World Affirming or World Denying?

Properly interpreting the Bible requires balance. For example, are Christians world affirming or world denying? Since God declared everything he had made to be “very good” (Gen 1:31), believers should affirm the world as the work of a good Creator. Moreover, through the incarnation, the Son of God embraced this world by taking on a human body and living a fully human life.

And yet there’s a problem. Corruption and death have entered this world, placing earth and its creatures in “bondage to decay” (Rom 8:21). So the “whole creation” groans to be released from this bondage. And we groan for our new bodies (Rom 8:22-25), which will be imperishable, glorious, powerful, and animated by the Spirit (1 Cor 15:42-44). In essence, our new bodies will be like Christ’s resurrected body because we have been predestined to be conformed to his image (Phil 3:21; Rom 8:29). But we long for more than new bodies. “We are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells” (2 Pet 3:13).

So what are we, world affirming or world denying? We are not world denying like ancient Gnostics who viewed the material world as the work of an evil creator, or Hindus and Buddhists who seek to reach salvation by escaping the physical world. The problem is sin not matter. Christians view the physical world as fundamentally good but infected by sin so we long for a new world without sin and decay. I know it’s not the most catchy, but Christians can be described as world affirming, sin rejecting, and new creation longing.

It’s easy to run to extremes in Bible interpretation by excluding certain data. The challenge is to hold on to multiple truths at the same time.

Les Bridgeman

I have served as a high school Bible teacher and counselor in Asia and the U.S. I am passionate about understanding and teaching the Bible. Here’s a link to my book page.