Millennium & Eschaton
The concept of the Millennium has been integral to the prophetic tradition since its inception nearly thirty-five hundred years ago with Zoroaster. In that case Creation was given a span of seven millennia, with the defeat of evil giving rise to a final Millennium of divine harmony.
I am simply augmenting that original notion with the idea of a spiritually directed paradigm shift. The drama of this final intellectual and spiritual shift is greatly enhanced by the centuries of scientific 'progress' immediately preceding it. Thus we have the defeat of evil being embodied in the pre-Millennial advent and revelation which results in the overcoming of spiritual ignorance. The notion of supernatural armies clashing in the heavens is replaced by the clash of paradigms.
Given that the potency of the cosmic genie is largely a function of its coherence, the defeat of ignorance and evil is teleologically preordained in the microcosmic makeup of the creatures. This along with the social and technical potency of the Internet implies that the final messianic trigger should be the merest of 'butterfly' effects. Thus is the cosmic coercion of this revelation minimized. It is a maximally participatory event. Why anyone with half a brain is not now scrambling to put together this prophetic website is well beyond my ken. All the more for the rest of us, I suppose. It does reduce the noise.
Our spiritual matriculation occurs at the end of the seventh and final Millennium. This is when linear, sequential history ends. Having resolved our mundane affairs, we move into the infinite dimensions of eternity: we become one with the Divine. Our sojourn into the limited dimensions of matter is completed. Even this 'resurrection of the dead' was easily foreseen by the grandfather of the prophets. Our spirits need only the slightest of nudges to remember the origin and purpose of our journey here.
5/29/02