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{"id":2303,"date":"2007-03-05T02:30:34","date_gmt":"2007-03-05T07:30:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/jesuscreed\/2007\/03\/05\/are-catastrophes-gods-judgments-2\/"},"modified":"2007-03-05T02:30:34","modified_gmt":"2007-03-05T07:30:34","slug":"are-catastrophes-gods-judgments-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2007\/03\/05\/are-catastrophes-gods-judgments-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Are Catastrophes God’s judgments? 2"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

According to Steven Keillor in his God\u2019s Judgments<\/a>: Interpreting History and the Christian Faith<\/em>, the fundamental obstacle for Christians\u2019 interpreting historical events is the philosophical stance called \u201cworldview.\u201d Mark Noll writes the foreword and admits he\u2019s a worldview thinker and Keillor\u2019s got him thinking.
\nThe big book for worldview is by David Naugle, called Worldview: The History of a Concept<\/em> (Eerdmans, 2002). Worldview, Keillor contends, has a blindspot when it comes to seeing God\u2019s judgments in historical events. By the way, Keillor is not a clear writer. If he is against \u201cworldview thinking,\u201d I kept asking myself, what is \u201cworldview thinking\u201d?
\nIn worldview thinking, evil is talked about but without the concept of the Judge. This like talking about crime and not talking about a police force. He refers to this unwillingness to see catastrophe as judgment from God as the \u201cagnostic gag rule.\u201d In part, worldview emerges from the Enlightenment and therefore postmodernity\u2019s critique of Enlightenment means critique of worldview.
\nAssuming we know what worldview thinking is, a cranky Keillor argues that worldview thinking \u2014 since it assumes the knowing self at the center of the universe \u2014 cannot come to grips with tragic history because it refuses to begin as a self under the judgment of God. Here\u2019s his point: \u201cThe question confronting the self is how to escape God\u2019s judgment, not whether a tree exists in reality or in the mind, or how the self can know if a tree exists or whether the word tree<\/em> represents reality\u201d (54).
\nThe Bible confronts us not as testimony<\/em>, not worldview knowledge. Now we get something bordering on a definition of worldview thinking: \u201cWorldview thinking stresses the knowing self that believes because it perceives the intellectual coherence of the Christian faith\u201d (54). And \u201cBelief is warranted [that\u2019s a worldview term if there ever was one] due to the trustworthy character of the Testifier not because the testimony is so clearly true, even self-evident, as to form the conclusion to a syllogism\u201d (54). [Dang if this doesn\u2019t sound like Barth.]
\n\u201cThe Christian faith is not the knowing self\u2019s worldview. It is God\u2019s view of the helpless, guilty self\u2026\u201d (56). What warrants such faith is promise becoming event \u2014 ie fulfilled prophecy.
\nOn 9\/11: Falwell and Robertson focused on sins that anger them the most. Insted, \u201ca more objective, cautious approach\u201d will focus on actions of the USA and the West that anger both Islam and God.
\n1. US support for Israel? not adequate.
\n2. UN sanctions against Hussein\u2019s Iraq? not adequate.
\n3. American troops in Saudi Arabia?
\n4. Globalization that enriches the West?
\nOur view of economy is Enlightenment stuff; not Scriptural. Rampant materialism.
\n5. Western culture is decadent? Yes, Islam and God are angered. Apostasy is found in Western culture.
\n6. The terrorists themselves? The mujahideen<\/em> are the creation of the CIA. God is using one of our Cold War tools against us.
\n9\/11 is God\u2019s judgment on the USA for materialism, cultural immoral exports, and our own use of terroristic guerrilla units.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"