a Some Current Answers -- a Dime a Dozen	3Back to Home

4 Navigation --------------- Homepage St. Matthew St. Matthew 2 St. Mark St. Luke St. Luke 2 St. John St. John 2 Acts of Apostles Acts of Apostles 2 --------------- The Letters --- Romans --- 1. Corinthias --- 2. Corinthias --- Galatians --- Ephesians --- Philippians --- Colossians --- 1. Thessalonians --- 2. Thessalonians --- 1. Timothy --- 2. Timothy --- Titus --- Philemon --- Hebrews --- James --- 1. Peter --- 2. Peter --- 1. John --- 2. John --- 3. John --- Jude --------------- The Apocalypse

Some people claim that we are made for happiness. We are created to have a good time, the best possible time we can. People who believe this aren't necessarily selfish, since they can argue that the best way to have a good time is to help other people have a good time -- that by bringing pleasure to others, you will find happiness yourself. The chief problem here is, What do you mean by "happiness"? And for a great many people it will mean physical comfort -- a nice house, good clothes, a plasma TV, and a new car. And we must ask whether people's lives necessarily have deeper and fuller meaning just because they have nice houses, good clothes, laptops, and new cars. Their lives may be emptier than ever. Other people answer the question by saying, "We're only human" -- by which they seem to mean that we are highly developed animals, but nothing more. Ideas about love, or God, or self-sacrifice, are only wishful thinking -- attempts to escape from the unpleasant fact that we are "earthbound." Much better, the argument goes, to face up to the fact and make the best of it. Notice that this answer is as dogmatic as that of the most unyielding theology. And we must surely ask whether there is not, after all, a basic difference between an animal's shelter and a cathedral; between the beast's cry of fear and a symphony; between the meal of an animal and the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. The thing that is significant about these and other answers to the question "What is man?" is not that they are totally false, but that they are incomplete. We owe some allegiance to the State -- but we owe other allegiances as well. "Happiness" may be a part of that for which we are created -- but we are created for self-sacrifice as well. We are part animal, and must have food and drink and sleep to stay alive-but food and drink and sleep and nothing else would soon bore us to tears, because there is more to us than merely animal desire. And so we could continue with other current answers. Let us therefore look at the Biblical answer and see if it does not give us a more fully satisfactory description of our human situation. God conquers death God gives us the power to conquer The Only Real "Answer" A Question You Can't Avoid Some Current Answers -- a Dime a Dozen The First Part of the Biblical Answer What Is the "Image of God"? Some Consequences The Second Part of the Biblical Answer What Sin Is Supplying Some Documentation What Sin Is Not Getting Straightened Out How Can I Be Changed? The Third Part of the Biblical Answer The First Step After the First Step The Heart of the Matter Not Once and for All Some Hints for Growing -- Tried and Tested A Final Warning Why Isn't "Individual Religion" Enough? The Case Against the Church -a Bagful of Objections When Did the Church Get Started? Just What Is a "Covenant"? The "New Covenant" Becomes a Possibility Those Words of Jesus to Peter Those "Upsetters of the World" A Rebuttal of the Case Against the Church Why the Church? Last Judgment? Second Coming? What Do They Mean? The Inescapability of Eschatology The Point of Biblical Eschatology: History Is Going Somewhere The Dangers of Literalism Exploring New Testament Eschatology The Kingdom of God A Few Bits of Help The Gift of God Schatology and "What I Do Today" What Happens When I Die? Sheol -- Where God Is Not Present The Community of the Resurrection Paul's Attempt to Describe the Christian Fact A "Spiritual Body" The Facts of the Case I Try to Live a Good Life. Why Isn't That Enough? The "Micah" Variation The "Worship and Action" Variation The "Therefore" Variation The Biblical faith that God is the Creator