BibleSupport.com Celebrates One Year Online

Ecclesiastes Shows Us What Life Is When God Has Not Shown Us What Life Is.
"All is vanity", Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes 1:2.  It's all meaningless without God. Solomon would have known. He possessed supernatural wisdom. He enjoyed widespread fame and power. As king, his words could alter any aspect of someone's life or even whether someone had a life.

Ecclesiastes, Proverbs, 1 Kings, and 2 Chronicles document Solomon's pursuits: his incredible money, possessions, wisdom, (unparalleled) education, fame, power, women, and wine. Solomon "had it all" by any standard of measurement or definition of success.

Yet, after Solomon had everything this world has to offer, he likens it to "chasing the wind". Solomon's grand pursuits, like the pursuits of people throughout history, were "meaningless, vanity, chasing the wind".

Our pursuits are similar. We chase money, passion, ambition, power, résumé bullet points, and achievements. Some of it might matter for day-to-day survival, but none of it matters in the end. In the end, we die a physical death. We're buried. We're forgotten. Our lives, goals, worries, and pursuits matter little once we die. Some people misunderstand Ecclesiastes because they don't understand: Ecclesiastes shows us what life is when God has not shown us what life is.

Why We Build and Share Bible Study Modules
I've worked with technology all my life and like most others, I measured professional success according to money and achievements. That must be why the BibleSupport.com project has been the most richly satisfying experience of my life. It's my only technical work that is not "vanity", destined to fade away when I die. This project has brought to me a sense of purpose, peace, and satisfaction I've found no where else.

We build and share e-Sword modules, not to build and share modules, but so Bible study may be prepared and shared with others with the ultimate perspective of souls. By equipping others with Bible study tools, we're a part of something larger than vanity. John describes this bigger picture in John 17:3: "And this is life eternal, that they might know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent." John 14:6 also records Jesus' words: "No one comes to the Father except through me."

Christ Centered—Not Christ "Tolerant"
Some today are ashamed to quote the verses above. They bow to their god of tolerance. They say, "all paths lead to God". They seek to re-interpret or dismiss John 1:1-14, since it rules out "tolerant" religious concepts. For them, John 14:6 should be muddied through "tolerance". Soon after this site began, I decided to disallow material that denies the deity of Jesus Christ. Others have opined on the "error" of this position:

"The old site allowed that material", "We can never be certain of the truth", "The truth varies", "Morality is relative", "There's multiple paths to God", "You're being intolerant", "You're excluding the world's fastest growing religion", "Who are you to say what's right?".

Post modernism and political correctness are diseases that have infected Christianity. Tolerance is the inability to say anything is wrong. If nothing is wrong, then nothing can be right. Christ is the cornerstone—the whole point—of Christianity. Don't let others, who have no tolerance for what you believe, intimidate you. I stand proudly behind that early decision not to allow this website to be a part of it.

What a Year!
With 21,000 members and 800,000 downloads, this site has received thank-you's from countless Christians all over the world: seminary professors (from other countries and in the USA), seminary students, pastors of churches, Sunday School teachers, many missionaries, and just normal Christians. One third of our members are pastors, members of pastoral staff, or missionaries. If this ministry ended tomorrow, I would have the deepest satisfaction in the divine difference we've already made in the lives of others.

I'm routinely surprised at the talented people the Lord brings to this website: our moderators who invested so much time, the message board "first responders" to problems, module makers, programmers, and the people who appeared a day, week, or month before we needed a solution--an answer to a prayer not yet prayed! To all of you: you are the answers to others' prayers and your contributions are a part of something much larger!

With our first year nearly complete, I'm really looking forward to what the Lord has in store for our second year. To all those who have contributed: Thank you for making this website the "place to be" in the free Bible software community. God bless you all!

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Origins of the Ecclesiastes thoughts: My church pastor's sermon stimulated my thinking on this subject. I found his sermon series is derived from those making the rounds on the Internet. Darrin Patrick provides an intellectually sound YouTube overview of the Ecclesiastes sermon series.