Friday, January 18, 2013

A Time for Studying Ecclesiastes

I am beginning a study of one of the more interesting books in the bible: Ecclesiastes.
All Is Vanity
1 The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.
3 Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher,
vanity of vanities! All is vanity.
3 What does man gain by all the toil
at which he toils under the sun?
4 A generation goes, and a generation comes,
but the earth remains forever. (Ecc. 1:1-4)
Among the wisdom books, Ecclesiastes is unique. It ends up at a place, namely that the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, that other books use as a starting point. Its famous introduction and pessimism—all is vanity, nothing new under the sun, and in general a viewpoint that is pretty close to "all we are is dust in the wind" is meant to show you what life is like to a secularist. By suggesting that nothing matters, the books ends up demonstrating, given a sovereign and holy god, that everything matters.
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3 comments:

  1. Jeffrey Shallit7:13 PM

    the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom

    I was raised as a Christian. This kind of grotesque nonsense - that the way to be truly wise is based on fear - is one reason why I left. Indeed, much of Christianity is based on fear.

    By the way, you have no idea what "life is like to a secularist". I'll give you a clue: secularists don't believe that "nothing matters".

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  2. David7:34 PM

    Jeffrey,

    If you were raised a Christian, then you should have learned that "fear of the Lord" does not mean being afraid for your life or for your soul, but the fear as described by Isaiah when he saw the Lord and cried "I am undone, a man of unclean lips". The fear is an expression of realization of the impossible chasm between man and a holy God.

    "By the way, you have no idea what "life is like to a secularist"."

    But I do, I was an atheist until my early 30's.

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  3. Jeffrey Shallit8:59 PM

    If you were raised a Christian, then you should have learned that "fear of the Lord" does not mean being afraid for your life or for your soul

    On the contrary, this is exactly what I was told.

    but the fear as described by Isaiah when he saw the Lord and cried "I am undone, a man of unclean lips"

    Incoherent babble.

    I was an atheist until my early 30's

    And yet you think all secularists think their lives have no meaning? You must have not thought very hard about it.

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