Utopia Awaits Us

Utopia. That strange word was coined more than five hundred years ago by Sir Thomas More, a Roman Catholic philosopher, as the title of his fictional book describing a perfect society that existed on a remote island somewhere in the uncharted Atlantic. More invented the word utopia by combining the Greek term for “no” with topos, meaning “place.”

In other words, utopia is not real. Yet More’s book is famous in Western literature because of the power of its central idea: that people long for a more perfect world.

We hear it in the dreams of the poets. We read it in great stories. We see it in the paintings of famous artists. It’s as if we, as humans, instinctively understand that the paradise in the Garden of Eden was our normal state. That’s what we were created to enjoy, but we lost it after Adam and Eve sinned against God. Now we yearn for its restoration, for the “new heaven and new earth” foretold in Isaiah 65:17.

I have good news for us: Our often-unspoken yearning corresponds with God’s plans for the future. Everywhere we turn in the Bible, we uncover prophecies and descriptions of God’s true utopia—the new heaven and new earth, wherein righteousness dwells.

Importantly, these prophecies are different from those that make promises about the Millennium. When the Golden Age concludes, our eternal state will commence. That is when we will finally transition to our eternal home.

In Revelation 21, the apostle John describes his prophetic vision of the new heaven and new earth. Talk about utopia! That word is hopelessly insufficient to describe the place God is preparing for us. It is our heavenly home—the place where Christ rules forever.

Remember, though, we won’t reach that heavenly home after we pass away or even after the rapture—not yet. Christians who pass through the veil of death will join Jesus in paradise, which is separate from our eternal state. Then will come the Millennium, and then—after that period of one thousand years—we will transition with Jesus into our final, eternal home.

Thank you, gracious heavenly Father, for embodying perfection and for allowing utopia to become a reality in and through you in the age to come for those who believe in the name of Jesus. Amen.