Publisher's Synopsis
Introduction: A Millennial Action Program for the Motivated Optimist This book is an answer to the usual gloom and doom, blood and thunder portrayal of the time leading to the Millennium. What if it is possible, and perhaps even expected of us, to help change the world to a near-Millennial state in preparation for Christ's coming, as though we were building yet another, especially large temple for the Savior to visit? Jonah prophesied the destruction of Nineveh, and was disappointed that it didn't come to pass. The people he warned changed their ways for the better and avoided the disaster. Wouldn't most of us be happy to hear that the oft-predicted travails of the last days could be prevented by audacious planning and hard work? Many other groups in the world include a version of the millennium in their beliefs. Perhaps they will help in this millennial project, as the LDS lead out in promoting a gospel-based civilization. The strategy: Just like the Christian church invented and created Western civilization during the last 2000 years, I believe Christianity today has the responsibility to continue the progress of societies on earth towards the highest level of civilization and righteousness which is possible in the mortal sphere. That condition is often known as the Millennium or as Zion. If we are serious about that goal, then we need to change things so that large portions of the Earth's resources are devoted to Christian charitable purposes, all with the purpose of improving the lives of men and the advancement of societies. I believe that the intended terms of our Earth life, concerning both the physical Earth and the people who live on it, were that humans and human societies would have certain operational parameters. I believe it is an eternal law, perhaps as predictable as gravity, that human societies need to constantly devote about 10% of their resources to uplifting religious and ideological studies and efforts. Without that constant positive input, societies decay and drift toward ignorance, anarchy, and jungle law. Applying that to our nation and our world today, that would mean that a country like the United States, with a $20 trillion GDP ought to be spending $2 trillion on Christian charitable projects to maintain and improve the quality of that society. Assuming the world has a GDP of about $80 trillion, that would mean that about $8 trillion should be spent each year on Christian charitable projects. These numbers would expand over time as improvements were made to prosperity. Ideally, volunteers would do most of the administration of these resources. There should be no paid bureaucracies created to administer these funds, although that may not prove to be possible in every case. But there does need to be a rule that there is no tax-like mechanism that requires people to pay their Christian contributions at all, or in any particular way, or to any particular organization or project. So many government-style projects consume enormous portions of their revenue just to operate, with very little of the available resources actually being applied as originally intended. These bureaucracies tend to substitute their own internal desires for the original reason for creating the bureaucracy, and the whole process is short-circuited and becomes extremely wasteful and inefficient. I believe a voluntary Christian charity system could be at least three times as efficient as any similar government-sponsored program. The basic requirement of religious freedom is that people make donations as they see fit, and none of their donating behavior is enforceable. If they find a program to be effective and in agreement with their feelings and judgment, they should feel free to donate or not. Those who are proposing projects should have no way to enforce their desires other than to be good salesman in presenting their case, including demonstrating their good results.
