We are living in a technological renaissance where nothing now seems impossible, thanks to man’s genius in the area of science. Evidence of this explosion of knowledge and innovation runs rampant throughout the world. We have already landed men on the moon. Transplants of organs such as the heart and kidney are now commonplace. Computers can now solve in seconds problems that would have taken a man years to do in the past.
But all of this is just the fringe of a new era of science fiction becoming science fact. Within the next twenty years man may find a cure for cancer, replace skilled laborers with robots, and even destroy his entire world with several thousand thermal nuclear devices if he is not careful. For the past 5,000 years mankind has been traveling on a technological exponential curve, with no end in sight. From skyscrapers to calculators, from micro-surgery to telecommunications, man has truly outdone himself.
I will admit that outwardly there is definitely plenty that is new, in our present age, under the sun. On the inside, however, there really isn’t anything new under the sun. Over the same 5,000 years, man’s inner being, his so-called human nature—what curve has it taken? Unfortunately, this curve has been at best flat and probably declining.
Has man been able to see any corresponding advances in his morality? Sadly, there has been no advance and “nothing new” in his makeup. As a moral creature mankind, as history will bear out, has never changed for the better; if anything, he has gotten worse. Just examine a tiny fraction of the evidence over the last 150 years:
• In 1857 the United States Supreme Court ruled that blacks were to be considered property. They were also to have no civil rights at all.
• Up until 1920 and the passing of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, women in the U.S.A. couldn’t vote in most of our states.
• During World War II (1939-1945), over 6 million Jews were exterminated by Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany.
• Before 1947 and Jackie Robinson, no blacks were allowed to play major-league baseball.
• Today millions of people in Africa literally are dying of hunger while the United States has millions of tons of wheat in silos around our country.
• Yearly over 50 million abortions, worldwide, are performed.
Man’s nature hasn’t changed, nor has his outlook on life. As you read the following discourse from Ecclesiastes, you can sense the great state of restlessness that humankind is continually undergoing:
“Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher, “vanity of vanities. All is vanity.” What advantage does man have in all his work which he does under the sun? A generation goes and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever. Also, the sun rises and the sun sets; and hastening to its place it rises there again. Blowing toward the south, then turning toward the north, the wind continues swirling along; and on its circular courses the wind returns. All the rivers flow into the sea, yet the sea is not full. To the place where the rivers flow, there they flow again. All things are wearisome; man is not able to tell it. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor is the ear filled with hearing. That which has been is that which will be, and that which has been done is that which will be done. So, there is nothing new under the sun. (Ecclesiastes 1:2-9)
Once again, the Bible has been able to accurately depict the state of mankind 3,000 years into the future.