What Is Truth? Series

ECCLESIASTES 1

WHAT IS TRUTH?

Ecclesiastes 1.3-11

S: Truth

C: Revelation

Th: Confusion

Pr: We can know the truth about God, ourselves, and the world.

CV: We will clearly communicate the transforming truth of the Bible.

Type: Inductive

PA: How is the change to be observed?

• Find the truth and act on it.

• Know the truth about God, ourselves, and the world.

• Rejoice that eternity has been set in our hearts.

• Realize that life does not make sense without God.

• Make this journey with purpose.

Version: ESV

RMBC 02 November 08 AM

INTRODUCTION:

There is a lot of confusion about God.

Those were big questions we saw in the video.

Does God exist?

What does He expect from us?

And those clips show us that there is a lot of confusion in the world.

If there is anyplace we are all feeling confusion today is when it comes to politics.

After all, who is telling the truth?

Is McCain?

Is Obama?

It seems to me, elections have developed into who is a better expert in spinning the truth.

You see…

Today’s truth seems to depend on the spin.

We have been listening to ads on TV over the last few weeks, and whether it is Krysan or Lee, Mesi or Ranzenhofer, or Obama or McCain – we struggle to know what the truth really is and who is telling it.

Each side continually accuses the other of lies.

So we determine who is telling the truth according to the sound bytes.

Who looks better?

Who seems more convincing?

Who has better posture?

Who is more sincere?

Who has more confidence?

And while many of us would argue that none of this would be a basis for the truth, for many in our culture today, this is how truth is determined.

It is all in the spin.

There is an interesting man in the Bible who had a handle on the truth, but still ended up living chaotically.

He had it all.

He had power.

He had fame.

He had prestige.

He had wisdom.

He had money.

He even had women – wives and concubines.

He was, as we used to say on the farm, happier than a bull in the barnyard.

And when it was all said and done, and he comes to the end of his life…

Solomon asked, “Is there anything new?”

As he writes his final memoir about life, called Ecclesiastes, he comes to a conclusion about his life.

It has been meaningless.

It is all old.

There is nothing new.

As he puts it (Ecclesiastes 1:9 [Msg]):

What was will be again,

What happened will happen again.

There’s nothing new on this earth.

Year after year it’s the same old thing.

I feel like he is talking about the America election.

But…

Solomon is looking for meaning in life.

He is looking for what is true about life.

And as he continues on in this writing, he resolves the dilemma he is feeling.

This dilemma, I believe, represents well the dilemmas many face in the postmodern worldview of today.

OUR STUDY:

Let’s take a look at the four major worldviews…

Worldview Shifts (Western)

Ancient World: 2500 BC to AD 500

Historically…the Ancient World includes the times of the pharaohs and the Egyptians, the empires of Assyria, Babylon, Persia and Greece, and of course, the Roman Empire.

Medieval World: AD 500-1500

The Medieval World is the time from Charlemagne, to the Holy Roman Empire, when the popes were effectively the rulers of the western world.

Modern World: AD 1500-2000

The Modern World began with the Renaissance, the Reformation, and the Enlightenment, and continued into the 20th century.

Postmodern World: AD 2000+

We live in a very historic time in our culture.

For the last fifty years, a distinct change has been taking place in the way people think and act.

Actually, its beginnings go back to the 19th century.

Modernism has been characterized by humanism, individualism, and anti-authoritarianism.

And what I want to note here is that postmodernism, as a worldview, is simply an extension of modernism.

It is not a reaction against modernism, but a logical follow-up.

The transition has been taking place for 200 years.

It is just in the last fifty, it is like someone stepped on the gas.

Let’s see what a difference these worldviews have made.

First, in…

Epistemology

Epistemology is the study of knowledge – its nature, origins and limits.

Ancient World: Regional worldview; time period of first historic civilizations; deities were considered regional and territorial.

Knowledge was based on the regions, because travel was limited.

It was local.

It was very religion-based.

And when conflict came, it was my god was smarter than your god.

The shift, though, began with the empires.

As they began to get bigger, knowledge increased.