The meaning of life, the universe and everything
Adonis, 19 Apr 2009 12:13 AM
Douglas Adams, a self-proclaimed “radical atheist,” wrote a series of books called The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. I read several of them in English in, I think, the 9th grade until my teacher stopped giving me credit for reading them :).
In the first book, a computer is built to determine the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything. After computing for 7 1/2 million years, the answer is “42”. Unfortunately, the programmers then had to work on a program and computer to compute the question…
I‘m in the middle of teaching a series on Easter for my “Adult Bible Fellowship” class (Sunday School). While praying about how my class should study Easter, I found that we could break our Easter lesson into four parts: Life, Sacrifice, Waiting and Resurrection.
Tonight I’m wrapping up the “waiting” lesson. We’ll look at Israel waiting for Messiah, the Disciples dealing with the death of Jesus (not understanding that he would be resurrected on the third day) and, finally, how Christians are called to watch for the “end of the age” when Jesus will return again.
In my study, I got to the end of my lesson where I sat staring at the class take-away – what are we supposed to learn from this lesson? Why are we studying this? What became perfectly clear to me was what I believe to be the question and answer to Adams’ riddle. There’s nothing special to the question – it’s simply, “Why are we here? What are we doing?”
Q: Why are we here? What are we doing?
For those who believe that Jesus was the son of God, that he was sacrificed to atone for the sins of mankind, that he died and rose again defeating death and sin, the answer is found in Matthew 24 and 25: we’re here to prepare for the second-coming of Jesus.
When I sat reading Matthew 24 and 25 and I browsed through Mark, Luke and John looking for other parables and commands related to the end of the age and Jesus’ second-coming, I thought to myself, “I understand the meaning of life…”
I tweeted, “I've been studying and I've discovered the meaning of life; it has nothing to do with mice, dolphins, 42, happiness or feeling good” (mice, dolphins and 42 are all elements from Adams' Hitchhiker's series).
Shortly after my tweet – I chuckled that Adams was pretty close… 42 is half my answer, transposed and missing some important details.
If you believe that you require forgiveness for lying, cheating, stealing, etc, and you chose to claim Jesus’ death on the cross and subsequent resurrection as the way to get that forgiveness, the answer to the meaning of life, the universe and everything is Matthew 24-25: Prepare for Jesus’ return.
A: Prepare for Jesus’ return.
patrick sullivan says:
23 Apr 2009 at 4:27 PMHey! First I wanted to tell you I LOVE the theme and thank you for sharing it with us! It's a pretty sweet theme! I've just started to get more time to mess with some of the settings, etc and I am trying to add my own images to the Header deal. I have uploaded everything and added the string to the header images in settings but for some reason the images only show up some of the time. I'm thinking it may be an issue with the size of the images I am using or something else more subtle. If you have any ideas i would appreciate it.
My blog is @ http://sullivanstreet.us
here's the line I posted in the header images config settings:
IMG_0276.jpg|IMG_0277.jpg|IMG_0278.jpg|IMG_0305.jpg|...
Do I need spaces?
Thanks for your help!!
Patrick
BTW - your email validation on this form is bad, - also I was unable to comment on the theme feedback page
Jesse V says:
26 Apr 2009 at 8:24 PMAdo, just got around to reading this. Good stuff. However, your answer brings to mind another question ... How do we prepare for Jesus' return? Any thoughts?
- jesse
Allan Svensson says:
17 Feb 2010 at 1:31 PMHi.
I found your Web Site by Google
And I wish you the best you can get,
the peace of God through Jesus Christ.
Welcome to visit my Site.
Allan Svensson, Sweden www.algonet.se/.../INDEX.HTM
In the time of the apostles any church did not exist, and
therefore the word "church" does not occur in the Bible.
Everywhere in your English Bible where you see the word
"church" it is a grave translation error. Also Matt. 16:18.
It ought to be "assembly".
In the reality, the word "church" occurs not at all in the Bible.
I have five Bible translations in Swedish, (the oldest from
1703). Nowhere in these Bibles does the word "church"
(kyrka) occur. I have also a reference book where the New
Testament is translated word by word from Greek to Swedish.
Everywhere they translate the Greek word "ekklesia" to
församling (assembly).
Perhaps you want to raise the objection, there are many
bible translations in English which all have the word "church".
This is a very stupid argument. A translation error does not
become better of repeating. A lie is a lie no matter how many
time it be repeated.
In Col. 1:18 (KJV) we can read: "And he (Christ) is the head
of the body, the church ..." And in Eph. 5:23-24, "For the
husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of
the church: and he is the saviour of the body. Therefore as the
church is subject unto Christ..."
This is a lie! The church is not subjected unto Christ. The
head of the Church is the pope, the black pope, and the devil.
The Bible translators do not make a difference between God's
true people and Satan's Church. From the Church's deeds we
shall know the Church. Matt. 7:15-20. By their fruit we shall
recognize the false priesthood. The Catholic Church has
persecuted, tortured and murdered many millions of Christians.
This is a well-known fact. How could a good tree bear such
an evil fruit?
Why did the Bible translators use the same word "church" also
for God's people, the Body of Christ? Why did not they see the
difference between the murderer and the victims for the
murderer? The first Christians were no church. Calling the
first Christians "the first church" is a grave insult against these
Christians. The Church is a mass murderer. The devil is the
real church father.
If we use the same name "church" on the murderer as on the
victims for the murderer, how then can we know what that
means when someone says "church"?
Right since the great falling away took place a very long
time ago and the first churches came into existence,
2 Thess. 2:3, God's people have lived in slavery under
Satan's churches and denominations. The churches have
all the time served the devil, but pretend to be God's
servants and representatives. The churches have never
been any God's assemblies or God's temples. They have
already from their beginning been harlot beings. They
are born through religious fornication. People have
mixed God's word with doctrines of evil spirits, and so
new churches appear.
Churches and denominations are Satan's tools to hold control
over the Christians. The purpose of the churches is that with
false doctrine defend churches and denominations, and to hold
their members in religious slavery, and hinder them to
understand God's word.
Rev. 18:4 is the most powerful revival message of the Lord