A Christian was once speaking to a large college crowd when he was suddenly interrupted. A student stood up and yelled, “Everything is meaningless!” The Christian responded, “You don’t believe that.” The student yelled back, “Yes, I do!” “No, you don’t.” “I most certainly do. Who are you to tell me I don’t?” “Then repeat your statement for me.” “Everything is meaningless!” The Christian then said, “If your statement is meaningful, then everything is not meaningless. On the other hand, if everything is meaningless, then what you have just said is meaningless too. So, in effect, you have said nothing. You can sit down.”

The consideration of whether it could be true that everything is meaningless is not a consideration we expect to find arising from within a biblical worldview, where God is accepted as existing and giving meaning and purpose to human existence. But the curious thing – at least at first sight – is that one entire book in the Bible is devoted to exploring whether or not everything is meaningless. Why should this be the case? Bible teacher and broadcaster Brian Johnston gives the answer. (eBook, PDF)