What is Life all about  - What is the chief

end of man?

The cause of all our human miseries is a radical moral dislocation, an upset  in our relation to God

The cause of all our human miseries is a radical moral dislocation, an upset in our relation to God and to each other. Leaving God out the equation of life brings a sharp change in man's relation to his Creator. He has adopted toward God an altered attitude, and by so doing destroyed the proper Creator-creature relation in which, unknown to him, his true happiness lay.

The ancient Greeks considered history as a circle or a cycle, always repeating itself, therefore going nowhere in particular,  Accomplishing no discernible purpose, and without an identifiable goal. To them existence was an impenetrable mystery.

This is the philosophy embraced and expounded by most modern secular chroniclers. They do not know what existence is about. To them and too much of the world at large, history is merely one senseless crisis after another and has no purpose and no intelligent aim. They do not know the reason for intelligent life or for the existence of the human race. They do not know where we came from or where we are going. All being is a vast incomprehensible enigma. Their philosophy of history is a philosophy of ignorance, frustration, and despair.

The Frenchman Jean Paul Sartre taught that each man exists in a watertight compartment as an isolated individual in a purposeless universe. Since we cannot know who we are, where we came from, and where we are going; since we do not understand the past and have no hope of the future, then the present throbbing moment is all that matters.

Only what we realise in the immediate present is significant and has meaning. Distant goals have no validity. Therefore, to sacrifice the present for the future is nonsensical and stupid. Out of this philosophy came the "now generation," a generation which cannot wait. The pleasure of the moment is the only rational goal of existence. "On with the dance, let joy be unconfined." "Let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we die" (1 Cor. 15:32)…

Jacques Monod, the French molecular biologist, holds that "all life results from interaction of pure chance — and necessity." Monod concludes that man is alone (as far as a Superior being is concerned) in the universe's unfeeling immensity, out of which he emerged only by chance. His destiny is nowhere spelled out, nor is his duty. As expressed Monod is convinced that "man is the product of the impersonal, plus time, plus chance."

If this is true, then man is as impersonal as and has no more value than any other part of the universe. There is, therefore, no moral distinction between cutting down a tree and destroying a human being. If a human being is essentially no different from a tree, then his future is no different. Existence, for a man, is as meaningless as existence for a tree; thus man's value is reduced to zero. The end result is meaninglessness and despair.

Are the philosophers right when they say, “we do not know the reason for intelligent life or for the existence of the human race. We do not know where we came from or where we are going. All being is a vast incomprehensible enigma. The philosophy of history is a philosophy of ignorance, frustration, and despair”

Or is there another answer to our problem, has the Scriptures got the answer..

The media will tell us that religion and Christianity is outmoded and not fit for this post modern world. Yet the Scriptures written many centuries ago record for us in 2 Timothy Chapter 3

But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come; For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy. Unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good. Always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

The above  paints for us a picture of modern day society When man destroys God, he destroys himself. Atheism is suicidal.

The “Good news of the Gospel” that the Lord declared, was an offence in the ears of the religious leaders of the day, and throughout history it has been so. The reason, the gospel takes away any influence man have in securing acceptance with God. “It’s all of God and nothing of  Man” It’s an offence because it cuts right across man’s right to independence, and the right to choose his own way to God. Self-justification centres upon the “me” I have the “right” is the byword of this present generation, everything centres on the individual. Selfishness is one of most conspicuous characteristics of our society today

Essentially salvation is the restoration of a right relation between man and his Creator, a bringing back to norm of the Creator-creature relation. The unbeliever is at enmity with God, there is no peace with God, even though he may strive to be righteous he can never reach that acceptance with God.

As the sailor locates his position on the sea by "shooting" the sun, so we may get our moral bearings by looking at God.  We must begin with God. We are right when and only when we stand in a right position relative to God, and we are wrong so far and so long as we stand in any other position. In the Bible, God has fixed boundaries in which lives are to be lived. The Ten Commandments are such. They set firstly the existence of a creator God and our relationship to Him, and secondly our relationship to one another.  When we detach ourselves from a creator God then our moral standards is somewhat suspect.

Life upon this earth is but for a moment. We are born, we live, and we die. Man cannot change this, he labours and schemes he seeks after riches, for what? To leave to somebody else, his labour is in vain. Man is ever learning we are living in an age where knowledge and the pursuit of knowledge are colossal and the ability to seek after and acquire knowledge is phenomenal. And yet for all this knowledge man has not learned to live at peace with he fellow beings, the world today is still a very hostile environment

In his Book Out of the rut into revival A W Tozers says

If we are so advanced in our day, why are the prisons packed full and the mental hospitals crowded? If we are so advanced, why is the whole world a powder keg? If we are so advanced, how is it that we have weapons that can annihilate the world? If we are so advanced, why is it that people cannot walk alone in the parks anymore? Why is it that workers who get out at midnight never walk home alone anymore? Why is it in this advanced age that drugs, violence, abortion and divorce are soaring?

2 Tim. Ch3 v16 says - “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness”

The Scriptures are the foundation document of the Christian faith, in vivid terms it presents the message of Jesus Christ and conveys the impact of His life and teachings upon those who first witnessed them. It is more than a book of history it deals with every experience in life. It gives advice and help instruction and warning, comfort and hope, correction and direction, predictions and promises.

The Scriptures gives the only answer to living in peace one with another, The Lord Jesus said while on earth “take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light”

Which way will you tread, man’s way or God’s Way?

 See also   "What is the Chief  Goal of Man?"  Ecclesiastes  Ch1 v1-11