Preface to:

A BIBLICAL FRAMEWORK FOR WORSHIP AND OBEDIENCE IN AN AGE OF GLOBAL DECEPTION

WHY THIS COURSE?

With all the Bible studies, conferences, and special seminars, why should there yet be another course? Good question. Let me explain.

I became a Christian while studying math and science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. I quickly became aware of the sharp and total conflict between the biblical worldview and modern culture. Either the Bible was what it claimed to be, the revealed Word of God and therefore the ultimate standard of truth for every area of life, or it was false in its claim and just another ancient book of passing interest. If the Bible were not the verbal revelation of the Living God, then I could be my own ultimate authority. That sounded like pretty heady stuff until I realized the implications--no objective meaning in life, no transcendental moral guidance or empowerment, and not even solid criteria for deciding truth and falsehood. Another sobering implication would be that the greatest person who ever lived, Jesus Christ, was either a fraud or a fiction.

On the other hand, if the Bible really was what it claimed to be, then my whole life had to be radically corrected. The God of the Bible was graciously calling me to begin a very serious process of working out repentance toward His authority in one area after another at ever deepening levels. He and I had an unavoidable, face-to-face appointment to evaluate permanently my response to His Word.

I couldn't politely receive His story of Adam on Sundays, for example, a story accepted by His Son Jesus Christ, and then turn my back on Him Monday through Friday by embracing the contradicting evolutionary premise in history and science. I couldn't profess real ethical responsibility before His Presence, and then, to deal with personal crises, revert to determinist psychologies wherein I was a passive 'victim' of circumstances. The Bible could not be "compartmentalized" to my private religious experiences. Either it was true for all of life, or it could not be true for any of life. Worship and obedience had to spill over into every area.

Out of my subsequent pilgrimage, including two graduate schools and the challenging experience of ministering the Word of God in a university town, I conceived a particular approach to teaching the Bible. Somehow, in the midst of an exploding amount of information and specialization, the Bible had to be taught soഊthat its total picture was constantly kept in focus over against the ever-present opposition from the world. To show the "big picture", the framework of implications across all domains of life, I developed this course.

This biblical framework course has a unique structure that combines apologetics with elements of biblical and systematic theology. Truths of God and His working are set into their original niche in history to show they are as much a part of reality as any "secular" history or science. In an age when men despair of trying to find sense in life, I have tried to show the inner coherence of God's speech to us. Each part of His historic conversation is linked to every other part and to every

truth outside of the Bible. The key to life is "thinking God's thoughts after Him."

This course, however, does not replace traditional Bible study; it is only a tool to integrate them. It does not replace special scholarly investigations of godly men--although it shows how to use an apologetic strategy to isolate and encircle unbelief. Finally, it cannot substitute for worship, praise, and prayer to our Triune God out of a regenerate heart. It can, however, help to start conversations with Him!

This course is a rewritten, updated version of an earlier one published between 1972 and 1980. Christian friends from around the world have asked when it would again be available. As with the earlier version, I was guided by many godly saints of the past and present who were taught by His Spirit, each in their own domain, that the Word of God judges all things. Thankfully, they braved ridicule and sometimes fierce resistance from their colleagues, to obey the Lord of all. My use of their insights, however, is my own, and I accept full responsibility for any misinterpretations or misapplications of their work.

During the past 20 years, the rate of information acquisition has become a deluge, With vastly-improved data interchange, deceptions once kept localized have become global. As we all struggle to stay afloat on a virtual sea of data, much of it deceptively organized against biblical faith, I believe it has become even more vital to integrate our lives with a heart focus upon Him Who was, Who is, and Who is to come. This is the One Who spoke the universe into existence, Who daily directs its journey through time, and Who has repeatedly and publicly spoken to mankind. He alone of all so-called gods has actually done something in history by visiting our planet to save us from our sins. And one day will utter His words of judgment on our response to Him. Let's listen anew, then, to His Word for us wherever we are in this age of global deception.

Charles A. Clough

Bel Air, Maryland