Have you ever heard or asked these questions? "Why am I here?", "Why is there something rather than nothing?", "If God is so great and loving why is there so much pain and evil in the world?"
These questions actually have answers. Unfortunately, there are many (not all) people who ask these questions, not because they are genuinely searching, but because they believe these questions have no reasonable answer, and thus give them excuse to continue to live the way the want. Apart from God and His ways.
Interestingly enough there exists an analogy between finding the solutions to these questions and finding algebraic solutions to solving a system of linear equations. Don't believe me? Well let's see if I can convince you.
Lets consider solving the following system.
Now this system has a solution. One unique solution. To solve this system we are going to use a method known as "elimination." Notice that in the first equation there is a 2y term, and in the second equation there is a -2y term. We are going to add the two equations together from top to bottom. To do this correctly we are going to have to add all the like terms.
3x + 5x = 8x
2y - 2y = 0
12 + 4 = 16
So we get a new equation.
The zero drops away because it adds nothing to the equation. Lastly we divide both sides by eight (8) and we get x = 2. Yay! We have one of the solutions. Here is the cool part though, now that we know x = 2. We can use this to go back to the original system and now find the value of y. Lets do this for the first equation.
Through substitution we now know that the value of y = 3. So if we eliminate y at the beginning, we end up finding y as a bonus or as a gift. Thus the solution to this system is the ordered pair (2, 3).
OK John, what on earth does this have to do with what you were talking about earlier? How could this be analogous at all to answering life's bigger questions?
I'm glad you asked. :-)
You see, the solutions to the questions, "Why am I here?", "Why is there something rather than nothing?", "If God is so great and loving why is there so much pain and evil in the world?" are only found if we first eliminate ourselves from the equation. In other words, the solutions can only be found if you first consider God and God alone.
God has always been. He has no beginning and no end. Psalm 90:2
God was pleased to create all things. Colossians 1:16
As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. Genesis 50:20
God is not the creator of evil, but He has ordained it. "...in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory—" Romans 9:23
Once we eliminate ourselves from the equation, we find the answers that the Bible supports and teaches. The beautiful thing is, once we have sought God on His terms, we ourselves find the solutions to the questions that involve us.
As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth. “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. - John 15:18-24
John Partridge
July 16th 2019
Thumbnail Photo by NEOSiAM 2021: