From Timothy Keller’s book “Making Sense of God”.. . . (* Posts with the preamble asterisk * are for a more general audience. . . nod specific to teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints)
It is very important for believers and skeptics not to insult each other unnecessarily in their discussions, even when they are in sharp disagreement. Subjective, create meanings do serve human life well, and believers must not say to secular friends, ” Your life is meaningless.” But I hope that those without belief in God might see how many who have found faith might feel that their pre-Christian lives were not infused with rich meaning. Previously, their purpose in life was fragile, weakening quickly under too much thinking or adversity. Now they find that sustained thought and even suffering only drive them deeper into it.
Part of the richness of the Christian life lies in the ways Christianity gives Meaning that are distinct from not only secularism but from other religions as well. Unlike the concept of karma, Christianity teaches that suffering is often unfair, not merited by actions of a former life. Unlike Buddhism, Christianity teaches that suffering is a terrible reality, not an illusion to be transcended with stoic detachment. Unlike ancient fatalism, such as the Greek Stoics, or other shame-and-honor cultures, Christianity finds nothing particularly noble particularly about suffering, it should not be welcomed. Yet unlike secularism, Christianity teaches that suffering can be meaningful, that it can make you something great..The reason for all these differences is that the Christian view of the universe is so different. A secular anthropologist, Richard Shweder writes: “For the man of antiquity . . . the external world was happy and joyous, but the worlds cover was deeply sad and dark, Behind the cheerful surface of the world of so-called merry antiquity there loomed “chance” and “fate.” For the Christian, the external world is dark and full of suffering, but its core is nothing other than pure bliss and delight.
How can Christians be sure that this is in store fro them? The book of Ecclesiastes in the Old Testament famously explores the search for meaning. It opens with the cry “Meaningless! Meaningless! . . . Everything is meaningless.” (Ecclesiastes 1:2) The authors thesis is that life is meaningless, “under the sun” Ecclesiastes 1:2-3; 2:11,17.20,22). He conducts an elaborate thought experiment—how shall we regard life on earth apart from the existence of the supernatural, God, or eternity? He tries to find a way to find all this comfort, happiness, and meaning within the confines of this material world. He then explores in turn sensual pleasure, philosophy and learning, and work and achievement. he finds that all of them fail to provide meaning in the face of life’s reality and death.
The book of Ecclesiastes is enigmatic, difficult, fascinating, and feels extraordinarily up-to-date. Yet it fits well into the story line of the whole Bible. If life “under the sun” is thin on meaning, then we all experience something of its *ennui and alienation, because we are all cut from a direct relationship with God for whose fellowship we were created. The Christian teaching is that the entire human race is removed from the presence and the love of God through our self-centeredness and sin. Therefore all people wrestle at times with a sense of purposelessness.
But when Jesus Christ died on the cross, he cried out: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46) Christianity teaches that he died to take upon himself the penalty of our sin. He therefore experienced the darkness—the meaninglessness—of life without God. We deserve the external nausea, what Søren Kierkegaard called, in his 1849 book, the “sickness unto death.”56 The Christian teaching is that Jesus was cut off from God as we deserved, and paid the debt we owed, so that when we believe in him we can receive God’s love and forgiveness. On the cross Jesus got life without God so that we could have life with God. He was putting himself into our lives—our misery, our mortality—so we could be brought into his life, his joy and immortality.
. . . .Christians believe that Jesus is the Lagos that the Greeks united—the meaning behind the universe, the reason for life. But unlike philosophers, Christians believe that the Lagos is not a concept to be learned but a person to be known. And therefore we don’t believe in a meaning we must go out and discover bur a Meaning that came into he world to find us. Embracing him by faith can give you a purposeful life that is death camp proof. ~~ Timothy Keller, Making Sense of God (Viking, An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC New York, NY 10014 © 2016) p.74-76 (continued)
