The war is being waged everywhere.

Every day.

• A Christian business owner declines to participate in a same-sex wedding, and a judge metes out a punishment that could bring financial ruin.
• A Christian parent objects to an immoral book her child has been assigned to read, and the child’s teacher refuses to budge.
• A pro-life pregnancy center provides tender care for expectant mothers, but a state law forces the center to display a sign promoting abortion.
• A biological male demands to be treated as a female, even in private spaces, as the existence of truth is denied and meaning is eviscerated.
• A historic memorial to war veterans stands as a reminder of the price paid to protect freedom, but an appeals court rules that the memorial must be dismantled—because it is in the shape of a cross.

On and on it goes, and at the heart of every situation is a conflict between two or more worldviews.

A worldview, often described as the lens through which we view the world, affects all we think, do and say, whether we are conscious of it or not. And today in the West, the Christian worldview seems to be losing influence almost daily. Little by little, a rebellious world has chipped and chopped away at the once-prominent Christian view.

“The Judeo-Christian worldview has become the pariah stepchild of worldviews and is being attacked, while other worldviews are respected, reverenced and recognized as part of history and the culture of other nations,” notes apologist Ravi Zacharias.

One tragic consequence: Teens and college students abandon the Christian faith at an alarming rate. People born between 1999 and 2015 are twice as likely as the general population to identify as atheists, according to a new Barna study. And a recent article by John Stonestreet, president of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview, noted that one-third to one-half of students who said they were Christians when they entered college no longer made that claim at graduation.

Those who remain faithful share three common characteristics, according to Steven Garber, professor of marketplace theology and leadership at Regent College. First, they have a solid Christian worldview, knowing what they believe and why. Second, they have community with others who share that worldview. Third, they have parents or other mentors who exemplify Christian character.

With such high stakes, we must understand exactly what we mean by the Christian worldview. Put simply, it sees and interprets the world through the lens of Scripture, which is God’s revelation to us. It affirms that God created the universe. That humans sinned against God, breaking their relationship with Him. That God made a way for people to have their guilt forgiven and to be reconciled to Him and one another, through faith in Jesus’ atoning death and resurrection. That as new creations in Christ, we are to live as salt and light in the world, proclaiming the Good News of salvation to all. And that one day, Jesus will return to judge all of humanity. Those found righteous in Christ will worship and serve the Lord forever, while those who refused God’s offer of salvation will suffer eternal punishment in hell.

When one truly believes this, it changes everything. And it’s not just a matter of changing an intellectual position. When we put our trust in Jesus to save us, God gives us His Holy Spirit, who changes our thoughts, our desires and our outlook. We are set free to serve the Lord with gladness. We are no longer slaves to sin. We have a right standing with God and know that we can trust Him in all circumstances. We understand the desperate need to share the Good News so that others can find new life in Christ.

But other prominent worldviews stand opposed to Christ and the Biblical understanding of the world. Today, perhaps the most prominent in Western nations is the secular humanist worldview.

Open Doors, which maintains the World Watch List of the 50 nations where it is hardest for Christians to live, recently cited secular humanism as one of the four major trends influencing global persecution of Christians. “The secularist revolution is now expanding to historically conservative nations, particularly in the form of a new sexual agenda that’s at odds with the traditional Christian worldview,” the organization reported. “In many countries, Christian belief is portrayed as archaic, backward and detrimental to the health of the individual and society as a whole. … Christians are also sometimes deemed unfit for service in public office, corporate leadership or community affairs.”

While a Christian lives under the authority of God’s Word and believes what God says about marriage, the secular humanist view says that people should be able to marry anyone, and a Christian business owner must be willing to participate in and celebrate a same-sex wedding ceremony or be punished.

While the Biblical worldview holds that life begins at conception, secular humanism sees the unborn child as having no human rights, no worth, as being an inconvenience and too burdensome on society.

While the Biblical worldview affirms that God’s design for sexuality allows us to flourish, secular humanism demands that we all support unbridled sexual license and autonomy while ignoring the damage and pain of promoting a sexually charged culture.

Abdu Murray, North American director with Ravi Zacharias International Ministries, explains that Christian worldview training ultimately helps believers to share the Gospel and reach others for Christ. Christianity evidenced the greatest ethic of love when Christ entered human history to sacrificially die on our behalf. The fact that He died on the cross did not show weakness, it showed the ultimate act of love.

This month we feature several articles that will help you to understand more about the Christian worldview, how it conflicts with the various “fake” worldviews prevalent today, and why the Christian worldview alone best explains reality, mercifully providing us a road map to flourish—both now and for eternity.