Reads For Fun: Pilgrims

What do I think of M. R. Leonard’s book? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

We’re going to take a break from Ecclesiastes to review a sci-fi book I read recently.

So, aliens have said they are coming to Earth and will be here in five years and now the time has come.

Seems typical so far. Right?

Okay. Now for the twist.

Turns out when they arrive, we find out that they’re Catholic.

Well, when I saw that premise described and that the book was free on Kindle, I was intrigued and picked it up. I am going to do what I can to avoid spoilers from late in the book, but I will tell you that this is not the end of the story apparently, when this book ends. The author does plan on more.

So the protagonist is a young man named Austin DeSantis who is spending his time as the world prepares for the visitors dreaming of getting to be with a prostitute. It costs a lot of money to get a night with her and unfortunately, at the start he loses his job. A shame since he has a rare gift in that he is one of the few people who not only can read Latin, but can speak it as well.

In an attempt to get some money, he joins some people he meets in a break-in which in the midst of it, he tosses some pears against the wall just for fun, but the fun is interrupted. The man they are robbing comes back and one of his partners in the robbery kills the man before his eyes. At this, Austin is wanted by the police and goes back just to wait with his mother, Monica.

The parallels are intentional and if you are wondering what parallels, go read some church history.

Austin is given a chance to clear his name by interacting with the aliens as a translator alongside a Catholic priest at the request of the U.S. military. From here starts a story of intrigue that will honestly leave you guessing. At times I was wondering “Is this man a Catholic who is wanting to tell a Christian story, or is he an atheist wanting to impugn Catholics?” I could have looked online for that information, but I didn’t want to. The fact that he had me guessing tells you the book is not an open and shut case and there are quandaries that are faced.

I still also had questions. I can get the aliens known as Pilgrims seeing the evidence for Jesus from a distance using superior technology, but I wondered about all of them being Catholic. Are none Orthodox or Protestant? Do they keep up with all the church councils? Do they have a Bible that is translated from what they can scan of the original documents or perhaps ones just barely later? Perhaps these questions will be answered in later books.

As a Protestant, I did enjoy this. I read a chapter a day and the story moved along at a good pace and was not too difficult to follow. I definitely look forward to the next one and hope it will answer some questions. For now, you can get the original here.

If you like sci-fi, give it a try.

In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)

Death Awaits You

Is it coming? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

In Final Fantasy X, when the party fights Seymour for the third time, he transforms into a form that unleashes a powerful attack, that will instantly kill a party member and declaring, “Death awaits you!”

Well, he’s right.

The Teacher said it before him in Ecclesiastes 9:

But all this I laid to heart, examining it all, how the righteous and the wise and their deeds are in the hand of God. Whether it is love or hate, man does not know; both are before him. 2 It is the same for all, since the same event happens to the righteous and the wicked, to the good and the evil, to the clean and the unclean, to him who sacrifices and him who does not sacrifice. As the good one is, so is the sinner, and he who swears is as he who shuns an oath. 3 This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that the same event happens to all. Also, the hearts of the children of man are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead. 4 But he who is joined with all the living has hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion. 5 For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten. 6 Their love and their hate and their envy have already perished, and forever they have no more share in all that is done under the sun.

I wrote about this that:

In 9:3, the Teacher writes of another evil under the sun in that the same fate overtakes all men. While Proverbs 22:2 says that the rich and poor have in common that “the Lord is maker of them all”, the Teacher sees a contrast here on the other side and while having no disagreement with that, refers not to their creation but their ending. They also have in common that they will die.

Garrett sees here a reference back to Eden. The Teacher does not consider death as something natural. If man had kept access to the Tree of Life, he could have lived forever. Garrett goes on to say that “The astonishing thing, however, is that instead of reckoning with the meaning of death, humans fill their lives with the distractions of a thousand passions and squander what little time they have to immediate but insignificant worries[1].” I must disagree with this as even if I grant Garrett’s point, I do not see this in the text. The Teacher does say regularly to enjoy life. If anything, he could even contend that perhaps man should distract himself!

Still, another strange paradox takes place. The Teacher regularly speaks in ways that go against what many readers would expect him to say. Why does he consider the living better off? Surely because they have the chance to enjoy their life. Right? No. He considers them better off because they know they will die. The dead can do nothing more with their lives. The living can make the best of it.

The same theme continues in verse 6 with saying that the dead have no part in life under the sun. Their time has come to an end. At this point, the Teacher then gives another few words before the next “under the sun” where this time, he actually encourages us to enjoy something specific, namely a man should enjoy his wife under the sun. The Teacher also favors enjoying feasting and the labor that you do. Goldingay says that for the first time the Teacher gives a carpe diem that comes with an imperative.[2] Instead of a suggestion on how one might enjoy their life, the Teacher gives an order on how to enjoy life. Sadly, this comes with despair as well as the Teacher speaks about the meaningless days one has under the sun. Love your wife, have a feast, and work hard at all you do, because you will die anyway so you might as well do the best at what you do.

We naturally wonder about the idea that there will never be anything again under the sun. Here, I think the Teacher is likely speaking from a perspective of apart from divine revelation. He knows the world is messed up and if all you have is your wisdom alone, wisdom can’t tell you resurrection. It can hope for it, but it will not demonstrate it.

The Teacher has two great realities. Death is certain and enjoy life. We need to balance both of those. We need to not see death as so certain that we cannot enjoy our lives, and we should not enjoy our lives just to deny the reality of death. Wisdom teaches us to try to find a balance.

In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)

[1] Duane A. Garrett, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs (vol. 14; The New American Commentary; Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1993), 331.

[2] Goldingay, 363.

You Just Won’t Know

Are there limits? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

Today, we wrap up Ecclesiastes 8:

6 When I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done on earth, how neither day nor night do one’s eyes see sleep, 17 then I saw all the work of God, that man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun. However much man may toil in seeking, he will not find it out. Even though a wise man claims to know, he cannot find it out.

As I write this, I have been going through a book by Jerry Coyne, an atheist scientist, called Why Evolution Is True. Now I am open to evolution being true as it makes no difference to me, but if anything Coyne’s bad argumentation has made me more skeptical. Not only that, but a common refrain is “Why would a creator do things this way?” Whatever the notion is, it is somehow always more probable on evolution than on creationism. I always wonder where Coyne has access to the mind of God to know what He would or would not do. Such statements are not scientific but philosophical.

That being said, I’m not going to go after just atheists here. I’ve seen the same thing happen in other churches. I have seen it in Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox. Someone will get up and talk about events in the life of the church and they will say what God did. I am sitting there wondering “How do you know God did it?” He could have, but it looks like we are often way too quick to say that God has done something and those are really dangerous words to say.

The problem also is that it is said so casually. I remember a woman at the Post Office talking about a problem and then just saying, “And then God told me.” In Old Testament times, you would have been stoned if you said that and what followed turned out not to be true. I doubt we are treating that term with the same reverence today.

This passage reminds us that there are things that we will never know and we should not presume to know. Whatever topic we are studying, we will never fully explore the depths of that topic. There will always be unanswered questions, and that’s okay. There are whole websites dedicated to TV shows, movies, comic books, video games, etc., that are the works that we make and there are still questions about them. How much more the questions about the world that God made and about God Himself and His angels?

Yet that’s a good thing. Imagine if we could have access to all knowledge. How bored we would be! Ephesians 2 also tells us that God throughout the ages will be showing His great love for us. It is so immense that it will take an eternity to learn it, and we will never stop the journey.

Enjoy learning now. It will never end.

In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)

Joy: It Comes Highly Recommended

What happens when life isn’t fair? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

We’ve all heard it before. “Life’s not fair!” A Christian response we can sometimes give is “Thank God.” That being said, the mystery of why it is not new. The Teacher dealt with it in Ecclesiastes 8:14-15:

14 There is a vanity that takes place on earth, that there are righteous people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the wicked, and there are wicked people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the righteous. I said that this also is vanity. 15 And I commend joy, for man has nothing better under the sun but to eat and drink and be joyful, for this will go with him in his toil through the days of his life that God has given him under the sun.

I wrote about this passage in connection with yesterday’s post that:

The next reference comes in verse 15, but the overall context needs attention since this concerns what philosophers call today “The problem of evil.” The Teacher speaks in v. 10 about the wicked buried, a statement of honor, who used to go in and out of the holy place, and that they received praise in the holy place. The Teacher considers it wicked that those who he could say act the most religious and have deep wickedness underneath receive praise in holy places. He then says in v. 11 that if people do not have sentences of judgment carried out, the hearts of the people scheme of wrongdoing, and why not? If someone can do evil and not receive punishment, what prevents anyone else from doing so? If the wicked can receive burial and receive praise in a place meant to be holy, then they escape justice. If justice does not exist, why bother doing good and not doing evil? However, the Teacher still says things will go better for those who fear God. Here, Bartholomew sees a problem the Teacher sees in his system, one with which many can empathize. The Teacher knows that the wicked do not prosper and men benefit when they fear God, but he also sees the wicked prospering and men profiting when they do not fear God. He concludes this in v. 14 with the statement that the wicked get what the righteous deserve and the righteous get what the wicked deserve. How does a great teacher resolve the dilemma? Surely, he prepares to dispense wisdom to ease the concerns of the listener. A Christopher Hitchens can speak about the evil in the society showing God does not exist and a William Lane Craig can answer to show that He does. the Teacher says nothing about the answer to the question. He sides with the good since he considers it better to fear God, but he does not bother to enter the debate. What solution does he give?

“Under the sun” occurs in v. 15 in a rare verse where the term shows up twice. The Teacher tells a person to simply enjoy his life. This could come across as the Teacher saying “It’s nonsensical to try understand how God runs His world.  You just enjoy your life and leave that part to Him.” If a person does that, joy will accompany them in their life. Could this also mean that in some sense, the Teacher means that “ignorance is bliss”? On the other hand, perhaps this could also imply a lesson of humility to say that people will not understand everything in life and  sometimes people should just accept that. This does not mean that the problem of evil should not receive an answer, but all should agree that regardless of one’s viewpoint, there always exist limitations to our knowledge.

I constantly get concerned about Christians who try to interpret the will of God based on if something good or bad happens. If we do this and this good thing happens, then that’s what God wanted us to do. Yes. Because God only has His servants go in the way where good things happen. Have you ever even read the Bible?

Or consider when a disaster happens. Right now, I am sure there is some idiot out there saying that the Texas floods are the result of God’s judgment. It happened with Katrina and Sandy and most any other natural disaster.

Stop trying to discern the will of God this way. Your call is to do what is right regardless.

Also in this world, sometimes you will do the right thing and you will suffer for it. What do you do? Do what James said. Count it all joy. Have joy regardless. You are commanded to live in obedience to God. You are not commanded to know what all He is doing.

In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)

Punishing The Wicked

Should the evil be punished? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

Today, we look at Ecclesiastes 8:10-13:

10 Then I saw the wicked buried. They used to go in and out of the holy place and were praised in the city where they had done such things. This also is vanity. 11 Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, the heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil. 12 Though a sinner does evil a hundred times and prolongs his life, yet I know that it will be well with those who fear God, because they fear before him. 13 But it will not be well with the wicked, neither will he prolong his days like a shadow, because he does not fear before God.

The first sentence might strike people today as mundane, but it mattered a lot in the ancient world. Burial was a sign of honor. Note in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, that the rich man is buried and yet nothing is said of this for poor Lazarus.

The Teacher also records how they went in and out of the holy place. The wicked usually take the appearance of being good. Of course, saying that is insufficient to show someone is wicked since good people also have the appearance of being good. One needs to have real data that someone is truly being duplicitous in their actions.

Then, the Teacher says that since evil is not punished quickly, men do not fear doing evil. This is something I find troubling in our society that it can take a long time to bring someone to trial in America and often much longer for a sentence. Imagine someone on death row. Normally, we spend years and years before we do anything to them. It is my contention that if justice were quicker, there would be less emphasis to do crime. Many people look and say “If the law takes so long to catch up to me, why not go ahead?”

When we get to the last two verses, things seem contradictory. Do the wicked have their lives prolonged or not? Could it be that the Teacher says what he knows will happen and what he hopes would happen? Entirely possible. The Teacher at times presents enigmas and does not give any solution to them whatsoever. He is one who looks at the world and says “I find this baffling.”

He may not know what the answer is here, but one thing he does know is that it is better to fear God. Consider what that statement means. Even if the wicked do seem to get away with everything. Even if the wicked do seem to have longer lives. Even if the wicked do get honored in the eye of the public despite all the wickedness that they do. Even if we grant all of those things, it is still better to fear God.

When the Teacher says that one thing he knows, it is something we should pay attention to. This is no exception.

In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)

Don’t Anger The King

Should you avoid angering the king? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

There’s a saying that if you aim for the king, you’d better not miss. Solomon might have had something like that in mind in Ecclesiastes 8.

2 I say: Keep the king’s command, because of God’s oath to him. 3 Be not hasty to go from his presence. Do not take your stand in an evil cause, for he does whatever he pleases. 4 For the word of the king is supreme, and who may say to him, “What are you doing?” 5 Whoever keeps a command will know no evil thing, and the wise heart will know the proper time and the just way. 6 For there is a time and a way for everything, although man’s trouble lies heavy on him. 7 For he does not know what is to be, for who can tell him how it will be? 8 No man has power to retain the spirit, or power over the day of death. There is no discharge from war, nor will wickedness deliver those who are given to it. 9 All this I observed while applying my heart to all that is done under the sun, when man had power over man to his hurt.

In my paper on this I wrote that:

“Under the sun” does not show up in chapter 7 but does make an appearance in chapter 8. The passage refers to a king and what evil can take place under men of power, something discussed already in chapter 3 with corrupt judges. The Teacher gives an account of a king who lords power over others, but the king himself gets hurt in the process. A king can send soldiers to fight in a war and while the king himself may not die, he can suffer shame and great loss. Perhaps the Teacher could have in mind someone like Pharaoh in Egypt who hardened his heart repeatedly to Moses and ended up with Egypt in ruins. While certainly other people suffered as a result, Pharaoh has gone down in history as the villain of the story. Another possibility could be David himself and the situation with Absalom where David sent his men out to fight in a war and yet lost his son as a result of the conflict. Had he not shaped up per the advice of Joab, David would have lost the loyalty of all his men. Someone could say to the Teacher “But all those other men died!” and the Teacher could reply with “Yes, and they ceased their suffering under the sun. The king still lived with the shame of what happened.” Considering how the Teacher can speak of stillborn children, those who have never been born, and the dead as better off than the living. Why should he change his mind here?

Angering the king can lead to consequences, but at the same time so can not angering him. One must be careful when approaching a ruler and knowing how to speak properly. While we do not have a king in the West today, we do have rulers and leaders. Watch how you speak to those who have authority over you.

In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)

Can Wisdom Make You Happy?

Will wisdom make you a person of joy? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

It’s surprising to see this praise in the middle of Ecclesiastes, and yet, here it is. In the middle of what is seen as normally a depressing book is a statement of praise for wisdom. Let’s look at it from Ecclesiastes 8:1

Who is like the wise?
And who knows the interpretation of a thing?
A man’s wisdom makes his face shine,
and the hardness of his face is changed.

Happiness is one of the great goals of our life. While he did not mean the same thing that we mean by it, Aristotle back in his day said that the chief end of man is happiness. The medievals did not disagree with him, but they did say that this happiness is only found in the beatific vision, getting to see God. Happiness is more than just a feeling. It can produce that, but it is not limited to that.

There is a lot of joy though in having wisdom and knowing what you’re talking about. How many times have you seen someone speak on a subject and you know they do not have a clue? If you have been on Facebook or X or any other social media site where debate takes place, you’ve seen it. I’ve seen internet atheists think they’re brilliant for what they share in a meme. I’ve seen Christians make embarrassing statements and think that they have to be right because they’re “Spirit-filled.”

Usually, the people you will meet who are the wisest are also the most quiet about it. Wisdom is not something you have to announce to the world. Wisdom is something that can be seen in how you interact with others and how you go about acquiring knowledge and what you do know.

If you do this, odds are you will be happier than most people are. In thinking about this, I consider what it would have been like to have gone through a divorce without all that I had acquired over the years of studying Christianity. When I first began to have panic attacks, it was awful. If I had been divorced with the same level that I had then, I doubt I would have survived. All those years of study and knowledge kicked in. Was it still hard and is it still hard? Yes. However, it was not as hard as it could have been.

The face to shine metaphor is also interesting since it can bring to mind Moses having his face shine after his encounters with God. Normally in Scripture, changes of face seem to be negative, but this one is positive. Wisdom can cause you to look at a bad situation differently. It is not a denial of the suffering of the situation and how painful it is, but it is a way to look at it and realize that there could be hope in the midst of the suffering. Wisdom causes you to look deeper than the surface.

Pursue wisdom. It can give you happiness.

In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)

A Good Woman Is Hard To Find

Can you find a good woman? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

Ecclesiastes 7 ends this way:

25 I turned my heart to know and to search out and to seek wisdom and the scheme of things, and to know the wickedness of folly and the foolishness that is madness. 26 And I find something more bitter than death: the woman whose heart is snares and nets, and whose hands are fetters. He who pleases God escapes her, but the sinner is taken by her. 27 Behold, this is what I found, says the Preacher, while adding one thing to another to find the scheme of things— 28 which my soul has sought repeatedly, but I have not found. One man among a thousand I found, but a woman among all these I have not found. 29 See, this alone I found, that God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes.

Whoa. Is this misogyny? Is the Teacher coming out as a woman-hater?

If so, this would be hard to mesh with Proverbs and Song of Songs both. There is definitely no lack of love for the woman in Song of Songs. Proverbs 5 tells a man to delight in the wife of his youth and drink eagerly of lovemaking with her. Proverbs 18:22 says that he who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord. We all know of the praise of the noble wife in Proverbs 31. Even at places in Ecclesiastes, the Teacher tells a man to enjoy his wife.

Looking closer at the verses, the Teacher is not saying all women are like this, but he has found a woman like this. Does this indicate a tabloid account of a relationship going on behind the scenes where the Teacher speaks of a particularly vile woman? Probably not. If we look at the language, it parallels a woman in the book of Proverbs. Proverbs has two women in it Lady Wisdom and Lady Folly. The Teacher has given a good description of Folly and what happens to those who go her way.

What about that last verse? This is just what the Teacher says is his experience. He found one man in a multitude who could help him, but not a single woman. Considering men were usually the most educated back then, this is not a surprise. Both men and women get knocked down here. Finding someone wise is extremely difficult and finding Wisdom Herself is apparently more so.

Also in all of this, the Teacher asks hard questions. Why is man good? What benefit does he get? Why should he not scheme? He considers being good the better and following wisdom preferable, but he still asks the question. The reason this is a question is as I have been suggesting throughout this, the Teacher is looking at this apart from divine revelation. If all we have is this life, then why not? You only live once so go for all that you can get. Right? The Teacher doesn’t think so, but he struggles to state why that is.

We’ll see what we find on this as we keep going through the book.

In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)

Gaining Wisdom

How do you get wise? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

Recently, I was watching an episode of Million Dollar Password, with one contestant being someone who had three Guinness records for youngest to graduate from high school and college.

He still lost. He didn’t even qualify for the main game.

Of course, that could be because he’s teamed up with a celebrity, but also because sometimes people can be really intelligent and miss out on simple things everyone else catches on to.

So let’s compare that with the Teacher today. in Ecclesiastes 7:23-24.

23 All this I have tested by wisdom. I said, “I will be wise,” but it was far from me. 24 That which has been is far off, and deep, very deep; who can find it out?

I do hold the Teacher is Solomon, but to show no bias here throughout these posts, I simply refer to him as the Teacher. Even if he is not, I am sure most critics would say he at least was writing in the guise of Solomon. After all, he describes himself as the king of Jerusalem and as someone very wise. Who else comes to mind but Solomon?

Solomon is the guy who was told by God that his wisdom would not be matched by anyone before or after. (Hyperbole of course. Jesus had far greater wisdom as He literally IS God’s Wisdom.) Imagine being told that and yet you describe wisdom as something far from you.

Yet Solomon does just that.

Proverbs tells us that the Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. It could be Solomon wrote this after his numerous relationships and his apostasy and realized he did not fear God. He writes the book as a sort of message of regret. He realizes what he missed. When one strays from fearing God, they start going against wisdom.

Wisdom also comes from living by it. The more your practice and cultivate wisdom, the more you will develop. That can also include listening to those who are wiser than you. If you read this blog and admire my work, please understand that I have plenty of people that I admire and I try to learn from them. If I have something I’m curious about and a professor comes by the Post Office, I don’t hesitate to ask them about it.

This also entails reading good books. Read material that will stretch you and make you grow. Read also material that you disagree with. You can learn something from it. Maybe you are wrong and reading the other side will point that out. Maybe you are not, but as you read the other side, you do see cracks in your own position you need to work on or have a better refinement of your system. If your goal is truth, you win either way.

Our world is struggling with a lack of wisdom. We have learned that we can have all access to knowledge, but if we do not have the wisdom to use it, that knowledge could be more destructive than helpful.

In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)

Sometimes It’s Best To Not Listen

Is there a time to not listen? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

We’re going to look at Ecclesiastes 7:19-22 today.

19 Wisdom gives strength to the wise man more than ten rulers who are in a city.

20 Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.

21 Do not take to heart all the things that people say, lest you hear your servant cursing you. 22 Your heart knows that many times you yourself have cursed others.

For the first two verses, the Teacher always seems to prefer wisdom to foolishness. On the other hand, his second sentence here could be answered, “Actually, there is.” There has only been one and the world crucified Him.

As for the last part, we have been told most of our lives to listen to others. However, there is a time when one should not listen. It is not as simple as “Never listen to your critics.” After all, the wise man will accept rebuke when it is given. We will have critics and sometimes we should listen to them.

One time to not listen would be when you have no business listening in on someone. I remember growing up seeing a device you could use to listen to things at a distance that you cannot hear easily. For some scenarios, this could work well. If you are in a church service or a classroom or anywhere where you are hearing one person and you’re just not close enough, you can listen in that way.

However, there are other times you shouldn’t be. The commercial showed a guy working out at a gym using the device to listen in on a conversation between two women where they’re talking about him and praising him as being attractive. That sounds good and can sell devices, but what if it was the other way around? You would know that they were giving their honest opinion as they have no idea that you are listening in. What do you do then?

Second, there are critics who do not know what they’re talking about. These people want to insult you just for the sake of insulting you. In ancient Greece, there were people called Sophists who would get up one day and argue for X and it would be a persuasive talk. The next day, they could get up and argue for non-X just as persuasively.

Online, there are people we all call trolls who want to just get under the skin of people and they will say things they don’t even believe. The whole purpose is just to get a rise out of people. This is a scenario where the more people react, the more that they get what they react to.

While there are no 100% clear and fast rules, I consider these valid general guidelines. Wisdom will tell you that there are times you should not listen to critics as they don’t know what they’re talking about. However, if they do not know what they’re talking about, and especially so if they care about you, listen. They may not be right, but at least consider what they say.

In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)