Answering Life's Ultimate Questions

All worldviews attempt to answer the ultimate questions of life: where did we come from? how did we get here? why are we here? where will we end up? what makes life worth living? Mankind has always asked these challenging questions. This is where religion came on the scene, for God has put eternity in our hearts from the beginning and man has always wondered about life after death, as the ultimate issue and the big question. All religions and worldviews attempt to give satisfying answers to these questions and to "save" mankind. Some people think religion is just escapism or a crutch, but secular people have crutches too and just put their faith in science that it has the answer or can find them.

Everyone is a person of faith! It just depends on what your presupposition is, i.e., it's not a matter of faith versus reason, but what you are willing to accept as truth to begin with. We must begin with God and explain our worldview, not start with some interpretative framework and explain away God--for where you begin usually determines where you will end up; even Darwin pondered, "Would you trust the convictions of a monkey's mind?" It has been said that if you teach a man he's an animal that he'll act like one; some men want to believe they are animals so they can have the morals of one.

Man is not an animal in the sense that he seeks the reason for being, meaning, purpose, and understanding in life--we wonder "why" and contemplate ourselves. We not only know things but know that we know and ponder why we know it and what we can know even how we know things. In other words, man is a natural philosopher, while animals don't wonder or think about the bigger issues in life besides their basic needs. Even having an education, a higher standard of living, and freedom, man can be empty inside. Man needs fulfillment and relationships, for we are a social, spiritual, creative, communicative, musical, moral, rational creature and have personalities that relate to others on a personal level, giving man the unique ability to know and relate to one another.

Science can indeed give us the "know-how," but it cannot help us with the "know-why" of life, it cannot give us purpose in life and hope for the future, nor satisfy our longings for truth, identity, impact, importance, guidance, and meaning in life--animals have no such need. Do animals wonder who they are and try to find themselves or get in touch with themselves? Only man wastes time by worrying about the future and regretting the past. Man is by nature a religious being too, and if he doesn't worship God he'll worship something or someone else; on the other hand, no one has ever observed a monkey building a chapel outside of The Planet of the Apes!

It is my premise that Christianity answers these questions better and fuller than any religion or secular worldview. There is a harmony, coherence, and unity in the Christian worldview that lines up with the Bible as the authority. Christianity outshines all other worldviews in reasonableness, personal experience, and foundation in fact and history. The Bible is the foundation upon which the faith stands. Every worldview must have some authority or "scripture," and the Bible is the highest standard attained by man and it's self-attesting. It appeals to no authority higher than itself for proof and proves itself. This is not circular reasoning to say we believe the Bible is the highest authority because it claims to be, because God has the authority to speak through His Word and if He appealed to anything else or we did, like science or history, God would be taking a backseat to them and not be the ultimate authority figure.

Secularism believes that everything has a natural cause and can be explained naturally--there's no place nor need for miracles! The supernatural is ruled out from the get-go and doesn't enter the equation. Only the strong survive in this dog-eat-dog world of survival of the fittest and the law of the jungle--the real rat race. We are just all lucky to be here due to some great cosmic accident eons ago. They offer no explanation for life and their origin-of-life experiments fail to come off, and they must see the cosmos and life as mere givens, and unexplainable phenomena.

In their view, everything is an infinite series of finite, efficient causes and there was no First Cause, which they refuse to accept as possible and necessary because it sounds too much like God. But students of logic, science, philosophy, and mathematics know that an infinite series of causes is impossible--there must be a first cause! This is called the impossibility of crossing infinity. But they have no room for God in their equation and will not let a Divine Foot in the door, thinking that religion is a neurosis or delusion, a crutch for the weak. Much more they refuse to accept the spiritual dimension of life--everything is material and made up of matter and energy, without any spirit or Ultimate Mind behind it. For instance, the brain is just a cog of machines, made up of electronic circuits, and the mind doesn't exist independently of it, just another name for the brain. We have, therefore, no soul and no spirit worth saving.

The meaning of the cosmos hangs on which came first and which has precedence: mind or matter. Either one or the other preceded: In the beginning ultimate mind; in the beginning ultimate matter. The Bible starts out: "In the beginning God..." John elaborates as "In the beginning was the Word..." The Logos here referred to is the "expressed thought of God." Either mind created matter or mind evolved from matter--there's no other option. It's impossible for there to be nothing in the beginning, for "out of nothing, nothing comes." goes the axiom: ex nihilo, nihil fit.


Cosmologists now reckon a beginning to time, as the Bible has always predicated (cf. 2 Tim. 1:9; Tit. 1:2). Time, being the corollary of space and matter, didn't always exist, and God must be outside of the time-space continuum to be the First Cause and get the ball rolling (something timeless created time!). What or who fired the shot of the Big Bang, who banged the Bang? According to Newton's law of inertia, how did motion begin?  An object at rest tends to stay at rest, begging the question of the first motion.  We conclude that there must be someone behind the cosmos who is responsible and intelligent and programmed the universal constants, called the Anthropic Principle or the fine-tuning of the universe.

All worldviews aim to save the world too and to make a brighter future for posterity. Christians don't believe we can save society and do not attempt to save man through politics. Most secularists are highly utopian and believe man is capable of perfection and therefore so is society. But this kind of dreaming is pie in the sky and gives false hopes, like believing someday man will know how to become immortal. There are those who freeze their bodies in hope of man someday figuring out how to thaw it out and revive it. 

In the meantime, all members of the worldviews attempt to better themselves and their world and make it better for succeeding generations. Doing good works is a part of every worldview, it's the motivation that differs: Christians do it out of gratitude and love for God and others, while other worldviews want to earn their way to salvation or just make themselves feel good, because of their unresolved guilt. Soli Deo Gloria!

Why Is There So Much Evil?...

"The LORD saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time" (Gen. 6:5, NIV).  
"The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure.  Who can understand it?" (Jer. 17:9, NIV). 
"As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today" (Gen. 50:20, ESV). 

Evil is not the opposite of good, but its perversion or deprivation--evil couldn't exist in its own right unless good did.  In the beginning, there was no evil in the world. There is no such thing as a struggle in life between yin and yang like Eastern mystics believe.  God created everything and said it was good!  But He also created the possibility of evil.  For if evil had not been possible, there would be no way to see good in contrast.  We see good in light of evil and shouldn't ask where's God, but where isn't God and where's the church.  God did something about evil; He made you and me!  He created us for such a time as this and we must let our light shine in the darkness and it shall not be put out or extinguished.  John Donne said, "Don't ask for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee."  Evil gives us the opportunity to overcome it with good and to bring glory to God with victory in Jesus' name.

There is a very good reason why evil must exist:  different people respond to the same event in different ways--one becomes better and one bitter!  The same sun hardens the clay, melts the butter!  The same knife can cut butter and be used in war.  If evil didn't exist, how would we know if we would choose God for ourselves?  There so much evil now because God knows how to turn it into good and sees a silver lining behind every cloud.  God works the wrath of man to His glory and there is so much of it to work with--but God doesn't allow anything that doesn't fit His ultimate purpose (cf. Psa. 76:10).  We must never question God's wisdom and blame Him for our problems.

God could stamp out evil in the world with one stroke, but you and I wouldn't be here, for everyone has some evil inherent, for man is a totally depraved being in need of salvation.  Who is it that would determine just how much evil is to be tolerated, if not God?  We must trust God who is too deep to explain Himself, too wise to make a mistake, and too kind to be cruel.  Job wondered why God was getting on his case because he saw himself as righteous.  His error was that he was self-righteous!  We all deserve far worse from God than we receive at His hand--God tempers His justice with mercy and remembers mercy in His wrath (cf. Hab. 3:2).

Instead of charging God with error we should thank Him for His mercy and grace--We don't get what we deserve and get what we don't deserve!  God is good to all in some ways and to some in all ways who are doubly blessed (cf. Psalm 145:9). But God's common grace extends to all and He calls all men to repent, but most men don't see their sins.

There are no easy answers to evil in the world and no religion has a complete answer but leaves room for faith to come into play.  God isn't accountable to us, but we to Him and He doesn't have to explain Himself.  A lot of evil we experience is of our own doing as we reap what we sow, some sow the wind and reap the whirlwind even.  A man ruins his life and then blames the Lord (cf. Prov. 19:3), but when he's successful he gives himself all the credit!  We must rest in faith that God allows evil to happen according to His providence and has a purpose for everything, even the wicked for the day of evil (cf. Prov. 16:4).  According to Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, sometimes referred to as the best of all possible worlds in which evil is minimized and goodness maximized, God cannot make a world with men having the ability to choose evil if they will, without some choosing it to their damnation!

God always makes it up to us for the evil done us and rewards us for the days the locust has eaten (cf. Psalm 90:15; Joel 2:25).  We never come out losers with God on our side and always with us. Jesus expects nothing more from us He didn't do:  all sufferings, trials, afflictions, tests must inevitably come but our crosses pale in comparison to His.   In the final analysis, we must view evil in our lives as a test of faith and God doesn't allow any evil that isn't Father-filtered and He has a purpose for it--"All things work together for good to them who love God..."

NB:  The world is not as evil as it can be for God's grace is at work always restraining it lest it gets out of hand.  We live in the day of grace when God is keeping the door open to the gospel and not judgment.  Someday God will judge the world and make His wrath known.     FINAL THOUGHT:  MAYBE WE SHOULD ASK: "WHY IS THERE SO MUCH GOOD?"     Soli Deo Gloria!

By God's Design

When we break faith with our Designer or Creator, we lose our faith and end up going our own way and doing our own thing (cf. Isa. 53:6, ESV, which says, "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned-- every one--to his own way...")--one definition of sin's essence.  The Bible states "woe to him who strives with his Maker "(cf. Isa. 45:9).  God didn't make the rules for sexuality to be mean or to spoil our fun, as some kind of a cosmic killjoy, but that's what's best for us and we sin against ourselves when we commit sexual immorality.   We are all capable of doing what's unnatural and inappropriate things and inventing new ways to do evil (cf. Romans 1:27-30). 

Now, homosexuality is not to be singled out as the worst possible evil or sin committed, for we must see it in God's eye; He loves the sinner, yet hates the sin.  It is at variance with Scripture and some Christians don't hold a biblical worldview, thinking it's just progressed to accept gay marriage.  The Bible teaches absolute morality, and His perfect, holy, divine standards have not and will not change with time--they're not relative in any way.

People who say that God mentions it as abominable must also realize other sins are in the same boat and worthy of the same condemnation that they don't denounce.  Often it's the other guy's sin that offends us, not our own.   All sin angers God because it goes against His divine nature.  We were originally in God's image and meant to bring glory to Him, and this is contrary to God's intention of the union of a man and a woman in marriage.  He did this on purpose so that they can complete each other and fit together as one.  Homosexuality is not God's best for man and offends Him, as does all sin. It isn't sin just because God doesn't like it--it is degrading and shameful as well as unnatural, going contrary to His nature which is holy.

We must be careful not to concentrate on any one sin that offends us and miss the forest for the trees, not seeing the big picture.  Legalists see sins, not sin and our problem is our old sin nature, which manifests its weakness differently.  We must not signal out homosexuality and lose focus or go on some campaign against the sinners.  Our mission is to preach the gospel to them and let God do a work of grace in changing their lives.  

God can heal or cure someone of this sin, just like any sin (cf. 1 Cor. 6:11).  Some claim they were born this way and they didn't have any choice--but isn't the sin nature's essence the act of choosing self over God and rebelling against His plan, of declaring one's independence from God?  When they ask if it's nature or nurture, it's almost always neither, but a choice. Even if people were born homosexual they still have no excuse to sin, no more than a heterosexual has the excuse to rape or commit fornication.

The point is that we are all in rebellion against God and in need of repentance--forgiveness for what we've done and deliverance from what we are.  Repentance is the gift of God that changes our attitude and heart from the inside out.  The Bible makes it clear that the church is only to judge those inside and let God judge the outsider (cf. 1 Cor. 5:12-13).  The problem with homosexuals is not as much their sin, but their lack of repentance from sin in general and not believing in Christ, who can save them (cf. 1 Cor. 6: 11, ESV, says:  "And such were some of you...")--God will change no one who loves his sin and desires no change.  God changes us from the inside out, He doesn't just tell us to reform ourselves. 

CAVEAT:  BEWARE LEST WE JUSTIFY THE SIN, NOT THE SINNER!    Soli Deo Gloria!