Deeply rooted within the human heart lives a stubbornly
perennial longing for a perfect world, for utopia, for Eden on earth once again.
In spite of repeated failure, the dream never dies. Nineteenth-century America saw
several utopian societies rise and (in a few short years) fall (see Matthew Continetti, “Anarchy in the U.S.A.: The roots of American disorder”).
Yet, a hundred and some years later, my generation
enthusiastically sang along with John Lennon,
Imagine … nothing to live or die
for … no need for greed or hunger … no countries … all the people living life
in peace … a brotherhood of man sharing all the world.
You can see the full lyrics here—and while you’re at it, buy the song for your ringtone, proving
that neither it nor its sentiments have lost their popularity. After all, isn’t
Lennon’s fantasy exactly what the Occupy movement is still asking for today?
I say “fantasy” because Lennon and the nineteenth-century
utopians imagined they could achieve this life of peace and brotherhood without
God. In fact, many of them saw God (or “religion”) as the problem and getting
rid of God as the solution.
Now, there certainly is an obstacle to achieving utopia on
earth today, but it is not God—it’s the people who must live in these “perfect”
societies. As Elisabeth Elliot famously said about marriage, our only option is another sinner. And when
sinners get together, there are bound to be problems: “sexual immorality,
impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of
anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things
like these” (Galatians 5:19–20 ESV).
Because these things come out of every human heart (see
Genesis 6:5; Matthew 15:19), we take them with us wherever we go.
The only antidote, Paul said, is walking by the Spirit, for
the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness, self-control (Galatians 5:16, 22–23). So utopians
have it exactly backwards. We don’t need less of God but more.
In fact, it is God himself who gave us this unquenchable
longing for Eden to overtake Wall Street and every street. There is an irrepressible
knowledge of God inside every one of us (see Romans 1), imprinted on our DNA,
that makes us long for justice to roll down like waters. As pastor Tim Keller
writes in The Reason for God,
everyone, even the most secular, feels that some things are “really, really
wrong” and should be made right. Utopian movements like Occupy Wall Street show
us that we are forever longing for a perfect society on earth.
But that is a society only God can bring about.
