Concerning significance, value and purpose of human life

In my article dealing with the subjects of Cosmology, Cosmogony and Originology I stated that only a triune God is a Creator that is knowable by us. We start with the presupposition that the universe is a created entity and must reflect the nature, characteristics and attributes of its Creator. Only the acceptance of a triune God allows for the development of a coherent worldview. An orderly God produces an orderly universe.

With this as our starting point, I want to develop various statements about purpose, in general and in specific. The question of origins, the conflict between evolutionism and creationism, is one which deals ultimately with significance, value and purpose.

If evolution is true then there is no purpose to human life. If evolution is true, then the result is that life is merely filled from the start with pain, suffering and death, nothing more. Man would simply be an animal that exists for a time and either eats or is eaten. There could be no "Law Giver" and no moral standard for our conduct while on earth.

Across thousands of years of time the greatest challenges for evolutionists have been to justify the evolutionary basis for love, altruism, nurturing, morals, ethics and two perfectly matched sexes. How can a theory based on the necessary evil of greed by those individuals involved possibly justify the good seen in the members of the human population?

The communist, Clarence Darrow, defended the teaching of evolution as the lead attorney for the A.C.L.U. during the Scopes Trial in Tennessee in 1925. He said, "Life is like a ship on the sea, tossed by every wave and by every wind, simply floating for a time, then lost in the waves . . . It is an unpleasant interruption of nothing."

The great Russian author Leo N. Tolstoy pondered the question: "What is the meaning of my life?" He sought an answer from those who believed in evolution. Tolstoy summarized the evolutionary response as:

"You are what you call your 'life;' you are a transitory, casual cohesion of particles. The mutual interactions and changes of these particles produce in you what you call your 'life.' That cohesion will last some time; afterwards the interaction of these particles will cease and what you call 'life' will cease, and so will all your questions. You are an accidentally united little lump of something. That little lump ferments. The little lump calls that fermenting its 'life.' The lump will disintegrate and there will be an end of the fermenting and of all the questions." [Tolstoy, Leo Nikolayevich, A Confession, Chapter VI]

Just how totally hopeless for humanity is the wide spread acceptance of evolutionism? A survey conducted in 1992 found that, since the 1960's when prayer was taken out of the public schools and the God of "In God We Trust" was sent to the sidelines, we had as a society seen the following: violent crime was up 550%, one-third of all pregnancies were ending in abortion, and the suicide rate among teenagers had tripled. This is the fruit of evolutionism being taught to our populace. To deny God is to deny the significance, value and purpose of human life.

Why does an evolutionist want to believe in evolution? The reason has nothing to do with science but it has everything to do with philosophy. The evolutionist wants to believe that there is no god. If there is no god, then there is no law giver. If there is no law giver, then we become our own law giver, we become autonomous (law unto self).

As autonomous beings we would develop the philosophies of the past five decades: (1950's and 1960's) if it feels good do it; (1970's) if it doesn't hurt someone else it is okay; and, (1980's and 1990's) even if it does hurt somebody else, it is still okay - because I write the rules. If this is true, then there are no absolutes, no laws, no rules, no roles, and no standards of conduct and no purpose.

Our autonomy leads to situation ethics, life without standards. Evolutionism is a religion of convenience: "If it ain't convenient for me, it don't fit my religion." If we are the result of some random cosmic accident without an adequate first cause, then life also has no meaning; there is no significance, value or purpose for us.

We have two problems, however, within our autonomy. We are all sinful by nature and we all have a conscience. If we write our own rules, we will eventually break our own rules. What are we to do then? Well, if we wrote the rules then we can erase them and rewrite them. That way we didn't really break them in the first place!

The acceptance of evolution is the only way in which we can intellectually justify that we can lead a sinless life without Jesus Christ. The Bible shows us that this is manifest delusion.

What is the counter point to evolutionism? It is the acceptance of creationism. Creationism requires that there is a Creator, an Uncaused Cause, as our starting point. If there is a Creator then there must be absolutes, laws, rules, roles, standards of conduct and most assuredly purpose.

We may state three basic truths about purpose. First, no one may create anything greater than himself. Even if someone could create another entity that knew everything he knew, and could do everything he could do, would it be greater? NO! At best it would be equal. You cannot teach something that you do not know.

Second, no one creates anything without purpose. Even if you draw a doodle while patiently listening to someone on the other end of the phone line you would rather not be talking to at that time, it had a purpose - it occupied your time.

Third, only the one who creates an object may define what its purpose is. Have you ever gone into an antique store, picked up a tool that was used 200 years ago and asked yourself, "What in the world did they ever do with that?"

What is the truth about that object? The truth is that someone made it 200 years ago; it had a creator. They made it less than themselves; they were greater than the object they created. It probably did a very good job of doing what it was created to do back then. The fact that we do it faster or differently today does not negate these facts about this tool.

These three truths about purpose are obvious to anyone with eyes to see them. Starting from these three truths we may go on to develop certain corollaries about purpose.

How do we determine the value of any object? How do we determine the price that we are willing to pay in order to obtain an object as our possession? How do we derive an exchange price, a purchase price, or a redemption price for any object? How do we determine that we have paid a fair and equitable price in exchange for an object? How do we determine the worth of any object?

These are questions that we all face everyday of our lives. In order to determine the worth of an object we must first determine what is to be used for, that is, what is its purpose? The value of any object is directly tied to its function, its purpose. This is true of all systems and objects. An object has value and worth because it has function and location.

We may generally conclude that the more complex an object is the more valuable it is. Humans are the most complex living organisms known to exist. The real meaning of human life is to be found in its value, purpose and destiny. We will make various observations about purpose and apply them to the value of human life.

The purpose of an object is not contained within the object.

An object does not determine its own purpose. An object does not self generate its own purpose. Nothing has purpose within itself. No matter how long an object exists, it will not generate its own purpose.

Today, evolutionists are carefully using the public school system, TV, radio and Hollywood movies to indoctrinate children into believing that they may determine their own purpose. If our nation's children come to believe this and implement that belief, they are going to be totally lost. They will be lost socially, culturally, historically, personally and religiously.

If you do not already know the value of an object, you will automatically devalue that object.

What do we see happening around us in our country today? Our conservative underpinnings, our nation’s foundations, our Constitution, our governmental systems, our marriages, our schools, our churches, and even our children's lives are not worth much anymore. Our national institutions are losing value because they are being allowed to move away from their original intended purposes. There are deluded people who believe that these institutions will somehow self generate new purposes but this is pure folly. Until our nation's systems are returned to their original intended purpose they will never recover their value and worth to us.

There must be a purpose for everything.

Where does an object's purpose exist? An object that exists must have a purpose. There is no such thing as an object without a purpose. If there were no purpose for it, an object would not have been created. Objects are created for a purpose, not the other way around.

Where do we find the purpose of any object?

It is not to be found in an object, nor is it to be found in an aura surrounding an object, nor may a purpose be forced upon an object. The only place to find the value of any object is in the mind of the one who created it.

Every object, process or system has a creator. This is a truth as certain as any law of science. We do not know of any complex system that did not come into existence by the plan, design and work of one or more intelligent living beings. There are no known exceptions to this statement!

So far, we have seen that complex systems come from previously existing creators. Creators create only with a purpose in mind. No complex system has ever come into existence without a purpose. When an object, process or system loses its purpose, it loses its meaning and value.

Of course, all of these ideas are not new at all. The Apostles clearly understood them 2,000 years ago. Paul and Peter wrote about the scientific and philosophical aspects of origins, evolutionism versus creationism. Notice what Peter wrote in 2 Peter 2:1:

"But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be also false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves."

The Greek word "heresy" is not translated into English. The root of the word is a verb meaning "to select" or "to take up." As used by Peter it means to choose or select for personal choice, reason or purpose. Peter tells us that there will be people, teachers, that have their own agendas, therefore, they will teach, "secretly introduce," "destructive heresies [destructive choices]."

This is why secular humanists, evolutionists, atheists, agnostics, socialists, communists and liberals of all ilks teach that everyone must choose for themselves concerning moral and ethical decisions. These people want to have their personal heresies, their personal choices.

They want to do whatever they want, whenever they want and to have no consequences for their actions. They want to answer to no higher authority than themselves. They choose to believe by faith that there are no absolutes, no laws, no rules, no roles, and no standards of conduct and no purpose. And, when it is all over, at the end of their lives, they are content to believe that they will simply cease to exist and will not suffer for their actions during their lives.

They have an agenda and they are zealous to promote it to anyone and everyone that they may bring into their sphere of influence.

What happens when we use an object for a purpose other than the one for which it was intended?

If we choose to use an object, process or system for a purpose other than the one it was intended to be used for, it will damage or destroy that object, process or system.

How many of us have needed to use a hammer, but there wasn't one present, so we picked up something else to use as a hammer? Perhaps we picked up a large screwdriver or a large heavy wrench. We may use the wrench as a hammer, but it will damage the wrench in the process. Why? Because, the wrench is less effective, less ideal, as a hammer, than a hammer.

This is a perfect example of a destructive heresy. If we choose to use a wrench as a hammer, we have made a choice to use it for a purpose, or in a manner in which, it was never intended to be used.

Have you ever heard someone exclaim, "Hey, stop doing that, that's not what that was made for!" People intrinsically understand that when objects are not used according to their purpose, it is called abuse. Abuse leads to damage, maybe even destruction, and it certainly causes a loss of value for that object.

If a wrench is broken because it was used as a hammer, will it ever be able to be used again as a wrench? Perhaps it may be repaired, rehabilitated or regenerated; but this will require the input from a greater intelligence using time, effort and the allocation of resources. The wrench cannot repair itself.

The reason that we see decay and degeneration in human systems is the same issue. It comes from abuse of the human systems, when they are used for purposes which they were not intended to be used.

If people do not want to be used to fulfill their general purpose, to glorify God; if they do not want to be a holy person reflecting the image of their Creator; they are abusing themselves, or they are allowing other persons to abuse them. Either way, they will be damaged or destroyed through that action.

Individuals who fall into this category will also hurt their family or spouse and children will be damaged or destroyed. They won't know how to treat their church, their school or their community. They won't know how to run their business properly or how to treat their employees correctly. All of this is a result of them disassociating from their original purpose.

Things get broken when there are destructive heresies and false teachers who encourage personal choice, independent of the Creator's design, purpose and work.

Let us set up another example using tools. We may use a large screwdriver as a crowbar. The bigger and stronger the screwdriver, the more successful it may be when used as a crowbar. The screwdriver, however, was not created to be a crowbar, and abusing it by using it as a crowbar will eventually break the screwdriver. The reason that it will break is because a choice was made to use it for a purpose it was not intended to be used for, a choice independent of its created purpose.

When someone uses a large strong screwdriver as a crowbar they will feel the stress as the screwdriver is used for a purpose other than what it was created for. Anyone with normal sensibilities who uses a screwdriver in an abusive way will feel concern and remorse for misusing the screwdriver. When the screwdriver eventually breaks they will know that it was a direct consequence of their action, their choice, to abuse the screwdriver. In the end they may repent for having broken the screwdriver, but it will not change the fact the screwdriver is broken.

As a result of breaking the screwdriver one of three things will happen. You will throw away the broken screwdriver and get a new one to use as a crowbar. You will throw away the broken screwdriver and get a crowbar. You will stop using screwdrivers as crowbars.

All of this is a direct consequence of knowingly violating the purpose for which the screwdriver was created. You will have learned that there is a price to pay when purpose is neglected or ignored. The consequence of neglecting or ignoring purpose is that things get broken.

The exact same thing may be said for human beings when evolutionists teach that human beings are highly evolved apes. People were made for a purpose. They may not know what that purpose is, but that does not change the truth of this statement.

No matter what people are taught, no matter what choices people make, no matter what destructive heresies (choices) come their way, heresies are destructive. It doesn't matter whether you mislabel people, or you misdefine their purpose, you are neglecting or ignoring their original Designer's purpose for their lives. When that happens, people break.

In 2 Peter 2:2, Peter continues:

"And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be maligned; . . ."

We could paraphrase what Peter says as, "Even though these people are sneaky crafty liars, they will get many people to follow them."

Hundreds and hundreds of people have enjoyed the fruitless study of the supposed evolution of human beings from apes and earned terminal degrees in the process. After earning those baseless degrees they have gone around the world weaving their fairy tales for adults, using the second worse method of proof in science (the proof by ranking) and deceived countless millions into neglecting the real purpose people were designed.

Eventually these people bring the truth into disrepute and finally people actually become desensitized to the truth.

The truth is not in them!

Consider what is happening in most of our public classrooms today. Administrators and teachers are espousing evolutionary worldviews and most of those in the classroom are nodding their heads in mental assent. How many people who believe otherwise are standing up and defending their position? Few, if any, because they have become embarrassed to tell the truth. They have become embarrassed to defend their faith and knowledge.

Embarrassment can be a terrible thing; to some it is a shameful thing. The word "embarrass" means: to cause to feel self-conscious, confused, ill at ease, disconcert, fluster; to hinder, impede, cause difficulties to, complicate; to make more difficult.

In our society we have everything at stake. We are living in an age when many people are following the shameful ways of those who have introduced destructive heresies. We have people without knowledge criticizing and condemning those who try to expose the truth, those who do try to tell the truth.

There is no amount of discussion about the origin of people that will harm people. A fair and open discussion of the origin of people can and will bring healing and restoration to people.

A screwdriver that has been extensively used, but not abused, could be said to be "holy." The word "holy" means: kept or regarded as inviolate from ordinary use - set aside for a purpose (usually religious), consecrated, sacred. God is Holy because He was "set aside" for His purpose. He wishes that we would do the same thing with our lives.

A screwdriver that is "holy" is going to last a long time. Its purpose and function will be preserved. Its value will be maintained.

"Holy" people are worth more to God, to one another, and to themselves. This is a perfectly practical application of our knowledge about systems. People should just use themselves for what they were created and designed for. If people would not abuse themselves they would live "holy" lives.

In 2 Peter 2:3, Peter goes on to say:

". . . and in their greed they will exploit you with false words; their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep."

These false teachers will "exploit" people with stories that they have made up for their own purposes. They are not interested in the welfare of their students. They do this in order to obtain power, prestige and money. They are interested in their own agendas. There is an incredible sense of power that they feel when they profess to tell people where they came from. People will then look up to these false teachers for the meaning and value in their lives, as well.

If you can tell a person where they came from; why they are here; where they are going; and how they should behave while they are here: then you will have total power over them.

Understanding your origin, where you came from, will determine where you derive your value and purpose. It is key to knowing your value and purpose. When someone is trying to exploit you, trying to feed you his story of your design and purpose for your life contrary to your Creator's, then you lose!

When people learn their original created design and purpose, when they believe and experience the application of their purpose, they will not be deceived. They will know that the presentation of evolutionism is foolishness.

Understanding purpose is essential to understanding systems and their value. God has a purpose for people and He is jealous for His people:

"Declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things which have not been done, saying, 'My purpose will be established, and I will accomplish all My good pleasure;' Calling a bird of prey from the East, the man of My purpose from a far country. Truly I have spoken; truly I will bring it to pass, I have planned it, surely I will do it." (Isaiah 46:10-11)

These are many additional corollaries concerning purpose. These are only a few:

No one may create anything greater than themselves.

No one creates anything without a purpose.

Only the one who creates an object may define what its purpose is.

Purpose always precedes creation. (One must have a purpose in mind before one creates an object to fulfill that purpose.)

When creation is complete, purpose remains.

Purpose is eternal, while creation is temporary.

The purpose of an object sandwiches all things concerning that object.

The object is the manifestation of the purpose.

God is the originator of purpose and His purpose will stand.

God has an unchanging nature. God set out in creation to make man as an expression of Himself, as a vessel of His glory, and His purpose has not changed and will not change.

"He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things upon the earth. In Him, also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ should be to the praise of His glory." (Ephesians 1:9-12)

One test to know if you are fulfilling His purpose is that He is praised because of you!

The parts of us that are durable and lasting, the parts of us that conform to His image, those are the things that will last. The most lasting thing about us is His purpose for us. That will last. It will have no end.

If we work toward fulfilling our purpose, then God will do everything to move us forward in His purpose that we can be for the praise of His glory.

When people complain about God, they are complaining because God is not going their way. They have bought into a destructive heresy about who and what they are. They have not cooperated with God's purpose for them. They see God as an antagonist. People were not designed for abuse and the glory of men. People were designed for the glory of God.

Christians are not only headed individually for a fulfillment of their purpose, they are headed for a fulfillment of their purpose together. Jesus prayed that we would be one. God's purpose from the beginning was a unified mankind for the praise of His glory. We all have one purpose, although we manifest different expressions of it in order to accomplish this.

". . . in order that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places." (Ephesians 3:10)

Our purpose is not merely for our own satisfaction, not merely to strengthen our families, our schools, our churches, our communities; our purpose is to amaze the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms with the wisdom of God for giving us the purpose that He did, the ability to fulfill that purpose and the power to complete that purpose.

The eternal question must come down to this. Are you living your life so as to show off the wisdom of God in choosing you? You have a God given purpose. Are you fulfilling it? This is an eternal issue. There is an eternal purpose for you.

Are you displaying the wisdom of God through your life?