Daniel 9:1-23
Daniel 9:1-2
Daniel 9:4-8
Leviticus 25:1-2; 8
Leviticus 26:14-38
Leviticus 26:40-45
Daniel 9:15-19
www.Christianheadlines.com titled:
“U.S. is Facing a worldview Crisis, George Barna says: 94 Percent reject a Biblical Worldview”
Michael Foust is the journalist that authored the article. You can go and read it for yourself. Or you can go on
www.prayvotestand.org and watch the entire presentation George Barna gave during that Summit.
Here is a small summary from the article:
“What America is struggling with the most is a worldview crisis” Barna said.
“It’s the thing that drives all of these other difficulties that we have in America today.”
The worldview crisis, Barna said, has infiltrated the church, where only 21 percent of those who attend an evangelical church have a biblical worldview.
“Part of that relates to the fact that evangelical churches in America do not teach the Bible as often or as deeply as used to be the case,” Barna said.”
“We are a superficial nation. We’re more interested in DOING than IN THINKING,” he said. “And so consequently, we’re always LOOKING FOR THE NEXT THING THAT WE NEED TO BE ACCOMPLISHING, THE NEXT PLACE WE NEED TO GO, THE NEXT PERSON WE NEED TO MEET – without sitting down and reflecting on what really matters: WHAT DO I REALLY BELIEVE?”
“America’s worldview crisis, Barna said, must be solved if other problems are to be solved. If we don’t solve that crisis, trust me, we are not going to solve any of those other issues,” he said.
Daniel believed just as Barna believed. The issue is never the issue. What we are experiencing as a nation is directly linked to how we as a nation believe. We live our lives based upon what we believe.
Ron Rhodes in his commentary on Daniel makes this observation:
“The book of Jeremiah had not been written for very long, but Daniel already considered it to be Scripture. This goes against the modern liberal allegation that the books of Scripture were not determined until much later by various councils.”
John Lennox in his book “Against the Flow” is telling a personal story:
“All Scripture is breathed out by God, claims the New Testament (2 Timothy 3:16). We should therefore expect corroborative external evidence from history, archaeology, and related disciplines, but in the end the Word of God will authenticate itself by being perceived to be the Word of God by what it says, by its inner coherence and ring of truth. Without indulging in sentimentality or over-imagination, when we engage with the Word of God we can sense in our spirit and heart at times the very presence of God, and know that he is speaking to us.
If the Bible really was the Word of God, why did I not find it more interesting? Surely, if God was behind it, I should be getting more out of it? I noticed too that many of my Christian friends also paid lip service to the doctrine of inspiration, but spent very little time reading and thinking about the book they claimed to be inspired. There seemed to be a deep inconsistency here that affected them as well as me.
my early days as a student in Cambridge I can recall my own questions concerning biblical inspiration. It was not that I did not believe that God had inspired the Scriptures. I did believe it – and that was the source of my problem.
John Lennox goes on to say:
“This began to concern me, and I sought advice from a much older friend and mentor whose grasp of Scripture was profound. He invited me to an evening’s Bible study that was sufficient to transform my entire attitude. For what I saw modelled in him was the attitude of Daniel – a willingness to seek God in his Word and spend time doing so.
The Lord Jesus warned some religious people in his day: You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life (John 5:39-40). My friend did not make that mistake. He sought God THROUGH his Word and showed me how to do the same.
I realized that I have been far too superficial in my approach.”
Let me quickly insert George Barna here:
“We are a superficial nation. We’re more interested in DOING than IN THINKING,” he said. “And so consequently, we’re always LOOKING FOR THE NEXT THING THAT WE NEED TO BE ACCOMPLISHING, THE NEXT PLACE WE NEED TO GO, THE NEXT PERSON WE NEED TO MEET – without sitting down and reflecting on what really matters: WHAT DO I REALLY BELIEVE?”
Let’s continue with John Lennox
“After all, I was prepared to spend hours trying to understand a few lines of mathematics, and yet only a few minutes on a passage from the Bible. What I learned was the need to be patient, to spend time motivated by the desire to hear from God through His Word. God is a person, not a mere set of propositions; and there is therefore A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SEEKING KNOWLEDGE ABOUT GOD AND SEEKING GOD HIMSELF.”
“In more recent years, I found myself having to speak at the funeral of a lifelong friend from my Cambridge days. He was younger than me, and I had certainly not expected him to die before me. Some weeks before he died, I asked him what he would like me to say at his funeral. Without hesitation he replied: “Encourage them to do what we did when we were students. Tell them to read the Word of God together, discuss it, think about it, pray about it, and wait on God until his face appears.” He paused, and then added: “AND THEN THEY WILL HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY.”
