What is utopianism?

The idea of a Millennium is more or less familiar to the minds of people throughout Christendom. It crops up repeatedly in literature and in politics; sometimes even in trade advertisements. The general conception is a golden age of prosperity, wherein all perplexing problems, whether religious, social, or political, will find their complete solution. Some, it is true, regard the idea of a Millennium as dreamy and Utopian; others, again, consider that education, legislation, etc., are steadily leading up to the longed-for consummation.

It is thus the world goes on in its blind unbelief, transgression, and rebellion against the authority of God, always confident that it is making decided progress toward an ideal state of glorious prosperity, unspeakable happiness, and permanent tranquillity. Man, according to the conceit of his own heart, has embellished the world; against certain pestilences he has waged successful warfare) he has so used the resources of nature that a famine in one part of the world can be supplemented by the abundance to be obtained somewhere else, and the facilities for the transport of commodities have very nearly reached perfection. He is determined to reach that which he is pleased to call “The Millennium”—though without God and without Christ—by his own efforts, and of success he is confident. “The end of the days,” in his judgment, is to be the end of all his toil, the fulfilment of his lofty ambition, and the peace and contentment of the human race.

Men think they will accomplish some kind of deliverance for themselves by their investigations, discoveries, and inventions. A millennium, but a Christless one, they hope to bring about by their own efforts. They are “working out their own salvation,” they tell us. The evils that afflict the human race are about to disappear from the earth. The brute crassitude, which still in measure dulls the intellect of the higher order of creation, is fast vanishing away, and that which is supremely perfect and God-like is making itself visible in every corner of the earth.

The world dreams of peace. Crushed by the ever-increasing burden of enormous navies and armies, enslaved by the chains of commerce, enervated by the luxurious habits of the age, aspirations for peace are ever increasing in volume and force. Men want to be happy and prosperous—without God. Nothing must hinder the world’s progress till the poorest shall have plenty, and man, by his own efforts, shall have gained the millennium.

Legislation on the one hand and religion on the other attempt to improve things, and enthusiasts and visionaries will tell you that their efforts will in the end bring in a golden age of peace and prosperity. If improved sanitation lengthens the age of man it is at once hailed with a chorus of approval. Men will be inoculated with the thyroid gland of the monkey in the hope of having restored to them their lost juvenility, and do a thousand things to bring about what they aim at.

Men are dreaming of a "new order" which they hope to bring about by their own efforts and which will secure a world of peace and plenty. But, as one has said, "Instead of permitting ourselves to hope for a continued progress of good, we must expect a progress of evil … We are to expect evil, until it becomes so flagrant that it will be necessary for the Lord to judge it … The New Testament constantly presents to us evil as going on increasing until the end, and that Satan will urge it on until the Lord destroys his power."

Had the subject of this lecture been the importance of prophecy itself, it might have been regarded in a two-fold point of view, as bearing upon the world, and as bearing upon the church. Prophecy itself is, in part, God's testimony to the world — a testimony indeed of warning and of terror, fitly represented by Ezekiel's roll, written within and on the outside, and full of mourning, lamentation, and woe. And, in fact, one of the saddest consequences of the general neglect by Christians of the prophetic word has been that, instead of bearing in the world's ears continually this solemn and mournful testimony as to the world's course and end, we have chimed in with Satan's lullaby of "Peace, peace," by which he soothes this poor guilty world into deeper slumber; while God's judgments, alas! by which it is sure, ere long, to be overtaken, slumber not. The world dreams of a golden age, a period of peace and plenty — of liberty and good government, drawing nigh; and it labours, as it has done for so many ages, to hasten its arrival. God's people, too, as unwatchful virgins, have slept or slumbered, instead of waking the live-long night to meet the Bridegroom at his coming; and they, too, have had their dreams, and have fancied the gradual and peaceful approach of the same blissful period. And while the world has sought to expedite its arrival by all the means and appliances of philosophy and science, and political economy, and a philanthropy having these for its foundation, how many saints of God have added to these the Gospel, and have thought thus to perfect the machinery by which this guilty, miserable world is to be brought back to universal purity and joy. Yes, and if it should be urged, as it doubtless would by some, that Christianity should be placed in the forefront, and all other things be only considered as subsidiary forces in the contest, what have you gained? The world and the church are still joined in one common phalanx, to fight one common battle, animated by one common hope of victory, and ensuring rest and peace and contentment in this world below. All join in putting far off the evil day, or in denying that there is such a day approaching. Pillows are sewed under all arm-holes — the walls daubed with untempered mortar — the prophets, whether in the world or in the church, agreeing to prophesy smooth things, cry "Peace," when there is no peace. All this is the result of hearkening to the reasonings and speculations of men, instead of the testimony of God's holy Word.

Am I denying, then, that there is a day of universal peace and blessedness yet to dawn upon this oppressed and groaning earth? God forbid! There is a millennium yet to come; a period of universal righteousness and joy, brighter than any that man's hopes have pictured — brighter than any that even Christians themselves have anticipated; a period in which men shall, indeed, "beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks;" in which "nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more;" but when "the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together;" when "they shall not hurt nor destroy in all God's holy mountain;" when "the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." But as to the way in which this period is to be ushered in — as to the means by which it is to be introduced, we do affirm — and we hope that in the course of the present inquiry it will be plainly shown to you from the Word of God — that man's fancies and speculations have been preferred to the solemn teachings of this blessed book. It will be shown to you, from the Word of God, I trust, that it is not by the progress of society, or the march of intellect, or the advancement of science; that it is not by the spread of modern opinions, or the rise and growth of liberal institutions; that it is not by the means of schools, and hospitals, and peace societies, and temperance societies; no, nor even by means of Sunday schools, and tract societies, and missions to the heathen, however good in their places these may be (and we have reason to thank God in many respects for them): It is not by these means that Satan's kingdom will be overthrown — that the world will be delivered from his dire oppression, and the universal reign of righteousness and peace be introduced; but by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ from heaven. And this is the one grand event placed before us in the "more sure word of prophecy" — an event which men have contrived, indeed, to put off to an indefinitely distant period, but which in Scripture is ever represented as the one impending event, placed as such before both saints and sinners. It has diverse aspects, I grant you, as to these; to the one light — to the other darkness; to the one joy — to the other sorrow; to the one deliverance, and eternal triumph and blessedness — to the other confusion and everlasting despair. But it is, whether regarded in reference to the one or to the other, the one grand event foretold in the prophetic word; the centre, so to speak, of all God's future dealings with mankind. And it takes place, not, as is commonly supposed, at the end of this period of universal righteousness on the earth, but at its commencement. It precedes that period; it ushers it in; and for anything that any of us can tell to the contrary, it may take place in our own lifetime — within the brief space of our own existence here below.

Well indeed might Christ be termed by the prophet Haggai the Desire of all nations, for surely in this inspired description of the state of things under His rule in the world to come, we behold the answer to the longings of men's hearts in every age. Poets have stepped in to voice the inarticulate sorrows of men, but they have only dreamed dreams; prophets have feigned out of their own imaginations a coming era of universal bliss; and politicians have laboured in the fires to redress grievances, to break the yoke of the oppressor, and to pass laws which should secure liberty and freedom for the people. But all these dreams, imaginations, and labours have been falsified in the issue, and have thus come to nought. And why? Let the answer be written large: IT IS BECAUSE THEY HAVE ALL IGNORED SIN, AND BECAUSE THEY HAVE SHUT OUT CHRIST. It is through the reign of Another Man, even the exalted Christ, and through His rein alone, that the happiness of man will be secured. Oh that men would acknowledge this even now, and, in view of the coming of Christ, listen to the exhortation of the Psalmist, "Be wise now, therefore, O ye kings, be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and ye perish from the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in Him" (Ps. 2:10-12).

We may be looked upon as gloomy pessimists; be it so, we follow the Word of God, and it will not lead us astray or deceive us. And following the Word, we were preserved from the folly of those who before the war believed and taught that humanity was making Godlike strides towards a perfect culture and universal brotherhood, Germany leading the way. And when the war shattered these vain dreams, following that same Word, we were preserved from the folly of those who proclaimed that this war would end all war, that it would bind the classes and nations together by the bonds of one common sacrifice; and a better world, purged and purified, would come forth from the awful crucible into which it had been thrown. Those who thus prophesied left human nature out of their calculations, and deceived themselves by dreams and visions. But "hope springs eternal in the human breast" — would that the hopes were centred in the right Person — and men are still seeing visions and dreaming dreams; they may do so, but they will not see the kingdom of God unless they are born again, for so declared the Son of God, and for us His solemn words are recorded in John 3:1-7.

It is the failure to grasp this fundamental fact that leads men to live in a fool’s paradise, to pursue the will o’ the wisp, the painted bubble of improving the old creation in view of the arrival of the golden age.