Millennial Vision

Duncan Sinclair

Men are constantly picturing to themselves the dawning of a golden age, an age in which poverty will be unknown, where sickness and sin will have been overcome, and where harmony and peace will reign supreme. Some of them speak of it as the millennium, which has been defined as "a period of happiness and benign government." And one might quite correctly designate this period, this condition of thought, as one of millennial vision.

There are many who sneer at any such possibility. Contemplating mortal existence, they find it hard to believe that mankind will ever find itself free from the grind of poverty, the suffering of disease, the penalties of sin. They cannot see how these experiences will ever be done away with entirely; they can only trust that they may be alleviated. They believe that their skepticism is amply justified. But in spite of all that can be argued against the possibility of the human race ever entering upon a progressive millennium, the desire for it persists.

The religion of the Hebrews encouraged men to look forward to a period which should be God-governed, and therefore harmonious. Necessarily, this should be preceded by a knowledge of God which would reveal His nature. Jeremiah prophetically writes (Jer. 31:34), "They shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord." Habakkuk foretells that "the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." Prophecy has it, then, that the knowledge of God shall become universal—that all men will possess it, and with its coming, harmony will be ushered in.

In Revelation John, through inspired vision, was able to depict the final overcoming of evil through the power of Christ, Truth. He foresaw the coming of "a new heaven and a new earth," the time when "there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away" (21:1,4). In the twelfth chapter (v. 10) he writes, "Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night." Thus, to the seer of Patmos the millennium was assured because of the victory of the Christ over all evil.

It is no idle dream, then, the longing for and looking forward to the coming of harmony and peace on earth. No; rather is the anticipation in accordance with a state of consciousness entirely in harmony with revealed Truth. This Christian Science makes clear. And it does so by making known the facts of real being and distinguishing between spiritual truth and mortal error. Christian Science reveals that God is infinite good, that man is His image and likeness, and that therefore man reflects infinite good. It thus enables us to deny reality to evil in its every seeming phase. In other words, it empowers us to declare that poverty, disease, sin, and death are without actuality, and, consequently, that suffering is unreal. Spiritual vision has no difficulty in seeing what must follow as this is apprehended by men. It readily perceives that as they gain this understanding and apply it consistently, sorrow and suffering will disappear, harmony and peace will reign—the millennium will have come.

On pages 239 and 240 of "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" Mrs. Eddy refers to the millennium as "a state and stage of mental advancement, going on since ever time was." She says of it, "Its impetus, accelerated by the advent of Christian Science, is marked, and will increase till all men shall know Him (divine Love) from the least to the greatest, and one God and the brotherhood of man shall be known and acknowledged throughout the earth." We are surely experiencing in some degree the effects of millennial vision now, since God has been acknowledged as infinite and supreme, as the Father-Mother of all, and the brotherhood of man has been seen to be a condition of real being, needing only to be demonstrated.

We can be certain that the millennium is nigh to us when the fatherhood and motherhood of God are understood, the brotherhood of man is demonstrated, and sin, disease, and death are overcome through spiritual understanding. In a measure it is already here, for "the accuser of our brethren"—evil—is being "cast down" through the knowledge of evil's unreality, and Christ, Truth, is reigning in human consciousness as never before. The need is for greater spiritualization of thought through the study of Christian Science. Our revered Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, writes on page 382 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," "If half the attention given to hygiene were given to the study of Christian Science and to the spiritualization of thought, this alone would usher in the millennium."

Duncan Sinclair

Send a comment to the editors

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit