Of the appearance of the stranger I remember almost nothing except that he was a good sized man and about middle aged and that his speech had no foreign accents. Mr. Kirk soon steered the conversation around to God and Eternity and as I listened I learned that both of them shared a relationship with God that was a completely new thought to me. They had assurance of going to Heaven, something that I certainly did not have even though that thought had caused me to be fearful at times in my few years.
And then there was an expression that Mr. Kirk used that struck me as strange for it was one I had never heard before, the phrase “a student of human nature.” What did that mean and what did he mean? Was it somewhat the same as the phrase that our school teacher had used in literature classes about character study? But human nature study must be a lot more than character study, so what did he mean? I never asked him, but now I probably would use the words ‘world view to’ if I were to ask the same question.
Today world view is limited if not suppressed by people, by authorities, and administrations, these are inner circles that nobody dares to question, those who deny the existence of anything more than the material. Thus with no place for the spiritual aspect the idea of world view is strictly subjective. Subjective as opposed to objective, for the denial of our spiritual dimension does not answer our innermost questions but suppresses them. Who I am or where did I come from or why am I here cannot be satisfactorily answered without understanding that there is both a material and a spiritual world.
Nor is the idea of a spiritual world at all like the idea of virtual reality. That new craze is complete subjectivity with no objective value. By shutting out actual reality and natural laws and allowing only human imagination to rule one is willingly deluded into things that are not real at all. Then when the spell is broken the real actual world floods back to reveal itself and declare that there is more to life than can be seen with earthly eyes or even with Google eyes. There is a spiritual world also.
So our world view does include God the originator of it all, and of course it includes me because I am here now, but also other people, who they are and what they have done and are doing. An objective view with God as the centre and starting point instead of just me and my ideas. So a student of human nature is different from a materialist the one who denies the supernatural and God who is a spirit.
That was in 1941 so you may well imagine that over the intervening years the study of human nature has developed more and more in my life. In my old age since I have retired from actually working with my hands I have regarded people as more than tools and work. People are not just things but interestingly different creations. Created like you and me with curiously different looks and speech and likes and dislikes, some who have come into harmony with their Creator and some who sadly have turned away from Him. But all of us are made in His image.
The Bible says that in the beginning God created man in His own image. But we are told that God is not material, He is spiritual without a body, so it is not our bodies or the material parts of us that is meant when it says we are in God’s image. It is that each of us has been created with a free will, we are free to choose. It is our choice. When we give our final account of life we will not be allowed to blame someone or something else for our personal choices, for our choices are ours.
We are not speaking of our privileges like where we are born and who our parents are and even how much smarts we have, but choices where we respond positively or negatively to our Creator. We have made these choices on our own because like God we have a free will.
Now although the freedom to choose is ours the consequences of choice are not ours. Those results are according to the laws that govern the universe. For example there are some things you may not agree with me on, for you do have a free will as I have, but no matter whether we agree or not the consequences will be the same for each of us. That is the way God made the Universe. And a world view in harmony with the Bible offers the best and really only explanation for life and people. Our world view makes a world of difference to how we see and interact with God and people.