For many of us, the Pete Seeger antiwar anthem, “Turn, Turn, Turn” – a big hit for “The Byrds” – was our first exposure to the Biblical book of Ecclesiastes.
The Dilemma Posed by Ecclesiastes, Chapter One
As a young believer seeking to explore the Word of God, my next encounter with Ecclesiastes was colored by the tension created in chapter one. Solomon’s tone there is so cynical and gloomy, the reader quickly becomes depressed and hopeless. In those opening lines, Solomon paints a bleak picture of the human condition. He’s saying, in effect:
“All life is vanity, (a mist, a vapor, a mere breath). What do we gain from all our toil, sweat, and tears? Are my efforts merely a waste of time, a schlep on life’s treadmill? Nothing changes, all goes on as if I had never existed.”
So why, I wondered, does God’s Word include such a dismal narrative? Recently, I took a closer look at this unusual book and discovered that Solomon offers a practical and profound route to victory over this agonizing dilemma. As a matter of fact, he reiterates the solution 12 times within the 12 chapters of Ecclesiastes. Here are the 12 verses:
Continue reading “What’s the Point? Answers in Ecclesiastes”
The words “big bang theory” cause us to envision an explosive progression from unspeakable heat, energy, violence, and chaos to the incredible achievements of man; skyscrapers, the 747, penicillin, the space shuttle.
“The theory of evolution” conjures up images of a march from absolute disorganization and degradation, to the ”
What do those two scenarios have in common? 
The Book of Genesis tells a very different story. God designed a glorious environment, beautifully elegant, perfectly suited to nurture and sustain us. “God saw all that He had made, and it was very good.” (Genesis 1:31) “Then God said, ‘Let Us make mankind in Our image, in Our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground’.” (Genesis 1:26) God created us with spectacular intellect, physical stamina, and a moral compass. He gave us an “instruction manual” on how to be healthy, happy, and wonderfully fulfilled. “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the Lord God commanded the man, ‘You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die’.” (Genesis 2:15-17)
God created us with 
But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice 
…the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, 
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