Ecclesiastes 8-10 | Still Searching After All These Years

Published on Oct 9, 2012

Ecclesiastes 11-12 | Solomon Finds His Way

Published on Oct 30, 2012

I have enjoyed going back and forth with the Arkansas Times Bloggers on many subjects over the years. Now I have discussed the subject of “The Meaning of Life” with them recently and I wanted to share some of this with you.

I have written on the Book of Ecclesiastes and the subject of the meaning of our lives on several occasions on this blog. In this series on Ecclesiastes I hope to show how secular humanist man can not hope to find a lasting meaning to his life in a closed system without bringing God back into the picture. This is the same exact case with Solomon in the Book of Ecclesiastes. Three thousand years ago, Solomon took a look at life “under the sun” in his book of Ecclesiastes. Christian scholar Ravi Zacharias has noted, “The key to understanding the Book of Ecclesiastes is the term ‘under the sun.’ What that literally means is you lock God out of a closed system, and you are left with only this world of time plus chance plus matter.”

On May 28, 2013 on the Arkansas Times Blog I posted the following:

Chris Martin of Coldplay revealed in his interview with Howard Stern that he was raised an evangelical Christian but he has left the church. I believe that many words that he puts in his songs today are generated from the deep seated Christian beliefs from his childhood that find their way out in his songs. The fact Coldplay’s songs deal so much with death and the search for meaning and purpose of life (similar to Solomon’s search in Ecclesiastes), and that our actions are being watched, and Chris describes different ways God tries to reveal himself to us, and many songs deal with trying to find a way to an afterlife and heaven, and he stills uses Christian terms like being “blessed” and “grateful.”

People are looking for a purpose for their lives even if they have millions in the bank and have the world at their finger tips.

https://thedailyhatch.org/2013/05/28/the-mo…

My usual opponent who I do respect goes by the username “NeverVoteRepublican” and he or her responded on May 28, 2013:

Saline–I don’t know what the heck Chris Martin’s religious beliefs have to do with anything but you sure know how to copy and paste. Do you even know who Chris Martin is or  anything about his music?

On June 3, 2013 on the Arkansas Times Blog I responded with the following:

Here is my answer:

Chris Martin was raised as an evangelical but he left the faith in his teenage years and he writes all of the songs for the rock band Coldplay and he does write a bunch of lyrics dealing with various subjects that suggest that he is searching for a lasting meaing to his life. It is my belief that he just can’t get away from his deep-seated childhood religious beliefs that he keeps coming back to. Over and over in Coldplay’s music you see Chris Martin putting in Biblical words such as Daniel in the Lions Den, Till Kingdom Come, Head on a silver plate, I know Saint Peter won’t call my name, and even the phrase “Under the Sun” from the Book of Ecclesiastes.” That brings me to the Coldplay song “World Turned Upside Down” when uses the phrase “And everything under the sun” six times. Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes 1:14, “I have seen everything that is done under the sun. Look at it! It’s all pointless. [It’s like] trying to catch the wind.” Will Martin come to this same conclusion?

The song starts off with these words, “The land, sea, rivers, trees, the stars, the sky, That and this, We’re part of a bigger plan, Don’t know what it is, Don’t know what it is.” That reminds me of these words of Solomon from Ecclesiastes 3:11 says in the Amplified version:

“He (God) also has planted eternity in men’s hearts and minds [a divinely implanted sense of a purpose working through the ages which nothing under the sun but God alone can satisfy], yet so that men cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.”

Solomon opens the Book of Ecclesiastes with the same frustration that Chris Martin expresses in this song. Solomon notes:

One generation goes its way, the next one arrives,
    but nothing changes—it’s business as usual for old
        planet earth.
The sun comes up and the sun goes down,
    then does it again, and again—the same old round.
The wind blows south, the wind blows north.
    Around and around and around it blows,
    blowing this way, then that—the whirling, erratic wind.
All the rivers flow into the sea,
    but the sea never fills up.
The rivers keep flowing to the same old place,
    and then start all over and do it again.
Everything’s boring, utterly boring—
    no one can find any meaning in it.

Chris Martin also feels this same tension in his lyrics in the song “World Turned Upside Down” as he continues:

What is this feeling that I can't explain? 
And why am I never gonna sleep again? 
What is this thing I've never seen before? 
A little boy lost in a breaking storm, 
Pilots, up and away they fly 
To write your name in the summer sky 
Life has really only just begun, 
Life that comes 
And everything under the sun
______________

Rick Warden in his excellent article, "Philosophical Atheist, Before you Commit Suicide Read Ecclesiastes" observed:

The Jewish physicist Alan Sandage was an atheist most of his life but simply could not dispel all the evidence he had seen in the cosmos pointing to God’s necessary existence. He became a Christian at age 60, explaining, ”I could not live a life full of cynicism. I chose to believe, and a peace of mind came over me.” (The Telegraph, Allan Sandage (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/science-obituaries/8150004/Allan-Sandage.html). One of the reasons Sandage believed was the complexity of the universe: ”The world is too complicated in all its parts and interconnections to be due to chance alone.”( Leadership U, A Scientist Reflects on Religious Belief (http://www.leaderu.com/truth/1truth15.html)

It doesn’t take a great mind to understand what Solomon and Sandage knew, it only takes an open mind. Three decades ago, Stephen Hawking declared humanity was on the verge of discovering the “theory of everything”with a 50 per cent chance of knowing it by 2000. But by 2010 Hawking had given up hope. ( New Scientist, Stephen Hawking says there’s no theory of everything,  September 2, 2010)

If only Hawking had read the book of Ecclesiastes, he could have saved a lot of wasted time: “He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.”( Ecclesiastes 3:11 NIV) Hawking is a good example showing that intelligence and wisdom are two very distinct things.

___________

Solomon does bring God back into the picture in the last chapter after looking at “life under the sun” without God in the picture in the first 11 chapters. Michael Gowens comments:

Ecclesiastes does not end on this pessimistic note, however. After analyzing the futility of life without God, the Preacher affirms that life lived with a conscious awareness of God is supremely meaningful: “Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth” the Preacher counsels (12:1).

____________

I am hoping that both Stephen Hawking and Chris Martin also bring God back in the picture as they continue their searches for a lasting meaning to life.

___________

Coldplay – World Turned Upside Down

Published on Aug 26, 2012

 

The World Turned Upside Down

X & Y
The land, sea, rivers, trees, the stars, the sky 
That and this 
We're part of a bigger plan 
Don't know what it is 
Don't know what it is 

You and me 
The land, sun, trees, the sky, the stars, the sea 
365 degrees 
I am a puzzle you're the missing piece 
Hang on a minute just a minute please 
I'll come 
And everything under the sun 
And everything under the sun 

What is this feeling that I can't explain? 
And why am I never gonna sleep again? 
What is this thing I've never seen before? 
A little boy lost in a breaking storm 
Pilots, up and away they fly 
To write your name in the summer sky 
Life has really only just begun 
Life that comes 
And everything under the sun 

X is Y 
The land, sea, rivers, trees, the stars, the sky 
365 degrees 
All of the surface and the underneath 

ah 
And everything under the sun 
And everything under the sun 

What is this feeling that I can't explain? 
And why am I never gonna sleep again? 
What is this thing I've never seen before? 
A little boy lost in a breaking storm 
Pilots up and away they fly 
To write your name in the summer sky 
Life has really only just begun 
Life that comes 
And everything under the sun 

And you don't know that you've been born 
Can't see the calm until the storm 
Can't tell your right side from your wrong 
Can't see the wave you're riding on

_____________

Related posts:

The most popular posts in the last 30 days about the spiritual quest of Chris Martin of Coldplay that can be found on www.thedailyhatch.org

By Everette Hatcher III | Posted in Current Events | Tagged coldplay, chris martin, book of ecclesiastes, meaning of life | Edit | Comments (0)