In Entry #3 (What's the Meaning of This?), McManus takes to task Solomon. While this guy is called the wisest of all who ever lived, he was pretty much history's first nihilist. I might think Job or some of his friends got an early start, but Solomon took it to an extreme.
He used the word "meaningless" 35 times in the book of Ecclesiastes. He pursued a ton of things in his life and concluded that they were all meaningless. McManus deduces that, while Solomon's journey through Ecclesiastes began with God, "Instead of running to God, he chose to run from God."
My first inner reaction upon reading that is, 'Whoa! He's dissing the Scriptures, here!' While Solomon may have "gone off the deep end" for a time, his journey and conclusions bring the reader full circle back to God. It is all for our benefit, though, that he did experience and honestly write about his doubts, fears, and fearless observations and accusations. McManus doesn't bring the authority of Scripture into question, as he too writes with an unbridled abandon to embrace the wild ends of the topic's extremities. It can be a challenge to do that, but it can also be very beneficial to "feel" truth as it is to ponder it.
Posted by Doug Van Pelt at December 14, 2007 12:40 PM