Who Am I? Why Am I Here? Where Am I Going?

The basic philosophical questions of life are three:  “Who am I?” “Why am I here?” and “Where am I going?”  You can tell one’s worldview by the way they answer these questions.  Up until about 150 years ago the answers to these questions were mostly based on man’s understanding of God as the Creator of all things.  Then, like a slow moving locomotive the age of enlightenment appeared. Slowly but ever so surely it was declared that truth might be known by following the rails of reason.  The concept of God was placed on the back burner while men searched for truth through their own methods of logic. 

Having evicted God from the train, men began to develop atheistic ideas that were vacuous in content.  The result was a carving of hopelessness in their hearts.  God had affirmed to man that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom”. (Proverbs 9:10)   The depraved state of men’s minds was made vulnerable by the absence of the fear of God.  Men began to develop absurd arguments that the complex and beautiful world in which we live was all a “mysterious accident”.  They propped up these arguments with nonsensical statements such as, “Something came from nothing”.

One NASA scientist seems to have recognized the folly of trying to reason our way to truth without the help of a Supreme.  Robert Jastrow said, ‎"For the scientist who has lived by faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries."

Though these three questions are life’s most important, Americans in general are very apathetic about finding answers to them.  The American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS) reveals that the number who claim to have no religious affiliation increased from 8% in 1990 to 15% in 2008.  When asked about having purpose in life,  28% told a Lifeway survey that “It’s not a priority in my life to find my deeper purpose”.  The collective reply of many younger Americans regarding the discovery of the wisdom of God is a resounding “whatever”!

Who Am I?

None will question the great value of humanity.  The atheist doesn’t deny the value of humans but he refuses to believe that the source of our value is God.  The Atheist makes the absurd declaration that the ultimate source of the universe was an accidental collision of atoms.  Somehow, the souls and consciousness of men was spawned by a once in a trillion coincidental event that formed a primordial soup that cradled first life.  They believe that we are here merely by chance and that we have no ultimate purpose. Our lives are merely a quick flash in the pan and then we will merge into everlasting darkness never to be remembered again.  This worldview leads to nothing but deep meaningless and despair.

The Christian believes that man has great value because God created him.  “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”  (Gen. 1:1)  We are the crown jewel of his creation.  If one wants to study atheism, go to the philosopher, not the physician.  Those who study the complex intricacies of the human body, its heart, its eye, its hearing mechanism have too little faith to declare it all happened by accident.  They believe there must be intelligence behind such complexity.

Why Am I Here?

The atheist who rejects the existence of God and gabbles that the universe was an accident and mankind has no purpose looks into a bleak, black future.  If there is no intelligence behind the existence of man, if we are simply here by chance, then we have no more purpose than a housefly or a cockroach.  The atheist philosopher, Bertrand Russell, lamented the meaningless life:  “…all the devotion, all the inspiration, all the noonday brightness of human genius, are destined to extinction in the vast death of the solar system, and…the whole temple of man’s achievement must inevitably be buried beneath the debris of a universe in ruins…”  For the atheist, life is meaningless, the universe will eventually slip into extinction and all men will be swallowed up by a dark hole of nothingness.

The preacher in Ecclesiastes felt this same despair when he mourned the emptiness of life without God:  “"Meaningless! Meaningless!" says the Teacher. "Everything is meaningless!" (Ecc. 12:8)  Job, at the height of his suffering groaned about the aimless life, “I despise my life…my days have no meaning”.  (Job 7:16)

The Christian finds fulfillment in life by accepting the provisions of God through the Son.  Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life”.  Christ’s followers soon come to realize that a search for meaning is meaningless apart from the Messenger. Jesus declared that he had come to replace the empty void in our lives with a rich and satisfying life.” (John 10:10)

Where am I going?

The atheist believes that the universe will eventually drift further and further apart until the energy and heat and gravity will no longer affect the heavenly bodies.  Just as the universe will cease to exist, man will also cease to exist.  Death is simply an eternal sleep.  From nothing we came and to nothing we shall return. 

The Christian strongly disagrees with the atheist.  The Christian doesn’t believe we came from nothing nor does he believe we are on the road to nowhere.  Solomon makes a solemn comparison when he says, “Man’s fate is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both:  As one dies so dies the other…All go to the same place; all come from dust and to dust all return.” (Ecc. 3:18)

Christians understand that Christ is coming back again.  He has not promised us emptiness, he has promised us restoration.  He will renew his creation and establish a new kingdom.  He will rule that kingdom with perfect justice which will result in everlasting peace.

The atheist finds no significance in his life.  The Christian realizes that he has unfathomable significance because he was created in the image of God.

The atheist finds no meaning in life.  The Christian agrees with Solomon’s proclamation that life is indeed meaningless apart from God.  “…here is the conclusion of the matter, fear God…”  (Ecc. 12:13) 

The atheist has no hope for his future.  The Christian revels in the truth of Christ’s resurrection.  He has brought us “into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”  (1 Peter 1:3)  He has gone to prepare a place for us. (John 14:3) and he promises he will return for us. 

Life overflows with meaning, purpose, and hope for those who will believe.

Kevin Probst - Teaches History, Government and Apologetics at the high school level in Columbus Georgia.

The True Witness

All of mankind must answer the ultimate question, does God exist?  This question cannot be ignored.  God has ‘set eternity in the hearts of men’. (Ecclesiastes 3:11)   There is an innate desire rooted deeply within the heart to know the living God.  There is a void, a vacuum within every heart that yearns for a knowledge of the Holy One.   How might we satisfy this inner yearning?  ‘No one has ever seen God.’ (John 1:18)   No man has ever heard his voice nor have they walked any distance with God as though he were a man.  The great dilemma was how to fill the great gulf that separated God and man. The magnificence of his beauty and the glorious sight of his face was enough to kill a man.   "You cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live."  (Exodus 33:20)  Yet, the Bible makes clear that men who fail to believe in his existence are without excuse.  Paul wrote to the Romans these words:  ‘what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them’.  (Romans 1:19)  

Men may realize God’s existence by observing the beauty of nature.  Have you not looked at the glory of a majestic mountain, have you not seen the rush of Niagra or looked upon the vastness and depth of the great ocean and not said to yourself, “There must surely be a God”?  Paul reaffirms the revelation of God through nature when he says ‘For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.’ (Romans1:20)  

We will be without excuse on the day ‘every knee shall bow’ (Romans 14:11)  before the Creator of the universe.  One will say, “I saw no evidence that you existed”.   The jury will gasp that they he not see God in the great overflow of the Divine manifested in his creation.  Another will say, “But I wanted so much to eat, drink and be merry and so I thought I would delay the issue until a later date.”  In the movie, Rocky 3, Balboa’s opponent, Clubber Lane, is asked about their upcoming match.  Lane replies, “I pity the fool!”  Will there be anyone there at the judgment to ‘pity the fool’ who exchanged the blessings of eternity for a few short moments of earthly pleasure?  Some on that day will look into the face of the One who came to earth, submitted himself to the torture of his enemies, who allowed himself to be brutally nailed to a cross and took upon himself the sin of all mankind as he died a cruel death.  And they will say to him, “I just didn’t take it seriously”.  Heaven will surely echo the gasps of the multitudes as they witness such arrogance and carelessness.

How might we believe in God?  We might consider all the evidence and logically conclude that he exists.  We might look at the rotation of the planets and the revolution of the heavenly bodies and come to a rational conclusion that what we are observing has to be a result of intelligent design.  We might consider the fact that there is good in the world, there is a standard of morality and that standard must certainly have an Origen.  God has certainly made it possible for us to arrive at a point where we have an unshakeable belief in the existence of God because we have followed the road of reason to such a conclusion.

But those who arrive at the door of belief by following the road of rationality might find themselves deprived of a personal relationship with the God they believe in.  God wants not only that we believe in him, he wants us to have relationship with him.  You can’t have relationship with someone you can’t see, with someone you can’t talk to, with someone impossible to know.  So, God sent his only begotten son to reveal himself to us.  The Father sends his son as an eyewitness, a primary witness to reveal to men the true nature of God, ‘He testifies to what he has seen and heard’. (John 3:32)  What has he seen?  He has seen the face of God.  What has he heard?  He has heard the voice of the father. 

All other prophets who shared truth could only claim that they had a partial grasp of the whole truth.  Jesus boldly declared that he was the truth.  John the Baptist came with a message, he pointed ahead to the One who was yet to come.  But Jesus didn’t come with a message, he was the message.  The apostles revealed the way to God and to heaven.  Jesus proclaimed, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life.’  (John 14:6)  

Believing that God exists is only the first step to having a meaningful, fulfilling personal relationship with him.  The foundation of this relationship is provided by the reality that God chose to reveal himself to us through his Son.  The Christ that rose out of Bethlehem revealed himself to many people.  He had family and friends and followers who saw his face, they heard his voice and walked with him from place to place.  One important thing they learned as they walked with Jesus was that he could not lie. (Titus 1:2)  Jesus told them, “I came from the Father and entered the world; now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father."  (John 16:28)   He wrapped himself in human flesh, fulfilled his mission and returned to the Father.  No other person has ever existed before conception.  This means he was the incarnate Christ.  This means that he was God.

We will be judged, not by our belief in him, even Satan believes that God exists.  We will be judged by our relationship with him.  I believe in the existence of God but I want to experience this ‘love that surpasses knowledge, I want to be filled with the measure of all the fullness of God.’ (Ephesians 3:9)  ‘I want to know Christ’.  (Philippians 3:10)  

Kevin Probst - Teaches History, Government and Apologetics at the high school level in Columbus Georgia.