THE VIEW FROM DOWN HERE

All Scripture references are to the

New International Version UK revision of 1984.

Meaningless! Meaningless! . . . Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless. . . . For who knows what is good for a man in life, during the few and meaningless days he passes through like a shadow? Who can tell him what will happen under the sun after he is gone? . . . As fish are caught in a cruel net, or birds are taken in a snare, so men are trapped by evil times that fall unexpectedly upon them.

Eccles. 1:2; 6:12; 9:12

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ECCLESIASTES is a rather pessimistic portrayal of life on earth. In it the reader is exposed to a philosophy of life from the standpoint of a sceptic. Mankind is an incidental adornment, with no purpose and no permanent address on Earth. Read it and weep!

This book of the Bible, written by Solomon (v. 1), and coloured by his disappointment with his own life of indulgence and disobedience, highlights the general experience of humanity under the reign of sin and death.

It provides us with a lens through which we can see existence at its darkest and most useless. If we stopped at this point the outlook would be bleak.

Judging from the sceptical, Evolution-based view which dominates the mindset in the West, we might conclude that most people are content with a seemingly meaningless existence. In reality, most people do not conduct their lives this way. They continue to attach importance and purpose to the things one would expect family, friends, health, happiness, and so on, and they imbue many aspects of life with purpose and social value. Collectively, the human race is forward-looking, hopeful, and imbued with determination that obstacles must and will be overcome, demonstrating an impressive optimism in the face of difficulties. However, Ecclesiastes expresses the darker sentiments and experiences common to all, but which only those who trust in Christ as Saviour can see beyond, into a bright future.

We maintain that faith itself is the evidence of God’s existence. That is, this attribute of the human mind signals to us that it has been implanted in our nature as a token of hope. As the Apostle Paul tells us (Rom. 8:20-21):

The creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation [humanity] itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.

No difficulty or dilemma of individual travail is entirely unique. A wide range of experiences is encompassed in human life, across the generations, and the various needs are similar, regardless of time, place, or history. This reality is the essence of the permission of evil, a linchpin tenet of Biblical doctrine, but a question poorly answered by conventional theology. The binary Heaven versus Hell formula of creedal Christianity is an inadequate response. In short, the hopeful purpose underlying the reign of sin and suffering is the antidote to the gloomy view of Ecclesiastes.

For the problems of the human condition there is a suite of solutions, made available by a loving God. It is necessary, of course, to look in the right place. If we are satisfied with the status quo, we may choose to live out our brief life as best we can and ignore the alternatives. But for the earnest inquirer this will not do. And this is where faith comes in. For only faith can lay hold of the promises in the Word of God and appreciate what it offers.

Although the writer of Ecclesiastes offers a shrewd assessment of the human condition (and thereby seeks answers), the Scriptures in general do not intend to correct the troubles of the here and now. Jesus performed his miracles of healing for only a fraction of the nation of Israel. He did not address the problems of water quality or currency reform or the state of housing. His essential mission was to call out the true believers with a view to their subsequent exaltation to reign with him in his Kingdom. Under such a benign reign there will be wide-sweeping, radical reform of the conditions which now prevail as a result of the curse of sin and death, and a restoration of all the privileges and blessings forfeited by the sin of Adam: perfect human life.

All mankind will be the beneficiary of this process. ‘For he [God] has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead’ (Acts 17: 31). That a time of blessing for the world is forecast by the Apostle Paul’s words is evident from the corollary event to which he refers: Christ’s resurrection. This singular event is a guarantee of a bright future. Elsewhere, Paul asserts the spiritual poverty of a life on this earth which has no prospect of a resurrection beyond it (1 Cor. 15:17-19). Christ’s reign will be a time of righteousness in action, involving the rule of law, the application of godly justice, and a process of salvation for the world. As the Apostle John tells us (1 John 2:2), Christ ‘is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world’ (emphasis supplied).

This is no argument for universal salvation to eternal life. The Scriptures teach plainly that in Christ’s Kingdom on earth, each person will have final responsibility for his or her everlasting fate. Only after all efforts to win the sinner to faith and repentance have been exhausted in the Millennial Age will the judgement be meted out: death without remission, extinction. But it is a mistake to assume that in this in this present, imperfect world the Ecclesiastes view of it any who lack faith can be judged on such a weighty matter as fitness for eternal life. Such a decision is for the future, at the hands of Christ, the efficient Mediator between God and Man (1 Tim. 2: 3-6).

This is good, and pleases God our Saviour, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all men . . . .

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