Point of View June 16, 2026 – Hour 1 : Teaching Worldview to High School Students

[00:00:04] Across America is Point of View. And welcome to Point of View. I'm Merrill Matthews sitting in today for Kirby Anderson. We live in a world where there is competition, competition for our worldviews, competition among competing theologies, competing philosophies, competing values. How do Christians meet that challenge of competing ideas in the marketplace of ideas?

[00:00:46] And how do we impart those biblical views to our kids and our friends? We're going to answer some of those questions for you today. Joining me in studio is Charles Stoffus. He is the equipping pastor at Denton Bible Church. He's been with us several times in the past. He got a Bachelor in Music from North Texas State University. He has a Master's in Theology from Dallas Theological Seminary, and he specialized in historical theology. And he serves at Denton Bible Church, and he is the director of their theological institute.

[00:01:15] Charles, thank you for joining us. It's great to be here. Okay, we're talking about worldview, and you teach worldview to high school kids and other kids. Start us out by telling us what is a worldview? Well, I think the simplest definition of a worldview is a view of the world. It's how we view the world. It's not simply what we see, but how we make sense out of it. And so my thought, and as I've learned from others, is that there are basic presuppositions about the nature of the world.

[00:01:45] And so my thought, and I think a worldview or a worldview or a worldview or a worldview or a frame of reference that is built and constructed by our answers to certain prior fundamental presuppositions helps whether you realize it or not.

[00:02:14] Whether you do it intentionally or not, whether you do it right or wrong, whether there's a mixture of error or truth, this all goes together to frame how it is that we see the world.

[00:02:26] Again, the goal in life for a Christian and should be for everyone is to see things as they really are. In other words, as a Christian, we're not really trying to indoctrinate people into some obscure philosophy, but we're looking to the Word of God that gives insight into the true nature of reality. And so worldview helps us do that. So how do we impart this worldview to other people?

[00:02:49] Well, one thing, you don't do it accidentally. It's something that if you leave it to the accidents of chance, then you're going to get it wrong every time. If you aim at nothing, you're going to hit it every single time, as the saying goes. And so I would say you have to very intentionally focus on what I mentioned earlier, those basic prior fundamental aspects of reality. And I think I've learned from others that have gone before me.

[00:03:15] James Sire, one of the great writers on the subject of worldview, where he identified seven of these basic fundamental questions that, again, help frame our understanding of reality. So we start there on those basic questions and we say, where does the evidence lead us in that area? The question of God. Is there a God? And if so, what is he like? The question of the nature of physical reality, the universe.

[00:03:42] Has it always been here or is it the product of some kind of a designing intelligence? The nature of human beings. Are we the latest evolutionary ancestor of a lower primate or are we the special creation of an all-wise, all-good God? And then issues of morals and ethics and the question of evil and suffering and the question of life after death. And then the last question that he identified was, really, is there any meaning at all for history?

[00:04:11] Is it meaningful or meaningless? And what he means by that, it sounds a little bit kind of esoteric, but it's really a rather simple thing. When we think of time, of history, the past followed by the present that will lead inevitably into the future, is there any meaning to that? Is it going anywhere in particular or is it just simply one thing after another? Like Henry Ford said, it's one darn thing after another.

[00:04:37] You know, I think many times people sort of keep their various views in silos. But with a worldview, it's all interconnected, isn't it? My view of God, my view of the Bible affects what I think is right and wrong, affects what I think about how I got here, where I'm going. All those things are interconnected, aren't they? That is so true. You know, everything matters. And that seems like a simple statement to make, but everything matters, especially in the realm of worldview.

[00:05:05] Because like you said, even with respect to those seven vital questions, those fundamental questions, what you believe about God affects your view of the universe. What you think about God affects your view of man, of morals, of evil and suffering, of life after... I mean, all of those fundamental questions are interconnected. So a compromise over here is going to show itself as a compromise over there. And so we have to, throughout life, aim at getting these basic fundamental questions correct.

[00:05:34] And again, for all of us, we're in process. We're all growing and hopefully getting a clearer understanding of those fundamental aspects of reality that help, again, frame our view of the world. So that when we wake up in the morning, the way we view what we see has been affected by our decisions yesterday and last week and last year. Again, our answers to these basic fundamental questions.

[00:06:02] Now, you've been teaching worldview to, I think, high school students or students for like 15 years, a long time, haven't you? Yeah, I have. So how did you start doing that? Well, you know, I have a job at Denton Bible Church. You know, I'm a pastor there and I worked in an institute there and did a lot of other things. Kind of wore a bunch of different hats at the church there. And I was approached by some people that said, hey, listen, our students have been going to another worldview class. We'd like to do something closer.

[00:06:31] And so this was a worldview class that really was based upon a curriculum called Worldviews of the Western World. It's by a guy named David Quine, who's out of Richardson, Texas, actually, right down the road from where we are right now. And they said, would you be willing to do that? And I approached the elders and they said yes. And the rest is history. And so I had to really. Well, it was a significant ramp up.

[00:06:56] Because it is a very extensive worldview course, a three-year course that really goes to the original sources of Western philosophy and art and music and sculpture and philosophy and literature. Politics. Politics absolutely is a huge, huge part of it. And so what we do is we trace out worldviews as they're reflected in a succession of periods of ancient human history.

[00:07:24] So starting with the Hebrew Old Testament, followed by the period of the Greeks and the Romans, and then the Christian era, then the Middle Ages, and then the Renaissance and the Reformation, and then following that on into the modern era. And now here we are in the postmodern era. And again, tracing how worldview is reflected in these various venues. Again, literature, art, music, et cetera. Because it is that.

[00:07:52] What we think is reflected many, many times in our creative venues. When we come back from the break, we're going to sort of walk through this summary that you have here of these classes and why you focus on what you do there. And we have your syllabus available on pointofview.net. If our listeners want to go to it, we can go to pointofview.net. We have a link there for that. It's a six-page syllabus, so it's extensive.

[00:08:23] And it's something which tries to bring people in touch with various aspects of our history and our culture as it is affected by the Bible. Absolutely. So we want you to stay with us. When we come back, we'll continue our discussion with Charles Stoffus, who is the equipping pastor at Denton Bible Church, and our discussion of worldviews and how to teach that to kids. Stay with us. We'll be right back.

[00:08:59] This is Viewpoints with Kirby Anderson. The school year has ended, and we will soon find out how many students were missing and how many school desks were empty. I was unaware of the problem until I read the op-ed warning, the empty desks are telling us something. The latest data from 39 states and the District of Columbia found that 23% of students were chronically absent in the 2024-25 school year.

[00:09:26] The percentages for the most recent school year will likely be similar. When state legislatures have addressed this problem, they threaten students and parents. They threaten students with the loss of a driver's license. They threaten parents or students with fines or even jail time. Apparently, the carrot, graduate and get a meaningful job, is given way to a stick, threatened them. Let me suggest something else. Perhaps the public schools aren't providing an educational experience that students value.

[00:09:53] Students in the inner city unfortunately receive an inadequate education, as illustrated by virtually every test administered over the last decade. Even students in better schools must wonder why they must sit in boring classrooms when just a few years ago, during the pandemic, they were told to stay home and try to learn online. As the attached op-ed reminds us, boys don't do as well in reading as girls. They have more learning disabilities, and they are more likely to be expelled.

[00:10:20] They may need more help, but often they are the least likely to receive it. But chronic absenteeism in this light is not merely a failure of discipline. It is a performance review. Perhaps that's why more than a million students left the public schools for private schools and homeschooling. These empty desks are telling us something. I don't think many educators are listening. I'm Kirby Anderson, and that's my point of view.

[00:10:49] Go deeper on topics like you just heard by visiting pointofview.net. That's pointofview.net. You're listening to Point of View, your listener-supported source for truth. And welcome back to Point of View. I'm Merrill Matthews, sitting in for Kirby Anderson today, and joining me in studio, Charles Stoffus.

[00:11:13] He's the equipping pastor at Denton Bible Church, and he's been for 15 years teaching worldview classes to high school students. So if you have a high school student, if you're homeschooling, you may want to pay close attention to what he's doing here, because what he's talking about is how you impart a biblical view of the world that integrates into all aspects of our thinking. So Charles, sort of walk us through the curriculum here.

[00:11:38] Sure. As I mentioned before, the backbone of the curriculum is a syllabus that was developed by a guy named David Quine, and actually his whole family was involved in the development of it, and it's been really operating for quite some number of years. And really it's entitled World Views of the Western World. And what it does in a three-year curriculum, it works chronologically through various periods of world history, especially in the West.

[00:12:06] And it starts with the ancient Hebrew Old Testament, and we study the books of Genesis, and especially Job and Genesis, as we see worldview from the Old Testament Jews reflected especially in those particular books. And then followed by that in the first year is the period of the Greeks and the Romans, and we see worldview reflected in, let's say, the writings of Homer, the Iliad, the Odyssey, or Virgil, the Aeneid.

[00:12:32] And then we move on into the New Testament, where we look at the New Testament era and see worldview reflected in, especially the four Gospels and the Book of Romans. And then we end the year with a focus, a briefer focus on the Middle Ages, which is that age in between the Christian era and the next period, which will be the Renaissance. And so that's year one. And then year two is basically a focusing, the first half of the year is focusing on the Renaissance and the Reformation.

[00:13:00] And so studying original sources, and we're looking at art and music and literature, and we're seeing, again, how worldview is reflected in those particular creative outlets. Again, part of what we're doing, again, throughout the entire course is we're learning how to analyze worldview as reflected in another culture, or even our own culture, and then we're hopefully developing an understanding of what would be an accurate understanding of a worldview.

[00:13:26] So, again, that second year really focuses initially on the Renaissance and the Reformation, and then the second half is loaded. It's called the revolutions, and we trace through five particular revolutions in worldview, starting with the English series of revolutions, followed by the American Revolution, the French Revolution, the Russian Revolution, and finally the Scientific Revolution.

[00:13:49] And we see worldview, again, reflected in these critical ideas that are developing throughout that period of time, and how it all is connected. Yeah, I was going to say, all of these, you've got these five major revolutions going on that are reshaping the way the world thinks about things, but they're all connected in various ways, but they're not all, they weren't all engendered by the same ideas. That's exactly right. In fact, some of them are exactly the opposite. So you're going to see a commonality in the English Revolution, followed by the American Revolution,

[00:14:19] but then all of a sudden you're going to see starkly contrasted the French Revolution, which was kind of rejecting just about everything that the English and the Americans embraced, and really starting with man, as man. And then a similar sense, you're looking at the Russian Revolution, which is kind of an atheistic revolution in worldview, and then finally you get to the last revolution, the scientific revolution, which is basically a whole-scale rejection of God, largely.

[00:14:47] I'm speaking in generalities, but it's a rejection of God and an embrace of materialism. The idea that matter and energy are the only realities, and there are no higher, invisible realities at all. And so that worldview is viewing all things through the lens of a materialist philosophy. So that's your two. And, you know, it's interesting because if you're moving to the scientific worldview, you're abandoning the notion that the Bible is truth, and now science becomes truth. That's exactly right.

[00:15:17] In fact, you trace out, it's fascinating to trace the kind of the connection, where you have a strongly theistic worldview reflected in the Christian era, as well as even the medieval period. And then with the Renaissance, a kind of a secularizing trend that initially doesn't wholesale reject God, but it basically diminishes the significance of God and increasingly is critiquing God in Revelation,

[00:15:43] and increasingly over time, over several hundred years, really continuing to view things through the lens of materialism until you get with deism in that period of time, as well as eventually you get to the atheism, a whole-scale rejection of God. But again, you see kind of an evolution there until you get into the materialist revolution there,

[00:16:10] and then also the postmodern period where it's almost the complete... There is no truth. That's right. It's the complete loss of meaning and value, and everything is arbitrary. And, you know, postmodernism is that there are no truths. All there are are agendas. You know, it's manipulation. It's control. And so it's a wholesale rejection of the idea of objective truth or even objective reality.

[00:16:38] And it becomes individual. I have a truth, but my truth may not be your truth, and I can't condemn your truth, but even if it's not my truth. Yeah. So no, you highlighted one of the critical problems with postmodernism. No basis from which to discern or discriminate between what's right and wrong. You know, if everything's right, then nothing is right. And so that's the really devastating consequence of postmodernism.

[00:17:03] And then the effects of postmodernism where it atomizes people, it separates people. We basically, when we conflict, then we kind of separate and move away from each other. And so one philosopher said there's the loss of intimacy, the possibility of intimacy, because you're kind of a god to yourself. And so now it's all about power. You know, when there's a conflict in worldview under the postmodern system, it's really all about power and manipulation.

[00:17:32] That's who wins. Well, if we as individuals are the source of our truth, then it would make a certain amount of sense that we feel like we are a god in some sense. Yeah. And isn't it interesting that that was the error from the very beginning that Satan tempted Adam and Eve with, that he basically tempted them with, you can act independently of God. You can be God, as it were. And then we see the devastating consequences that immediately rippled out from their tragic choice,

[00:18:00] rejecting God and embracing their own view of reality. So you had the first year and the second year. What about the third year? Yeah. Third year is where we get into the idea of, let's say, the enlightenment, where it's the Renaissance with the exaltation of reason, but then it basically is more of the same. It's more of this kind of an atheistic perspective on the nature of reality.

[00:18:29] So we're tracing out the great philosophers in the Western tradition and seeing how they kind of are, they're basically struggling with meaning and purpose. And some of them say reason is the primary tool by which we can know the nature of reality. And then others come along and say, no, it's not reason, it's experience. And so experience is the way you can know the true nature of things. And then guys come along and say, no, it's not reason or experience alone, it's actually both.

[00:18:54] And then finally, almost as if mankind is exhausted, you come with Hegel, and it's almost throwing up his hands and saying, while we might get closer and closer to the truth, we will never get there. And so Hegel in the 19th century is followed by the 20th century where we have kind of a despair. In fact, Francis Schaeffer describes philosophy after Hegel as philosophy descending below what he called the line of despair,

[00:19:22] meaning that they came to grips with the idea that maybe there is no possibility of knowing truth at all. And so what happens in the 20th century with existentialism and nihilism and all the other ick-asms and spasms, as some have described it, is efforts to find meaning and purpose in a universe that they're convinced there is no meaning and purpose. So let's arbitrarily find it with existentialism.

[00:19:49] Or let's throw up our hands and say, listen, come to grips with the idea that there is no meaning and purpose and just kind of deal with it. And then if you don't believe that, then you've got mysticism and all the other things in the mid to late 20th century, which were efforts at finding meaning and purpose in the absence of any philosophy or theology that would give meaning and purpose.

[00:20:13] And some of these times sort of led to a reversal and people embracing Christ again in the Jesus movement in the 70s. Absolutely. That's really one of the interesting things that the devil thinks he's got a success. And then all of a sudden, people come to grips with the idea that apart from God, there is no meaning and purpose. And then many times they can turn to Christ. They can turn to God. I would agree. When we come back, I want to ask you, high school students, are they interested in this? Do they find this compelling?

[00:20:43] Are they able to grasp it and understand that? And then have you explain a little bit about how people who don't don't have a seminary background can work with their kids to gain sort of the knowledge of this and begin to impart it to their kids, either at home school or to their kids who are going to traditional secular school and then come home and then want to hear from the parents about their responses to that. My guest for this hour, Charles Stoffus, he is the equipping pastor at Denton Bible Church.

[00:21:12] And we're talking about his 15 years experience teaching worldview classes to high school students. There's not in our world, there's not much more important than being able to raise up some high school students who understand a proper biblical worldview. We'll be back on point of view in just a minute. Have you ever met a child you knew would do great things? They displayed remarkable imagination, understanding, and a zest for learning.

[00:21:42] Now imagine someone takes that child and instead of fostering their potential with a real education, they feed them nothing but lies. You know, that scenario isn't so far from reality. From a young age, Americans are fed a consistent stream of distorted facts from the secular indoctrination they receive in many public schools to the biases presented as fact in many colleges and universities

[00:22:05] to the barrage of misinformation from the mainstream media and the lack of moral grounding in our society. It's not that Americans aren't capable of understanding the truth. It's that they aren't exposed to it enough. You can expose more Americans to the truth when you give to Point of View, where listeners receive facts, perspective, and biblical truth they don't get from society. As long as we have truth, we have hope.

[00:22:33] Give today at pointofview.net or call 1-800-347-5151. Pointofview.net and 1-800-347-5151. Point of View will continue after this.

[00:23:00] You are listening to Point of View. The opinions expressed on Point of View do not necessarily reflect the views of the management or staff of this station. And now, here again, Dr. Merrill Matthews. And welcome back to Point of View. I'm Merrill Matthews sitting in for Kirby Anderson today. And we've got in studio Charles Stoffus, who is the equipping pastor at Denton Bible Church.

[00:23:25] And we're talking about his 15 years of teaching worldview to high school students. And so, Charles, one of the questions I have, we're talking high school students, and we're talking about what I find very interesting. But do high school students, are they, do they find it interesting to talk about Plato and Aristotle and Virgil and the Renaissance and Reformation, and can they grasp those things? Well, first of all, can they grasp them? Absolutely, yes. I think we expect far too little from young people.

[00:23:55] They're definitely able to kind of process this. But it is a developmental process. So when we get them in the very first year, they may have difficulty in kind of grasping some of these ideas, these worldview ideas. But, boy, very, very quickly they get up to speed and are able over, again, over a three-year period of time, are able to cultivate some really good abilities to critique, to evaluate, to weigh evidence.

[00:24:22] And we do it in a context of very interesting things. I mean, in the first year, we're looking at the book of Genesis, the creation. We're looking at the book of Job, and we're talking about evil and suffering. And that's kind of a very, it's a fascinating subject that everyone's going to deal with. Or we're reading the Iliad and the Odyssey, and these are like really kind of crazy stories. But, again, we're seeing how worldview implications are reflected in the Greek poetry. And then we also look at the philosophers.

[00:24:50] Like, listen, you're looking at Plato's Republic. Read the entire Republic. And, boy, if you think that is a boring book, you haven't read the Republic. It's really a fascinating book. It's about a totalitarian system that he has constructed as a way to what? Best reflect justice and ultimate truths. And yet everyone loses their privileges.

[00:25:17] You know, we have a section there where we focus on the family, according to Plato's Republic. And you say, you mean kids are taken away from their parents and they're put in rearing pens? You know, that the men and the women, they do athletics together and they wrestle in the nude? I say, whoa, you know. But the Iliad, the Odyssey, the Aeneid, the Gospels, and then so forth. How about this? This philosophy.

[00:25:47] On the third year, we look at, we read many of the great philosophers, their ideas. Not huge amounts of that, but enough to get a sense of what they are. Then we read a novel called Sophie's World. And it's a crazy convoluted storyline about a girl that starts receiving letters. And then you find out eventually that she's getting a lesson in philosophy.

[00:26:10] And the whole book traces out the history, the development of philosophy from the ancient Greeks on to the modern postmodernists. And, you know, it's important because, and I used to teach philosophy back years ago. But one of the things that happens is you're confronted almost every day with issues of what's right and what's wrong. What should I do? What should I not do?

[00:26:32] And having some kind of background in that that you've thought through these things, and maybe in a class you talk with other people and you discuss this and you find out why they believe this or why they think that. And then you put in your ideas. It helps you sort of formulate those ideas. It sure does. You know how to talk about things that really everyone has kind of thought about. What's the true nature of reality? What's the difference between a thing in and of itself and my perception of the thing?

[00:27:00] You know, I give the analogy of a mirage. When we're out in the desert and we see a mirage and we think it's a lake, is the lake really there? You know, is the mirage really there? Or is it some sort of a, what, a phantasm? Or is it physically explained by heat, you know, reflecting off the pavement and stuff like that? But again, you see very quickly how this is relevant. You know, a person's perspective doesn't control. The thing in and of itself controls. Goals.

[00:27:30] All of us have to wrestle with the difference between how I see a thing and the thing in and of itself. And it's relatively easy to get people up to speed on that critical issue. And one of the things you do is you have to try to challenge people. I know in the philosophy class I used to bring in when we would deal with the issue of truth, I would bring in an article from the Dallas Morning News and an article from News of the World that I would pick up at the local 7-Eleven.

[00:27:56] And one would have a story from the Dallas Morning News and the News of the World had something about five aliens being captured here. And I would ask them, which one do you all believe? And they would say, well, we believe this one in the Dallas Morning News. Why? You don't know the authors of either one of these. You don't know. You know there's papers been around for a while. But why would you believe one and not the other?

[00:28:17] And it forces you to sort of think, why do I accept something as true and something else as not true when I don't have really any experience with either one? Absolutely. And again, one of the things I love about the Worldview Series is that you're working through actual worldviews as reflected by people we disagree with, maybe even very, very strongly.

[00:28:39] But in the process, and this is a significant part of this three-year process, you're teaching young people, again, a freshman, a sophomore, a junior in high school, teaching them the tools by which they can evaluate a worldview or these questions. In other words, they're learning critical thinking skills as they're learning history. It's not simply now they know some details about Plato's Republic or they know the storyline of the Aeneid.

[00:29:06] It's rather, even more significantly there, over a three-year period, they're developing the skill to really analyze and critique and then hopefully at the end of the series kind of say, well, this is how I see things. Again, if they've developed a proper worldview grounded on the true nature of things, now they're able to see things clearly, again, as they really are. And again, that's a high school student that is able to do that.

[00:29:34] So let's say I'm a parent and I'm homeschooling. We have a lot of homeschoolers who listen into the program. But I don't have the background in philosophy and I don't have the background in theology. How do I begin to sort of bring this into my kids that I'm homeschooling when I just don't have that strong of a background? Yeah, a lot of parents have that same question.

[00:29:57] And even when their kids come home from a worldview class and they're talking about this, that, or the other thing and the parents are kind of scratching their head, they don't quite even understand what their kids are thinking there. What they don't fully realize is that we have a really successful way of shepherding these young people along, you know, from the very beginning, developing these abilities to critique and evaluate.

[00:30:23] But we're doing it in the context of literature and philosophy and art and music. And we're kind of – they're being brought along. And I think an adult can do the same thing.

[00:30:35] And, again, I have to give credit to David Quine and his curriculum, World Views of the Western World, again, out of Cornerstone Curriculum in Richardson, Texas there, that he's done an incredible job in a three-volume set of syllabuses whereby – it's a syllabus that's about an inch to an inch and a half thick, where all the reading and the evaluation of the student is being written down in that syllabus.

[00:31:04] They bring that to class, and now we talk through what they learned as they read through many times those original sources. And so, again, you do that over an extended period of time, and now you are developing the skill to understand that. And, again, it's, again, a great literature. And, again, not only great literature, but the sources that it's linking to, from Francis Schaeffer to James Sire to, you know, great novelists to Homer.

[00:31:34] You know, the reason why we're still reading these guys, Plato and Aristotle and Socrates, and it's because they're so good. Because I tell the students, even where they're wrong, they're most often brilliantly wrong. And so we can learn much from reading and evaluating and critiquing these wrong views and then to hopefully shepherd them on into the truth.

[00:31:59] What if I'm a parent and I have a kid who goes to regular high school, and I want to be able to interact on this, but I don't have three years to devote to this. I have dinner every night for, you know, a few more years before they're gone to college. How do I interact with that? Yeah. Yeah. There are good resources that I could point people to, and I wouldn't mind if they wanted to reach out via email and ask some of the sources. I'm happy to provide that in response to that.

[00:32:27] But, again, you know, take advantage of those that have gone before us, that have done the hard work, the yeoman's work. You know, a lot of what we start with is James Sire's The Universe Next Door. Mm-hmm. He's kind of updated that, slightly altered that somewhat in his more recent book, Naming the Elephant. But James Sire, very, very gifted in that.

[00:32:51] And then a lot of the things that I supplement the worldviews of the Western world with are these sources that are more modern sources that we're reading about intelligent design. Mm-hmm. These modern thinkers that have done a really, really excellent job in breaking down some of these very, very critical ideas.

[00:33:20] And then I think a lot of Francis Schaeffer. Mm-hmm. He was a very gifted Christian philosopher, especially popular in the 60s and 70s before he passed away. Right. But, again, wrote many, many great works. Again, they're kind of difficult to work through, but they're doable. You're able to do it. We'll be back with our final segment with Charles Stoffus in just a minute.

[00:33:44] You're listening to Point of View, your listener-supported source for truth. And we're back with our final segment with Charles Stoffus.

[00:34:08] We're talking about teaching worldviews to high school students, but we don't have to just restrict that to high school students. You can get access to Charles' curriculum on our website, pointofview.net. We have a link there. It's a six-page PDF document. You can download that and take a look at it. We also have his e-mail up there if you want to reach out to him because he has sources, resources that he can send you by e-mail.

[00:34:32] So feel free to reach out to them on our website, from our website, the point of the e-mail address there. And, Charles, we were talking about parents and how parents can talk to their kids even if they're not homeschooling. And there are some resources for that, isn't there? Absolutely. Some of the books that actually the students are reading are the greatest sources for them to kind of get up to speed. They're very, very understandable by a layman or woman.

[00:34:56] And I think the other thing that I think I want to give a shout-out to, first of all, I already mentioned the Worldviews of the Western World by David Quine. His whole family was involved in that. But his son, Ben Quine, has put together, he and his wife, Julie, have put together a really wonderful volume called The Biblical Worldview Primer.

[00:35:15] And it's really specifically for parents that would like to get up to speed that maybe don't have three years to devote to this extensive worldview education there. So it's a wonderful, very, very well-produced, beautiful artwork in there. But, again, very well done. The Biblical Worldview Primer by Ben and Julie Quine. And so that's a great, great resource for them. Now, you do this. You're equipping pastor with Denton Bible Church. You do this as your role as a pastor there.

[00:35:47] Should churches be engaged in this? Is this part of equipping the saints in the broader sense? Absolutely. In fact, our theme for our church is taken from Ephesians 4, that we as leaders within the church are for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry. So, yes, it's true that the central theme of the Bible is Jesus Christ and him crucified. He is the means by which we can be saved. That is the big idea among all the other big ideas.

[00:36:15] But there are the other big ideas that we are in the business of really cultivating. And so I would argue that the church at every level of education, from the children's ministry to the senior citizens, is in the process of cultivating a biblical worldview.

[00:36:31] And I know for a fact that our pastors and leaders at our church, again, from the learning center on up through middle school and high school and college and into senior citizens and married and unmarried, at every level what we are doing is cultivating a biblical worldview. And again, the Bible speaks to those fundamental questions. It is the infallible resource that we have. We have a word from God. And so that is what we preach and teach.

[00:36:58] And so in the process, over time, of exposing the word of God to people, they are indeed, whether they realize it or not, are growing in their understanding of the true nature of reality as framed by God's answers to the basic fundamental questions of reality. Now, didn't Bible Church will have separate classes and you will advertise these? We're going to be doing such and such. Right. Should churches do something like that, you think? Oh, absolutely.

[00:37:27] In fact, I remember years ago when I was actually finishing my music degree at the University of North Texas, North Texas State at that time there. But I said I read a book by a guy named it was the last name of Green and it was called The Greening of the Church by Findlay Edge, I think it was. And he said the church should be a mini theological seminary. In other words, we should be providing these kinds of classes for our people who are very intelligent.

[00:37:56] It's just that many times they're not biblically grounded because they haven't been to seminary. But we who have been to seminary have the great privilege of really now introducing all of our people to these great ideas and the coherence of the biblical message. Not just simply believe this or else, but really this is why you should believe it. It's right. It's correct. And these things help us see things as they really are.

[00:38:23] So we've been talking about how parents can reach out to their high school kids. But your point, I guess, is that pastors can be reaching out to parents or to high school kids and providing that function themselves. Yes. I mean, that is what we are involved in. Yes, we're preaching the gospel.

[00:38:41] But we're also cultivating a biblical mindset on marriage, on the arts, on education, on every critical fundamental question that we concern as well. With all of the controversy that rages around the country and the world, God has something to say about these things.

[00:39:02] And even in a program like this where we're learning historically what happened when the English, starting with the Magna Carta, over several hundred years, develop into a representative kind of a democracy. And say, how did that happen there? Well, that really helps us understand how we should see the role of government. And again, the Bible speaks to that.

[00:39:29] It's interesting because we've got an election coming up here in a few months. And so being able to bring a biblical view to your understanding of government and how that government should function, how your political representative should function. That's right. And when we encourage our people to vote, we don't have to tell them who to vote for or what to vote for if we've done our job at really helping them understand truth as it's revealed in the Bible.

[00:39:58] And what we should expect of leaders and how it is that government is a minister of God for good. And it punishes evildoers. It rewards those who do good. And if we have done our work well, all we have to do is say a strong encouragement, vote. And what we're telling them is vote your biblical convictions and we'll be okay. I heard someone say, I think it was actually Ted Cruz's father, Rafael Cruz. Who's a pastor? Yes, who's a pastor.

[00:40:28] And he actually spoke at Denton Bible once. And he said, you know what? Only half of people, half of Christians registered to vote. And of those half of the Christians that registered to vote, only half of them end up voting. So one fourth of Christians end up voting at all. And then you have to kind of siphon off some that vote probably incorrectly because they weren't well taught.

[00:40:53] But again, you can see a really significant impact on a culture if our people were trained well and then we just kind of send them out into the world to be Christ to the world. I mean, in fact, that's what our calling is. I remember John MacArthur saying this, that we gather for edification and sometimes we get bandaged up. And we get corrected and we get exhorted. But then we go out and scatter into the world and we are Christ to the world.

[00:41:21] On our jobs, at school, in society, in other groups. That's what we should be doing. It includes having an answer to some of the questions that people ask you given about your faith and why you believe what you believe. Exactly. Apologetics has not only commanded that we should be ready to make a defense for the hope that's within us. That's what Peter said. We should earnestly contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. That's what Jude said. But it's modeled everywhere.

[00:41:52] It's Isaiah saying, come let us reason together, quoting God. It's Jesus who engaged those that were so violently opposed to him. It's Paul who is engaging those that are so dead set against what he was preaching. Again, we could go on and on. It's modeled and it's exhorted and challenged for every single believer. My guest for this hour has been Charles Stoffus. He is the equipping pastor at Denton Bible Church.

[00:42:20] And we've been talking about worldviews and how you teach that to your high school students, but not just them, to other people, to members of your church. You can find that syllabus at pointofview.net, and I'd encourage you to go there. You also can find his email address if you have questions for him. And look over that syllabus. You'll find it very, very interesting. And I'll second what you said about Francis Schaeffer. He was so good at being able to integrate Christian worldview into the ideas that face us now.

[00:42:49] When we come back, we're going to talk to Seth Trout. He is the author of Authentic Masculinity. If we have a problem in this world today right now, it is the issue of masculinity. He's going to tell us what authentic masculinity is. Stay with us. We'll be back on Point of View. Will the American experiment endure?

[00:43:17] As we approach the 250th anniversary for our nation, we must recognize the answer to that question largely depends on us. In 1789, President George Washington said something important. He said, America is an experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people. That means that our actions, our values determine the course of our nation.

[00:43:45] Washington also argued that we can't expect blessings if we ignore God's moral order. If you want to help the American experiment endure, if you want to restore the moral foundation that made this nation strong, partner with Point of View. Your support equips listeners to live according to God's moral order and defend freedom for the future. Give this month and your gift will be doubled.

[00:44:12] Call or click today at pointofview.net or call 1-800-347-5151. That's pointofview.net and 1-800-347-5151. Point of View will continue after this.