Dr Paul Allen

For my days are consumed like smoke … ( Ps. 102:3). One of humanity’s greatest dilemmas is its relationship to time. Whether we live or die, time continues its unrelenting cadence. Sometimes it seems as if we have been discarded into life’s vast ocean, to drift without a beginning or an end. Often it seems as if all we have is the here and now. Hoping for something more, we ask, “Is this all there is?” Secularism quickly answers in the affirmative—all we can be certain of is the present. Secularism’s short-sighted philosophy produces grave moral consequences. If all we have is the here and now, then why stop and consider the consequences of our actions, especially in relation to eternity? The Bible tells us we are responsible for our actions; yet, like secularism , it does not deny the transience of man: “… all the glory of man is as the flower of the grass. The grass withers and its flower falls away” ( 1 Peter 1:24); “… he is like the beasts that perish” (Ps. 49:12); “… they ...

Certainly every man at his best state is but vapor  (Ps. 39:5). The futility of life can be ignored, but it can’t be denied . Everyone who does not have Jesus Christ as their Savior feels the meaningless of life, and they’re doing everything possible to run from it. Today we will examine two of the most common ways people try to escape the futility of life as they search for happiness. Some turn to stoicism. Stoics try to maintain an emotionless outlook on everything. They don’t let the woes of life penetrate their iron-clad veneer. Stoics believe that happiness resides in rigid self-control. Just stay cool and don’t let anything bother you. Another more common way people try to find happiness is through the maximization of pleasure and the avoidance of pain. The ancient Greeks who held to this hedonistic philosophy were called Epicureans . They did not want to overdose on pleasure—and thus become bored with life—but they wanted to maintain just the right amount of pleas...