HANNIBAL – Christians must base their understanding of marriage and family—as well as all those issues facing the church today—on a worldview shaped by the Word of God, Anthony Allen, president of Hannibal-LaGrange University here, said during the opening of the Worldview Conference, April 14.
“From a Christian worldview, we understand God has created,” Allen said. “After so much was good with creation, God found it was not good for man to be alone. Marriage was designed for companionship and procreation.
“When marriage is not honored, society breaks down,” he added. “Even cultures that are not faith-based support the nuclear family. Government doesn’t create marriage.”
The Christian Worldview, based on God’s word, answers four fundamental questions about life and reality, Allen said: namely, questions about “origin, meaning, morality and destiny.”
- Origin: “The ultimate existence we have is contingent on the doctrine of creation,” Allen said.
- Meaning: What is the purpose of life? “Meaning and purpose in life are found in God. … That insatiable desire for meaning and purpose … can never be fulfilled by anything outside our relationship with God.”
- Morality: “How,” Allen asked, “do you determine right and wrong…? There is an increase of evil and wickedness in the world. For many in our society, truth has become irrelevant. The future of our society is at stake. The hope for America is a return to God.” Morality must come from Scripture, he said, rather than from human standards of good and evil.
- Our destiny: “Our destiny as believers is eternal life,” based on repentance and faith in Jesus Christ, Allen said.