“The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing: the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the LORD, and the excellency of our God,” Isaiah 35:1-2.
I was prompted to consider this subject by the foolish boasting of the recently inaugurated president of the United States, Mr Donald Trump. He is a man renowned for his swank and swagger and vain-glorious self-promotion. But even he ‘outstrips’ himself when he claims that his election is an indication that America’s ‘Golden Age’ has begun.
Time will tell the truth or otherwise of this assertion which is a mere repeating of what presumptuous and imperious politicians have promised the gullible since the fall of man! It is a fictitious myth, a ‘pipe dream’, an ‘El Dorado’ comprised of the empty imaginings of what man considers to be the answer to all his needs.
Men will cling to this empty hope, proffered by a man whose lifestyle comprehensively demonstrates his total unreliability, rather than heed the promise of the God, “ that cannot lie,” (Titus 1:2) and who has “the words of eternal life,” (John 6:68).
We grieve for those whose folly causes them to embrace this end-time ‘political flim-flam’. No good can come of any administration built upon such a dubious foundation!
Men’s perceptions of a Golden Age
Wikipedia has an article on the subject of the ‘Golden Age’ which states:
“The term Golden Age comes from Greek mythology, particularly the Works and Days of Hesiod, and is part of the description of temporal decline of the state of peoples through five Ages, Gold being the first and the one during which the Golden Race of humanity (Greek: χρύσεον γένος chrýseon génos)[1] lived. After the end of the first age was the Silver, then the Bronze, after this the Heroic age, with the fifth and current age being Iron.[2]
By extension, “Golden Age” denotes a period of primordial peace, harmony, stability, and prosperity. During this age, peace and harmony prevailed in that people did not have to work to feed themselves for the earth provided food in abundance. They lived to a very old age with a youthful appearance, eventually dying peacefully, with spirits living on as “guardians”. Plato in Cratylus (397 e) recounts the golden race of humans who came first. He clarifies that Hesiod did not mean literally made of gold, but good and noble.”
The article goes on to say: “The Golden Age in Europe: Greece — The earliest attested reference to the European myth of the Ages of Man 500 BCE–350 BCE appears in the late 6th century BCE works of the Greek poet Hesiod’s Works and Days (109–126). Hesiod, a deteriorationist, identifies the Golden Age, the Silver Age, the Bronze Age, the Heroic Age, and the Iron Age. With the exception of the Heroic Age, each succeeding age was worse than the one that went before. Hesiod maintains that during the Golden Age, before the invention of the arts, the earth produced food in such abundance that there was no need for agriculture:
[Men] lived like gods without sorrow of heart, remote and free from toil and grief: miserable age rested not on them; but with legs and arms never failing they made merry with feasting beyond the reach of all devils. When they died, it was as though they were overcome with sleep, and they had all good things; for the fruitful earth unforced bare them fruit abundantly and without stint. They dwelt in ease and peace.”It is all ‘myth’ of course but does have some faint and warped reflection of what the Bible has to say about Christ’s millennial reign on this earth. There remains in the consciousness of mankind some faint awareness of the truth of God once known by our earliest forefathers. I recall when visiting the ‘Grand Canyon’ in Arizona many years ago, seeing within a small exhibition hall just beside the canyon, the record of the local Indian tribe’s account of the origins of the canyon. It spoke of a man, a large boat, a great flood and it was this flood which carved out the canyon.
Surely there was there a remnant of what the Bible teaches in Genesis chapters 7 and 8? That truth was passed down through the ages as an oral record, with a measure of corruption becoming attached to the account. Nevertheless, it serves to show that deep in the human consciousness there remains remnants of God’s truth and these remnants emerge in the various false religions that mankind has invented.
It is true that in the beginning, man was created by God in a state of innocence and purity. Genesis states that in its opening chapters. But that period of purity was short-lived, for Adam, the first man and the head and representative of all his natural posterity, sinned and so his depraved and sinful nature was passed on to all his progeny.
The Shorter Catechism sets out this truth like this:
Chapter 6 – Of the Fall of Man, of Sin, and the Punishment thereof
I. Our first parents, being seduced by the subtilty and temptations of Satan, sinned, in eating the forbidden fruit.[1] This their sin, God was pleased, according to His wise and holy counsel, to permit, having purposed to order it to His own glory.[2]
II. By this sin they fell from their original righteousness and communion, with God,[3] and so became dead in sin,[4] and wholly defiled in all the parts and faculties of soul and body.[5]
III. They being the root of all mankind, the guilt of this sin was imputed;[6] and the same death in sin, and corrupted nature, conveyed to all their posterity descending from them by ordinary generation.[7]
IV. From this original corruption, whereby we are utterly indisposed, disabled, and made opposite to all good,[8] and wholly inclined to all evil,[9] do proceed all actual transgressions.[10]
V. This corruption of nature, during this life, does remain in those that are regenerated;[11] and although it be, through Christ, pardoned, and mortified; yet both itself, and all the motions thereof, are truly and properly sin.[12]
VI. Every sin, both original and actual, being a transgression of the righteous law of God, and contrary thereunto,[13] does in its own nature, bring guilt upon the sinner,[14] whereby he is bound over to the wrath of God,[15] and curse of the law,[16] and so made subject to death,[17] with all miseries spiritual,[18] temporal,[19] and eternal.[20].
The Scripture Proofs supporting this declaration are these:
[1] Genesis 3:13 And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.2 Corinthians 11:3 But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
[2] Romans 11:32 For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all. [3] Genesis 3:6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. 7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. 8 And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.Ecclesiastes 7:29 Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions. Romans 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.
[4] Genesis 2:17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.Ephesians 2:1 And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins.
[5] Titus 1:15 Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled.Genesis 6:5 And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
Romans 3:10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: 11 There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. 12 They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. 13 Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: 14 Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: 15 Their feet are swift to shed blood: 16 Destruction and misery are in their ways: 17 And the way of peace have they not known: 18 There is no fear of God before their eyes.
[6] Genesis 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. 28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. 2:16 AND THE LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: 17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.Acts 17:26 And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation.
Romans 5:12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. 15 But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. 16 And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification. 17 For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.) 18 Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. 19 For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.
1 Corinthians 15:21 For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. 45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. 49 And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.
[7] Psalms 51:5 Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.Genesis 5:3 And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth.
Job 14:4 Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one. 15:14 What is man, that he should be clean? and he which is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?
[8] Romans 5:6 For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.Romans 8:7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
Romans 7:18 For I know that in me(that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. Colossians 1:21 And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled.
[9] Genesis 6:5 And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 8:21 And the Lord smelled a sweet savour; and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake; for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done.Romans 3:10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: 11 There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. 12 They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
[10] James 1:14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. 15 Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.Ephesians 2:2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: 3 Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.
Matthew 15:19 For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.
[11] 1 John 1:8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. Romans 7:14 For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. 17 Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. 18 For I know that in me(that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. 23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.James 3:2 For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body.
Proverbs 20:9 Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin?
Ecclesiastes 7:20 For there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not.
[12] Romans 7:5 For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. 7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. 8 But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead. 25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.Galatians 5:17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
[13] 1 John 3:4 Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law. [14] Romans 2:15 Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another.Romans 3:9 What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin. 19 Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.
[15] Ephesians 2:3 Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. [16] Galatians 3:10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. [17] Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. [18] Ephesians 4:18 Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart. [19] Romans 8:20 For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope.Lamantations 3:39 Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?
[20] Matthew 25:41 Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.2 Thessalonians 1:9 Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power.
THE WORLD’S RELIGIONS
All the main religions and philosophies invented by men have references to such a ‘Golden Age’. Hinduism, Islam, Chinese mythology, etc., all have their accounts of times in the past when peace and tranquillity and harmony flourished.
What man, in his ‘mythicising’, does not mention is the hope of a ‘FUTURE GOLDEN AGE’. However, the Bible holds out the promise of just such a time dawning in this world! ONLY the Bible offers to men the hope of a glorious future on this earth, obtained through faith in the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, and an even more glorious and eternal future in heaven.
Man in his darkness can only look back and fantasise about a lost era of perfection, rejecting the account given of the time of man’s innocency in the Bible. But he has no true hope of a future time of glory!
However, God has revealed in His Word that He has planned a time of peace and joy on this earth — that time when the Lord Jesus shall reign in power and great glory; that time we call the 1000 year reign or the MILLENNIAL REIGN OF CHRIST.
THE MILLENNIAL REIGN OF CHRIST HAS BEEN THE SUBJECT OF BIBLE PROPHECY SINCE THE DAWN OF TIME
I believe that the ‘embryo’ of a millennial promise may be found in the words spoken by the Lord to the devil, after his temptation of Adam and Eve.
“And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel,” Genesis 3:14-15.
To ‘bruise’ the head of a serpent is to spell its doom. That is what Christ did at the cross and in so doing He suffered the bruising of His heel. Springing from that victory at the cross will be the successful outworking of all God’s merciful purpose. That includes the redemption from sin of His elect, the resurrection of the saved and the millennial reign of Christ on earth followed by the eternal bliss of heaven. The ‘serpent’ has been wriggling under the restraining heel of the Almighty Saviour since Calvary. His final and eternal demise will take place when he is “cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever,” Revelation 20:10.
Daniel
The end of this age, the return of Christ and the setting up of His earthly reign, are especially detailed for us in the Book of Daniel. Daniel was enabled of God to interpret the perplexing dream that was given to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, but which none of his wise men could interpret. Daniel, enlightened by God, was able to say to the king: “The secret which the king hath demanded cannot the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, the soothsayers, shew unto the king; but there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days. Thy dream, and the visions of thy head upon thy bed, are these,” Daniel 2:27-28.
The dream consisted of a great image. “The image’s head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, his legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay,” Daniel 2:32.
The four elements of the image represented four great empires which would come about, beginning with Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon and then it was followed by Medo-Persia, Greece and finally Rome. Although the term ‘Roman Empire’ does not appear in Scripture, we know it to be the fourth empire for when the Grecian Empire passed away, we learn that Rome was in power in the land of Israel. This is made clear for us in the opening verses of Luke chapter 2. “And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed. (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.) And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:) to be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child,” verses 1-5.
British Empire
There have been greater empires than these, geographically speaking. For instance it was once said of the British Empire in its heyday, that the ‘sun never set’ upon it because it was so widespread!
However, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome are unique in that their dominion included ISRAEL! They were all instruments of judgment upon wayward and rebellious Israel.
ROME
Rome is referred to in a unique way. “And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise. And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters’ clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay. And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken,” verses 40-42.
The word ‘divided’ is a Hebrew word which appears only here but is closely linked to a very similar word which is defined in Strong’s Hebrew Lexicon as meaning ‘split’.
The Roman Empire dates back well before the time of the Christ and it is deemed that its Western sector collapsed in AD 476 but its Eastern arm continued to the fall of Constantinople in 1453.
However, Daniel tells us that the weakened form of the Roman Empire, evident in that “the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken”, will be in existence in the day of the Saviour’s return in power. It will be seen again within the territories it once ruled. That will include England and Wales.
The spirit and character of the previous ungodly empires will be manifested in the last days, headed up by the Antichrist, in a final display of defiance of God. His reign will be short. “And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months,” Revelation 13:5. His day of power is also termed the time of the “great tribulation”, Matthew 24:21.
Thus Daniel tells us of the end of the dominance of the spirit of apostasy manifested by these four kingdoms and the beginning of that Christ’s kingdom on earth.
“And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever. Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure,” Daniel 2:44-45.
That “kingdom, which shall never be destroyed”, in its first stage of its eternal establishment, will be sited on this earth which will be ruled over visibly by the Saviour. Thus the establishing of His kingdom is announced in Revelation 11:15. “And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.” Please note the time when this will take place. It is when “the seventh angel sounded”. In other words at the “last trump”, the last of the seven trumpets which will be the signal for the resurrection of the saints. “Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed,” 1 Corinthians 15:51-52.
That is how this ‘age’ will end and the next ‘age’ will begin.
Rev Ivan Foster (Rtd)