The elusive idea of Utopia: Heaven on earth
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Utopia is a name for an ideal community or society, taken from a book written in 1516 by Sir Thomas More and describing a fictional island in the Atlantic Ocean possessing a seemingly perfect socio-political-legal system.
The evils of society as we know it are all removed, including poverty and misery. It has few laws and no lawyers; man lives in tune with all nature.
The government is socialist and provides for everyone's needs. Science will solve all of man's problems including suffering and disease.
Since that time, those who have been possessed by the idea have discovered that human nature stands in the way. Not everyone is law-abiding; not everyone is peaceful; and not everyone is disciplined.
They did not take into account the problem of sin. They did not even consider themselves to have any human weaknesses.
There have been some groups or societies that have attempted to live by Jesus' teachings in building a Christian society, most notably the Amish, Shakers, Puritans and Quakers, and they have achieved some measure of success.
Others have been influential atheists who thought they were smarter than God and attempted to build a godless society that would usher in a rule of peace and prosperity. They dreamed of a world order in which all men could relate to each other, all wars would cease and the evils of the world would be done away with.
Perhaps Lyndon Johnson thought that his idea of a Great Society in the United States would work. It certainly sounded good. While a few of his efforts might have paid off, the result was far from the ideal.
To change a society, one must change the fundamental ways of behavior in that society. The morals of that country must be such as to provide a cultural stability and its citizens must be responsible and disciplined.
Our founding fathers were largely Christian, with a knowledge of history and of governments. They set up a Constitution that gave Americans a new birth of freedom.
Alas, today, men see freedom as a license to do as they please and we are about as ill-behaved as the rest of the world. They forget that with freedom comes responsibility.
John Adams writes: "Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."
We know we cannot achieve a Utopia here in this lifetime, but we can achieve a taste of it as we relate to each other in our church communities. We may learn from the Amish and other brethren and even profit from their mistakes, but the Bible is our authority and by its instruction we can avoid many of the pitfalls of secular life.
The ideal has always been that Christians build their lives around a church community and that community should meet all their member's needs.
It is do-able and we should strive to make it work.
Raymond F. Smith is a deacon at Fellowship Bible Church in Victoria and President of Strong Families of Victoria.
