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Paradise on Earth Earth’s coming glory A great deal is said and heard nowadays about energy. Energy, to the ordinary person, is something that results from the consumption of electricity, oil, gas, coal and also now renewables and furnishes heat and light in the home or power to drive the car. In the industrial world it powers the machines which proliferate in this modern age and puts more and more people out of work. Now and then a voice is raised asking what is going to happen when the oil and gas and coal is exhausted, but no one takes very much notice of that, and the prodigal waste of earth’s resources continues at an increasing rate. The world consumption of energy in the year 1950 was four times what it was in 1850; in 2024 it has gone up 23 times and increasing.[ourworlddata.org] And it all goes up, quite literally, in smoke. When one burns a hundredweight of coal in the domestic grate one has enjoyed a season of warmth, but the coal has gone. When one turns on the electric light for say ten hours a unit of electricity has been used; a power station somewhere has burned a pint or so of oil and turned several pints of water into steam to produce that unit and the oil and the water have gone. When one uses a gallon of petrol your car has travelled thirty five miles or so but the petrol has gone. Coal and oil and uranium do not grow on trees; it is estimated that oil and gas will run out in 50 years and maybe 70 years for coal. (Infinity Renewables). What then? To that growing body of Christians who share the conviction that we are living in the closing years of this Age, that the dawn of the Millennium is at hand, that God is about to intervene in the affairs of humankind for their benefit, this position presents no cause for alarm. It can be taken as certain that He who created the earth and provided for man’s continuing existence upon it has not overlooked the necessity of such supplies of heat, light and power as humanity will need in that blessed day. And, let it be said, by more pleasant, and, shall we say, cleaner processes than humans seem invariably to adopt. Digging coal from the bowels of the earth, extracting oil and gas from the recesses of the deep sea, creating radio‑active waste with all its unknown hazards and evils, are activities which can hardly be associated with the sunlit visions of the Millennial Age so eloquently pictured in the Bible. After all, what we call the processes of Nature are actually God’s mechanism for running the earth and it is to the world of Nature that we should look for a solution to our problems, under the guidance and control of humanity, to produce a sufficiency for all of their needs. If people are to go back to Edenic conditions, the Golden Age of Legend, will there be a need for all this heat and light and power? It could perhaps be thought that artificial light is not really necessary. We could go to sleep at dusk and awake at dawn. The birds do. If the world climate is to be as equable and congenial as the Bible suggests—and the human physique healthy and perfect, shall we want all this central heating? The horses live in the fields summer and winter without it. In a society where labour and activity is a pleasure rather than a drudgery, and human physical strength is at its peak and everlasting life means that time is no object, what need for all these rapid production machines, means of high speed transport, labour‑saving devices, when there is plenty of time and strength to do all that one wishes to do. The great civilisations of pre‑Christian history managed without a great deal of it. Who knows what hitherto unknown and unsuspected powers and attributes reside in the human body and brain when the curse of sin has been removed and people have become what God has always intended, an image and likeness of himself? People take great pride today in inventing and constructing computer programs which can perform calculating functions thousands of times faster than can any person; most of them forget that God can think faster than these. Is it unthinkable that one day in the perfect state men and women’s own mental powers will be so enhanced that they may be able to outdo the most sophisticated of today’s Information Technology (IT) even with AI? But on the other hand, it is perhaps unreasonable to conclude that man and woman in the eternal state is destined to rise no higher, in their development, than did Adam the first man in his original creation? The basic law of Nature, of all creation, is development, advance, achievement, a perpetual advancing forward and climbing upward. The story of Eden pictures Adam in full possession of his faculties, placed in a prepared garden adequate to furnish the necessities of life, but it goes on to tell him that he must "till" the ground that it bring forth more fruit, and "subdue" the earth, which means he was to explore and use its resources for his welfare and a satisfying life. The Book of Genesis tells of an antediluvian character of almost six thousand years ago named Tubal‑cain (Gen.4:22) who was the first to discover that the earth contained metallic ores which could be refined into metals like copper and iron; within five centuries of his discovery the Sumerians were making works of art in gold, bronze, copper, which have never been equalled. Through the centuries people have improved the strains of wild grains and fruit trees and farming animals so that their modern counterparts immeasurably exceed their ancient forebears. Who is to say that this process will not go on into the illimitable future so that the future promises to be one of never‑ending effort and achievement? So although the next Age is often spoken of as though it is a restoration to Garden of Eden conditions, a little thought shows that such is only partially true. The world of the future will be what Eden was intended to become, what might be termed the appendages and conveniences and attributes of human society on a much higher level and making much more use of earth’s possibilities than could ever have been the case in the old story of the first human pair. A great many of the necessities of civilised society would seem to be inherent in the framework of human life upon earth in the day of Christ’s reign over the nations. This brings us back to the question of light, heat and power. It goes without saying that the nuclear power stations will have to go, and quickly. They are too dangerous to handle. Gas and oil may well have gone before the Millennium gets well started although it has lasted longer than anticipated back in 1986; in 2020 according to Infinity Renewables in 50 years gas and oil reserves will run out. The mining of coal, no matter how safe the process can be made to be, will certainly have no place in the Millennial world and this too would run out eventually. Humankind will be left with the original sources of power of ancient times—wind, water and the sun. Primitive peoples, and medieval ones too, got on very well with such means. True, there were not so many of them and their needs were less. England in the 13th Century had ten thousand windmills in operation. They pumped water, ground corn, operated simple machines, with no fuel costs. Some people now living can recall seeing such mills working in their youth and some have been preserved as museums. The Babylonian king Hammurabi, contemporary with Abraham, used windmills in his empire to pump water. In recent years wind‑power has been used to help solve current energy problems. Russia had 30,000 propellor‑driven electric generators operating back in 1954. The United Kingdom began by experimenting with wind power in favourable spots such as the North of Scotland and the Isle of Man, feeding electricity into the national grid. According to Wikipedia 30% of Britain’s electricity power in 2025 is met by wind power, nearly three times as much as the much‑vaunted nuclear stations produce at present. There is potential to increase. There are more then 75,000 onshore wind turbines in the USA. Worldwide wind power has increased 80‑fold since 2000. Water power comes next. Every major country in the world has its hydro‑electric stations where water stored in a man‑made lake, fed by rivers or streams in the mountains, passes to a lower level where it operates turbines driving electric generators. In the Middle Ages every English stream of any size had its waterwheels along the banks, turning millstones or operating weaving looms, or on farms pumping water. Ancient Egypt got much of its power from waterwheels and so did ancient China. Modern people worldwide have doubled their use since 1991. It is estimated to increase by 7% by 2030 in emerging and developing countries. The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile was officially opened on 9 September 2025. As with the wind, there is plenty of power from water. Tidal power and devices using the force of the waves of the sea are often talked about and some installations are in use, although an admittedly satisfactory design has yet to be produced. The largest facility is the Sihwa Lake Power Station in South Korea completed in 2011, but it is still in its infancy. The potential is great. But all these devices involve intricate and heavy machinery, and one wonders if humanity in the perfect state is intended to construct and use such means when the Lord can ordain the forces of Nature to serve their needs. There is one source of energy which in magnitude as well as simplicity exceeds by far all these devices that humans have developed. That source is the sun. The sun’s energy is in its light, falling upon the earth. (The sensation of heat felt when the sun shines is caused by sunlight agitating the atoms of the atmosphere as it passes through.) The light is the energy and this is manifested either as heat in the familiar way, or transmuted into solid substance by chemical reaction as when falling upon a leaf, or transformed into electricity when agitating the electrons of certain light‑sensitive metals in what is called a solar cell. The science of solar energy has developed for over a century, but it is realised that we were only on the fringe of what could be achieved in the 1980s. All kinds of devices for collecting and utilising the sun’s energy have been tried. Sets of mirrors reflecting its rays to a focal point where an intensely high temperature is attained sufficient to melt steel, banks of collectors in which water is heated and used for domestic purposes; evaporators which convert seawater into fresh water, small cookers, used extensively in India, where meals are cooked by the sun. The energy is free and everlasting. Later research, has resulted in the discovery of the solar cell. Thin wafers of certain metallic elements, exposed to light, generate electricity. A number connected together yield sufficient current for the purpose intended. Such cells have the merits that there are no moving parts, nothing to wear out, and so far as can be known at present are probably everlasting. Since 2000 according to ourworlddata.org solar power has increased from 1 TWh to 2128 TWh in 2024. (TWh = Terawatt hour) All of this is leading up to the conclusion that as the sun shines on the trees and plants silently and efficiently, creating food for man’s sustenance, fabrics for his adornment, and materials for his use, so there may well be a means whereby every need that man or woman may have in the way of heat and light and power will be similarly supplied. There have been in recent years some experimenters who have found that certain trees under certain circumstances produce electric currents when a wire is run from the topmost boughs to the ground. It is fascinating to think that perhaps, after all, knowledge might be so increased that what now is produced with much toil and labour becomes available, free of cost, from the powers of Nature around us. If such proves to be indeed the case, we can forget windpower, water‑power and tidal power, all of which together could furnish many times the energy per annum at present used by the world, in favour of the sun, which could provide over a thousand times that energy if needs be. It has been calculated that an area of the New Mexico desert only eighty miles square could supply all the power at present required by the United States. The Sahara Solar Breeder Project aims to provide 50% of the world’s electricity by 2050 from the desert. It would be tedious to cite other instances; suffice to say that there is every reason to expect that Nature will prove adequate to meet every need. But, says one, coal is not the only product of the earth. Metals, such as iron and copper, minerals like sulphur and carbon, must be obtained from the depths. What about the iron‑miners and copper‑miners? Will metal also grow on trees? Or do we have to do without metals? There are just a few pointers to another sphere of Nature’s creative powers, at present doing no more than point the way to the possibilities. There has been in recent years—since the latter half of the last century—a great deal of attention paid to Bioelectricity, the use of the powers of bacteria in bringing about chemical changes in materials. In the past their usefulness has been more or less confined to sewage treatment works where they break down organic waste into useful fertiliser and pure water. In more recent times bacteria have been made on the one hand to generate electricity from vegetable products, and on the other hand to produce edible protein from oil and natural gas. Now it is being found there are other possibilities. One species of bacteria has the property of extracting pure iron from iron ore; another does the same with uranium, and another with sulphur. Most of these processes are still in the experimental stage but there is definitely something there, and it is now called bioleaching. It may yet be found that there is a natural process of "growing" minerals and other substances which at present and throughout past history have had to be won by arduous labour from the depths of the ground. The present supply would in any case run out one day, just as coal and oil and uranium. Unless the Lord has arranged for continuing supplies to be produced as needed then eventually humanity would have to do without them. Some of the foregoing is largely speculative. It cannot be otherwise. But we live in an age when the fantastic of today is the commonplace of tomorrow. These endeavours of present‑day researchers to solve the problems which are admittedly facing the world of the immediate future are pointers to the solutions which have notably come and will undoubtedly increase and come. The point being made here is that those solutions do not lie in the field of increasingly complex mechanical devices, a world of computers and robots, but in the field of Nature where the whole earth will bring forth everything that is good and necessary for the service of humanity, where Nature is our assistant, and people learn to manipulate the forces of Nature to their own advantage and well‑being. In the Eden story God put Adam whom He had created in the garden, "to dress it and to keep it." (Gen.2:15) The two words mean in the first place to cultivate and in the second to preserve, as a steward or guardian. So, in the Millennium mankind will learn to care for and to maintain this earthly heritage, so that, as it was said so long ago by the prophet "then shall the earth yield her increase." (Psa.67:6) Just as the trees and plants will bring forth the food that people need, so will Nature, in one way or another, albeit by the activity and the oversight of humanity, bring forth their other necessities. AOH updated |
