Ecclesiastes Chapter Eight, Like The Wise

Ecclesiastes 8:1 Who is like a wise man? And who knows the interpretation of a thing? A man’s wisdom makes his face shine, and the sternness of his face is changed.

Verse 1 has a few diverse renderings, depending upon what you’re reading from. The LXX translates the verse, “Who knows the wise? And who knows the interpretation of a saying?” The Tanakh renders the verse, “Who is like the wise man, and who knows the meaning of the adage:” The NIV has, “Who knows the explanation of things?” Oxford defines, “like,” as, “having the same characteristics as something else.” Who is similar in form and function to a genuine wise man?

The Absurdity Of Theistic Evolution

Darwinian Evolution, or Neo Darwinian Evolution, can be simply defined as molecules to monkeys to men. Darwin’s theory, established in 1859 and permeating the educational systems shortly thereafter, teaches that man has evolved. To be more specific, man has evolved from lesser forms of life. Life on earth can be traced, says the theory, from molecules that somehow became a living thing, which over the course of time developed in complexity from amoebas to fish to amphibians to reptiles and so on. Now this is horridly simplified for the purpose of expediting laying out the premise. In short, evolution’s theory rests on the endless progressive cycle of improvement for given species, with death and new life being the catalyst for said improvement.

The Doctrine Of Eternal Security

What is eternal security? How does one define it, and where in the Bible can it be clearly and plainly explained? First, eternal security is the Christian belief that could be summarized as “once saved, always saved.” Detractors would also attribute the doctrine to a facet of “easy believism.” To be even more specific, eternal security is a doctrine that teaches that when we have believed the gospel of Jesus Christ we are saved. Now when I employ the word saved, I use it in its Biblical and fullest sense. The Biblical teaching of salvation is that Christ saves the sinner from sin’s penalty (justification), power (sanctification), and ultimately its presence (glorification). In short, when someone is saved through the gospel of Jesus Christ, they are saved eternally. That is why the Bible claims that when someone believes, they have eternal life, a phrase that is used in excess of 40 times in Scripture.

Ecclesiastes Chapter Seven, The Schemes Of Men

Ecclesiastes 7:27 “Here is what I have found,” says the Preacher, “Adding one thing to the other to find out the reason, [28] which my soul still seeks but I cannot find: one man among a thousand I have found, but a woman among all these I have not found. [29] Truly this only I have found: that God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes.”

The preacher reveals what he has, thus far, discovered. He has found it by adding one thing to another. In short, he’s viewing all that he sees individually, and then drawing back for a panorama of sorts, seeing how each thing examined fits into the larger tapestry of life and its functions. His ultimate goal, of course, is to discover the purpose of what is done under heaven, or under the sun.

Ecclesiastes Chapter Seven, Seeking The Truth

Ecclesiastes 7:23 All this I have proved by wisdom. I said, “I will be wise”; but it was far from me. [24] As for that which is far off and exceedingly deep, who can find it out? [25] I applied my heart to know, to search and seek out wisdom and the reason of things, to know the wickedness of folly, even of foolishness and madness. [26] And I find more bitter than death the woman whose heart is snares and nets, whose hands are fetters. He who pleases God shall escape from her, but the sinner shall be trapped by her.

The preacher states that he proved or tested all of what he is conveying by wisdom. Of wisdom, he says that he would allow it to direct his life, but wisdom eluded him. Wisdom, like that which is exceedingly deep and far off, is beyond his apprehension. It may stand to reason that wisdom rests with the unknown truth that the preacher cannot, as of yet, attain. Paul, in Romans, says of humanity after rejecting the presence of God and therefore purpose, “Professing to be wise, they became fools,” Romans 1:22, NASB.