Faith-Rest Drill: Solomon’s Frantic Search for Happiness in Philosophy, Ecclesiastes 3:1-12

		4.	Philosophy:	 When human viewpoint exhausts all logical efforts to explain reality it then opts for the land of make believe, better known as philosophy.
1.	Philosophers make a valiant effort to offer some creditable explanation for the complex issues of human life but they handicap themselves by taking too much off the table.
2.	Currently philosophers choose, without justification, to stigmatize Christian theology as a politically incorrect body of information.
3.	As a result they rob their discussion of the core explanations that would reveal to them the true meaning of life.
4.	Believing themselves to be wise they make themselves fools.
5.	Solomon’s human wisdom enabled him to make a number of valid observations about the world around him in one of the more well-known passages from this book.
Ecclesiastes 3:1 -	There is an appointed time for everything.  And there is a time for every event under heaven—
v 2 -	A time to give birth and a time to die; a time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted.
v 3 -	A time to kill and a time to heal; a time to tear down and a time to build up.
v 4 -	A time to weep and a time to laugh; a time to mourn and a time to dance.
v 5 -	A time to throw stones and a time to gather stones; a time to embrace and a time to shun embracing.

v 6 -	A time to search and a time to give up as lost; a time to keep and a time to throw away.
v 7 -	A time to tear apart and a time to sew together; a time to be silent and a time to speak.
v 8 -	A time to love and a time to hate; a time for war and a time for peace.
6.	His human wisdom was capable of perceiving order in nature, order in business, order in emotions, order in politics, order in life, order in society, and order in foreign policy.
7.	But even though a person can be extremely organized in the various ways Solomon mentions, it does not imply order in the soul.
1.	And unless the soul is organized by means of ™p…gnwsij doctrine in the stream of consciousness then that person cannot be happy.
9.	Philosophy also leads Solomon to entertain one of the hypotheses of evolution: man and animal are the same and thus have the same fate:
Ecclesiastes 3:19 -	The fate of the sons of men and the fate of beasts is the same.  As one dies so dies the other; indeed, they all have the same breath and there is no advantage for man over beast, for all is emptiness.
		10.	Those who subscribe to the idea of common origin of the species must eventually accept several false doctrines:
1)	Materialism: The opinion that noting exists except matter and that the phenomena of self-consciousness and free will are wholly due to the operation of material agencies.
2)	Universalism: The doctrine of universal salvation or redemption.

3)	Hylozoism /HI-la-ZO-ism/: The theory that matter is endowed with life or that life is merely the property of matter.  [OED]
Ecclesiastes 3:20 -	All go to the same place.  All came from the dust and all return to the dust.
		11.	These agnostic philosophies are the result of Solomon having accepted the self-centered notions of humanitarianism.
Ecclesiastes 3:12 -	I know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice and to do good in one’s lifetime.
12.	The “doing good” her is not the production of divine good but the philosophy of humanitarianism:
A philosophy that centers on human interests or values, especially one that rejects the supernatural and stresses an individual’s dignity, worth, and capacity for self-realization through reason.  [W9NCD]
13.	Such an approach is acceptable to the world but it stresses personal love for mankind while ignoring and rejecting personal love for God.
14.	Personal love for God must precede unconditional love for mankind for the latter to be virtuous.
15.	Personal love for our fellowman simply has no virtue.  It can only be maintained so long as expectations are met.
16.	Unconditional love for mankind without the virtue of personal love for God is weak, unstable, emotional, and ultimately irrational.