Mankind’s Quest for Meaning-Part 1

Contents

Introduction

When mankind made its fateful choice to rebel against God (Genesis 3), it doomed itself to a restless, unending search for ultimate meaning to life and history. As a result, through­out most of its existence on planet earth, mankind has been plagued by major questions: Where have we come from? Did mankind originate as the result of a freak accident of nature or of the creative work of a supreme intelligent Being? Why are we here? Does human life have a purposeful existence beyond that of living for several years of eating, drinking, pursuing pleasure and happiness before dying? Where are we going? Is death the end of everything, or is there meaningful existence beyond the grave?

This compulsion for ultimate meaning to life and history has driven scientists to probe space and philosophers to develop systems of thought. It has prompted Pilate and count­less others to ask, “What is truth?” (John 18:38).

Philosophy Of History

Throughout most of its existence mankind has made numerous attempts to address the issue of ultimate meaning in a systematic, organized fashion. The result of each attempt could be called a philosophy of history. Karl Lowith has defined a philosophy of history as “a systematic interpretation of universal history in accordance with a principle by which historical events and successions are unified and directed toward ultimate meaning” (Meaning in History, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1949, page 1).

This definition prompts the conclusion that a philosophy of history has certain character­istics. First, it offers a systematic interpretation of history. In other words, it explains the why of historic events in an organized way. Second, it covers the whole scope of history from beginning to end. It explains why things happened in the past, why the world is where it is in the present, what will happen in the future, and why it will happen. Third, a philoso­phy of history has a unifying principle which ties together and makes sense of events, distinctions, and successions. Fourth, it assigns ultimate meaning to history. It demon­strates that the flow of history has an ultimate goal or purpose, that events are not dis­jointed or unrelated to each other, and that future events are the grand climax toward which all previous events have been moving.

The Bible addresses the issue of ultimate meaning. It offers a systematic interpretation of history. It covers the entire scope of history from beginning to end, including the origin of everything that had a beginning, what will happen in the future, and why it will happen. It presents a unifying principle which ties together and makes sense of the whole gamut of events, distinctions, and successions. The Bible demonstrates that history has an ultimate goal or purpose. Because the Bible does these things, it can be said that the Scriptures present a philosophy of history. However, since the Bible is God’s written revelation to mankind, it presents God’s philosophy of history and, therefore, the ultimate, authoritative philosophy.

The Necessary Elements Of A Valid Exposition Of The Biblical Philosophy Of History

Over the course of years Bible scholars have attempted to develop different expositions of the biblical philosophy history. For an exposition to be valid, it must contain certain necessary elements.

First, it must contain an ultimate purpose or goal for history toward the fulfillment of which all history moves.

Second, it must recognize distinctions or things that differ in history. The biblical record of history indicates that distinctions or things that differ have existed during the course of history. At first glance some of these appear to be contradictory. For example, the New Testament presents two distinct gospels that were to be preached. The first gospel, the gospel of the kingdom, had the following content: “Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is as hand” (Matthew 3:2; 9:35; 10:7; Mark 1:14-15). It said nothing about the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The second gospel was defined by the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:1-5 when he wrote, “I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, . . . By which also ye are saved, . . . that Christ died for our sins . . . And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day . . . and that he was seen.” The death, burial, and resurrection were the content of this gospel, but it said nothing about the kingdom.

An examination of these gospels indicates that their contents were quite different. This was made even more obvious by Matthew. After the disciples had been out for some time preaching the gospel of the kingdom, they returned to Christ to report on their ministry. Matthew records, “From that time forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples how he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day” (Matthew 16:21). The language indicates that, although the disciples had already been preaching the gospel of the king­dom, up to this point in time Jesus had never told them about His coming death, burial, and resurrection. Therefore, the gospel of the kingdom contained nothing concerning Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection. Peter’s negative reaction to Jesus’ new teaching empha­sized the distinction between the gospel of the kingdom and the gospel of 1 Corinthians 15:1-5 very strongly: “Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord; this shall not be unto thee” (Matthew 16:22). If Peter had already been preach­ing Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection in his proclamation of the gospel of the kingdom, he would not have reacted so negatively when Christ referred to these coming events.

Further examples of distinctions and necessary elements of a valid exposition of the biblical philosophy of history will be examined in the next article.

For an example of an attempt to develop a valid exposition of the Bible’s philosophy of history obtain the following book: Renald E. Showers, What On Earth Is God Doing? (Loizeaux Brothers Publishers. Telephone: 800-526-2796. Mailing address: P.O. Box 277, Neptune, NJ 07754-0277).
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