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Purpose
of Life
Life’s Purpose for
Unbeliever
A father went
into a toy store to buy his son a Christmas present. The salesman showed him a
new educational toy. It came unassembled
but no matter how the child put the
pieces together
they wouldn’t fit. You see
the toy was designed to teach the
child how to deal with life.
Such is the predicament of
man without God. He is never able to put his life together. A life without
Christ is a life of futility.
Life’s Purpose for
Unbeliever
The universe
is merely a fleeting idea in God’s mind-a pretty uncomfortable thought
particularly if you’ve just made a down payment on a house.—Woody Allen
Life’s Purpose for
Unbeliever
G.N. Clark is
reported to have said in his inaugural address as president of Cambridge University
“There is no secret and no plan in history to be discovered. I do not believe
that any future consummation could make any sense of all the irrationalities of
preceding ages. If it could not explain them
still less could it justify
them.”
Life’s Purpose for
Unbelievers
In the
introduction to his A History of Europe
H.A.L. Fisher writes:
One intellectual
excitement has been denied me. Men wiser and more learned than I have
discovered in history a plot
a rhythm
a predetermined pattern. But these
harmonies are concealed from me. I can see only one emergency following
another
as wave follows upon wave
only one great fact with respect to which
since it is unique
there can be no generalization
only one safe rule for the
historian-that he should recognize in the development of human destiny the play
of the contingent and the unforeseen.
Life’s Purpose for
Unbelievers
Only religion
is able to answer the question of the purpose of life. One can hardly go wrong
in concluding that the idea of a purpose in life stands and falls with the
religious system.—Sigmund Freud
Life’s Purpose for
Unbelievers
Andre Maurios
said
“The universe is indifferent. Who created it? Why are we here upon this
puny mud heap spinning in infinite space? I have not the slightest idea
and I
am quite convinced that no one else has the least idea.”
Life’s Purpose for
Unbelievers
Socialists
usually offer an optimistic view of mankind
and so Orwell’s 1984 ends
surprisingly pessimistically-evil conquers.
Some have suggested this
pessimism came because Orwell was dying as he wrote. Actually he was merely
expressing a dilemma he had seen for some time. He knew that man’s central
problem was the death of Christian belief. In 1944 he wrote
“Since about 1930
the world has given no reason for optimism whatever. Nothing is in sight except
a welter of lies
hatred
cruelty
and ignorance
and beyond our present
troubles loom waster ones which are only now entering into the European
consciousness. It is quite possible that man’s major problems will ‘never’ be
solved…The real problem is how to restore the religious attitude while
accepting death as final. Men can be happy only when they do not assume that
the object of life is happiness.”
Before then
in 1940
he
had written of
Life’s Purpose for
Unbelievers
Do the events
of history make any sense? Or is life
as Shakespeare had Macbeth describe it
“a tale told by an idiot
full of sound and fury
signifying nothing”?—Macbeth
Act V
v.
Life’s Purpose for Unbelievers
A greatest
possible impact a non-believer’s life can have on eternity is on the order of a
large ship’s impact on the ocean. It leaves a wake
which may be very
impressive for the moment
but which is gone without a trace within a few
moments more.
Life’s Purpose for
Unbeliever
A father went into a toy
store to buy his son a Christmas present. The salesman showed him a new
educational toy. It came unassembled
but no matter how the child put the
pieces together
they wouldn’t fit. You see
the toy was designed to teach the
child how to deal with life.
Such is the predicament of
man without God. He is never able to put his life together. A life without
Christ is a life of futility. ── Michael P. Green《Illustrations for Biblical
Preaching》
Life’s Purpose for
Unbeliever
The universe is merely a
fleeting idea in God’s mind-a pretty uncomfortable thought
particularly if
you’ve just made a down payment on a house.— Woody Allen
Life’s Purpose for
Unbeliever
G.N. Clark is reported to
have said in his inaugural address as president of Cambridge University
“There
is no secret and no plan in history to be discovered. I do not believe that any
future consummation could make any sense of all the irrationalities of
preceding ages. If it could not explain them
still less could it justify
them.” ── Michael P. Green《Illustrations for Biblical
Preaching》
Life’s Purpose for
Unbelievers
In the introduction to his A
History of Europe
H.A.L. Fisher writes:
One intellectual excitement
has been denied me. Men wiser and more learned than I have discovered in
history a plot
a rhythm
a predetermined pattern. But these harmonies are
concealed from me. I can see only one emergency following another
as wave
follows upon wave
only one great fact with respect to which
since it is
unique
there can be no generalization
only one safe rule for the
historian-that he should recognize in the development of human destiny the play
of the contingent and the unforeseen. ── Michael P. Green《Illustrations
for Biblical Preaching》
Life’s Purpose for
Unbelievers
Only religion is able to
answer the question of the purpose of life. One can hardly go wrong in
concluding that the idea of a purpose in life stands and falls with the
religious system.— Sigmund Freud
Life’s Purpose for
Unbelievers
Andre Maurios said
“The
universe is indifferent. Who created it? Why are we here upon this puny mud
heap spinning in infinite space? I have not the slightest idea
and I am quite
convinced that no one else has the least idea.” ── Michael P. Green《Illustrations
for Biblical Preaching》
Life’s Purpose for
Unbelievers
Socialists usually offer an
optimistic view of mankind
and so Orwell’s 1984 ends surprisingly
pessimistically-evil conquers.
Some have suggested this
pessimism came because Orwell was dying as he wrote. Actually he was merely
expressing a dilemma he had seen for some time. He knew that man’s central
problem was the death of Christian belief. In 1944 he wrote
“Since about 1930
the world has given no reason for optimism whatever. Nothing is in sight except
a welter of lies
hatred
cruelty
and ignorance
and beyond our present
troubles loom waster ones which are only now entering into the European
consciousness. It is quite possible that man’s major problems will ‘never’ be
solved…The real problem is how to restore the religious attitude while
accepting death as final. Men can be happy only when they do not assume that
the object of life is happiness.”
Before then
in 1940
he
had written of Europe’s rejection of God-which he approved-this way: “For two
hundred years we had sawed and sawed and sawed at the branch we were sitting
on. And in the end
much more suddenly than anyone had foreseen
our efforts
were rewarded
and down we came. But unfortunately there had been a little
mistake: The thing at the bottom was not a bed of roses after all
it was a
cesspool full of barbed wire…It appears that amputation of the soul isn’t just
a simple surgical job
like having your appendix out. The wound has a tendency
to go septic.” ── Michael P. Green《Illustrations for Biblical
Preaching》
Life’s Purpose for
Unbelievers
Do the events of history
make any sense? Or is life
as Shakespeare had Macbeth describe it
“a tale
told by an idiot
full of sound and fury
signifying nothing”?— Macbeth
Act
V
v.
Life’s Purpose for
Unbelievers
A greatest possible impact
a non-believer’s life can have on eternity is on the order of a large ship’s
impact on the ocean. It leaves a wake
which may be very impressive for the
moment
but which is gone without a trace within a few moments more. ── Michael
P. Green《Illustrations for Biblical Preaching》