How Do You Know What Your Purpose Is?
If life has no purpose, then it doesn’t matter if people murder each other, kill babies inside or outside of the womb, take things that don’t belong to them, or have sex with multiple partners. Sometimes, the only thing that stops people from doing these things is the consequences of these actions. In some countries, murder reaps life in jail or the death penalty. Sometimes, it will reap someone wanting to take revenge on you. Stealing can also result in jail time and people not trusting you anymore. Having many sex partners can easily result in diseases and relationship complications.
Most people have an opinion on the purpose of life. Many base their opinion on their experiences and what they observe around them. For example, a young boy born in Canada grows up in a family and community that is very selfish. He concludes that there is no God or purpose on earth. Is he crazy for making that conclusion based solely on what he has experienced?
Here are several more examples. What about a young, atheist woman from the States who gets raped one evening, ending up pregnant? She then goes to church looking for answers and because she discovers God’s forgiveness toward her, she is able to forgive the person who raped her. The lady now claims to have healing from the pain caused by the rape and lives for God. Is she crazy for feeling this way?
A young man living in Mexico has a father involved in a violent gang. He grows up wanting to be accepted by his dad so he joins him in selling drugs and gang fights for a living. Any thought of searching for a different meaning of life repulses him because his number one goal (and purpose) is to be accepted by his father. Is he crazy for thinking this way?
An isolated tribe in South America believes, according to their ancestral tradition, that whenever they receive misfortune, a neighboring tribe has put a curse on them. In order to seek revenge, they sneak up on their enemy for a surprise attack. They only live for their own happiness and pride. Were they crazy for thinking this way?
An older man grew up in a deceitful family and society. He had been deceived by his friends and family over and over again. He would no longer trust anyone. He decided to discover reality for himself by building a rocket to prove the world is flat. Was he crazy?
A young man in Africa was born into a Muslim family. By his observation he believes Allah is only interested in killing everyone who is not Muslim and that Allah would reward him for suicide bombing. Allah would make him into a god and provide him with many wives after he died. Is he crazy?
A young man sees an angel and is guided by him to find the buried golden plates in the ground. He believes these plates are holy inscriptions from God. Crazy?
How many times did you answer yes to any of these people being crazy? Did you say yes because you know better than them? Or did you say yes because your experiences lead you to a totally different conclusion about life? Obviously, they cannot all be right about their purpose in life. More often than not, if we cannot relate to someone else’s experience or understand where they are coming from, then we will say they are crazy. We “know” we are right and they are wrong. What if those individuals would think you are crazy for thinking differently?
One experience is no better than another experience. This is why we cannot base lives truths, or our purpose, off of our experiences. Truth needs to be found outside of ourselves and our own experiences. If experiences by themselves cannot be trusted then what else should we look at?
Historical science. This is a science that studies the past as it is described in written documents. We can see and touch these documents to study the purpose of the writing: was it meant to be a fictional or nonfictional writing? How do we know if an ancient document was meant to be fiction or nonfiction? Sometimes the writer tells us.
How do we know if the writer is telling the truth? Textual criticism. The word “criticize” means to analyze and investigate. The purpose is to reveal historical evidence toward the transmission of the text. For example, this practice investigates how many hand written copies there are of the text and how accurate they compare with one another. The more copies there are the more room there is for error. The more languages it is translated into, the more room there is for error. If there is little to no error, then we can trust that what was originally written was not tampered with. Another example is that it investigates how many eye-witnesses there were and analyzes the text’s consistency or lack thereof. I will share an example of this later on.
How do we know if the writer is not telling the truth? Archaeology. Archaeology is the study of human history and prehistory through the excavation of sites and the analysis of artifacts and other physical remains. In other words, if what we find in the dirt is contrary to what the historical document claims, then we must question its validity.
Many schools still teach the Bible as an authentic historical document and as the Word of God. The Bible has been handwritten, copied and handed down from generation to generation and when the printing press was invented in 1440, millions of copies were distributed. People did not start to seriously doubt the Bible until Charles Darwin made his theory of evolution in the early 1800’s. If you want more discussion on the theory of evolution, check out my blog, “Creation and Science.” Then in the late 1800’s, men found manuscripts (ancient hand written copies) of the Bible in Egypt. The scholars compared those manuscripts to the Bible we have today and there are no differences (textual criticism). Then there was another wave of doubting the Bible’s authenticity in the 1900’s. The German School of Art promoted the belief that the Bible we have today cannot be trusted. They picked out some parts to be true and other parts to not be true. Then in 1946 more handwritten manuscripts of the Bible had been found. These manuscripts are much older than the ones found in Egypt. They date back to 1,920 years ago. The total number of hand-written New Testament manuscripts we possess today are 25,000 and in several different ancient languages. The scholars have compared them to each other as well as to the Bible in English we have today. There are no differences. There are 200 Old Testament manuscripts that have compared to today’s Bible and there are no differences there either. 200 manuscripts may not seem like a lot compared to the 25,000 New Testament copies but it is still more manuscripts than any other historical document every discovered. It is impossible for a historical document to be this preserved (kept from changes) unless there was a miracle done by a sovereign God.
Remember when I said I would give an example of how textual criticism investigates the eye-witnesses of a manuscript? The more people who claim to have heard or seen the same thing, the more likely their testimonies will contradict each another. When it comes to the Old Testament, there are more than thirty different authors. Most of them quote that they heard the LORD speak directly to them. The New Testament has about 7 different authors. They all claimed to have seen and heard the same Jesus, God with us. There are no contradictions between any of these authors writings about God or about what they had seen or heard about Jesus. Not only that, but these authors did not live in the same time period, which means that they could not have all sat down together making up the Word of God, comparing notes. It was written over a period of 1500 years by more than thirty different authors, claiming to have heard from the one and only God.
Archaeology cannot prove or disprove a historical document is true or not. However, it can be extremely helpful in supporting or not supporting one. If what we find in the ground is contrary to what a text says, then we must question its accuracy. If what we find is consistent with the text, then it should have our confidence.
I have been amazed over and over of the excavation discoveries made in the Middle East. In the book of Genesis it talks about a town called “Ur.” Abraham and his family lived there until God called them to travel to his new home in the land of Canaan. Today, archeologists have found the remains of the town of “Ur.”
Another finding is the city of Jericho. The Bible says that the city of Jericho had four walls surrounding the city. Rahab lived there and her house was part of the city wall. She had rescued the Israelite spies that came to her city in exchange for being rescued herself when the Israelites would take over. According to Joshua 2–6, God collapsed the wall, the Israelites burned the city and rescued Rahab. Today we have excavated a city with four walls, one of them collapsed, the city burned on the inside and houses attached to the walls. The specific details that we see come to light in our findings should give confidence to those who believe in the Bible, because it is not a blind faith.
Years after Abraham and his family moved to the new land, it became the land of Israel. God granted the people’s requests for a King and gave them King Solomon. King Solomon had the cities Hazor, Megiddo and Gezer built, according to 1 Kings 9:15. These three cities have been excavated and can be seen today. There are many many more Biblical archaeological findings, or findings that support the Bible. You can find out more by going to answersingenesis.com.
I think most people I come across think that I am crazy for basing my life purpose on a book. But when I think about all of my other options: life experiences, man’s philosophy, evolution, and religion (man’s way to God) I become disturbed by their lack of consistency. My conscience would bother me if I believed in something that has no solid foundation. Therefore, I do not want my life experiences to interpret the purpose of my life. I want my life experiences to be interpreted by God’s Word, and therefore, explain my God-given purpose.
