[Note: This is the last, and longest, in the series of posts for my course on Revolutionary Ideas [1].]
Before beginning my thoughts on the ideal state in more detail, I wished to begin by setting out my assumptions for what an ideal state would look like based upon my own religious and philosophical worldview. This essay will proceed from a biblical perspective, tying together insight from the Law, Prophets, as well as the New Testament. The perspective of what would make for an ideal government is based upon the universal applicability of God’s laws as well as the demonstrated lack of competence for mankind to govern itself, despite having tried almost every conceivable method of government over the melancholy course of human history. That said, this essay will also recognize that we do not necessarily know all that we would from the pages of scripture, and also recognizes that there is going to be interpretation involved, which would include seeking precedents where possible and admitting where inferences and even speculation is undertaken. With that said, let us begin by looking at some of the fundamental elements of the Millennial reign of Jesus Christ on earth as the embodiment of the ideal state for human beings.
Boundaries And Membership
The boundaries of the Millennial kingdom of Jesus Christ extend over the whole world and include all of the nations of the earth. As part of their submission to His rule, they are required to send people to celebrate the biblical festivals (particularly the Feast of Tabernacles, in Zachariah 14) in order to avoid the loss of rain and plagues for their disobedience. Yet there will be subsidiary levels of government. From some of the statements of Jesus Christ, for example, we know that the twelve apostles (minus Judas, plus Mathias) will rule over the twelve tribes of Israel, and that David will rule over Israel as a whole. Additionally, some of the parables of Jesus Christ talk about how many cities (possibly involving the size of provinces or districts) will be given to believers based on how they have lived their lives and developed their God-given gifts. All in all, the language of the Bible suggests that there will be one government over the entire world that will enforce peace and obedience, smaller ethnic-based divisions ruled over by sub-kings, and government extending down to the level of city and town and village.
Criteria for membership in the community will be based on a multiple-tiered system. At the basic level, all will be subject to laws and required to obey. There will be a higher tier of membership in the community for those who are committed to God’s ways and able to apply them in their own families, so that they would have the chance to enter into government in some level themselves. The Bible itself, whether one is dealing with the Mosaic covenant or the Renewed covenant, views multiple tiers of involvement, where all have access to the same protections but where only some have access to gifts and opportunities for service based on commitment. In terms of exit from the laws and government of the state, no escape will be possible before death, although there appears to be the possibility of travel between various districts and provinces for the purposes of trade and worship (and presumably travel as well). The idea, if one reads Amos 9 and other places correctly, appears to have in view a society where most people appear to be small landowners with generational roots in the same towns and villages, rather than a highly mobile society that lacks roots. That said, the existence of the pilgrimage feasts adds an element of acceptance of others from different backgrounds and locations.
Constitution
The constitution of the Kingdom of God will be a written one, written in at least two ways. Hebrews 8 and Jeremiah 31 state that the laws of God will be written on the hearts of people, all Israel in fact. Likewise, the covenants of God will be (as they were in Scripture) written and publicly spoken of and agreed to. This is no implied constitution that must be inferred, but rather a text-based Constitution whose meaning can easily be grasped and which remains consistent. The necessity for having a written constitution is to make expectations and mutual obligations clear, so that there can be no doubt that someone has committed to obeying and that they are willing and able to accept the responsibilities that involves. Additionally, the presence of a written covenant provides a fixed standard to hold people accountable to and to reflect upon as they wish to conform their own conduct in light of what they have agreed to do. These tasks require and will involve a written and fixed constitution made to last.
Additionally, it should be noted that there will likely be a ritual that will ensure that the Constitution (or covenant) will not involve the cold dead hand of previous generations. For one, the law is to be read every years on the Sabbath years, which also involves every generation, multiple times, in ceremonies to recommit to the covenant. Even more frequently, those who are believers will recommit to the covenant that they have made on an annual basis through the Passover established by Jesus Christ (commonly called the Eucharist or Communion in present society), which means that there will never be a time when a generation will be asked to follow something that their parents or grandparents or generations hundreds of years ago bound them to. Instead, they will be called upon to follow their own commitments that they have agreed to themselves. Additionally, the beings that they commit to will have been around during that entire time as well, meaning the covenant will never grow obsolete because those who enforce the covenant are always present, and do not have to rely on paper protections, but can actively and continually enforce the Constitution.
There will be a variety of mechanisms that will ensure the Constitution is respected by all. Some of them have already been alluded to, the public ritual commitments to the covenant that will be done by all on a periodic basis. Other enforcement mechanisms will include the presence of tens of thousands (at the very least) of immortal and powerful beings who were once humans and who constitute the main government of the realm, as well as an immense angelic backing, should that be necessary, of many more. Suffice it to say that few people will conceive that disrespecting the covenant is feasible, even though it is very likely that there will be more who are compliant to such a state than necessarily committed to it, especially among those areas that see the constitutional restrictions on moral conduct as restrictive and similarly wish for opportunities to exploit and take advantage of others, which would be expressly forbidden in the constitution. The combination of pervasive knowledge of the constitution, of active enforcement to prevent behavior taken contrary to it, as well as public awareness of enforcement mechanisms and rituals of compliance will account for the respect of the Constitution, at least in a grudging way.
Laws And Government
The laws of the Kingdom will consist of two sets of laws. If the model of the early New Testament Church as well as ancient Israel is to be followed, then the first set of laws will consist of generally short and straightforward imperatives. None of the laws of the Kingdom of God, for example, will be 2000-page monstrosities like the Affordable Care Act of 2010, for example. These laws will be designed to set broad parameters for conduct along with specific behavior that is marked as off limits. The other set of laws, those not written in advance, will come from specific situations that require judgment. If the model of Exodus 19 and Acts 6 (and Matthew 18) is followed, this would involve a bottom-up type of appeals process by which judgments are made at the lowest possible level, only moving higher if the stakes and scope of the decisions are particularly problematic. This means that judges will have a large role in the establishment of law.
There will be, as noted, at least two elements for the passage of laws. The first will be laws established from above. These laws will either come from Jesus Christ and the Jerusalem government establishment, or will come from some level beneath them among that government at the national, provincial, district, or city level. The beings chosen for leadership will not be chosen by the people themselves, but by Jesus Christ. Yet even here there could be some element of the lot [2], in that decisions about the location of the tribal inheritances was decided by lot, as was the identity of the replacement apostle for Judas Iscariot. Likewise, it is very likely that leaders on the local level, from among the people themselves, will be chosen by lot after first passing tests for qualification (probably similar to the pastoral epistles and the qualifications for overseer and deacon listed there). Here the people will be able to nominate their own local leaders by choosing those with the best character and the most respect in the community.
Beyond this, it is unclear exactly what sort of representative governments will exist. Ancient Israel, for example, had representatives of all of the families attend the Feast of Tabernacles (which will happen for representatives of all of the families of earth in the Millennial Kingdom). Yet how those representatives will be chosen remains somewhat unclear. Additionally, the question of whether there will be any representative assemblies on the local, district, or provincial (to say nothing of national and global level) also remains unclear. If the example of the Bible is followed, there will likely be assemblies in all levels of government, some of the assemblies belonging to spirit beings, and likely some belonging to humans as well. And here it is likely that if there is an obvious leader such a leader would be chosen by acclamation, and that there would be a selection by lot if multiple people were possible candidates, to avoid overt politicizing.
Enforcement And Punishment
The Bible is perhaps most notable for its penalogy. This would include such aspects of the law as the death penalty for numerous offenses, including Sabbath breaking, adultery, being a disobedient child, and the like. Some of these punishments, it should be noted, make the biblical law appear as harsh to some people as the Sharia law appears to the general public of the West. Even the punishments of the early Church of God, including disfellowshipment for obvious and unrepented sin, appear to be even too harsh for contemporary mindsets that do not consider any sort of moral failing sufficient for punishment, it would appear. And to be sure, it is this aspect of biblical law that is likely to account for the reluctance that many people would have to even consider the enforcement of biblical law being a desirable thing for a society. This difficulty must be openly admitted and faced.
Yet this sort of punishment is not what is envisioned by the prophets who speak of the Millennial Kingdom of Jesus Christ. Rather, passages speak of there being a voice that says “This is the way,” and pointing people to obedience. Instead of stoning and other forms of punishment, what is conceived of in the Bible as part of the ideal society is the prevention of disobedience through the awareness that every thought is known, every interaction observed, and whenever someone goes the wrong way, it will be pointed out so that they can go the right way. If one wishes to create a world without crime, this is basically the way it has to be done. To be sure, not everyone will see an ideal society engaging in behavior that is associated with a “big brother” state. And yet the various ends to which freedom is used requires that certain aspects of this freedom are going to have to be curtailed to have a just society. It is obviously best, of course, if we are able to discipline ourselves in such a fashion as we act in ways that are of service and love to others. Yet where this cannot or will not be done, there must exist some mechanism to prevent harm, as to prevent harm is far more beneficial than to try to repair it afterwards. So, even here the ideal biblical society, even if it is one that will prevent such harm from happening through the use of omniscience, is not one that is likely to be conceived of as ideal by those who are bent on evil. That said, no ideal society is conceived of as ideal by those who are committed to wickedness, which is why all modern utopias end up being dystopias.
Conclusions
In conclusion, let us note the connection between these various elements. In order to conceive of an ideal society in accordance with biblical law, we should note that it is impossible to conceive of such a society on the basis of human wisdom or strength or goodness alone. Something outside of humanity is required to deal with the intractable evil that lies within every human heart and mind. To deal successfully with that evil requires either internal restraint through the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit (a process that requires repentance and conversion), or external restraint through laws and the active involvement of government. This is true even to restrain evil in the sense that is possible on the individual, institutional, or societal level now, and it will certainly be even more true if we are to create an ideal society where harm is not done yet in such a way that preserves the human freedom of thought and will that we now possess. There is much about this ideal state that cannot yet be known because the details have not been sketched out, and yet the general foundations of it, the constraints that it will work under and the end results of that rule–namely the absence of destruction and evil, a change in the nature even of animals, an absence of the study of military arts and diverting productive economic energies to destruction, is a profound difference from our own present evil age.
[1] See, for example:
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2014/09/23/argumentative-reflection-do-we-need-a-state/
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2014/09/29/argumentative-reflection-justice/
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