Our actions invariably reveal what we are believing about the nature of reality. We will live what we believe… Put the other way around, what we believe will determine what we do. Nearly all of our conscious intentions are future-directed. We assume that the future will resemble the past, and therefore we make our plans and set our agendas. And yet to what end? What is the purpose of our lives? Where are your actions taking you? Where are you going?
Questions like these concern your personal philosophy of life. Every person makes choices based on their vision and expectation of a future good. Every person therefore lives by a creed that speaks toward the future…. Sadly, many people live for the immediate moments of life: cheap thrills, fast food, and mindless entertainment. “Let’s eat and drink, for tomorrow we die” (1 Cor. 15:23). Others may enjoy fine art, reading, and learning – hoping thereby to improve themselves. Most people live in order to love others, friends and family… But apart from God, none of these otherwise good things will ultimately satisfy our hearts. “Disordered love” comes from setting the heart’s affections on the transitory, the ephemeral, and the unabiding; but God has set eternity within our hearts (Eccl 3:11). The Lord has “wired” us to experience discontent when our heart’s deepest need goes unmet.
On a larger scale, philosophers have asked whether life itself – all of it – has any meaning or purpose. “Why is there something rather than nothing – and for what reason?” Is the universe essentially a random set of events, or is there some overarching purpose and design to everything? Is history linear or cyclical? Does it have a goal or destination, or is this entirely unknowable to us? Are human beings “evolving” – and if so, into what? Is there a spiritual dimension to reality, or is everything causally determined by matter and motion? Do we have “free will” or are we entirely conditioned to do what we do? Various answers have proposed to deal with these questions over time, including mythological polytheism (e.g., Zoroastrianism, Egyptian/Greek mythology, animism, paganism), cyclical impersonalism (e.g., Hinduism, Jainism, Taoism, reincarnationism, Stoicism), various types of materialism (e.g., scientific naturalism, pragmatism, evolutionism, nihilism), humanism (Buddhism, secular humanism, atheistic existentialism), romantic idealism (Marxism, Hegelianism), mysticism (theosophy, new age thinking, popular Kabbalah), and so on…
The traditional Jewish view of history may be called (for lack of a better term) “monotheistic personalism.” There is one Supreme God who is the personal Creator and Ruler of all that exists. God is both immanent (sustaining creation) and transcendent (above creation). This God has a Name (YHVH), a mind, a character, and a purposive will that imbues all of creation. God is LORD over all time and space, the King of Glory, who is Master of all possible worlds. Since God knows and providentially controls everything, human history is a controlled process that leads to a certain destination. History is therefore progressive and eschatological – leading to a future goal, namely, the establishment of Zion (the “City of God”) as the restoration and fulfillment of the lost paradise of Eden. The relationship between humankind and God will be fully restored in the coming theocratic utopia called “heavenly Jerusalem.” This is heaven, the place where suffering, pain, and death will be forever swept away, and wherein we shall live forever in sacred fellowship as God’s beloved.
Hebrew Lesson:
The word “Zion” is mentioned over 160 times in the Scriptures. That’s more than the words faith, hope, love, and countless others… And since Zion is a poetic form of the word Jerusalem, the number of occurrences swells to nearly 1,000! It is therefore not an overstatement to say that God Himself is a Zionist…. “Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth” (Psalm 50:2). Zion represents the rule and reign of God in the earth and is therefore synonymous with the Kingdom of God. The entire redemptive plan of God — including the coming of the Messiah Himself and our very salvation — is wrapped up in the concept of Zion. It is the “historiography” of God — His philosophy of history, if you will.
In a sense, Zion is the focal point of God’s salvation in this world. Zion represents our eschatological future — our home in olam haba (the world to come). Even the new heavens and earth will be called Jerusalem — “Zion in her perfection” (Rev. 21). “This is what Adonai Tzeva’ot says: I am very jealous for Jerusalem and Zion, but I am very angry with the nations that feel secure” (Zech. 1:14-15). “For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, for Jerusalem’s sake I will not remain quiet, till her righteousness shines out like the dawn, her salvation like a blazing torch” (Isa 62:1). “The builder of Jerusalem is God, the outcasts of Israel he will gather in… Praise God, O Jerusalem, laud your God, O Zion” (Psalm 147:2-12).
For more on this see: “As the Day draws near: Messiah and Jewish Philosophy of History.”