God …has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end. Ecclesiastes 3:10-11 (NKJV)
God placed eternity within the heart of humanity. Clinging to life, desiring a legacy that goes beyond, and wanting to know purpose.
Jean Paul Sartre was an atheistic humanistic philosopher who wrote being and nothingness. A famous quote of his is: “Life has no meaning the moment you lose the illusion of being eternal.”
He also wrote, “That God does not exist, I cannot deny, That my whole being cries out for God I cannot forget.”
Although, he did not believe in God, Sartre recognized the absolute driving desire for all humans to hold fast to eternity. Indeed, it is said that on his dying bed, he spoke, “I do not feel that I am the product of chance, a speck of dust in the universe, but someone who was expected, prepared, prefigured. In short, a being whom only a Creator could put here; and this idea of a creating hand refers to God.”[1]
Many try to claim this was not the case because they want to believe that one of the founders of humanistic thought, could never have concluded God exists. Yet, he wrote even before this: “Existentialists on the other hand find it extremely disturbing that God no longer exists…there could no longer be any a priori good, since there would be no infinite and perfect consciousness to conceive of it.”[2]
Therefore, why would it be so surprising that when facing his own death, he would be drawn to conclude, “there is a God”.
A Look at Ecclesiastes 9:
2 All things come alike to all:
One event happens to the righteous and the wicked;
To the [b]good, the clean, and the unclean;
To him who sacrifices and him who does not sacrifice.
As is the good, so is the sinner;
He who takes an oath as he who fears an oath.
3 This is an evil in all that is done under the sun: that one thing happens to all. Truly the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil; madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead. 4 But for him who is joined to all the living there is hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion.
5 For the living know that they will die;
But the dead know nothing,
And they have no more reward,
For the memory of them is forgotten.
6 Also their love, their hatred, and their envy have now perished;
Nevermore will they have a share
In anything done under the sun.
Despair at the thought of no Eternity-If death is all there is
Another look comes from Philipp Graham Ryken in Ecclesiastes Redesign-Why everything matters.
The experience of Solomon who is spiraling down into absolute despair shows, “maybe more clearly than anything else in the Bible the reality of life without God. Remember that we are still looking at things from a merely human perspective (as we read these pages of Ecclesiastes), life is so pointless that eventually it leads to despair.
“many thinkers have reached the same conclusion. Like Qoheleth (Ecclesiastes), the philosopher Voltaire, when writing to a close friend, said, ‘I hate life, and yet I am afraid to die.” The young C.S. Lewis, in the days when he was still an atheist, said, ‘Come let us curse our Master ere we die, / for all our hopes in endless ruin lie./ The good is dead. Let us curse God most High.’ Or consider these words from Francois Mauriac, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1952: ‘You can’t imagine the torment of having had nothing out of life, and of having to look forward to nothing but death, of feeling that there is no other world beyond this one, that the puzzle will never be explained.’
Such is life under the sun. The Preacher hated life because of the certainty of death and the absurdity of losing all his wisdom”[3]
What are you frightened of losing in death?
Without the Resurrection, where would we be?
I Corinthians 15 (NKJV)12 Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. 14 And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty.
15 Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up—if in fact the dead do not rise. 16 For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. 17 And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! 18 Then also those who have [c]fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.
But Eternity is Real—Jesus did rise from the Grave
I Corinthians 15 (NKJV) 20 But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have [d]fallen asleep. …. 24 Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God.
So Why did God Plant Eternity into the Heart of each Person born?
So, we may like St. Augustine declare, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.”
Psalm 42:
As the deer [b]pants for the water brooks,
So pants my soul for You, O God.
2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When shall I come and [c]appear before God?
3 My tears have been my food day and night,
While they continually say to me,
“Where is your God?”
……
7 Deep calls unto deep at the noise of Your waterfalls;
All Your waves and billows have gone over me.
8 The Lord will command His lovingkindness in the daytime,
And in the night His song shall be with me—
A prayer to the God of my life.
9 I will say to God my Rock,
“Why have You forgotten me?
Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?”
10 As with a [h]breaking of my bones,
My enemies [i]reproach me,
While they say to me all day long,
“Where is your God?”
11 Why are you cast down, O my soul?
And why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God;
For I shall yet praise Him,
The [j]help of my countenance and my God.
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©Effie Darlene Barba, 2021
Disclosure of Material Connection: I have not received any compensation for writing this post. Furthermore, I have no material connection to the brands, products, or services that I have mentioned except for my own books. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.
Credits
New King James Version (NKJV)
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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[1] https://catholicherald.co.uk/jean-paul-sartres-confession-of-belief-and-other-surprises-in-a-fine-new-book/
[2] Sartre, Existentialism is a Humanism, Carol Macomber trans., (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007), 28
[3] Philip Graham Ryken, “Ecclesiastes (Redesign) Why Everything Matters, 2014, Crossway Publisher,