume 1 Number 8 December 20, 2006

Where the Incarnation of Christ Fits into Worldview

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(Introduction - Continued from page 1) participate in this with us. Your end of the year tax deductible contribution to Mar-ketFaith Ministries will give us the resources we need to manufacture and distribute the CDs. Thank you so much for part-nering with us to strengthen the Body of Christ.

We are continuing our work to put MarketFaith Ministries in a position to be as great a benefit to believers as possible.To accomplish that, we are constantly increasing the number of resources which are available for people to use. Most ofthese are free and available to you in the resources section of the ministry website. It is our hope that you are greatly ben-efiting from this information. Would you please take a moment to forward this issue of Worldview Made Practical to all of

your Christian friends and encourage them to sign up. It is free, of course, and this will be a great gift to give. Subscriptioninformation is found below, or people can go to http://www.marketfaith.org and sign up directly on the website.

(The Incarnation of Christ - Continued from page 1)Our worldview is the belief foundation which gives us our conception of who God is and what he is like. Unfortunately,there is a worldview which is very prominent in our society which asserts that the supernatural simply doesnt exist. Whilewe, as Christians, dont believe that assertion, elements of that worldview have become so pervasive that it affects evenour beliefs and actions. Intellectually we affirm the reality of God, but in life we often live as if he were not real. That is whywe tend to be reluctant to share our faith and directly confront those who oppose our point of view. That is why we dontexpect to actually meet God in our quiet time. That is why we dont expect God to actually work miracles in our daily lives.That is why we dont actively and often share our faith with other people. We simply dont put a lot of energy into what wedont consider to be objectively real.

To get at how this plays out in life, we need to do a comparison. First, lets become very clear about the beliefs that aretaught in the Bible concerning the incarnation, and the worldview implications of those beliefs. Following that, we will lookat the alternative beliefs of the other worldviews. Finally, we will make a brief comparison so that we can fully understandhow the implications play out in life and eternity.

The Biblical View of Jesus IncarnationThe first thing we need to understand relates to who Jesus is and what he is like according to the Bible. In a nutshell, Je-sus is an actual, objective person. He was a historical human being who was born in the land of Israel during the time ofthe Roman occupation. Beyond that, though, Jesus was the actual human incarnation of God himself. God took the formof a human being in order to live life among his creation. He did this in order to reveal himself more fully, and through hisdeath and resurrection to fulfill the requirements for the salvation of mankind.

Just to drive this point home a little more clearly, Jesus was not a mere mortal, he was not a phantom, he was notmerely a prophet or some great religious teacher. He was also not simply one of a series of incarnations who each pro-vided a greater revelation of God. Nor was he some kind of not completely human manifestation of God. He was, literal-ly, God who chose to enter the world by the same means that all of the rest of us entered the world, and who lived life onearth as an actual human being.

This is important because the teachings of Christ, along with his death and resurrection, actually accomplished resultsthat have eternal effects. But the effects are based entirely on whether or not individuals receive it that way. If God did notliterally become a man and do what he the Bible says he did, then the salvation that is taught in the Bible is not true and isnot available. And if he literally did do what is asserted in the Bible, the person who does not accept it as truth is not in aposition to apply Gods salvation to his life.

Other Views of Jesus IncarnationThere are some other views of who Jesus is. Every worldview has a tendency to treat him in a particular way, thoughthere are variations within them, as well. Lets look at some of the possibilities and their implications.

TheismOf course, Biblical Christianity is a form of Theism, and the above view is its specific expression. But there are other forms

of Theism, as well. In general, Theistic belief systems do acknowledge that Jesus was an actual historical figure. Thereare differences beyond that, though, as to who they believe he was. Just to give a few examples, Islam considers that hewas merely a prophet. Mormonism considers him to have been a man who became a God after his death on earth.Jehovahs Witnesses dont acknowledge him as the incarnation of God, but teach that he was an angel before he came toearth, and that he returned to that form after physical death.

While it is plain to see that there are various approaches to who he was, the tendency of Theism is to see Jesus as anespecially holy man, but not God. As a result, he is not acknowledged to provide the means of salvation. He only pointedmankind towards it.

(Continued on page 3)

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(The Incarnation of Christ - Continued from page 2)NaturalismNaturalism has two different ways that its adherents tend to address Jesus. Some consider that he was nothing morethan a mythical figure who never really existed in history. Others acknowledge his historical existence, but since the su-pernatural is not acknowledged to exist, Jesus is viewed as a mere mortal - perhaps an extraordinary man, but a mortalnone the less.

The implication, here, is plain. If there is no God, and if Jesus was merely a regular human being, he has nothing to do

with the salvation of humanity. He may have left humanity a good legacy for doing good, but that is about as far as it cango.

AnimismAnimistic thought basically considers Jesus to be in thesame category as any of their religious leaders. He islooked upon as a shaman or witch doctor. He was, obvi-ously, one who had a special connection to the spiritualpart of reality, but Animism does not acknowledge a spe-cial need for a Savior. Whenever a person dies, they auto-matically enter the spiritual world as a spiritual being.

The result is fairly obvious. He was not a savior, only anespecially gifted shaman who was able to help peoplehave a more effective interaction with the spiritual world.

Far Eastern ThoughtFar Eastern Thought looks at Jesus as one of the manyincarnations of God who came to earth to point people inthe right direction. Some even go so far as to assert thathis silent years, between age twelve and the beginning ofhis public ministry, was spent in India learning the Truthbased on Hindu beliefs.

Under Far Eastern Thought, Jesus is not seen as a savior,as a savior is not needed in this system. Jesus was merelya human who was at his last material incarnation beforemerging with the impersonal Cosmos.

How The Incarnation and Worldview Fit TogetherAs can be seen by these brief descriptions, who a personconsiders Jesus to be is not some mere abstract, philo-sophical point. It actually determines how we live and whatkind of purpose and meaning we experience in life. It deter-mines, or at least influences, who, or what, we turn to inorder to find meaning for our lives and salvation for oursouls. If Jesus truly is God who provided salvation throughan actual incarnational existence, (Continued on page 4)

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(The Incarnation of Christ - Continued from page 3)we must respond by entering into a relationship with him based on the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. If he is

believed to be something else, then the response toward him will be different.

As a bottom line assertion, Jesus Christ is God. And it was the work he did during his incarnation, as an actual humanbeing, which supplied humanity with the means to enter into a personal relationship with God. By understanding and act-ing on this knowledge, we are able to actually take hold of salvation and live out its implications for our lives.

Coming in January - What is Animism?