Worldview Wars: Let No One Take You Captive

By Ifiok J. Ukobo

In Worldview Wars, Ifiok J. Ukobo exposes the hidden, but very aggressive, war of worldviews being waged against righteousness in our personal lives and community. This battle has now arrived in every home, community, and country. We are under attack, and the battle front spans our schools, media, national policies, and pulpits. Families are breaking down, children are becoming rebellious; communities no longer have shared values, and a cultural flux is emerging. In Worldview Wars, the author presents practical ways to win the battle in your life, family, and community. This book will renew your mind and help you to stay free and bring freedom to others that have been taken captive. You will also discover practical strategies that will help you to teach your children a biblical worldview and arm them against deception.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: May 8, 2015
• ISBN: 9781490875897

Ifiok J. Ukobo

Ifiok J. Ukobo is the founder of Think Right and Live Right Club, a leading voice on reclaiming a biblical worldview in Nigeria. He served as vice principal for academics at Africa Centre for Theological Studies before moving on to initiate a biblical worldview discipleship program in 2009. He lives in Lagos with his family.

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Copyright © 2015 Ifiok J. Ukobo.

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Scripture taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide. Used by permission. NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION® and NIV® are registered trademarks of Biblica, Inc. Use of either trademark for the offering of goods or services requires the prior written consent of Biblica US, Inc.

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ISBN: 978-1-4908-7588-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-7590-3 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-7589-7 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015905501

WestBow Press rev. date: 5/8/2015

CONTENTS

Foreword

Acknowledgments

Chapter 1 There Is A War Going On

Chapter 2 Understanding Your Worldview

Chapter 3 Jesus And Worldview

Chapter 4 Ideas Come From Spirits

Chapter 5 Ancient Origin Of Worldview Wars

Chapter 6 Modern Origin Of Worldview Wars

Chapter 7 Effects Of Worldview Wars On Our Lives

Chapter 8 World News Today

Chapter 9 Biblical Worldview Transformed The World

Chapter 10 Training Your Child On Biblical Worldview

Chapter 11 Making A Righteous Impact

Chapter 12 Worldview Wars And The End Time

Appendix Scientists, Their Invention And Location In The Reformation Map

This book is dedicated to my wonderful Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and to His body, the church, which desperately needs to make a righteous impact on earth.

FOREWORD

I fiok J. Ukobo’s Worldview Wars interrogates the crucial issues in the determination of a preferred worldview today. Whose worldview will prevail, and whose do you accept—the humanist worldview, as typified by the New Age movement, or God’s worldview/Christian worldview? The latter is motivated, birthed, and nurtured by the spirit of God and propagated by His prophets. The provenance of the former is the spirit of the Antichrist and propagated by his prophets. That there is a clash of worldviews, or even that the difference is so stark and may mean the difference between life and death, is a rude awakening. Indeed, to be carnally minded is death but to be spiritually minded is life and peace (Rom. 8:6 KJV).

Perhaps more frightening is the reality that human beings are forced to make those choices daily and find themselves in the trap of dualism: sometimes God’s worldview, sometimes the humanist-centered view. The author demonstrates that many people, like Peter, who in one God-inspired breath said of Jesus, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God, and in another, that Jesus should not think of dying, deserve the great rebuke that Peter received from Jesus in the words, Get thee behind me Satan. This is the issue. Dualism will lead to the great rebuke from our God. We must accept that this is the ultimate desire of Satan for Christians: not necessarily that we adopt wholesale a humanist view point but that we are neither hot nor cold.

With Ifiok’s powerful revelation of the nature and scope of the conflict, the injunction to test every spirit takes on great poignancy. The test is whether the viewpoint lines up with the Word of God or not.

Inherent in Scripture are two notions: first is that spirits are the sources of ideas and views; and second is that ideas need to be analyzed to determine the spirits behind them.

He concludes that all ideas in the world are either ideas that exalt the knowledge of God or ideas that exalt themselves against the knowledge of God. When we resist the latter, we are resisting the Devil.

Ifiok’s exegesis is a difficult one, especially so for a scholar. Most scholars would wish to be somewhat equivocal on certain issues, to make room for stiff challenges to their ideas. Ifiok does none of that; he literarily burns his bridges in an intellectual sense—a reflection of the strength of his convictions but, more important, the urgency of the message and the spiritually fatal consequences of not heeding.

Ifiok’s warning is strident, sometimes repetitive, to drive home the point. He says, If you are alive in this world today, you are a target of the New Age philosophies. They want to give you their lens with which to evaluate your world. You are at risk of accepting their worldview on cross-dressing, gender role reversal, tolerance, human rights, and spirituality without dogmas. If you do not stand strong in the word of God, your faith in God as Creator will be destroyed. Your faith in the Bible as relevant for all facets of life will be destroyed. You will develop a dualistic life with the Bible as the wisdom for your religious life, but other books will rule in other aspects of your life. Accepting their worldview means accepting to be messed up by Satan. One of the great strengths of the book, which perhaps is done at the cost of repetition, is that he stays on message through the text. There is no equivocation.

Of great moment is the incredibly useful chapter on teaching our children the biblical worldview. Many will find its detailed, hand-holding guide to a robust counter-indoctrination of children with the biblical worldview, in a world suffused with humanist views, both practical and encouraging.

The author’s guide to avoiding the deception of humanist worldviews is insightful and practical. These include defining our victory or defeat from a biblical perspective, prioritizing what is true over what works, living for God’s glory, and rejecting dualism.

Worldview Wars is a timely book. It arrives at a time in the war when truly heavy ordinance is needed. It will be a game changer.

Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, Senior Advocate of Nigeria

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

A t different seasons of my life, God has used different people to make critical inputs in my life, which have resulted in this work. Among them are Mr. and Mrs. Ime Ettang, who modeled the Christian life for me; Dr. Peter Hammond of Christian Action, whose ministry helped me to bring together my thoughts on biblical worldview; my professors at West Africa Theological Seminary, who helped refine my writing skills; and my friends and colleagues during my days as a staff member of Great Commission Movement of Nigeria.

I greatly appreciate all participants of Lifebuilders Biblical Worldview Discipleship, who were the first recipients of this message. Their questions and interest helped motivate me to dig deeper for answers to pressing issues of our time.

My appreciation goes also to Professor Yemi Osinbajo, who took time to go through the manuscript and offer very valuable suggestions.

I owe a great debt of gratitude to my wife, Ojuolape Ukobo, who prayed for and encouraged me during the entire writing process. She was a great inspiration for me to put down the concepts God has been teaching me.

Finally, I want to thank my children, who bore with me when our living room became more of a workspace than a place for relaxation.

The Lord, who alone made all things possible, is to be praised for this work, and I owe everything to Him.

CHAPTER 1

There Is a War Going On

T he twenty-first century came with so many technological feats, a digital revolution, scientific breakthroughs, and economic possibilities. Unfortunately, the same century has recorded a worrisome global crime rate, horrifying moral bankruptcy, and highly intelligent but deceptive arguments against the biblical worldview and Christian civilization. These arguments are targeted at defeating the fear and counsel of God in our lives, churches, communities, and country. As a result, everything from sexual purity to marriage, family, truth, politics, economics, and gospel is being redefined to fit the twenty-first-century postmodernism. Perspective on everything in life is gradually shifting from God’s point of view to mankind’s point of view, both in personal life and the public space. The battle line is drawn. The battle to dominate the thoughts, ideas, and practices of people with a humanist point of view is raging in every sphere of life. A battle over whose point of view will dominate the thoughts, ideas, and practices of people is raging in every sphere of life. This battle is not new; it started as far back as the garden of Eden. Below is the record from the book of Genesis:

Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. (Gen. 3:1–7 KJV)

When God created Adam and Eve, He gave them just one perspective to life in the garden, and Adam and Eve looked at the tree in the garden from that one perspective: God’s perspective. When the Devil came along to ask Eve about the tree, Eve could only give answers from God’s point of view, as communicated to her before.

After some dialogue with the Devil, however, Eve’s perspective on the tree in the midst of the garden changed from, But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die to the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise. The Devil had succeeded in birthing another perspective on the fruit of the tree in Eve’s eyes. The Devil may have told Eve to forget about God, look at the tree objectively, and evaluate it using only her limited intellect. Seeking objectivity outside God is courting deception. The Bible states, And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient (Rom. 1:28 KJV).

Whatever the case, Eve took an independent view of the tree and its fruit. The result was a creation of another point of view besides God’s point of view on the tree. This was a human point of view. It was the beginning of the rejection of divine perspective and the replacement of same with human perspective. The Bible says, For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace (Rom. 8:6 KJV). Death was already at the door of Eve’s life, and then the worst happened.

Eve took the fruit, ate it, and gave some to her husband, who also ate it. The Bible recorded that after eating the forbidden fruit, their eyes were opened. This was not the opening of physical eyes because they were not blind before. It was the opening of their senses to perspectives other than God’s perspective. It was a demonic opening of the senses to varied perspectives in life that was bound to confuse and distract mankind’s focus on God and His Word until the end of the age. The equation in the garden had changed from just God’s one perspective on life to multiple human perspectives, in accordance with the deceit of the Devil.

God’s design was for mankind to live by His Word and His point of view. Jesus said, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God (Matt. 4:4 KJV). However, the Devil seduces people to develop perspectives to life, marriage, sexuality, community, economy, education, law, science, etc., apart from God. A battle is raging across the world as to whose perspective will rule in our lives, communities, and nations. Unfortunately, the Devil’s side seems to be more aware, ready, and active in this battle than the people of God.

You must ask yourself as a Christian, Where do I stand in this battle? Are you going to be like Adam, who waited for Eve to dialogue with the Devil and bring the result for him to consume, or are you going to arise like Phinehas, the grandson of Aaron, who was jealous for God’s glory with such a zeal that it quenched the wrath of God upon the sinning Israelites (Num. 25:1–11)? The Devil is fighting hard to deceive human beings into replacing God’s perspective with various human perspectives. This is called the war of worldviews, and it is getting fiercer by the day. If you are not aware of this battle raging against your life, family, community and Christian civilization, you possibly have been defeated in many areas of life. Now is the time to wake up to the battle of worldviews and fight for your life, your children and community. A few insights into this battle are presented below.

Fashion and lifestyle

In a toothpaste ad on Nigerian television, a man wearing a suit and tie with a traditional hairstyle is portrayed as the one with stinking breath and decaying teeth, while the man with Rastafarian hair and a rebellious clothing style is the hero of the advertisement. The same can be said of a particular ad for milk, in which the hero is a man with his hair plaited like a woman’s, completely violating the biblical injunction forbidding males from dressing like females, and vice versa. Young people watching these ads see what was once an alternative lifestyle as mainstream and acceptable. Worse, some people who dress or adorn themselves immodestly are presented as role models to children. Consequently, youth look at fashion, morality, and lifestyle from a perspective independent of God and the Christian civilization. In this way, the entertainment world is fighting a war of worldview and is replacing biblical worldview with a humanist one in our youths.

Sexuality

I was at the public hearing on the Senate bill to prohibit same-sex marriage in Nigeria in October 2011. I was surprised to see young Nigerian professionals speaking in defense of homosexuality and same-sex marriage. Passionately, they pleaded that their lifestyle be accorded public and government approval. Our