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Cory
Thompson: 1996-1997
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With human nature being what it is we can fairly well assert that government which is substantially a democracy with guaranteed individual rights is significantly preferable to other forms in which some degree of despotism prevails (thus igniting within the human heart the set conviction that only my interests rightly should have sway). All other forms of government other than a democracy essentially are anti-social in this sense.
Now
in heaven human nature is transformed into something else again. I
like to think of it as a place that is inherently the reverse of our
earthly tendency to become anti-social. This means that there God
reigns in an environment that does not need or require the mitigation
of selfish interests.
In
order to help express this idea, an important element of the concept
of heaven has always included abundance--”streets of gold.”
Abundance is so prevalent in heaven that common questions here on
earth as to the fair and proper distribution of wealth are obviated.
This is simply another way of saying that hoarding of resources out
of selfishness interest is completely foreign to the ways of heaven.
Thus
God rules in heaven in a manner quite divorced from any type of rule
experienced by mortals here on earth. Generosity and abundance
completely depose greed and scarcity. In heaven as on earth,
everything hinges on righteousness of spirit. But heaven is devoid
of earth's contrapuntal ambiance found even within the universal
church. In heaven we are forever and want to be “on the same
page.” Concord, unity, harmony, kindness, and joy prevail within a state of abundance not modulated by wafting strains of want
and death. God in heaven is no despot but instead enjoys playing the
role (as MLK once said about himself) of a drum major.
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