Introduction : As soon as human beings are born, they set out on a trip for life on the current of a great river called "time". They cannot free themselves from time. It goes by as swiftly as an arrow. Human beings go through infancy, adolescence, adulthood, old age, and then disappear forever. They cannot go back to the past, hold on to the present, or escape from the future. The Bible says that humanity is born as a slave to time: "All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall" (1Pe 1:24; Jas 4:14). Nothing is eternal in human life. There is a beginning and an end to everything and then loneliness, when everything vanishes. That is why existentialists say that humankind is in despair. Danish philosopher Kierkegaard said, "Human beings suffer from the sickness of death."


1. Nothing is eternal in the history of humankind
    1) Ancient kings wished for eternal life
        (1) The Egyptian pyramids and mummies
        (2) China´s first emperor, Shi Huangdi, and his medicine for eternal youth and long life
        (3) People who let their body be frozen, dreaming of prolonging physical life
            (Heb 9:27; Ps 90:10; Job 14:10-12)
    2) As time goes by, everything disappears and is forgotten in history
        (1) American President Wilson´s despair when he failed to organize the international
             alliance and Napoleon Hill´s advice
        (2) Napoleon Hill´s advice to the president of the Coca Cola Company
    3) So many dead and the miserable conditions during the Second World War and the
        national tragedy of the Korean War are gone and forgotten (Ps 90:4; 102:11-12)

2. The lamenting of King Solomon, the preacher
    - The preacher of Ecclesiastes lamented because all is vanity in life
        1) There is no eternal value or advantage in life (Ecc 1:1-7)
        2) There is nothing new eternally, only things that are repeated and wearisome
            (Ecc 1:8-11; 12:12)
        3) There is no eternal honor or riches in life (Ecc 2:1-11)
        4) Everything is gone and forgotten (Ecc 1:11; Ps 102:26-27)
        5) Both the wise and the foolish will die (Ecc 2:13-17)

3. From time to eternity
    1) Jesus
        (1) He came into time from eternity (Heb 1:2)
        (2) He gained victory from time to eternity (Rev 1:18)
    2) The way to eternity from time
        (1) Accept Jesus (Jn 3:16)
        (2) Become a child of God (Jn 1:12-13)
        (3) I am the resurrection and the life (Jn 11:25-26)
    3) We are eternal in Jesus
        (1) Everlasting righteousness…clothed with the righteousness of Jesus (2Co 5:21)
        (2) Everlasting joy…there is fullness of joy in God´s presence (Ps 16:11)
        (3) Everlasting peace…Jesus, the king of peace (Isa 9:6; Eph 2:14)
        (4) Everlasting happiness (Rev 21:4-7)
        (5) Eternal kingdom of heaven (Rev 21:1-3; Ecc 3:11; 12:13)


Conclusion : Everyone has felt a sense of futility and burden in life. Even the world´s richest person, the most honored person, and the most beautiful woman could not endure the vanity of life, and they committed suicide. We cannot have eternal meaning in life, value, happiness, joy, and peace in this life on earth. It is a chaotic life filled with sin, secularity, the devil, disease, poverty, trouble, sorrow, strife, and fighting. But Jesus improves human life during this hopeless time into eternal happiness. Jesus, the immortal God, has come into time as a man, embraced humanity, died and resurrected, overcame time, and has brought us into eternal life.