In 1976 John Piper asked a two-part question:

• What is God's goal in the history of mankind from its beginning at creation to its climax in the new heavens and new earth?
• And how should we respond to this goal?

This is ultimate. We are in deep water. And yet the reasoning behind such a question is quite simple: in Jesus we are God's children and children want to know their Father. Pastor John explains,

[Y]ou don't really know a person until you know what moves him most deeply. It makes no sense to say that we know God when we are not acquainted with his strongest desire and with the goal that guides all his actions. But if we don't know him, then we can't worship him and we can't imitate him. In other words, if we are to be faithful children of our heavenly Father who worship him and imitate him as we ought, then we must answer [this question].

The newly transcribed article featured this week in The Life of the Mind column is a Bible-saturated wrestling with why the universe exists. It's one of Pastor John's earliest writings where the foundational pieces of Desiring God began to coalesce.

Read the entire article, "The Glory of God as the Goal of History."