How would you describe a Utopian society? Is paradise a wishful myth? Is it a possibility?
Of course, what Utopia would be for one person would not be so for another. Is it not commonly believed that it is a society in which everyone's needs are met and society's ills have been eliminated? As mentioned in a previous chapter, an example of a Utopian society is the futuristic world depicted in the Star Trek series and movies. The world of Star Trek still has conflict, but everyone's needs are met by society. Many define it, on the other hand, by the kind of government or culture that characterizes societal life. Others describe Utopia by the kind of people who populate it and how they treat one another in it. Others define it by the people in such a state, being perfectly happy and free from all unhappiness. What are the most common ideas of men about what constitutes a human utopia, a perfect society? To Karl Marx, the perfect society was one alluded to in the motto of Socialism - "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs."
Many movies dealing with science fiction and life in the future attempt to give a portrait of life in the perfect social system. The Star Trek movies and their ilk attempt to show the human race as a near perfect world where disease, poverty and crime are eliminated. These secular views of Utopia are the result of believing in a quasi "social Darwinism" philosophy. Man, or mankind, is evolving upward, and perfection must be the end of that evolutionary process. When man has evolved fully, he will live in a perfect world with little or no death, no sickness, no poverty, no problems. Said one source (here): "...political Darwinism was present in the intellectual origins of American administrative theory...The application of Darwinian evolutionary biology to politics was a vital element of Wilson’s reconceptualization of the state as a living organism."
So, not only is the single human race evolving, but so is the bureaucracy or administrative state of governments (which the extreme liberal Woodrow Wilson promulgated and is now the position of the liberals in the Democrat party). We could therefore say that the bureaucracy of the body politic, or social system, like a living organism, is evolving and becoming superior so that the bureaucracy we have today in government is superior to what existed a century ago. It is more efficient (thanks also to evolution in technology and scientific knowledge) and streamlined.
(However, this looks at the bureaucratic state positively and ignores the evils which also comes with this evolution, such as "red tape," and gives the word "bureaucracy" a negative connotation. Also many see the administrative state today as "the swamp," as does President Trump and his supporters)
All tyrannies also are governed by the theory of Social Darwinism and use it to argue for genocide and murder, as did Hitler, Stalin, Mao, etc. If the rulers of state, or the tyrants, want to get rid of a person permanently, they could kill you in the name of saving the body politic. If you are judged a subversive, or unproductive, they can kill you because you are judged to be a parasite in the body politic. It is one of the steps towards a perfect society to get rid of the bad gene pool, the handicapped, those who oppose the state.
The bible declares that there will never be a Utopian paradise on earth without the presence and rule of Christ Jesus the Lord. All previous attempts by man to establish his own universal rule or empire have been unsuccessful in bringing Utopia, as was Nimrod's attempt, and as was Lucifer's vain attempt. Each of the empires in the vision of Daniel expected to become a Utopia that would last a thousand years (the empires of Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome). Hitler expected his "Reich" to last a thousand years. Of course, the kind of Utopia that these desired did not involve the equal well being of all, but one where they ruled as tyrants over the rest who served the tyrant and his government.
Christ has promised to come to earth a second time and to put an end to the world as it now is, and to bring on first a thousand years of Edenic conditions and a new age of peace, safety, and prosperity. It will be a government of the Messiah, the Lord Jesus, and his saints will have the reins of power under him and will administer affairs of state with him. Followed by that thousand years there will be a short time of new apostasy of some of the nations and peoples as a result of Satan being let loose for a short season from the place he was imprisoned at the start of the Millennium. Following the final overthrow of Satan after the little season of rebellion and apostasy, the Lord will "make all things new." There will be a baptism of fire for the earth and all the things of man's creation and doing will be destroyed by the general conflagration. This will be followed by the creation of new heavens and a new earth and the establishment of the holy city of God, New Jerusalem, and the Temple of God, and the constitution of a new human race.
Many of the questions about life in eternity, as glorious immortal human beings, that were stated in the previous chapter, will be addressed in the course of these closing chapters. In organizing the material for these closing chapters, I think it best to begin with the last three chapters of Revelation, and which we alluded to in the previous paragraph.
In chapter nineteen we see the coming of Lord Jesus Christ and the destruction of the wicked in the battle of Armageddon, of all who supported Antichrist. In chapter twenty we see the beginning of the thousand year reign of Christ and his people. In chapters twenty one and two we see a description of life in the new heavens and earth. Those chapters will be the framework for our investigation into life in eternity, and we will adorn that framework with references and discussions of other texts dealing with the same, such as what Paul taught in Romans 8 about the redemption of the whole creation, of what Peter said about the present earth being "dissolved" by "fervent heat" (or as Jesus said, "cast into the oven") in II Peter chapter three, and what Paul taught about the resurrection bodies in I Corinthians chapter fifteen. It will be in our detailed look at those chapters that we will answer many of the questions we have raised in the previous chapter.
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