Tough Questions: Does Life Have A Purpose?

INTRO

I. The Question:

A. Does Life have a purpose

a. What do u say?

b. Some ideas

1. YES, the person w/the most stuff wins.

i. life is about the pursuit of the good life (materialists)

2. Yes, life has purpose because all nature expresses an inherent principle of evolutionary progression both physically & culturally

i. eventually progress will bring utopia to earth & we’ll see wisdom in all. (evolutionary optimists)

3. Yes, Life is purposeful because all matter

i. there is nothing but matter & its by-products

ii. conflict by opposites will eventually produce an unending utopia on earth (Marxism & Communists)

4. No, Life is not fulfilling any ultimately meaningful end or purpose

i. Nature will not always be hospitable

ii. human history may end abruptly or not.

iii. no intelligent plan is discernable (naturalists)

iv. everything that happens is by chance & or actions & reactions

5. Meaning is created by and for humanity.

i. No God exists

ii. there is no created order or objective

iii. man is a useless passion (atheistic existentialists)

6. Yes, meaning is found in personal encounters

i. There’s no objective purpose

ii. life is purposeful in relationship, interaction, & selflessness

iii. There is a great other (if u wanna call it god), but knowable? (god believing existentialists)

c. A really good video on the subject

What stuck out to you about this video?

2. I’d like to take a look at what the authors o our sacred text (the bible) have to say about it.

i. I believe these author’s perspectives have value & relevancy to this question (which u might disagree w/me).

BODY

Genesis 1:1 ESV

1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

Genesis 1:26–27 ESV

26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

The author, Moses, describes a pre-existent God who created everything that was ever made, including humanity

Here, 1 o Isr. great kings, (David) writes...

Psalm 139:13–14 ESV

13 For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. 14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.

He describes this pre-existent God took special care in creating individuals (& I would like 2 add that U are created w/special care).

Why…Why would God create u & me.

He created u on purpose & If he took great care in making u, what was his intent?

a few thousand yrs later, one o the early church leaders Paul shines a light on this.

Ephesians 2:8–10 ESV

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

The church leader, Paul, tells us that we are ea. created on purpose for a purpose.

& that there is a 2nd point o creation that God intends 4 ea. o us

He calls this 2nd creation salvation

John 5:17 ESV

17 But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”

John 5:19–20 ESV

19 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. 20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel.

CONCLUSION