Season 3 Podcast 102 The Last Days Pt VII, The Millennium

The Last Days Pt VII The Millennium The Garden of Eden has long been considered the quintessential Utopia, or perfect place. The word Utopia is a term coined by Sir Thomas Moore for his novel entitled Utopia. It means the perfect society. Other names for Utopia are Shangri la, Happy Valley, El Dorado, Erewhon, and Paradise. Today paradise is generally equated with palm trees, white sand beaches, blue ocean, and a tropical climate where one lies about idly all day in a hammock sipping margaritas. The idea is silly. How long would it take for one to become an alcoholic or to die of boredom? However, most utopias imagined by man are mere satires such as El Dorado by Voltaire, Happy Valley by Samuel Johnson, and Erewhon by Samuel Butler. In fact, “Erewhon” spelled backwards is “nowhere.” Even the Garden of Eden is not really a utopia because Adam and Eve have extremely limited awareness. They can’t be happy because they have never known sadness. They can’t love because they don’t even know they are naked. They can’t understand opposites because they do not have knowledge of Good and Evil. It was necessary for Adam and Eve to leave the Garden of Eden to have children and experience life. If they had remained in the Garden, there would have been no posterity. They would have lived forever in blissful ignorance, one day like the day before. That is what makes the Millennium unique. The Millennium can be a true utopia only because it follows the days of tribulation. As calm is only in the eye of the hurricane, peace is only in the eye of war. Ironically all the events leading up to the Millennium are events of horror: plagues and famines and war and earthquakes.  We are told9  Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:  Jesus adds 30 And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 31 And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. (Matthew 24:29-31)We will be able to enjoy the eternal bliss of the millennium only because we have experienced the devastating effects of wickedness. Before the millennium can be established the wicked must all be destroyed, leaving only the righteous to inhabit the earth. As we examine the joys of the millennium, it is only notable because of the absence of sorrow. I suppose we all, in our idle moments could create a perfect society in our minds, particularly after a series of horrific tragedies, by simply writing down a wish list. In the following we have only the visions of ancient prophets who mostly lived in terrible circumstances. Throughout the ages the prophets we admire so much were in their lifetime persecuted and even killed.