The Biblical Worldview: The Cosmos
The following is an excerpt from the book 'Clash of Worlds' by David Burnett:
As with all Monotheistic religions, the nature and character of deity are of paramount in all its worldview themes. How God is understood becomes the foundation of the total worldview, and within the Bible three dominant characteristics f deity may be identified - power, holiness, and love.
Before looking at the repercussions of these characteristics, it is necessary to state that throughout the Bible, God is regarded as being beyond human comprehension, and He may only be in part understood. Thus, qualities and descriptions of God are limited by the human intellect. Our God is always too small because as created beings we are unable to fully appreciate the nature of the Creator. This is especially seen in the concept of the Trinity, which may be regarded as a "paradigm" for understanding the personhood of God. This model seeks to bring two important truths together: the oneness of God, and the plurality in the Godhead.
The Islamic worldview is monotheistic like the biblical worldview, but it stresses the oneness of God and rejects and concept of Trinity as blasphemous. The emphasis upon this singular unity makes for a more understandable concept of God, but in so doing imposes a simplification that fails to provide any philosophical answer to the origin of love and communication. Thus, within Islam it is impossible to speak of God loving us because He is transcendent and self-sufficient. The concept of the Trinity, on the other hand, does provide a philosophical answer in that before creation, the three centers of personhood within the deity were able to love and communicate.
As with Islam, there is a clear distinction between the Creator God and His creation. Although God is immanent and everywhere, He is different from His creation; He is "other"; He is transcendent. The root meaning of the word holiness within the Bible is "separation" or "cutting off." He created the external universe not as an extension of His own essences, as in the Hindu worldview, but out of nothing.
The created order consists of both material ("seen") and immaterial ("unseen") elements. The material world is that of which mankind is commonly aware, while the unseen world one of the spiritual beings. The Bible portrays some interaction between these two aspects of creation. Although the universe is orderly and follows physical laws that may be studied by man, the universe is not a closed system subject exclusively to cause and effect. As Francis Schaeffer has written, "God is not a slave to the cause-and-effect world he has created, but is able to act into the cause-and-effect flow of history." John Wimber argues that our expectations are affected by our worldview. Thus if we have a concept of God who is outside the universe of cause and effect, there will be no way He can work in creation, and so miracles are impossible.
God's creation is portrayed as being essentially good as would be expected of the creation of a good and perfect Creator. However, it was from within the "unseen" creation that evil emerged, and eventually led to the fall of humanity and thus of creation as a whole. Two kingdoms are at war. A spiritual battle is going on, a clash that permeates the entire range of human activities.
