“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16). I am privileged to teach two online seminary courses at Riga Luther Academy, Latvia. Some of our students live in Europe, some in Africa. Interacting with them, two different worldviews become apparent. For example, when discussing creation, the Europeans are caught in the tension between what the Bible clearly teaches on this topic and what they have been raised to believe in, namely, the Big Bang, natural selection, and macroevolution. (I was raised in these teachings as well, even having studied geology at a secular university. But after converting to Christianity years later, I realized that many things that I had learned contradict Scripture, and so, over time, I came to reject them. In contrast, our African students take the Bible at its Word: “God created everything in six 24-hour days,” they flatly state. “So other explanations for how everything came about are obviously wrong.” Why the different worldviews in these two groups? From the late 18th century onward, rationalist views began to creep into European and North American Christianity, causing many believers to doubt the miracles recorded in Scripture. Yet these heresies largely bypassed Africa and other regions of the Global South. I am very grateful to be able to interact with these two different groups on a regular basis and witness the tension and energy in their discussions. While we in the “West” have been able to put people on the moon and invent self-driving cars, sadly, our history and culture have also placed spiritual blinders on many of us—a limitation largely unknown by our African Christian brothers and sisters. Dear Lord, You know where we need Your teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness most. Thank you for providing us with these gifts in Holy Scripture.
The Tiews in Germany 