We Are

It's a bad question.

Here's why I think so.

First of all, what do you mean by Christianity? What exactly is the Christian worldview? (I'll qualify here that we are dealing here with Christianity as a worldview, nothing more...and it is so much more).

Different people can have different worldviews that I would consider equally Christian.

For instance...a Calvinist vs. an Arminian. Both people, I would say, have Christian worldviews. Both are equally convinced their view is right. And yet when they see someone saved, they see what happened differently. Did the person who was saved have a choice in the matter?

So what defines the Christian worldview?

This is a pretty key issue because we're constantly told that we ought to have a "Christian worldview." Unfortunately, the "Christian worldview" presented often has more to do with politics than the actual teaching of the Word.

One more thing with the question.

If my particular worldview (we'll say I'm Buddhist in this example) can explain what I see around me as far as I can honestly tell, then it does in fact explain the reality of the world around me. That seems a little repetative but think about it. My worldview may not be how things actually are, but that doesn't matter as long as it explains the world for me. It's a personal truth.

In fact, any worldview that I honestly hold to does in fact explain the world around me.

Long story short, I'm not sure where you're going with the question anymore (I thought I was before today).

Now if the question was...

Does the Bible, when it's correctly interpreted, tell us about the world as it actually is?

Then we can jump into a whole other world. The short answer is yes. And you guys bring up a good point about being the smell of death to those who are perishing and the smell of life to those who are being saved.

I would add, though, that we are not simply covered in Christ's scent. We are ONE with Christ. When people look at a believer they smell Christ Himself and NOT a superficial covering of Christ's scent. Christ is in us. He's there. Really. And He's working in us (not from a safe, holy distance but IN us at the deepest level) for our good to change us to be like Him more and more.

We are not alone.

Matt