Tag: existential

Does Humanity Have A Goal?

Gary Pollard

Another one of the most commonly asked questions is, “What is humanity’s goal?” This seems to be a “purpose” question, but one that specifically asks if we’re pursuing some kind of unity. Many have tackled this question, and most of them are far more qualified to deal with it than I am. But the ancient writings God gave humanity have proved reliable for millennia, so I’ll lean on its principles in this abridged look at our unifying goal(s). 

The concept of a “unity” has been explored for a very long time. It serves as the foundational principle for many world religions because we all have an intuitive sense that we’re connected somehow, or that we all come from a common source. We understand that all of us together are greater than any one person, so our destiny must be just as awesome! 

The short answer (from a believer’s perspective) is: Humanity’s goal is to see God. 

  1. We believe that the Logos created our planet and made it habitable. The universe is the creative expression of his nature and power.  
  2. Humanity’s original goal was the explore the Earth and enjoy it (Gen 2.1-15). 
  3. We were in a state of perfect harmony with the Creator and his creation. 
  4. We lost that when we chose to pursue forbidden gnosis. 
  5. All of history (and what remains of our future) is a story — its unifying narrative is our journey back to that initial harmony. This story is only possible because the Creator sacrificed himself to change our inevitable destiny! 

Our immediate goal is to emulate the Creator’s character as much as we can. This necessarily means we acknowledge his existence and primacy. He is light and love, so we try to be the same. Done properly, this benefits all people (especially people who struggle). Why voluntarily pursue other peoples’ needs over our own? Why struggle against the body’s impulses? Why view other people as more important than self? Why hold on so tightly to a belief in a God no one has seen? He promised us a return to perfection, an eternal life without any suffering, and a fully-repaired, personal relationship with the Creator (cf. II Pt 3.13; I Jn 3.1-3, Rv 21.1-2). 

Now I am coming to you. I will not stay in the world, but these followers of mine are still in the world. Holy Father, keep them safe by the power of your name — the name you gave me. Then they will be one, just like you and I are one (Jn 17.11). 

A person has only one body, but that body has many parts. Yes, there are many parts, but all those parts are still just one body. Christ is like that, too (I Cor 12.12). 

There is one body and one spirit, and God chose you to have one hope. There is one master, one faith, and one baptism. There is one God and Father of us all, who rules over everyone. He works through all of us and in all of us (Eph 4.4-6). 

Why Suffering?

Gary Pollard

This week’s is possibly one of the most-asked existential questions out there. “Why is suffering a part of the human experience?” Believer and non-believer alike struggle with this one. Believers and even many agnostics struggle to justify the existence of an all-powerful, all-loving God with “bone cancer in children” and other seemingly senseless evils. Non-believers may struggle with the existence of suffering, too, especially if their worldview involves progressivism. After thousands of years of lessons learned, shouldn’t we have found a way to eliminate suffering? 

The Bible answers this question: we brought suffering to the human experience by violating the relationship we had with God. The story of the Bible is one that ultimately repairs this condition, thanks to God becoming human and sacrificing himself to repair that breach. On top of that, he came back to life as proof-of-concept and as a promise — we will have immortality, too. The message of Christianity is one that looks forward to a time without evil’s consequences (especially suffering and death). For many people, accepting the hard truth of our (i.e. humanity’s) culpability in the existence of suffering is too much. It can’t be that simple! 

We could illustrate this with an adapted pagan myth. Pandora’s box is well-known to many — she opened a box that contained all of the evil in the world, but with hope attached to them. There was no returning those things to the box and it affected everyone. While the framework of the story is decidedly pagan, it is rooted in historical fact. The first woman on earth did actually open something like Pandora’s box, introducing entropy to the planet for the first time. The consequences were far-reaching, as Christians believe all of humanity came from her. We are living with the consequences of Pandora’s box having been opened. 

Even if we look at this from a totally naturalistic standpoint, the existence of suffering does not necessarily preclude an all-powerful, loving God. In fact, it offers a fairly reasonable explanation for why suffering affects good people! What it does lack is anything resembling meaningful hope for a brighter future — this explanation ends with physical death, the beginning of eternal non-existence. A naturalistic explanation is something like this: There is suffering in the world because we’re all born ignorant and have to learn from the mistakes we make. Mistakes often have a ripple effect, and can sometimes negatively affect others. For example, a new driver’s inexperience may cause an accident that takes the life of an innocent person. It’s seemingly random, chaotic, senseless. What did that other person do to deserve death? Nothing, they were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Even the naturalistic worldview understands that bending nature’s laws to prevent all tragedies would have devastating consequences in our current framework. 

So why doesn’t God intervene in every situation? The short answer is “we don’t know.” He does often intervene (cf. Hb 1.14; I Kgs 17.8-16; Ruth; Dan 3.8-30, and many, many others), but we don’t always know why. His perspective is infinite, ours is not. It’s frustrating, painful, and confusing at times, but we all accept that it’s temporary. We know that he won’t allow us to deal with more than we’re capable of handling with character intact (I Cor 10.13), but not too much beyond this. Christianity views suffering as part of the human experience that we’re quite ready to leave behind. This is why death is something we look forward to! 

We have sufferings now, but they are nothing compared to the great glory that will be given to us. Everything that God made is waiting with excitement for the time when he will show the world who his children are. The whole world wants very much for that to happen (Rom 8.18-19). 

I have told you these things so that you can have peace in me. In this world you will have troubles. But be brave! I have overcome the world” (Jn 16.33). 

Meaning

Gary Pollard

Among the dozens of the-most-commonly-asked-questions Carl compiled for me, most fall into one of maybe three fundamental categories. Most of them also betray a sense of chaos in how people view reality. How do I know something is true/accurate/best practice? Is it always true? What about when a person stops being alive? Is it all nothingness? What is happiness? Is it quantifiable? What is my responsibility to other people? Do I have one? What makes me different from non-human life? Is there a significant difference? What is real? How do we know? Is it possible to be absolutely positive? What is my destiny? Do I have one? Why am I conscious? Am I, or is this a construct? 

Chaos and the abyss were frequently described in the ancient world as having nothing below and nothing above. You can’t look up/forward to some goal, and you had no solid base to stand on. No fixed point to compare something to. No metric to organize information into a usable hierarchy. It was conceived of as the worst possible existence, all of hopelessness and despair realized. It was seen as the destiny of those who deserved the most severe punishment, as no experience could possibly be worse than this. 

Ironically, the “freedom” promised by social/moral liberation proponents almost immediately devolves into this nightmare. People in general seem to feel lost and unable to know what’s real. Even much of our humor is now dark, existential hopelessness! So many are addicted to short-term euphoria, and each crash is a fresh wave of meaninglessness. We look everywhere for answers, but don’t always know if we can trust those answers because they’re so often subjective. There are too many threads to chase and knots to untie, and we don’t even know where to start. 

To a seeking person, the division so prevalent in Christianity can be discouraging. How can anyone trust something that no one seems to agree on? Where people are, problems are. That’s true of literally every human enterprise, and doesn’t warrant discounting it entirely. And most of those disagreements are because of ignorance, not because of faulty source material. 

So if you’re looking for meaning and hope, give the Bible a chance! This might seem reductive or cliche to non-believers, but its teachings have brought so much good to the world. That alone makes it worth pursuing! Most importantly, it gives tangible hope for the future and a solid, reliable base to stand on. It helps us understand reality like no other source! At the very least, give it a shot.

Here are some (hopefully) helpful tips for beginner Bible readers: 

  1. Bias is impossible to avoid entirely, but keep an open mind (believer and non-believer alike). An open mind prevents legalistic or liberal extremes, which are no bueno. Come to the text with questions and a desire for accurate answers. Be willing to adopt, adjust, or discard your beliefs when the narrative requires it. 
  2. If you haven’t yet done a deep dive into its divine origins, presuppose absolute reliability. You’ll come to that conclusion anyway, and this lessens anxiety when seeing something that challenges a current belief. 
  3. Stick with the New Testament at first, and avoid commentaries like the plague (I’m writing one, don’t read it). Don’t give up on a passage that’s hard to understand — try harder. Use a good, easy-to-read modern translation primarily, but have a couple others on hand too. I love the ERV, but also use NIV, GW, and NET Bible. 
  4. Look for the narrative in each section you’re reading. What main idea does everything else seem to support or illustrate?
  5. John’s writings are a great place to start if you’re looking for the most fundamental building blocks of meaning. Don’t just read the words, look into the concepts he presents. 
  6. Ask questions. So many answers to the fundamental questions listed above are in the scriptures. They work so much better than any of the subjective secular answers offered today. 
  7. Highlight, underline, and otherwise mark up the text. Look for connections and for ways to bring out each concept. You’re not looking for a code or some kind of religious experience, you’re looking for meaning. It will eventually become the lens you look through to understand reality, and the hope you have of humanity’s destiny. You will gain a deep appreciation for who God is and what he does for humanity and what he will give us when he comes back!  
  8. Read all of it. It’s all good stuff — and there’s nothing wrong with starting at what resonates most with your interests or questions! Those interests only become more interesting once you have a better understanding of all the other stuff, too! 

An Existential Crisis

Wednesday’s Column: Third’s Words

Christians are not immune to existential crisis. While this overwhelming feeling of meaninglessness is a trademark of younger people, older people often deal with it too. Young people may seek meaning, direction, and purpose for their lives as they look to the future. Older people might look to their past, wondering if their life’s work was a functional/worthy investment of their lifespan. We all have fundamental questions to work through. 

This series will explore some of those questions we have: 

Why was I created? What is my purpose? How can I be happy? What is true/real? Why does God allow evil to exist? What do we mean by “next life”? 

This week we’ll look at the first question. Not one person ever asked for consciousness or existence. Why were we brought into a dysfunctional world? Even though none of us requested existence, we exist — and we’re going somewhere after we die. None of us asked for that burden, either. 

Here are some of the commonly given answers: 

  1. We’re here for the glory of God. 
  2. God gave us the ability to choose our fate, whether to reject him or be obedient to his will. 

The problem with those statements is that they don’t actually answer the question, at least not adequately. The Bible answers those questions, and with a little effort we can find out why God created us. 

Why are we here? 

1. We’re here to interface with God’s reality. 

2. We exist, ultimately, to populate a perfect world. 

God created us in his image and likeness (Gen 1.26-27, 5.1-3, 9.6; Js 3.9; I Jn 3.1-3). This is emphatic in scripture — he made us in his image AND his likeness. Let’s put the Hebrew words sal-me and de-moot (image and likeness) in modern English. The one speaking in Genesis 1 is Logos, according to John 1. That’s Jesus. He made us to look just like him. He is the visible form of the invisible father, according to Colossians 1.15. 

Genesis 5.1 — When God created people, he made them look like himself. 

Genesis 5.3 — Adam had a son who looked just like himself, and he named him Seth. Same exact words used in 5.1. 

James 3.9 — Uses ομοιωσιν, which means in that context, “to look the same.” 

God made us self-aware, intelligent living entities to interface with the reality he created. This life is just a trial run. We exist, and that’s something we have to accept. We have a life, so what we do with it is up to us. 

That leads to the second reason we were created — to populate a perfect world. II Peter 3.13 says, “Based on what he promised us, we’re looking for a new sky and a new earth where only morally good people can live.” Because we messed up and introduced evil to this planet, it’s no longer a paradise (Rom 8.20-25). But that’s not natural. We weren’t originally created to coexist with dysfunction or entropy. 

We can thank Satan for most of the dysfunction we face today: 

  1. Ephesians 2.1-2 — Satan has control over natural functions of the planet. 
  2. I John 5.19 — Satan has control over political power on this planet. 
  3. Luke 4.6 — Satan has power over every population group on earth. 
  4. Ephesians 6.12 — Those dysfunctional powers aren’t based on earth.

The church is a combat unit. We aren’t fighting other people, we’re fighting an enemy that has far more power than we could ever dream of confronting. That’s what “spiritual warfare” means in Ephesians, for example. God is our ally, so we can never be destroyed for good. Satan may have control of the planet, but God has control over the universe. 

Our job is to make the best of our existence, ideally living by our Creator’s definition of functional. If we do, we get to live in a perfect world without any potential for dysfunction. In Matthew 19.28, Jesus describes it as a “return to the way things originally were” or “regeneration”. 

Why were we created? To interface with God’s reality in a limited capacity, and to populate a new earth after this earth’s time is up. 

Gary Pollard

Achieving Moral Purity

Wednesday’s Column: Third’s Words

I Thessalonians 4.1-8 — Moral Purity Involves Self-Control

It means avoiding sexual sins. It means being honest and ethical with each other. 

4.9-11 — Moral Purity Is Built on Love

This love is for all Christians everywhere. We’re a global family; we know from the epistles that we’re actually a unique “ethnicity”. It has nothing to do with race, since our identifying characteristic is our relationship with God. It’s far more fundamental than just culture or genetics. We’re supposed to grow our love all the time. This proves that we’re never going to arrive or perfect our love. This is why we have to always work on it. We’ll never reach God’s level, but that shouldn’t keep us from trying. 

4.11-12 — Moral Purity Means Living Peacefully

This means we don’t cause trouble. When the world thinks of peaceful people who don’t cause trouble, who do they think of? Usually Buddhists. This shouldn’t be the case. I can say from experience that Buddhists aren’t all peaceful (try converting to Christianity in lower Cambodia). But most of them keep to themselves and we never really hear anything about them — except that they have a reputation for being peaceful and living quiet lives. Satan has done a fantastic job (historically) of gaining followers who claim to be Christian, only to do horrible things like the Salem Witch Trials or condoning slavery or loudly protesting every sinful thing that happens in our sinful world. 

God expects us to stand up for morality, but he also expects us to live quiet, peaceful, unassuming lives. When people think of Christians, they should picture a low-key group of people who do good things for others and live quiet lives. This is extremely appealing to our culture, which is drowning in existential crisis and self-indulgence. They’re desperate for purpose and meaning. If we follow the commands of I Thessalonians 4.11-12 and I Timothy 2, our example alone could very well lead those people to God. 

This means we mind our own business. This means we don’t place unnecessary burdens on other people. Non-believers will at least respect our lifestyle, even if they don’t agree with it. 

4.13-18 — We Have a Reason for Pursuing Moral Purity

We have hope because Jesus came back to life, proving that death is only the beginning. Jesus will personally come back for his family and we’ll be with him forever. 

5.1-11 — We Have to Keep Living Pure Lives if We Want to Leave with Him

The world isn’t looking for the end, so it’ll catch them off guard. Luke 21.25 says everyone will panic when Jesus returns because they won’t have a clue what’s going on. The reminder to Christians in that passage is that we should look up and be strong because our rescuer is coming. We may not know the exact day, but when it happens we’ll know what’s really going on. We should always watch for his return because our hope of escaping earth’s fate is what keeps us going. 

Gary Pollard

Exaleipsei

Wednesday’s Column: Third’s Words

Gary Pollard

Jesus is the great healer and the Bible is full of passages that comfort, encourage, give endurance, and help us cope with a broken world. It’s full of so much more! A higher purpose gives us existential meaning, and the Bible outlines that purpose. It also has a few passages that fire me up, and those are the ones I want to share today.

Revelation 21

This is our reason to live the Christian life (Matt 19.28; Rom 8.18-25; I Pet 1.3-7, 13; 4.12-19; II Pet 1.3-4, 10-11; 3.3-13; I Jn 3.1-3). We’re looking forward to something much better, but what kind of stuff are we looking for?

  • –  Zero dysfunction! No pain, grief, disease, crime, taxes, tornados, war, death in general, aimbots (if you know you know), etc.
  • –  God gets rid of tears (Rev 21.4)! The context is a message of hope for early Christians who were dealing with devastating loss. But God will ἐξαλείψει all tears. Exaleipsei is future (will happen), and seems to be a comfort word. I had always pictured a Men in Black kind of thing, where all painful memories are obliterated and new ones made. But the word seems to indicate that an interaction with an infinitely compassionate Father will be more than adequate to get rid of any pain. If you’ve ever comforted a spouse or child who was grieving and physically wiped their tears away, that’s what this word describes.
  • –  Everything is brand new (21.5)! None of the junk that we’ve dealt with here will be compatible with our new home.It will be wildly exciting: the best accomplishments of each nation will be there (21.25-26). God and his son provide all we need (21.22-24). True unity exists because we’ll all be on the same side (21.27). No need for healthcare or accountants or coroners or search and rescue or militaries or law enforcement! Those exist to push back against evil, which won’t exist in our new home. Revelation 21 is a rich chapter, but it’s full of excitement! God doesn’t speak empty words. Take him at his word and read the chapter very carefully. It’s hard to walk away from that study without getting pumped for heaven!!!