All Is Meaningless

An Open Letter To All My Family After walking this Earth for now nearly 60 years, watching the daily events of the world, looking at what the world peddles as being important, and learning some lessons the hard way from foolish actions of my own along the way, I thoroughly understand what the wisest man to live, save for Christ, meant when he made the profound statement that, All is meaningless. What kind of world has man managed to create for himself based upon the results of his own strivings? What kind of a world do we have when a person can receive a lengthy jail term for breaking a condor or eagles egg but yet can put to death their own unborn baby on the basis of a mere whim? What kind of world have we created when it teaches our children that we exist as a mere accident of space, where over extreme periods of time some galactic goo came together and life sprang from it and all the species that exist resulted? What evidence has ever existed in the history of man that such an evolutionary process and the efforts of man will result in the long sought after utopian society where we all would willfully sit around and sing kum ba yah? Go to Ethiopia today and ask the Christian people there who are having to flee their homes or they will be killed how well that is working out. What would prevent a people who are the result of an evolutionary process from not going for all the gusto they can get? From what foundation do they have to build a functional society? What rule or law could they lay down that would not be continually subject to change with the next trend of thought to emerge? What limits could such a society have upon itself, when there is no true limit giver, no one who could not be usurped, and all that might have seemed solid for a time changed? What measure would there be for right and wrong when they are deemed relative? How could there be any stability in a world where everything is unstable? How could there be any true joy or sorrow? How could you define it how could you measure it? How would you measure if someone was mentally ill or just differently enlightened? How about drugs? Bring them on. These folks are probably the most honest and loyal citizens of all in such a society. Go for the experience that is all that matters in a purposeless, meaningless world. How would you measure morality or why would you even need it or consider it in such a world? Who is to say it is wrong to have sex any way I want, whenever I want, with whatever I want, whether the recipient (whether he, she, or it) is agreeable or not? If things dont go my way, why not just kill myself if life gets a little painful since I am the product of cosmic goo and just one of many dead end specimens along a meaningless path of an evolutionary process? Am I going to see myself as being of any real value? Who else but to myself do I have to answer if I decide I just want to snuff myself out? And what if I feel I havent gotten my fair share along the way? What difference does it make if I decide to take out a few people with me when I go? They are just other parts of this evolutionary travel, a meaningless existence, that have no more importance than do I. What is the difference if I decide to kill my children after they are born as opposed to before? If I kill them before they are born it is for convenience. If I kill them after they are born it is for convenience. If I dont go to jail for the one, why should I go to jail for the other? If there is no stable rule for life and law, why shouldnt I consider one race, or one nation, or one level of IQ, or level of beauty, or age preferable to another and try to eliminate those who are obviously inferior? Who is to decide if they have Stars on Thars? How do you differentiate between a thief and one who uses the legal (relative term in this world) means available to him to take from the

trusting, the nave, and the intentionally uninformed? Who is a liar in a world that continually asks the question, What is Truth? If there is no meaning and purpose to our lives, why should we not just enjoy ourselves to the hilt? Would not hedonism be the course for the day the rule of life? Who would be responsible, who would pay the bills, who would even work, who would even care? Would it not be wise for a world which saw itself as having come from goo to maintain the possibility that it could equally well return to that same goo? Entropy defies the coming up from goo and instead demands a progression toward it. But you might say, Man is better than that. He would place an order on himself- he would create a structured world. Oh really whose order whose structure? How would we decide? Would we come to that decision through a game of chess or arm wrestling how has man historically made these decisions? I challenge you to look at the last 100 years worth of mans determining a structure of order upon himself and see how well that has worked out. Consider the innumerable millions that have died in Leninist (6-8 million)and Stalinist (30-50 million) Russia , in China under Moa (45-70 million), in Vietnam under Pol Pot (21% of the population or 2-4 million), in the African Congo on many occasions (8 million), the perpetrators of the Serbian (1 million) and Armenian (1.5 million) holocausts did their part, and Hitler (15-25 million) had a good plan along with Hirohito and Mussolini. The United States and almost all of the civilized nations (with civilized used in the loosest sense of the word) of the world sure have it right by eliminating people by the untold millions (US since Roe vs. Wade 1973, 55 million; worldwide 1.2 billion since 1980 or currently about 1 per second) through abortion. It should be noted that these attempts for order and structure mentioned, and there are others, were not the result of declared wars they were just societies making course corrections in establishing the best order and rule for themselves. And these are just the ones fresh in my memory because most of these deaths, resulting from mans attempts toward a better order, occurred in my own lifetime. O yeah, man has done a bang up job of establishing a workable order and structure in this world. The value system they have created is really great. We are now entering a new and exciting phase in mans development. Man has a long history of altering other animal species through selective breeding or the process of maximizing preferred traits through procreation. This has also been done on a limited basis with humans within the bonds of slavery. But man can now change virtually all forms of life through genetic manipulations. Man now has the capability to alter the human race. Why not clone or produce through manipulating DNA only the intelligent, the beautiful, the tall? Why not find the genes that influence brain growth and the associated switches and meters in the DNA coding and manipulate them so we produce offspring with larger brains? (They already know what these are and can probably already do this) Why not manipulate the genes to make more powerful people, prettier people, or people that glow under a black light (they already can do this)? Would not these changes just be part of an advanced evolutionary process the evolved now more specifically, efficiently, and practically impacting those to be evolved? Oh happy and noble thought! How could that be wrong - we are merely improving ourselves? Im sure mans history would leave no fear in us of what he will do and is willing to do with this power. If you have not already figured this out yet, man corrupts everything he puts his hand to. Who would argue the benefits of antibiotics, but how many women would seek an abortion if in the absence of

them half of them died? How can anyone not be amazed at nuclear power, but its first use was as a bomb with the result being that we now have enough bombs to eliminate ourselves from the face of the Earth? How could any creature deemed sane ever rationalize such a thing? Computers and the internet have astounding capabilities, but look at what the majority of band width is being consumed by. Coal, oil, and natural gas are wonderful sources of energy, but the vast majority of it is consumed so that man is not deprived of his excesses. Cars are no longer a means of transportation from point A to point B but now are continually covered with options to feed our flesh and are to be viewed as a measure of status. Compared to all our fellow creatures here on this third rock from the Sun, man is an extremely intelligent creature but you will find nothing that he has laid his hand to that he has not spoiled. His embracement of homosexuality, minimizing the importance of marriage and the family, embracing the concept of evolution, denial of the proper roles and responsibilities of men and women, the development of a government dependent society, and the importance of being politically correct are only a portion of all the veiled attempts man has made to deny the existence of God and of His authority over an obviously rebellious world. The world I have here described to you is not some world gone mad as depicted in some cheap novel; it is the world you are living in. How has that world been working out for you? Lets talk about intelligence. What is it? Simply put it is nothing more than the size of hard drive you have in your head and the quality of the processing unit you possess. If measurable, it is nothing more than an indication of potential as this world measures potential. It says nothing about your character, your moral fiber, or any other aspect of what makes you who you are. You could be the most intelligent person on the face of the earth and not be worth the powder it would take to blow your brains out. What value is intelligence? Alone, it has no value at all. No more than a computer would have that had nothing of value loaded on it and many there are like this that can be found teaching on our college campuses, at the heads of corporations, in government, leading churches, and just common people walking on the street. What about knowledge? What is it? Simply put it is nothing more than accumulated facts. Mankind is teaming with accumulated facts. Man has worked so hard to accumulate facts that he has lost much of his ability to determine what is even truly a fact. Much of what he deems as a fact is instead a consensus opinion. This so called knowledge is crowd mentality stored. As such it is not even true, is not truly a reliable fact, but is however treated as though it were. What value does it have? When utilized in the absence of wisdom and an understanding of truth, not only is it of no value, it becomes dangerous and the building blocks of destruction. Devoid of wisdom and an understanding of truth, intelligence and knowledge are only great if all you want to build are houses made of cards, or castles made of sand which will only be washed away by the next incoming tide of ever changing thought. What is truth? This desperately needs to be asked by society today as a question instead of it being used as did Pontius Pilate to discharge the concept that there could even be such a thing. The common belief in society today is that there is no such thing. We want to stay within the realm of situational ethics that there are no absolutes. College campuses are filled with some of the main purveyors of this drivel and it is presented in such a way that only the highly enlightened can fully grasp the depth of this understanding. Ooooooh how deep! It is considered a virtue to be unbridled of the burden of such

a thing as truth. So what is truth? Simply put, it is something that is true today, was always true, and will always be true. It is something that is true for everyone that exists, has ever existed, or ever will exist. It is something that is true everywhere. Truth is only a subset of knowledge if it is even allowed to be included at all. When included, it defines what of all else can even be legitimately included in knowledge. It sets the boundaries of beneficial knowledge. There is a distinct difference between facts and truth. If I say as a young man that my hair is black, unless I am lying, that should be an obvious fact. However, it is not truth. There will come a time when that same statement about my hair will not be true. There may come a time when I dont even have any hair. However, if I say that man is created in the image of God, that is something that meets all of the criteria outlined above. Now someone may reject that truth, but that in no way lessens the validity of that truth, it merely shows the rejecter to be a fool. If you look at the definition of truth outlined above, upon close consideration it becomes obvious that it cannot be something that originated with man. Man would very much like it if that were not the case, and many would say that it is not, however, what is truth if it can change, or if it came about at some point in time, or if it does not apply equally to everyone. Truth is solid, it is unchanging, it can be built upon, and it comes from a source outside us. What of wisdom? Is it simply the method we use to filter and assimilate the knowledge (accumulated facts) we have through our processor (intelligence), to come to a response based upon the ultimate conclusion drawn? Not really. In its simplest form what is described above would place us on no higher level than Pavlovs dogs. In truth, that is about the level to which most of society has digressed. Man has very quickly returned to a very animalistic level. Our news media, our reality TV shows, our chat rooms, our twits, our tweets, and our face book have taken man to about the equivalent level of circling around one another sniffing each others butts. Our politicians and those that report on them operate at about the same level as a group of bull elk bugling out their virtues, or a group of tom turkeys strutting their stuff. There is no wisdom evident in any of this stuff. What then is wisdom? Plainly put it is viewing something the way God would view it, or processing information the way God would process it. It is a filtering of everything we encounter in life through what God has revealed of Himself, and of His purpose and plan for man which is contained in His word, the Bible. You might say this is a very biased view. No, truth is never biased it is simply true. It can only be seen as biased if you have already eliminated God from all your equations. Man is created in Gods image, but that very fact is a curse to him if he eliminates God from the equation of his life. Im not talking here about whether there is a God or not, although if you truly believed and had some proper concept of what being God truly entails, that should produce in you at least a self serving desire to want to know more about Him, if for no other reason than to not piss Him off. Such a self serving desire is of no real value and will buy you nothing before God, but it makes some kind of sense to a rational being at least on an earthly level. To have wisdom we have to know Gods mind and we cannot know Gods mind unless He has chosen to reveal it to us. But what of Gods mind. First of all, there can be only one God. The concept of multiple Gods is so absurd to the rational mind that even it rebels at such a thought. If there were multiple Gods who decides who is going to be God of what? Who would make sure all these Gods got along with each

other? Who was there first? Which one is the most powerful? Whos on first, Whats on second? The concept of multiple Gods is ridiculous even at the basic level of the definition of God. For truth and wisdom to have their source in God, it follows that there would have to be a line of communication set up between God and man to convey the information. Even beyond that, where else could man have come from other than from God Himself? Part of His communication with man came through the very fact that He miraculously created him as a unique part of His creation. What has man himself made that he did not have a very detailed understanding of and a very specific purpose and plan for in the creating? Would we not expect even more than this from God? Did God just wind the world up and let it go just to see what would happen? Some would place Him at such a level - like a pinball junky just whacking the ball wherever it decides to fly. There is no order in such a God, it is not the kind of God that even the universe and all the created things display or attest to. The creation and all of the universe attest to unimaginable order. Everything God created, and He did create, had a purpose. Man did not come from a glob of cosmic goo destined to evolve into a bigger more complex, yet still equally meaningless pile of cosmic goo. He has a purpose, but only within the purpose God intended and planned. All mans strivings that have as their source only the innate natural abilities and capabilities of man, are meaningless. Another way to put this is that man is incapable of doing anything that is pleasing to God on his own strength. There is nothing a man can do that will have any eternal value or significance unless it has its source in God. The implication is that there must be more than a knowledge of God here; there must be a connection, a relationship. God does not need to get to know us, He knows us - He made us. The problem is not His knowing us, the problem is us getting to know Him. There lies the problem. How do we get to know God who is so far above us that we are at a loss of even knowing how to approach Him? God has made that relatively easy for us in that He has revealed all we need and must know of Him in the scriptures. The progressive revelations He has made of Himself to men are recorded in the Bible. His revelations of Himself are in the recorded interactions He has had with men who believed what He had revealed. He blessed these people with an understanding of truth and with wisdom to be used alongside the intellect they had from birth and the accumulated knowledge available at the time. Men with these all working together pleased God, they accomplished things that did have eternal value. The order of their lives, out of wisdom, was conformed to what God desired, they were content, and God blessed these people. People such as these were blessed while on this earth, not just in material goods, but in the security they rested in. These men believed God and that belief was credited to them as righteousness. These men, even as they sought to be obedient to what God had revealed, were not in and of themselves righteous no man ever has been or ever will be, save one, and He had a Father unlike any that any other could boast. Instead they received a credit of righteousness from God a gift to their account that was based upon the righteousness of another to which they showed proper honor and respect, if even from afar. As time went on there was a progressive revelation from God of Himself until that revelation was completed in the coming forth of His Son. But what need is there of a Son? Am I not OK if I just do the best I can, do a lot of good deeds, put some coins in the salvation army bucket, help with junior achievement, bring some canned goods and toys into work at Christmas, and not steal, kill, or rob someone? Dont all paths lead to God? That would be fine for Oprah Winfry and her gospel, but that mentality wont take you anywhere with God. This attitude is fine if you assume God is created in our image as opposed to the other way around.

Such an attitude shows a complete lack of understanding of the absolute holiness of God and of the awfulness of our sin. Of these two things, one speaks of the main character of the nature of God and the other speaks directly to ours - with both absolutely preventing us from even approaching God and from having any type of fellowship with Him. When we have nothing but our own works to lay at Gods feet He will be found unmoved, inaccessible, and unforgiving. It is like we owe with our very lives and we offer Him up a nickel in payment. Even if we offered our very lives, it would not be sufficient. As I said, our concept of His holiness and of the awfulness of sin in light of that holiness are severely deficient. The sacrifice or the payment that must be made for our sins must be in nature as holy as the one it is being offered up to. Also its cleansing power for the sin being erased, must be greater in strength than the sin being removed. Once again, there is nothing of this Earth that meets these criteria. The payment must come from outside our self, from outside our world, from outside our ability. Once again, what need is there of a Son? He is essential if we are to have any hope, if we are going to be able to find any relief from our sin, if we are to find any measure of contentment with our condition while we reside in an otherwise insane, sin saturated world. Some would say that God hates the sin but loves the sinner. How so? Is sin some sort of outer space juice that seeps out of the cracks of the cosmos and somehow soils us while we are not looking? Our sin is willful sin and does not exist in the absence of a sinner. Our sin is just that, ours - we are the possessors of it, the authors of it, and it is intimately attached to us. Make no mistake, when God punishes for sin the blow falls fully upon the person it is attached to. If that sin is not taken care of, if it is not cleansed and removed according to the only method God has prescribed for its removal, it remains eternally attached to us, and us to it. First it brings physical death which is common to all, but the final result is eternal death for those who have not undergone Gods cleansing. Our sin, if unremoved, keeps us eternally separated from God without hope of restoration. Now is the time for our salvation, while there is still life in us there is still hope. But how do we receive that which we do not have, that which we have no power to obtain, that which is Holy when we possess no holiness? We receive it in the same way of every man who has ever received it. We believe what God has revealed of Himself and that His promises are sure. We believe that we can trust in Him and know that as a loving Father He will both discipline us when needed, but ultimately His desire is to bless. We know that we can find peace and contentment in Him and His promises while yet in a world where there is no peace and no contentment. We also know and see ourselves to be strangers and aliens in a world devoid of the character of the world that will ultimately be set up not because of mans works, but by the power and under the authority of His Son, that same Son whose sacrifice and blood can satisfy the penalty and price that must be paid for our sin once His righteousness has been credited to our account. Have you believed God? Have you tried things Gods way? Mans wisdom is foolishness to God, and Gods wisdom is foolishness to men. I have laid out before you a brief description of mans thinking and the results of his attempts to bring order, unity, and peace to the world we live in. Consider what I have said, look around you day to day and consider what the possibility is of man being able of his own strength to pull off fixing all the problems and moving into a perfect world. Based upon his track record, how much faith would it take on your part to believe that man is capable of accomplishing that?

On the other hand, how much convincing does it take to come to the conclusion that men are by nature sinful creatures and incurable. How hard would it be for you to see that men are self centered and selfish and that for the most part greed for wealth and power is what drives our world? What would it take to convince you that there needs to be a remedy for this propensity toward sin that we all share? How much faith would it take to believe that God and God alone can do it for you? Which takes the most faith, believing that the efforts of man will result in salvation, or that our salvation rests in the hands of God? Each of us individually must make that choice and we had best be fully convinced of the validity of the choice we have made for we will pay the consequences that come with that choice. My advice and my hope is that you each turn away from this world - it is a dry river, a mere mirage leading you further and further into a dryer and dryer land. All of mans strivings will lead to nothing they are all meaningless. I would encourage you to try things Gods way seek Him out He can be found. You will find that in Him you are a threat to no one, you will have a genuine, non self serving kindness toward others, a desire to share what you have found, and a willingness to set yourself aside for the sake of another and for what God had deemed important. Pride will be seen as the enemy it is and an offense toward God, and you will find all your hope rests in Him. You will find the pressure is off, you cant do it on your own and you will know it. Only with Him can we have an eternity to discuss how foolish we have been and to enjoy one anothers company as a new creation, in a new creation, suitable to the Holiness of the God who created it. What a wonderful thought! The writer (Solomon) who started with the statement that all is meaningless again restates this same message at the end of what he had to say and then follows it with the following instruction to the hearers. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind. 14 For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil. The prophet Micah summarized the walk we should have before the Lord with the following. He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. That is my, your earthly fathers, hope for you all.

Littleman (S. Glover, 2011)