Biblical Reasons Why We Should
And Practical Suggestions on How We Can
Create Heaven on Earth
Poor Dave Hunt.
You can tell he's really embarrassed about the Millennium.
In his book, Whatever Happened to Heaven?, he tells us that our primary focus in life should be on leaving this life in the rapture and going to heaven. He denounces the Christian Reconstructionists who are encouraging everyone to think about "taking dominion" and "ruling and reigning with Christ" in this age instead of longing for the rapture. The problem for Dave Hunt is that under his prophetic timetable, after Christians get raptured, but before anybody gets to go to heaven, everyone has to endure 1,000 years of Christian Reconstruction: a "millennium" in which all earthly society is brought under the Kingship of Christ, His Law observed, and the blessings of obedience to God's Law are poured out on a world over which Reconstructionists have dominion and are ruling with Christ!
Hunt takes great delight in reminding us that -- under his prophetic timetable -- there is a rebellion at the end of the millennium, showing that even Jesus Christ can't run a Kingdom where all these legalistic ideas of theocracy and theonomy are running amok.
But it is a bit embarrassing that God hasn't gotten Dave Hunt's message and still insists on imposing this unfeasible "kingdom" idea on human beings instead of just tearing up the planet and getting us all to heaven ASAP.
But then, perhaps millions of other Christians would be equally uncomfortable if they would think about it as much as Dave Hunt (to his credit) has thought about it.
Why should anyone be looking forward to the "Golden Age" of the millennium, the 1,000-year reign of Christ on earth? What's so great about it?
Given the way most Christians view God's Law and Theocracy in this life, why would they like it any better in the next?
If I say "We're in the Kingdom now," or "This is the Kingdom of Heaven," or "Our job now is to take dominion and build up the Kingdom of Heaven," people look astonished and vehemently dispute the idea. Their attitude is frequently one of being deprived: "If this is the millennium, then I'm not getting all I was promised, and all that I really, really want."
But does anybody really want the Kingdom of God?
If they do, why don't they act like it now? Why would they like 1,000 years of something they can't handle for a mere 70 years now?
The answer is plain: what people like about the millennium is having blessings poured out without having to work for them. Blessings on a silver platter. Blessings without responsibility.
The Bible is very plain, and the promises of God are reliable: all the blessings of "the Millennium" are available to us now if we will bring every area of our lives and society under the jurisdiction of the King and His Law. We have 70 years in this life to do this, and most Christians refuse to avail themselves of this opportunity. But we're supposed to believe that they would just love to be "ruling and reigning with Christ" for one thousand years -- even though they won't do it now.
| What the Bible Promises | What We Choose Instead |
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These are surely characteristics of "The Millennium." God promises them to us in this present age if we apply His Commandments to our society (references are to Deuteronomy 28). |
These are the characteristics of a humanistic millennium. This is what we do instead of obeying God's Law. |
| 1. "Set thee on high above all peoples of the earth." (v.1) | forcible redistribution of our wealth to pagans |
| 2. "Blessed in the city" (v. 3) | anti-"sprawl" laws |
| 3. "Blessed in the fields" (v. 3) | During the "New Deal," FDR promoted the large-scale destruction of food when millions were hungry, by paying farmers to plow under some 10 million acres of crops and slaughter and discard some 6 million farm animals. This program enriched big farmers who had more food to destroy than small farmers. Black tenant farmers, who depended on work, were devastated. |
| 4. "Blessed children" (v. 4) | 4,000 unborn children are murdered every day in America |
| 5. "Blessed crops" (v. 4) | Government pays farmers NOT to grow crops in order to keep prices high ("farm price supports"). |
| 6. "Blessed livestock" (v. 4) | Government discourages livestock production to force prices up. |
| 7. "Blessed graineries" (v. 5) | |
| 8. "Blessed bakeries" (v. 5) | And Give Us Our Daily Bread by Sabine Barnhart |
| 9. Successful business (v. 6) | Businesses held hostage to government interests, corruption. |
| 10. Peaceful International relations (v. 7) | Biblical guidelines scoffed at. |
| 11. Abundance in the barns (v. 8) | Government gives military aid to Osama bin Laden to "fight communists." Gives military aid to Saddam Hussein to fight Iran. |
| 12. Success in every activity (v. 8) | Government institutionalizes the politics of envy. |
| 13. Enemies at peace with us (v. 10) | Government discourages taking the gospel to our enemies. |
| 14. Abundant goods (v. 11) | |
| 15. Abundant children (v. 11) | 4,000 unborn children murdered each day in America. |
| 16. Abundant cattle (v. 11) | |
| 17. Lots to eat (v. 11) | |
| 18. "His good treasure" (v. 12) | |
| 19. Adequate rain (v. 12) | |
| 20. Business success (v. 12) | |
| 21. Debts paid (v. 12) | Federal Reserve Board encourages debt. |
| 22. Investments (v. 12) | |
| 23. Respect (v. 13) | |
| 24. "The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb" (Isaiah 65:25). | Wildness is preferred over domestication. Government forces ravenous wolves onto farmers' land. |
All of these blessings are available to us if we would simply follow God's Commandments. The path is clear and God's promises are bold and obvious. We do not want these blessings on God's Terms, we want them on our terms, and that's what's attractive about the image of "heaven" that we all have: everything we want on a silver platter.
In every area of life, we reject the Bible as the textbook. In every area of life, we reject the authority of God and trust in the Messianic promises of Man and "the State." We do not want God to bring in the millennium, our faith is in socialism in every area of life.
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