INTRODUCTION
This study concerns the future, but it is not about the economic or political future, the diminishing resources of the world, the plight of the poor and the displaced, or climate change. This study is concerned, dear reader, with a different future, the future of every individual as a unique human being.
What is your greatest achievement?
I guess my role in Hamlet at Covent Garden
Who is your favourite author?
Many – Steinbeck, Bunyan, Burns, Hancock
Who are your favourite composers?
Beethoven, Dvorjak, Smetana
What happens when you die?
Nothing.
This is just made up. It follows the line of a magazine column in which well-known personalities respond to various lifestyle and preference questions. As indicated, some of the personalities end with the last statement: “Nothing”.
Such a statement implies that this life is all that there is. Depending on your outlook, this could be a naturalistic worldview or a humanistic worldview. The naturalistic holds that there is nothing more than the natural order, and the humanistic that people can live their lives without reference to religious beliefs. In other words, for them there is no higher authority and no ultimate standard against which we are measured. Everyone would have their own values and their own notion of what is right and wrong.
There are difficulties here. What is the offer of such a worldview? Is it the stark face of a universe that is merely there, that is mute, inanimate, and that has no intrinsic sense of value? If there are no values in the universe, no moral cause, if the universe is merely an accident, what would be the basis on which right and wrong, justice, compassion, care, love and honour are established?
Some would say that a naturalistic or humanistic worldview could nonetheless promote values based on human experience. But has human experience proved to be a good teacher? What have thousands of years of human experience achieved in terms of values?
The treasure house of human values seems close to empty.
The national well-known personality above says that nothing happens at the end of life. Does this mean that your life and mine will ultimately count for nothing? Will there be nothing to account for and no-one to whom to give an account? Will our lives end, be extinguished and forgotten?
How does this, dear reader, make you feel about the future? How does it affect your optimism for life? How does it enthuse you, should it be true that whatever you do, good or bad, is ultimately irrelevant?
Now, dear reader, there is one worldview that I would like to introduce to you. It is based on the reality of a living, personal God who created all that there is, including the human race. This is the God of spotless purity and holiness. Righteousness and justice are the foundations of his throne. This is the covenantal God who entered the human domain to reconcile himself with a fallen humanity.
But why should we bother with this God? You may not acknowledge his existence. Or, if he exists, you may not be interested in him. Why should we bother?
Well, amongst other things, this is the God who promises us a future, stretching into eternity.
Why this study? The aim with this study is to present the Christian worldview to you, dear reader, on a rational and logical basis. The God of the Bible is at the centre of this worldview. What you do with him is of course your choice.
If you are interested, come on a journey of exploration.
So, is there a case for God?