The Biblical Worldview

At the heart of Sproul’s worldview is the conviction that God is the ultimate reality.

• God is sovereign over all things—creation, history, and human life
• Reality is defined not by human opinion but by God’s character and revelation
• A biblical worldview begins with the acknowledgment: God is, and He has spoken

Sproul often emphasized that many worldview errors come from starting with man instead of God.

Sproul strongly taught the principle of Sola Scriptura (Scripture alone).

• The Bible is the ultimate authority for truth, ethics, and knowledge
• It provides the framework for interpreting reality
• Without Scripture, humanity falls into mere speculation and futile relativism

For Sproul, a biblical worldview means thinking “God’s thoughts after Him” through Scripture.

"Thinking God's thoughts after Him" is a phrase associated with astronomer Johannes Kepler (1571-1630), and for Kepler it signified that scientific discovery and human reasoning involve first of all discovering the rational, orderly design already established by God in the universe.

Sproul understood all of reality through the biblical storyline:

Creation

• God created the world good, ordered, and meaningful
• Humans are made in God’s image with dignity and purpose

The Fall

• Sin has corrupted every aspect of human life and thinking
• This includes reason, morality, and culture

Redemption

• Through the Lord Jesus Christ, God is restoring the whole of creation
• Redemption affects not just individuals, but how we think and live in every sphere of human life and existence

This framework shapes how believers interpret everything: science, ethics, politics, and culture.

The word "Noetic" relates to mental activity, to the human intellect.

This is a key concept and theme in Sproul’s teaching.

• Sin affects the human mind (intellect) and thought and reason, not just human behaviour
• The consequence of that is that humans are prone to self-deception, suppressing truth and distorting reality, either unintentionally, or by the deliberate choice of the will

Therefore, the Biblical Worldview requires the renewal of the mind through the teaching of Scripture and through the work of the Holy Spirit.

Sproul strongly opposed relativism as a foundation for human ideas, beliefs, identity and choices.

• Truth is objective, rooted in God’s nature
• Contradictions cannot both be true at the same time. Sproul frequently defended classical logic as a necessary and validated principle upon which thought and reason can be developed
• Christians can have real knowledge, though not exhaustive knowledge
  Humans can know some things truly, but not know everything

Sproul often connected these principles to defending the rationality of the Christian faith.

In other words, the Biblical Worldview is not centered on abstract or impersonal ideas, but on the reality and nature of the One Eternal God whose nature is wrapped up in his holiness.

One of Sproul’s most defining emphases in his teaching is that truth ultimately can only be seen and known in the Holiness of God, and in humanity's relationship with this unique, holy God. He emphasised:

• God is holy, transcendent, and morally pure
• The necessity of understanding God’s holiness to define ethics, worship and self-understanding, that is, our personal identity and how we relate as persons to the personal, infinite, eternal, holy God

In Sproul's teaching, a biblical worldview must take seriously both God’s majesty, expressed through his limitless nature and through his holiness, and it must also take seriously the reality and the depths of human sinfulness. On the one hand, there is God's total holiness, and on the other, humanity's total "unholiness".

Sproul rejected the idea that Christianity is just “a private matter”, and that a person's "faith" (or "religion") can be disconnected from the way they live their lives, especially in connection with their ethics and morality. For Sproul, a Biblical Worldview must integrate faith into these areas of life:

• Work
• Education
• Politics
• Art (including Entertainment)
• Science

There is thus no "neutral ground". Every area of life is under God’s authority, and being a Christian must mean subjecting all these areas of human life and personal existence to the truth of God primarily expressed in the Biblical Worldview.

Sproul engaged in defending Christianity against competing and opposing worldviews, whether classified as philosophy or religion, and he encouraged other Christians to do the same. In other words, Christians are to stand up for what the Bible teahces, and stand against those who present a non-Biblical worldview. For Sproul:

• Christianity provides a coherent and consistent understanding of reality - indeed, the only worldview that does
• Competing worldviews, such as naturalism, relativism, and secularism, ultimately fail logically or morally
• Believers are called to give a rational defence of their faith
  1 Peter 3.15: "...always being prepared to make a defence [an 'apologia', from which we get the word apologetics] to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you"

Sproul believed strongly in teaching Christians to think biblically and then to apply it to the whole of their person and life. He founde Ligonier Ministries in order to be able to do this. Sproul taught and applied these principles:

• The mind must be trained, not just emotions stirred
• Discipleship includes these areas (these disciplines): Theology, Philosophy, Logic

His ministry begun through Ligonier Ministries, and continued by his successors, is focused heavily on this intellectual foundation, yet never forgetting that this foundation is the foundation for how we must live out our lives in every sphere of that life.

For R.C. Sproul, the Biblical Worldview can be summed up like this:
Seeing all of reality through the lens of God’s sovereign rule, as revealed in Scripture, with a mind renewed by truth and centered on his holiness.