Podcasts about sir thomas more

Robert Bolt's award winning drama about Sir Thomas More's crisis of conscience

00:00 9. Тертулиан 13:14 10. Климент Александрийский 35:28 11. Порфирий 1:26:30 12. Златоуст 1:50:31 13. Корнаро (Cornaro) 2:17:02 14. Томас Мор (Sir Thomas More) 2:33:52 15. Монтень (Montaigne) 2:56:52 16. Лессио (Lessio) 3:07:31 17. Гассенди (Gassendi) 3:28:08 18. Франсиск Бэкон (Francis Bacon) 3:31:54 19. Рэй (Ray) 3:36:51 20. Коулэй (Cowley) 3:39:23 21. Эвелин (Evelyn) 3:51:16 22. Мильтон (Milton) 3:56:39 23. Боссюэт (Bossuet) 4:00:34 24. Трайон (Tryon) 4:27:03 25. Эке (Hecquet) 4:42:09 26. Бернар Де Мондевиль (Bernard de Mandeville) 4:51:05 27. Гэй (Gay) 5:11:07 28. Чайн (Cheyne) 5:44:49 29. Поуп (Pope) 6:18:34 30. Томпсон (Thomson) 6:36:01 31. Гартлэй (Hartley) 6:39:35 32. Честерфильд (Chesterfield) 6:51:42 33. Вольтер (Voltaire) ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀

Sir Thomas More wrote, “A drowning man will grasp a straw.” Fear will cause us to hope in all kinds of things. In this passage from Isaiah, God gives King Ahaz a sign that reveals Ahaz's misplaced hope. But today that same sign offers us the only real hope there is: The hope of Immanuel, “God with us.”More info https://www.ebc.org or call (609.267.4755), email (office@ebc.org), DM us on Instagram or Facebook, or come see us in person at Easton Bible Church. Thank you for subscribing and sharing.#eastonbiblechurch #hainesportnj #christmas #savior #immanuel #godwithus #hope #findforgivenesslivedifferently

For the feast of Sts. Thomas More and John Fisher, Fr. Jon Tveit and Amanda are joined on the podcast by James Monti, author and historian, for a conversation on the life and example of St. Thomas More. Bibliography Header Image: A follower of Hans Holbein the Younger, Sir Thomas More (1600s) If you have … Continue reading "The Josias Podcast Episode XLIV: St. Thomas More"

A movie about a Saint! Today, Jacob and Tate review 1966's A Man for All Seasons starring Paul Scofield, Robert Shaw, and Orson Welles, a movie about England and King Henry VIII's divorce from the Catholic Church and Saint Thomas More. This movie was directed by Fred Zinnemann. GD4AM: 85/100 IMDb: 7.7/10 Metacritic: 72/100 Letterboxd: 3.8/5 RT: 89% The story of Sir Thomas More, who stood up to King Henry VIII when the King rejected the Roman Catholic Church to obtain a divorce and remarry. This movie is available for rent on most VOD platforms. NEXT MOVIE REVIEW: Wild Tales (2014), which is currently streaming on Hulu.

We discuss the academy award winning film A Man for All Seasons (1966) which depicts the heroic stand of Sir Thomas More against all the powers of England as King Henry VIII bends the church and state to his will. The silence and defiance of Sir Thomas paint a compelling picture of Christian conviction in a hostile culture. How can Christians be shrewd in their dealings with cultural traps? What is the role of law in defending conscience? How can Christians prepare to stand up for the truth? Watch this stirring film as a family and then join us for Reel Talk!

Sir Thomas More used to tell about a friend who was an addicted gambler.  Concerned for him and his family, More used to plead with him to stop his gambling and start supporting his family.

EPISODE 109| What's in a Name? The Shakespeare Authorship Debate Guest: Scott Jackson, Mary Irene Ryan Executive Artistic Director of Shakespeare at the University of Notre Dame, current vice president of the Shakespeare Theatre Association (STA) and incoming president, actor, director and Shakespeare scholar  William Shakespeare wrote at least 36 plays, 154 sonnets, two narrative poems and a few shorter poems - more than 884,000 words total, more than 1700 of which he invented. But just who was this guy? Was he really "the Man from Stratford", or merely a pen name for... well someone else? We look at some of the more popular Anti-Stratfordian theories and also look at why some people seem hell bent on proving that someone else, anyone else, actually wrote all that stuff. Like what we do? Then buy us a beer or three via our page on Buy Me a Coffee. #ConspiracyClearinghouse #sharingiscaring #donations #support #buymeacoffee You can also SUBSCRIBE to this podcast. Review us here or on IMDb! SECTIONS 03:02 - Upstart Crow - No evidence of his education, the First Folio, not much biographical evidence, a common hand, Bardathon 12:28 - The Ireland Shakespeare Forgeries - Compiling the First Folio, Vortigern and Rowena gets most of a performance 19:13 - The Baconian Theory - Bardolotry, Hart's The Romance of Yachting, Robert W. Jameson's "Who Wrote Shakespeare?", James Wilmot makes a bonfire 24:19 - Delia Bacon goes for the Rutland Theory, then the Groupists Theory, then all in on Bacon, travels to England, gets into codes and ciphers, loses her mind, inspires the New Historicists and cultural poetics; William Henry Smith and Nathaniel Homes kick off the Baconist Theory 30:11 - Baconist Orville Ward Owen builds a machine to find "proof", the first Mock Trial (1892-93) 33:17 - The Derbyite Theory & the Marlovian Theory - Classism, partnership with Marlowe, death and pseudonyms  39:57 - The Rutlandite Theory & More - More classism, Baconists still persist, more expeditions from Owen, schoolteacher Elizabeth Wells Gallup gets into codes, Stylometrics, the Claremont Shakespeare Authorship Clinic 44:31 - The Oxfordian Theory - John Thomas Looney fingers Edward de Vere based on spurious logic, lots jump on this bandwagon, geography in Shakespeare, "the coast of Bohemia", the media focuses on "reasonable doubt" over evidence, how plays were written back then, evidence gets lost in time 50:18 - A Single Hand - Though there is some reasonable doubt, Shakespeare probably wrote Shakespeare; Applied Shakespeare, humanity owns him, Shakespeare as a force for good (PTSD therapy, in prisons, etc.) Music by Fanette Ronjat More Info: Shakespeare Was Shakespeare by Isaac Butler on Slate Revisited Myth # 68: Shakespeare didn't write Shakespeare on History Myths Debunked The Shakespeare Index on TheatreHistory.org 20 words and phrases you didn't know Shakespeare invented Shakespeare's Words Shakespeare's Phrases Bard-a-thon at Fairbanks Shakespeare Theatre Ian McKellen performs Sir Thomas More, Act II, Scene 4 video "The Strangers' Case" Speech from Sir Thomas More with various speakers and annotations Professor Sir Stanley Wells Peter Holland, McMeel Family Chair in Shakespeare Studies at University of Notre Dame James Shapiro, playwright and Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University Stephen Greenblatt, general editor of The Norton Shakespeare, John Cogan University Professor of the Humanities at Harvard University The Shakespeare First Folio Vortigern and Rowena text The Confessions of William-Henry Ireland on WikiSource William Henry Ireland's Shakespeare Forgeries on Hoaxes.org Bardolotry on Wikipedia James Wilmot and Shakespeare's Authorship Bacon Bacon Shakespeare Spy  The Doctor Who Designed a Cipher Wheel to Decode Shakespeare Theories of identity – the alleged Shakespeare mystery  Marlowe as Shakespeare The Controversy of Shakespeare and Marlowe Christopher Marlowe Has Officially Been Credited as Co-Author of 3 Shakespeare Plays Born with Teeth by Liz Duffy Adams webpage Roger Manners, 5th Earl of Rutland on ShakespeareAuthorship.com Shakespeare by the Numbers: What Stylometrics Can and Cannot Tell Us The Claremont Shakespeare Clinic Computer Reads Shakespeare, Dismisses Authorship Candidate The Claremont Shakespeare Authorship Clinic: How Severe Are the Problems? The Globe theatre fire of 1613: when Shakespeare's playhouse burned down The Great Fire of London Finding Shakespeare - Skeptoid podcast What Shakespeare can teach us about conspiracy theories today How Shakespeare describes post-traumatic stress disorder In Shakespeare, veterans find a “tower of strength” Shakespeare and Possibility, Part 1: Shakespeare in Prisons video Shakespeare in Prisons Shakespeare Theater Association Prague Shakespeare Company (Shakespeare Summer Intensive (SSI) Follow us on social: Facebook Twitter Other Podcasts by Derek DeWitt DIGITAL SIGNAGE DONE RIGHT - Winner of a 2022 Gold Quill Award, 2022 Gold MarCom Award, 2021 AVA Digital Award Gold, 2021 Silver Davey Award, 2020 Communicator Award of Excellence, and on numerous top 10 podcast lists.  PRAGUE TIMES - A city is more than just a location - it's a kaleidoscope of history, places, people and trends. This podcast looks at Prague, in the center of Europe, from a number of perspectives, including what it is now, what is has been and where it's going. It's Prague THEN, Prague NOW, Prague LATER

Friend of the show Dr Eleanor Janega returns to talk to us about Sir Thomas More, the 15th-16th century lawyer, philosopher, statesman and Humanist, who also enjoys the distinction of being a man who posted himself to death. Support Going Medieval here, and Not So Different here! -------- PALESTINE AID LINKS As the humanitarian crisis continues to unfold in Gaza, we encourage anyone who can to donate to Medical Aid for Palestinians. You can donate using the links below. https://www.map.org.uk/donate/donate https://www.savethechildren.org.uk/how-you-can-help/emergencies/gaza-israel-conflict -------- PHOEBE ALERT Can't get enough Phoebe? Check out her Substack Here! -------- This show is supported by Patreon. Sign up for as little as $5 a month to gain access to a new bonus episode every week, and our entire backlog of bonus episodes! Thats https://www.patreon.com/10kpostspodcast -------- Ten Thousand Posts is a show about how everything is posting. It's hosted by Hussein (@HKesvani), Phoebe (@PRHRoy) and produced by Devon (@Devon_onEarth).

Sabine speaks with Sarah Skwire about the fascinating world of Shakespeare and why there are so many lessons we can learn from a pre-enlightenment playwright about markets, politics, and the human condition.  Episode Notes: - Mike Huemer's Post on Shakespeare: https://fakenous.substack.com/p/why-i-hate-shakespeare  - "The Comedy of The Errors" https://www.folger.edu/explore/shakespeares-works/the-comedy-of-errors/read/#:~:text=Synopsis%3A,named%20Dromio%2C%20as%20their%20servants.  - Sarah on Shakespeare and Immigration: https://fee.org/articles/even-shakespeare-knew-that-kicking-out-immigrants-harms-us-all/  - Adam Smith on Human Sympathy: https://www.adamsmithworks.org/documents/smith-on-sympathy-lauren-hall-12-1  - Summary of Shakespeare's "Sir Thomas More": https://nosweatshakespeare.com/sir-thomas-more-play/  - Adam Smith's misrecollection of Othello https://www.adamsmithworks.org/speakings/skwire-smith-shakespeare-slips-end-of-othello  - Intro to "Measure for Measure": https://www.folger.edu/explore/shakespeares-works/measure-for-measure/  - Commentary on the Political Theology of First Samuel: https://www.theologyofwork.org/old-testament/samuel-kings-chronicles-and-work/from-tribal-confederation-to-monarchy-1-samuel/       

Welcome to the Instant Trivia podcast episode 969, where we ask the best trivia on the Internet. Round 1. Category: You'Re On A Roll 1: A newspaper covering Congress since 1955, or the act of going down a list as you check class attendance. Roll Call. 2: Nicholas McKay invented this 4-letter roller using a toilet paper roll and tape to spruce up his suit for a dance. a lint roller. 3: "Roll Tide" is a trademarked phrase used by supporters of this state school... a lot. the University of Alabama. 4: Photographers and videographers set this "speed" to avoid the distorting effect called "rolling" this. shutter. 5: This appetizer got its name as it is traditionally served during a specific time of the year--the first day of Chinese New Year. a spring roll. Round 2. Category: Houses 1: A small cottage, its name may come from a Hindi word meaning "of Bengal". a bungalow. 2: Chalets have low-pitched roofs to allow for the accumulation of this, which acts as an insulation. snow. 3: In May 1987 PTL auctioned off Jim and Tammy Bakker's air-conditioned one for $4,500. a dog house. 4: The house in which a Roman Catholic parish priest lives. a rectory. 5: In a song from 1933, it's the type of house I want to go back to in Kealakekua, Hawaii. a little black shack. Round 3. Category: Movie Theater Gimmicks 1: The Odorama process added smells to movies using this 3-word process that involves a card and your fingernail. scratch and sniff. 2: In 1985 3 versions of this mystery comedy were released in theaters with 3 different people killing Mr. Boddy. Clue. 3: Psycho-Rama films used these, split-second hidden images or words, to unsettle the audience. subliminal messages. 4: Some theaters showed this 2019 Will Smith clone movie in 60 frames per second, which made the action look smoother. Gemini Man. 5: This director took his "Jay and Silent Bob Reboot" across the country on a roadshow. Kevin Smith. Round 4. Category: The Top Teen List 1: At 16, he joined the soccer club Manchester United, but he didn't get his first goal for another 3 years. Beckham. 2: Miley Cyrus plays this TV teen. Hannah Montana. 3: This nationalist leader who used nonviolent techniques to help create a free India was married when he was 13. Mohandas Gandhi. 4: Legend says at 13, she saved Capt. John Smith from warriors of Powhatan, her father. Pocahontas. 5: At 17, this "Little Women" author wrote her first novel, "The Inheritence". (Louisa May) Alcott. Round 5. Category: What Had Happened Was 1: In 2000 this man won the popular vote for U.S. president by 500,000 but did not get the job. Al Gore. 2: "Guests" of this fortress who checked out the hard way included Sir Thomas More, Edmund Dudley and Anne Boleyn. the Tower of London. 3: In 1687 the Ottomans found that storing gunpowder at this Acropolis building was a ridiculously terrible idea. the Parthenon. 4: In 1989 he succeeded his late father as emperor of Japan. Akihito. 5: On this mission Pete Conrad said, "Whoopee! Man, that may have been a small one for Neil, but that's a long one for me". Apollo 12. Thanks for listening! Come back tomorrow for more exciting trivia! Special thanks to https://blog.feedspot.com/trivia_podcasts/

A Man for All Seasons, the 1966 film based on the life of Sir Thomas More won six Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor. During the film, Richard Rich, an ambitious young man, is seeking More's assistance in finding a position at Court. More tells Rich that he has found him a teaching position. When More tells Rich that he might be a great teacher, Rich responds despondently “and who would know it.” More replies, “You, your pupils, your friends, God. Not a bad public that.” In a world where professional success is often scored based on income and generally meaningless awards, it is important to take time to determine what your personal vision of success in life looks like.   On today's episode Jake walks you through, the EOS Personal/Family V/TO which is a tool to help you chart your vision of the future, the person who you hope to be in 10 years. Make sure to download this tool before tunning into today's episode to get the most out of this incredibly important exercise.

June 22: Saints John Fisher, Bishop and Martyr, and Thomas More, Martyr John Fisher: 1469–1535; Thomas More: 1478–1535 Optional Memorial; Liturgical Color: Red Patron Saint of the Diocese of Rochester (Fisher) and of lawyers and politicians (More)  They would not bend to the marriage  In 1526 a German painter named Hans Holbein could not find work in Basel, Switzerland. The Reformation had come to town. It shattered the stained glass, burned the wooden statues, and sliced up the oil paintings. Protestants don't “do” great art. There were no more commissions. So Holbein went north, to Catholic England, in search of wealthy patrons for his craft. On his way, he passed through the Netherlands to procure letters of introduction from the great humanist Desiderius Erasmus. Erasmus was a friend of Sir Thomas More, an English humanist of the highest caliber. And thus it came to pass that one fine day, in England in 1527, Thomas More sat patiently while Holbein's brush worked its magic. Holbein's extraordinary portrait of Thomas More captures the man for all seasons, as one contemporary called More, at the pinnacle of his powers. More's head and torso fill the frame. There is no need for context, landscape, or a complex backdrop. More's mind is what matters. He is what matters. Nothing else. The shimmering velvet of his robes, the weighty gold chain of office resting on his shoulders, the detailed rose badge of the House of Tudor lying on his chest, all tell the viewer something important—this is not a frivolous man. He serves the King. His work is consequential. He also wears a ring. He is married and has children. He dons a cap. It is England, and he is cold. His stubble is visible. He is tired from overwork and did not have time to shave. He holds a small slip of paper—perhaps a bribe he rejected. His gaze, slightly off center, is earnest, serious, and calm. It is almost as if he is searching the room, attentive to any threat lurking behind the painter. He is watchful. The entirety of the work conveys that elusive quality that denotes great art—interior movement. The gears of More's brain are rotating. His personality has force. The viewer feels it. Saint Thomas More was the greatest Englishman of his generation. In a land with a highly educated aristocratic class, his erudition was unequalled. He was a devoted family man who carried out an extensive correspondence with his children and ensured that his daughters were as well educated as his sons. He served the English crown faithfully both at home and abroad. He charmed his many friends with a rich and engaging personality. He published scholarly works and communicated with other humanists of his era. Yet despite all of these accomplishments, the fraught times he lived in eventually overwhelmed him. He could not save his own head. More was a thoughtful and serious Catholic. He refused to bend to the will of King Henry VIII regarding divorce and Henry's self-appointment as head of the Church in England. For his silence, or lack of explicit support for Henry, More was brought to court, where a perjurer's words knifed him in the heart. More was condemned to death by beheading. This was a favor from the King, who admired More but could not brook his dissent. More had originally been sentenced to a far crueler form of capital punishment, but Henry decreed that his life end with one blow of the axe. So the unconquered Thomas More climbed a shaky scaffold on July 6, 1535, and had his head lopped off. His head was stuck on a pole on London bridge for one month afterward, a trophy to barbarity. More died a martyr to the indissolubility of marriage. Saint John Fisher was an academic who held various high positions at the University of Cambridge, one of the two universities in all of England, eventually becoming its Chancellor for life. He was a Renaissance humanist, like Thomas More, who encouraged the study of Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. Fisher was the personal tutor of Henry VIII when Henry was a boy, and he preached the funeral homily of Henry's father, Henry VII. John Fisher lived a life of extreme personal austerity and even placed a human skull on the table during meals to remind himself of his eventual end. He had many of the same qualities as More—great learning, personal uprightness, and academic accomplishments. But easy times don't make martyrs. When King Henry wanted to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, Fisher became her most ardent supporter. He openly stated in court that he would die for the indissolubility of marriage, thus incurring the lasting wrath of his former pupil Henry. All the bishops of England, save Fisher and two others, lost their courage and acquiesced, without a fight, to Henry VIII's takeover of the Catholic Church in England. Their weakness brought to a sudden, crashing end a thousand years of Catholicism in England. The faith endured in some form, of course, but would never be the culture-forming force it had been for so many centuries. It is an embarrassment of Catholic history that almost all the bishops of England fell like dominoes, one after another, at one slight puff of the breath of King Henry VIII on their cheeks. After various nefarious machinations, John Fisher was imprisoned in the harshest of conditions for over a year, even being deprived access to a priest. During this time, the Pope named him a cardinal, although Henry refused him the ceremonial placing of the red hat on his head. After a brief trial with the usual perjury, Cardinal John Fisher was beheaded on June 22, 1535. In order to avoid inevitable comparisons between Cardinal Fisher and John the Baptist, King Henry moved the cardinal's execution to avoid any connection to June 24th's Feast of Saint John the Baptist. Both Johns were martyrs to marriage. But there was no silver platter for John Fisher. His head was placed on a pole on London bridge for two weeks, only to be replaced by Thomas More's head. Saints John Fisher and Thomas More were beatified in 1886 along with fifty-four other English martyrs. The two were canonized together in 1935. Saints John Fisher and Thomas More, through your intercession, give all Catholics courage to resist the pressure to conform to falsehood, to the broad way, to popular opinion. You were both thoughtful and granite-like in your resistance. Help us to be likewise when times call for such.

Join Jason Nunez and Angela Sealana on a journey through history with saints who were Dads! What can fathers gain from their example, especially for challenging times in the pilgrimage of parenthood? During this episode, you will: Meet saints who were fathers, and learn what they teach us Look at common challenges facing fathers today, and learn practical tips for overcoming them And appreciate the powerful gift of fatherhood Click here for additional resources, and take your journey to the next level. Jewel for the Journey: “By fulfilling your duty in this way you will reach the highest state of happiness.” (St. Stephen of Hungary to his son Emeric, The Admonitions) Would you like to support Journeys of Hope? Become a Missionary of Hope by sponsoring a month of Journeys of Hope 2023 Radio Broadcast & Podcast! Click here to get started. Learn more at PilgrimCenterOfHope.org/Journeys Help us spread hope! PilgrimCenterOfHope.org/Donate St. James Kisai Image Attribution: Aikaleido, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Sir Thomas More's 1516 book inaugurated a new genre of English literature: the utopian fantasy.  But More's own life, combined with the text's irony and narrative layering, make this a more complex prescription than you might think!Support the showPlease like, subscribe, and rate the podcast on Apple, Spotify, Google, or wherever you listen. Thank you!Email: classicenglishliterature@gmail.comFollow me on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Tik Tok, and YouTube.If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting it with a small donation. Click the "Support the Show" button. So grateful!Podcast Theme Music: "Rejoice" by G.F. Handel, perf. The Advent Chamber OrchestraSubcast Theme Music: "Sons of the Brave" by Thomas Bidgood, perf. The Band of the Irish GuardsSound effects and incidental music: Freesounds.org

In this week's episode you'll hear me learn about how to pronounce this week's topic correctly—it is the Huguenots (and not Huguenots as I had been saying and which you may have been tempted to say as well). This week we're exploring the arrival of Huguenots to England in Shakespeare's lifetime. During Catherine de Medici's reign as Queen consort in France, the country was anything but hospitable to Protestants. The St. Bartholomew Day's Massacre in the late 16th century saw thousands of Huguenots rounded up and slaughtered. That was only one event where Huguenots were proven unwelcome, and in danger, to remain in France. Throughout the reigns of Edward VI, Elizabeth I, and on into the 18th century reigns of James II, and beyond, England as a Protestant nation became a safe haven for refugee French Calvinists. During Shakespeare's lifetime, the impact of the arrival of Huguenots seems to have been significant, with Shakespeare writing about “strangers” over 70 times across his works, often using the term to describe someone from another country, who may not speak English, and is simultaneously in need of a welcome, and to be viewed with necessary suspicion. We see plays like Hamlet extending a hand of friendship when Hamlet says in Act I “And therefore as a stranger give it welcome.” And yet, in Love's Labour's Lost, Act V, Rosaline being much less accomodating, saying, “Since you are strangers and come here by chance, We'll not be nice“ While these references could refer to any international Immigrant, many believe that Shakespeare commented directly on the plight of the Huguenots from France, with one impassioned speech about how to treat so called Strangers, that is given in the historical play Sir Thomas More. Furthermore, we know that William Shakespeare had direct personal connections to Huguenots, having lived for a time as a lodger in London with Christopher and Mary Mountjoy, a French Huguenot couple. Here today to tell us more about the plight of refugee French Calvinists in the life of William Shakespeare is our guest and Fellow of the Huguenot Society of Great Britain and Ireland, Joyce Hampton.   Get bonus episodes on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the summer of 1483 Edward and Richard, sons of the deceased King Edward IV, disappeared from the Tower of London, where they were being held by the recently crowned Richard III. There are countless theories about their fate. Some believe that were secretly whisked away and survived into adulthood. Some are convinced that Richard III had them murdered, a theory perpetuated by Sir Thomas More and William Shakespeare. But other suspects linger in the background as well.My guest, M.J. Trow, believes he knows who killed the Princes in the Tower, and he shares his thoughts on this week's episode of Most Notorious. His book is called "The Killer of the Princes in the Tower: A New Suspect Revealed".For more on M.J. Trow's books, visit his Amazon page here.

This week's guest is Paul Strathern, who is something of a Renaissance Man himself. He's written a new book detailing the 'Other Renaissance', the one that took place north of the Alps in France, the German states, the Low Countries and England.Paul talks about Martin Luther and Protestantism, Sir Thomas More & Henry VIII, Capernicus and the solar orbit, Gutenberg and the printing press, and Catherine de Medici.Paul Strathern LinksThe Other RenaissanceThe FlorentinesThe History of Economics

The Worthy boys are going through all the seasons to break down the 1966 Best Picture winner, "A Man For All Seasons". Ben and Jon open the episode discussing dialogue-heavy films and how they translate on to screen. The Worthy hosts also look back at the 39th Academy Awards and the films honored from 1966! The film "A Man For All Seasons" centers on the trial of Sir Thomas More and his defiance against the crown of England during the 1500s. The Worthy boys look at the film's script, cinematography, and acting performances from some of the biggest names among British actors.  Is A Man For All Seasons worthy of the Best Picture award of 1966? Tell us how we're wrong at worthysubmissions@gmail.com

In today's "The Tudors in their own words", historian Claire Ridgway shares some words Sir Thomas More spoke regarding his master, King Henry VIII, words that show he knew the king incredibly well.

What does this 1966 film, detailing the conflict between King Henry VIII of England and Sir Thomas More tell us about the cause of the tension between Henry and the Catholic Church, and the conflicting loyalties of More, a devout Catholic? What does it tell us about European religious conflicts of the time period and the painful development of the Western world's tolerance on matters of religion and state? What geopolitical lessons does it hold for us today in this regard? How does the dilemma Thomas faces illustrate the Stoic notion that each person is essentially a “moral purpose", and the costs of compromising with that status? How is his case like those of Socrates and people acting on religious conscience in our present day? How does the film illustrate the contrast between rule of law and rule of a tyrant? How is this film's portrayal of Henry's mental and emotional instability similar to films centering on mob bosses and organized crime?

Our plans for the immediate future are to write 901 theses on every topic imaginable, with many of them focusing on how much utopias suck and how bad tattoos will look in the future! Along with this, we discuss humanism in the fifteenth century, looking at how various thinkers valued education and classical literature in order to argue for peace and the importance of the common person. We discuss one of the first feminist authors, Christine de Pizan, the somewhat crazy Pico della Mirandola, the great thinkers Erasmus and Sir Thomas More, and conclude with Montaigne. Humanism brings up many great questions, such as the importance of pacifism, how we can bring together all forms of knowledge to find the truth, and monarchy being the best form of government.  Follow us on Twitter! @UlmtdOpinions

Part 2 of our Halloween series. This episode features Gracie Cota. Let's get the answer from the last episode about the dead and learn the truth about Halloween. ***this topic is personally held dearly to my heart because of my recent deceased little brother. This can be a sensitive topic for some. so, I ask that you prayerfully listen and bear with me as we go through scriptures for answers. 2 Timothy 3:16 Colossians 2:8 Genesis 2:7 1 Corinthians 15:45 Acts 27:37 Psalm 104:29 Ecclesiastes 3:18-21 Ecclesiastes 12:7 Hebrew word for spirit "ruwach" wind, breath, of heaven, breath of air, "the breath of life", spirit Greek word for spirit "pneuma" a current of air, breath (blast) or breeze. "Breath of God", spirit James 2:26 Job 27:3 Job 12:10 Ezekiel 18:4; 18:20 Revelation 16:3 Matthew 10:28 1 Timothy 6:16 Romans 2:7 Genesis 3:4 John 8:44 The New Catholic Encyclopedia, 1967, art. "Soul, Human, Immortality of" Catechism of the Catholic Church, Part One, Section 2, Chapter 1, Article 1, Paragraph 6, Part II, line 366: William Tyndale, An Answer to Sir Thomas More's dialogue, Parker's 1850 reprint, Bk. 4, Ch 4, pg. 180,181 Job 17:13 Job 7:8-10 Job 16:22 Job 14:11-14 2 peter 3:10-13 Isaiah 66:17-22 Revelation 16:15 1 Corinthians 15:50-55 Job 14:21 Ecclesiastes 9:5-6, 10 Psalm 6:5; 115:17 Psalm 146:4 Acts 2:29-35 John 20:17 *John 11:11* Matthew 9:24 Psalm 13:3 1 kings to 2 chronicles 1 kings 2:10 1 kings 11:43 --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/elijahministires/support

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 28, 2022 is: utopia • yoo-TOH-pee-uh • noun The word utopia refers to “a place of ideal perfection,” with the perfection in question often pertaining to laws, government, and social conditions. // Her vision of utopia was a world where no one ever went hungry or lived in fear of war. See the entry > Examples: “This year's Essence Festival activation plans to be bigger, more immersive, and further integrated than ever before. Centered around the idea of a Black utopia, Afrotropolis 3.0 will be an innovative 360-degree wonderland curated to intersect Black culture, creativity, artistry and technology with exciting opportunities for festival attendees to discover, explore, and further build their network.” — Black Enterprise, 5 July 2022 Did you know? There's quite literally no place like utopia. In 1516, English humanist Sir Thomas More published a book titled Utopia, which compared social and economic conditions in Europe with those of an ideal society on an imaginary island located off the coast of the Americas. More wanted to imply that the perfect conditions on his fictional island could never really exist, so he called it “Utopia,” a name he created by combining the Greek words ou (“not, no”) and topos (“place”). The earliest generic use of utopia was for an imaginary and indefinitely remote place. The current use of utopia, referring to an ideal place or society, was inspired by More's description of Utopia's perfection.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 28, 2022 is: utopia • yoo-TOH-pee-uh • noun The word utopia refers to “a place of ideal perfection,” with the perfection in question often pertaining to laws, government, and social conditions. // Her vision of utopia was a world where no one ever went hungry or lived in fear of war. See the entry > Examples: “This year's Essence Festival activation plans to be bigger, more immersive, and further integrated than ever before. Centered around the idea of a Black utopia, Afrotropolis 3.0 will be an innovative 360-degree wonderland curated to intersect Black culture, creativity, artistry and technology with exciting opportunities for festival attendees to discover, explore, and further build their network.” — Black Enterprise, 5 July 2022 Did you know? There's quite literally no place like utopia. In 1516, English humanist Sir Thomas More published a book titled Utopia, which compared social and economic conditions in Europe with those of an ideal society on an imaginary island located off the coast of the Americas. More wanted to imply that the perfect conditions on his fictional island could never really exist, so he called it “Utopia,” a name he created by combining the Greek words ou (“not, no”) and topos (“place”). The earliest generic use of utopia was for an imaginary and indefinitely remote place. The current use of utopia, referring to an ideal place or society, was inspired by More's description of Utopia's perfection.

Having watched the second Elizabethan era draw to a close in recent weeks, it is fitting that in this episode we are going back to the beginning of the first Elizabethan era – the moment when Mary Tudor died leaving the throne to her younger half-sister. These two queens, the first women to rule England in their own right, were divided by their faith. The greatest challenge facing Elizabeth on her accession was to unite a country which was polarised by religion, having passed from hard-line Protestantism under Edward VI back to Catholicism with Mary. Our learned guide on this journey is Dr Lucy Wooding whose masterful new book, Tudor England, gives a rich, detailed vision of the period. Wooding's book is not simply limited to the big political moments but takes the reader right into the lives of ordinary people as well. Dr Lucy Wooding is Langford Fellow and Tutor in History at Lincoln College, Oxford. She is an expert on Reformation England, its politics, religion and culture, and the author of Henry VIII. Tudor England by Lucy Wooding is out now. Show notes Scene One: 17 November 1558, London. In the early morning, Mary I lies dying at St James's Palace. By evening, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Cardinal Reginald Pole, has also died – a momentous day for Catholicism in England. Scene Two: November 1558, a few days earlier. Princess Elizabeth is at a dinner party at Brocket Hall, with the Count of Feria who has been sent by Philip II (Mary's husband) to sound out the heir to the throne. He concludes that she is, ‘'She is a very vain and clever woman', who is, ‘determined to be governed by no one'. Scene Three: Late 1557, The Works of Sir Thomas More, sometime Lord Chauncellor, wrytten by him in the Englysh tonge are published by the printer William Rastell, who was also More's nephew. Memento: The reliquary known as the ‘Tablet de Bourbon', made by one of the great Parisian goldsmiths and acquired as part of a ransom during the Hundred Years War. Worn by Mary I in the portrait by Hans Eworth. People/Social Presenter: Violet Moller Guest: Dr Lucy Wooding Production: Maria Nolan Podcast partner: Ace Cultural Tours Theme music: ‘Love Token' from the album ‘This Is Us' By Slava and Leonard Grigoryan Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_ Or on Facebook See where 1558 fits on our Timeline

Mark Standriff is the Director of Beautify Fresno. However, in his spare time he enjoys going back to his roots: acting on the stage. Mark will open in A Man for All Seasons (Good Company Players) on August 19th in the role of Sir Thomas More. He stopped by to discuss the production and, more broadly, theatre in Fresno. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mark Standriff is the Director of Beautify Fresno. However, in his spare time he enjoys going back to his roots: acting on the stage. Mark will open in A Man for All Seasons (Good Company Players) on August 19th in the role of Sir Thomas More. He stopped by to discuss the production and, more broadly, theatre in Fresno. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

for episode 110, I've chosen to reflect upon the 487th anniversary of the death of Sir Thomas More, beheaded on this day in 1535 for his refusal to accept King Henry VIII as the head of the Church of England. From one great humanist (More) to another (me), it's difficult to reconcile that Sir Thomas was the same age as me upon his execution, however there is some solace in knowing he died doing what he loved (refusing to accept King Henry VIII as the head of the Church of England). And were I to keel over this very moment, i too, would perish doing what I truly love — playing records that would be hard to distinguish from the sound of the house's HVAC system were the former not plastic, round and in some instances obscenely expensive. To all of my friends and frenemies, as More would surely advise were his head attached , PROTECT YA NECK (and protect the Necks, while we're at it)

What you'll learn in this episode: Why the best modernist pieces are fetching record prices at auction today How “Messengers of Modernism” helped legitimize modernist jewelry as an art form The difference between modern jewelry and modernist jewelry Who the most influential modernist jewelers were and where they drew their inspiration from Why modernist jewelry was a source of empowerment for women About Toni Greenbaum Toni Greenbaum is a New York-based art historian specializing in twentieth and twenty-first century jewelry and metalwork. She wrote Messengers of Modernism: American Studio Jewelry 1940-1960 (Montréal: Musée des Arts Décoratifs and Flammarion, 1996), Sam Kramer: Jeweler on the Edge (Stuttgart: Arnoldsche Art Publishers, 2019) and “Jewelers in Wonderland,” an essay on Sam Kramer and Karl Fritsch for Jewelry Stories: Highlights from the Collection 1947-2019 (New York: Museum of Arts and Design and Arnoldsche, 2021), along with numerous book chapters, exhibition catalogues, and essays for arts publications. Greenbaum has lectured internationally at institutions such as the Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich; Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague; Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven; Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum and Museum of Arts and Design, New York; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; and Savannah College of Art and Design Museum of Art, Savannah. She has worked on exhibitions for several museums, including the Victoria and Albert in London, Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal, and Bard Graduate Center Gallery, New York. Additional Resources: Link to Purchase Books Toni's Instagram The Jewelry Library  Photos Available on TheJewelryJourney.com Transcript: Once misunderstood as an illegitimate art form, modernist jewelry has come into its own, now fetching five and six-figure prices at auction. Modernist jewelry likely wouldn't have come this far without the work of Toni Greenbaum, an art historian, professor and author of “Messengers of Modernism: American Studio Jewelry, 1940 to 1960.” She joined the Jewelry Journey Podcast to talk about the history of modernist jewelry; why it sets the women who wear it apart; and where collectors should start if they want to add modernist pieces to their collections. Read the episode transcript here.   Sharon: Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Jewelry Journey Podcast. This is a two-part Jewelry Journey Podcast. Please make sure you subscribe so you can hear part two as soon as it comes out later this week.    Today my guest is art historian, professor and author Toni Greenbaum. She is the author of the iconic tome, “Messengers of Modernism: American Studio Jewelry, 1940 to 1960,” which analyzes the output of America's modernist jewelers. Most recently, she authored “Sam Kramer: Jeweler on the Edge,” a biography of the jeweler Sam Kramer. Every time I say jeweler I think I'm using the world a little loosely, but we're so glad to have you here today. Thank you so much.   Toni: I am so glad to be here, Sharon. Thank you so much for inviting me. It's been many years coming.   Sharon: I'm glad we connected. Tell me about your jewelry journey. It sounds very interesting.   Toni: Well, there's a lot you don't know about my jewelry journey. My jewelry journey began when I was a preteen. I just became fascinated with Native American, particularly Navajo, jewelry that I would see in museum gift shops. I started to buy it when I was a teenager, what I could afford. In those days, I have to say museum gift shops were fabulous, particularly the Museum of Natural History gift shop, the Brooklyn Museum gift shop. They had a lot of ethnographic material of very high quality. So, I continued to buy Native American jewelry. My mother used to love handcrafted jewelry, and she would buy it in whatever craft shops or galleries she could find.    Then eventually in my 20s and 30s, I got outpriced. Native American jewelry was becoming very, very fashionable, particularly in the late 60s, 1970s. I started to see something that looked, to me, very much like Native American jewelry, but it was signed. It had names on it, and some of them sounded kind of Mexican—in fact, they were Mexican. So, I started to buy Mexican jewelry because I could afford it. Then that became very popular when names like William Spratling and Los Castillo and Hector Aguilar became known. I saw something that looked like Mexican jewelry and Navajo jewelry, but it wasn't; it was made by Americans. In fact, it would come to be known as modernist jewelry. Then I got outpriced with that, but that's the start of my jewelry journey.   Sharon: So, you liked jewelry from when you were a youth.    Toni: Oh, from when I was a child. I was one of these little three, four-year-olds that was all decked out. My mother loved jewelry. I was an only child, and I was, at that time, the only grandchild. My grandparents spoiled me, and my parents spoiled me, and I loved jewelry, so I got a lot of jewelry. That and Frankie Avalon records.   Sharon: Do you still collect modernist? You said you were getting outpriced. You write about it. Do you still collect it?   Toni: Not really. The best of the modernist jewelry is extraordinarily expensive, and unfortunately, I want the best. If I see something when my husband and I are antiquing or at a flea market or at a show that has style and that's affordable, occasionally I'll buy it, but I would not say that I can buy the kind of jewelry I want in the modernist category any longer. I did buy several pieces in the early 1980s from Fifty/50 Gallery, when they were first putting modernist jewelry on the map in the commercial aspect. I was writing about it; they were selling it. They were always and still are. Mark McDonald still is so generous with me as far as getting images and aiding my research immeasurably. Back then, the modernist jewelry was affordable, and luckily I did buy some major pieces for a tenth of what they would get today.   Sharon: Wow! When you say the best of modernist jewelry today, Calder was just astronomical. We'll put that aside.   Toni: Even more astronomical: there's a Harry Bertoia necklace that somebody called my attention to that is coming up at an auction at Christie's. If they don't put that in their jewelry auctions, they'll put it in their design auctions. I think it's coming up at the end of June; I forget the exact day. The estimate on the Harry Bertoia necklace is $200,000 to $300,000—and this is a Harry Bertoia necklace. I'm just chomping at the bit to find out what it, in fact, is going to bring, but that's the estimate they put, at $200,000 to $300,000.   Sharon: That's a lot of money. What holds your interest in modernist jewelry?   Toni: The incredible but very subtle design aspect of it. Actually, tomorrow I'm going to be giving a talk on Art Smith for GemEx. Because my background is art history, one of the things I always do when I talk about these objects is to show how they were inspired by the modern art movements. This is, I think, what sets modernist jewelry apart from other categories of modern and contemporary jewelry. There are many inspirations, but it is that they are very much inspired by Cubism, Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism, Biomorphism, etc., depending on the artist. Some are influenced by all of the above, and I think I saw that. I saw it implicitly before I began to analyze it in the jewelry.    This jewelry is extraordinarily well-conceived. A lot of the craftsmanship is not pristine, but I have never been one for pristine craftsmanship. I love rough surfaces, and I love the process to show in the jewelry. Much of the modernist jewelry is irreverent—I use the word irreverent instead of sloppy—as far as the process is concerned. It was that hands-on, very direct approach, in addition to this wonderful design sense, which, again, came from the modern art movements. Most of the jewelers—not all of them, but most of them—lived either in New York or in Northern or Southern California and had access to museums, and these people were aesthetes. They would go to museums. They would see Miro's work; they would see Picasso's work, and they would definitely infuse their designs with that sensibility.   Sharon: Do you think that jumped out at you, the fact that they were inspired by different art movements, because you studied art history? You teach it, or you did teach it at one time?    Toni: No, just history of jewelry. I majored in art history, but I've never taught art history. I've taught history of jewelry. We can argue about whether jewelry is art or not, but history of jewelry is what I've taught.   Sharon: I've taken basic art history, but I couldn't tell you some of the movements you're talking about. I can't identify the different movements. Do you think it jumped out at you because you're knowledgeable?   Toni: Yes, definitely, because I would look at Art Smith and I would say, “That's Biomorphism.” I would see it. It was obvious. I would look at Sam Kramer and I would say, “This is Surrealism.” He was called a surrealist jeweler back in his day, when he was practicing and when he had his shop on 8th Street. I would look at Rebajes and I would see Cubism. Of course, it was because I was well-versed in those movements, because what I was always most interested in when I was studying art history were the more modern movements.   Sharon: Did you think you would segue to jewelry in general? Was that something on your radar?   Toni: That's a very interesting question because when I was in college, I had a nucleus of professors who happened to have come from Cranbrook.   Sharon: I'm sorry, from where?   Toni: Cranbrook School of Art.   Sharon: O.K., Cranbrook.   Toni: I actually took a metalsmithing class as an elective, just to see what it was because I was so interested in jewelry, although I was studying what I call legitimate art history. I was so interested in jewelry that I wanted to see what the process was. I probably was the worst jeweler that ever tried to make jewelry, but I learned what it is to make. I will tell you something else, Sharon, it is what has given me such respect for the jewelers, because when you try to do it yourself and you see how challenging it is, you really respect the people who do it miraculously even more.    So, I took this class just to see what it was, and the teacher—I still remember his name. His name was Cunningham; I don't remember his first name. He was from Cranbrook, and he sent the class to a retail store in New York on 53rd Street, right opposite MOMA, called America House.   Sharon: Called American House?   Toni: America House. America House was the retail enterprise of the American Craft Council. They had the museum, which was then called the Museum of Contemporary Crafts; now it's called MAD, Museum of Arts and Design. They had the museum, and they had a magazine, Craft Horizons, which then became American Craft, and then they had this retail store. I went into America House—and this was the late 1960s—and I knew I had found my calling. I looked at this jewelry, which was really fine studio jewelry. It was done by Ronald Pearson; it was done by Jack Kripp. These were the people that America House carried. I couldn't afford to buy it. I did buy some of the jewelry when they went out of business and had a big sale in the early 1970s. At that time I couldn't, but I looked at the jewelry and the holloware, and I had never seen anything like it. Yes, I had seen Native American that I loved, and I had seen Mexican that I loved. I hadn't yet seen modernist; that wasn't going to come until the early 1980s. But here I saw this second generation of studio jewelers, and I said, “I don't know what I'm going to do with this professionally, but I know I've got to do something with it because this is who I am. This is what I love.”    Back in the late 1960s, it was called applied arts. Anything that was not painting and sculpture was applied art. Ceramics was applied art; furniture was applied art; textiles, jewelry, any kind of metalwork was applied art. Nobody took it seriously as an academic discipline in America, here in this country. Then I went on to graduate school, still in art history. I was specializing in what was then contemporary art, particularly color field painting, but I just loved what was called the crafts, particularly the metalwork. I started to go to the library and research books on jewelry. I found books on jewelry, but they were all published in Europe, mostly England. There were things in other languages other than French, which I could read with a dictionary. There were books on jewelry history, but they were not written in America; everything was in Europe. So, I started to read voraciously about the history of jewelry, mostly the books that came out of the Victoria & Albert Museum. I read all about ancient jewelry and medieval jewelry and Renaissance jewelry. Graham Hughes, who was then the director of the V&A, had written a book, “Modern Jewelry,” and it had jewelry by artists, designed by Picasso and Max Ernst and Brach, including things that were handmade in England and all over Europe. I think even some of the early jewelers in our discipline were in that book. If I remember correctly, I think Friedrich Becker, for example, might have been in Graham Hughes' “Modern Jewelry,” because that was published, I believe, in the late 1960s.    So, I saw there was a literature in studio jewelry; it just wasn't in America. Then I found a book on William Spratling, this Mexican jeweler whose work I had collected. It was not a book about his jewelry; it was an autobiography about himself that obviously he had written, but it was so rich in talking about the metalsmithing community in Taxco, Mexico, which is where he, as an American, went to study the colonial architecture. He wound up staying and renovating the silver mines that had been dormant since the 18th century. It was such a great story, and I said, “There's something here,” but no graduate advisor at that time, in the early 70s, was going to support you in wanting to do a thesis on applied art, no matter what the medium. But in the back of my mind, I always said, “I'm going to do something with this at some point.”    Honestly, Sharon, I never thought I would live to see the day that this discipline is as rich as it is, with so much literature, with our publishers publishing all of these fantastic jewelry books, and other publishers, like Flammarion in Paris, which published “Messengers of Modernism.” Then there's the interest in Montreal at the Museum of Fine Arts, which is the museum that has the “Messengers of Modernism” collection. It has filtered into the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, Dallas, obviously MAD. So many museums are welcoming. I never thought I would live to see the day. It really is so heartening. I don't have words to express how important this is, but I just started to do it. In the early 1970s or mid-1970s—I don't think my daughter was born yet. My son was a toddler. I would sit in my free moments and write an article about William Spratling, because he was American. He went to Mexico, but he was American. He was the only American I knew of that I could write about. Not that that article was published at that time, but I was doing the research and I was writing it.   Sharon: That's interesting. If there had been a discipline of jewelry history or something in the applied arts, if an advisor had said, “Yes, I'll support you,” or “Why don't you go ahead and get your doctorate or your master's,” that's something you would have done?   Toni: Totally, without even a thought, yes. Because when I was studying art history, I would look at Hans Holbein's paintings of Henry VIII and Sir Thomas More, and all I would do was look at the jewelry they were wearing, the chains and the badges on their berets. I said, “Oh my god, that is so spectacular.” Then I learned that Holbein actually designed the jewelry, which a lot of people don't know. I said, “There is something to this.” I would look at 18th century paintings with women, with their pearls and rings and bracelets, and all I would do was look at the jewelry. I would have in a heartbeat. If I could have had a graduate advisor, I would have definitely pursued that.   Sharon: When you say you never thought you'd live to see the day when modernist jewelry is so popular—not that it's so surprising, but you are one of the leaders of the movement. When I mentioned to somebody, “Oh, I like modernist jewelry,” the first thing they said was, “Well, have you read ‘Messengers of Modernism?'” As soon as I came home—I was on a trip—I got it. So, you are one of the leaders.   Toni: Well, it is interesting. It is sort of the standard text, but people will say, “Well, why isn't Claire Falkenstein in the book? She's so important,” and I say, “It's looked upon as a standard text, but the fact is it's a catalogue to an exhibition. That was the collection.” Fifty/50 Gallery had a private collection. As I said before, they were at the forefront of promoting and selling modernist jewelry, but they did have a private collection. That collection went to Montreal in the 1990s because at that time, there wasn't an American museum that was interested in taking that collection. That book is the catalogue of that finite collection. So, there are people who are major modernist jewelers—Claire Falkenstein is one that comes to mind—that are not in that collection, so they're not in the book. There's a lot more to be said and written about that movement.   Sharon: I'm sure you've been asked this a million times: What's the difference between modern and modernist jewelry?   Toni: Modern is something that's up to date at a point in time, but modernist jewelry is—this is a word we adopted. The word existed, but we adopted it to define the mid-20th century studio jewelry, the post-war jewelry. It really goes from 1940 to the 1960s. That's it; that's the time limit of modernist jewelry. Again, it's a word we appropriated. We took that word and said, “We're going to call this category modernist jewelry because we have to call it something, so that's the term.” Modern means up to date. That's just a general word.   Sharon: When you go to a show and see things that are in the modernist style, it's not truly modernist if it was done today, it wasn't done before 1960.   Toni: Right, no. Modernist jewelry is work that's done in that particular timeframe and that also subscribes to what I was saying, this appropriation of motifs from the modern art movement. There was plenty of costume jewelry and fine jewelry being done post-war, and that is jewelry that is mid-20th century. You can call it mid-20th century modern, which confuses the issue even more, but it's not modernist jewelry. Modernist jewelry is jewelry that was done in the studio by a silversmith and was inspired by the great movements in modern art and some other inspirations. Art Smith was extremely motivated by African motifs, but also by Calder and by Biomorphism. It's not religious. There are certainly gray areas, but in general, that's modernist jewelry.    Sharon: I feel envious when you talk about everything that was going in on New York. I have a passion, but there's no place on the West Coast that I would go to look at some of this stuff.   Toni: I'll tell you one of the ironies, Sharon. Post-war, definitely through the 1950s and early 1960s, there must have been 13 to 15 studio shops by modernist jewelers. You had Sam Kramer on 8th Street and Art Smith on 4th Street and Polo Bell, who was on 4th Street and then he was on 8th Street, and Bill Tendler, and you had Jules Brenner, and Henry Steig was Uptown. Ed Wiener was all over the place. There were so many jewelers in New York, and I never knew about them. I never went to any of their shops. I used to hang out in the Village when I was a young teenager, walked on 4th Street; never saw Art Smith's shop. He was there from 1949 until 1977. I used to walk on 8th Street, and Sam Kramer was on the second floor. I never looked up, and I didn't know this kind of jewelry existed. In those days, like I said, I was still collecting Navajo.

St. Josemaria would be moved deeply when he said with faith that part of the Creed, that produced a pause, when he prayed: Et unam, sanctam, catholicam et apostolicam Ecclesiam! I believe in one Holy, Catholic and apostolic Church. — I can understand why you pause to relish your prayer: I believe in the Church, one, holy, Catholic and apostolic.. (The Way 517) It is as though he wanted to savour something to taste its beauty. Savour it, like a good wine. To re-acknowledge the mystery, which he well understood that he did not understand. Today is feast of Thomas More and John Fisher. Both are stellar examples of love and fidelity to the Church, during times of great confusion in the 16th century. Preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai at Lyncroft Centre in Toronto, June 22, 2022. Music: Franz Schubert Impromptu no. D899 by Chiara Bertoglio. Thumbnail: Hans Holbein, The Younger, Sir Thomas More 1527 Frick Collection(Google Art Project) For more meditations, check my channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/EricNicolai/videos www.ernescliff.ca www.opusdei.ca

June 22: Saints John Fisher, Bishop and Martyr, & Thomas More, MartyrJohn Fisher: 1469–1535; Thomas More: 1478–1535Optional Memorial; Liturgical Color: RedPatron Saint of the Diocese of Rochester (Fisher) and of lawyers and politicians (More) They would not bend to the marriage In 1526 a German painter named Hans Holbein could not find work in Basel, Switzerland. The Reformation had come to town. It shattered the stained glass, burned the wooden statues, and sliced up the oil paintings. Protestants don't “do” great art. There were no more commissions. So Holbein went north, to Catholic England, in search of wealthy patrons for his craft. On his way, he passed through the Netherlands to procure letters of introduction from the great humanist Desiderius Erasmus. Erasmus was a friend of Sir Thomas More, an English humanist of the highest caliber. And thus it came to pass that one fine day, in England in 1527, Thomas More sat patiently while Holbein's brush worked its magic.Holbein's extraordinary portrait of Thomas More captures the man for all seasons, as one contemporary called More, at the pinnacle of his powers. More's head and torso fill the frame. There is no need for context, landscape, or a complex backdrop. More's mind is what matters. He is what matters. Nothing else. The shimmering velvet of his robes, the weighty gold chain of office resting on his shoulders, the detailed rose badge of the House of Tudor lying on his chest, all tell the viewer something important—this is not a frivolous man. He serves the King. His work is consequential. He also wears a ring. He is married and has children. He dons a cap. It is England, and he is cold. His stubble is visible. He is tired from overwork and did not have time to shave. He holds a small slip of paper—perhaps a bribe he rejected. His gaze, slightly off center, is earnest, serious, and calm. It is almost as if he is searching the room, attentive to any threat lurking behind the painter. He is watchful. The entirety of the work conveys that elusive quality that denotes great art—interior movement. The gears of More's brain are rotating. His personality has force. The viewer feels it.Saint Thomas More was the greatest Englishman of his generation. In a land with a highly educated aristocratic class, his erudition was unequalled. He was a devoted family man who carried out an extensive correspondence with his children and ensured that his daughters were as well educated as his sons. He served the English crown faithfully both at home and abroad. He charmed his many friends with a rich and engaging personality. He published scholarly works and communicated with other humanists of his era. Yet despite all of these accomplishments, the fraught times he lived in eventually overwhelmed him. He could not save his own head.More was a thoughtful and serious Catholic. He refused to bend to the will of King Henry VIII regarding divorce and Henry's self-appointment as head of the Church in England. For his silence, or lack of explicit support for Henry, More was brought to court, where a perjurer's words knifed him in the heart. More was condemned to death by beheading. This was a favor from the King, who admired More but could not brook his dissent. More had originally been sentenced to a far crueler form of capital punishment, but Henry decreed that his life end with one blow of the axe. So the unconquered Thomas More climbed a shaky scaffold on July 6, 1535, and had his head lopped off. His head was stuck on a pole on London bridge for one month afterward, a trophy to barbarity. More died a martyr to the indissolubility of marriage.Saint John Fisher was an academic who held various high positions at the University of Cambridge, one of the two universities in all of England, eventually becoming its Chancellor for life. He was a Renaissance humanist, like Thomas More, who encouraged the study of Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. Fisher was the personal tutor of Henry VIII when Henry was a boy, and he preached the funeral homily of Henry's father, Henry VII. John Fisher lived a life of extreme personal austerity and even placed a human skull on the table during meals to remind himself of his eventual end. He had many of the same qualities as More—great learning, personal uprightness, and academic accomplishments.But easy times don't make martyrs. When King Henry wanted to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, Fisher became her most ardent supporter. He openly stated in court that he would die for the indissolubility of marriage, thus incurring the lasting wrath of his former pupil Henry. All the bishops of England, save Fisher and two others, lost their courage and acquiesced, without a fight, to Henry VIII's takeover of the Catholic Church in England. Their weakness brought to a sudden, crashing end a thousand years of Catholicism in England. The faith endured in some form, of course, but would never be the culture-forming force it had been for so many centuries. It is an embarrassment of Catholic history that almost all the bishops of England fell like dominoes, one after another, at one slight puff of the breath of King Henry VIII on their cheeks.After various nefarious machinations, John Fisher was imprisoned in the harshest of conditions for over a year, even being deprived access to a priest. During this time, the Pope named him a cardinal, although Henry refused him the ceremonial placing of the red hat on his head. After a brief trial with the usual perjury, Cardinal John Fisher was beheaded on June 22, 1535. In order to avoid inevitable comparisons between Cardinal Fisher and John the Baptist, King Henry moved the cardinal's execution to avoid any connection to June 24th's Feast of Saint John the Baptist. Both Johns were martyrs to marriage. But there was no silver platter for John Fisher. His head was placed on a pole on London bridge for two weeks, only to be replaced by Thomas More's head. Saints John Fisher and Thomas More were beatified in 1886 along with fifty-four other English martyrs. The two were canonized together in 1935.Saints John Fisher and Thomas More, through your intercession, give all Catholics courage to resist the pressure to conform to falsehood, to the broad way, to popular opinion. You were both thoughtful and granite-like in your resistance. Help us to be likewise when times call for such.

In this episode we discuss the thirty-ninth Best Picture winner, A Man for All Seasons, the AFTRA union strike that almost stopped the ceremony from being broadcast, director Fred Zinneman's many contributions to the film industry, and Paul Scofield's stirring Tony and Oscar winning performance as Sir Thomas More! -- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thanktheacademypodcast Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/thankacademypod Email us your thoughts: thanktheacademypod@gmail.com --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/thank-the-academy/support

Douglas Murray is a British writer and commentator, primarily for The Spectator, and his latest book is The War on the West. It’s a powerful narrative of the past couple of decades, in which a small minority waged ideological war on the underpinnings of Western civilization: reason, toleration, free speech, color-blind racial politics. You can listen to the episode right away in the audio player embedded above, or right below it you can click “Listen in podcast app,” which will connect you to the Dishcast feed. For two clips of our conversation — on the seductive power of ressentiment and the case for gratitude, and on many Americans’ ignorance of history outside the US — head over to our YouTube page.My convo with Murray complements the one I had with Roosevelt Montás, the great defender of the humanities at Columbia University and beyond — his episode is now available as a full transcript.As far as last week’s episode with Bari Weiss, an addendum: she used our conversation for her own podcast, “Honestly,” and her version includes at least a half hour of conversation you won’t find in the Dishcast version — namely on the early marriage movement and my role in it. Here’s a snippet from that section:This listener liked the episode:You and Bari addressed the (increasingly popular) argument that if the illiberal left has taken the gloves off, then its opponents should do the same. I thought your response was commendable, and it reminded me of something Hitch said during a debate on free speech many years ago. He referred to the scene from A Man for All Seasons in which Sir Thomas More argues with Roper over whether a man should be arrested for breaking God’s law. It’s a marvellous exchange that I have often reflected upon in recent years:Roper: So now you'd give the Devil benefit of law!More: Yes. What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?Roper: I'd cut down every law in England to do that!More: Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned 'round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country's planted thick with laws from coast to coast — man's laws, not God's — and if you cut them down — and you're just the man to do it — do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law for my own safety's sake.Someone at Reason — Peter Suderman, I think — observed last year that politics is becoming outcomes-based rather than process-based, which expresses much the same point, I think. All of which is a long-winded way of saying that I’m glad you and Bari are willing to stand up for liberalism when so many of your peers have come to view it with disdain.I love that section from A Man For All Seasons. It’s why I chose Thomas More as my confirmation saint. But it’s difficult to know the best way to stand up for liberalism when it comes to gender ideology in schools, as Bari and I discuss in this clip:Another fan of the Bari episode gets more personal:I am the mother of a trans-identifying child — now 23 years old. (I can’t give my name for fear of alienating her.) You captured the rollercoaster of emotions many parents going through this feel — the fear that she has adopted this ideology as a coping mechanism to deal with underlying mental health issues and that she will do irreparable harm to her body. And that we are politically homeless. I can’t vote for anyone who would support Trump. But Biden and his team have it wrong when they quote the lie of “better a trans son than dead daughter.” I agree with DeSantis on many aspects of the so-called “don’t say gay” bill. I don’t think it’s appropriate to discuss sexual orientation and gender ideology with young children. I also don’t think it’s appropriate to review the periodic table with them. That doesn’t mean I'm anti-chemistry. What I wish for my daughter is that she not be beholden to gender stereotypes, that she be comfortable in her own body and that she avoid a lifetime of medical intervention with life-long negative consequences (including infertility) which cannot ultimately transform her into a man. If she were anorexic, we’d have support and options to return her to health. Because her coping mechanism is trans ideology, we get no support from medical or psychiatric professionals, from schools or from most liberals.You captured all that in the podcast. Thanks for getting the word out.Another listener points to another trans story:I saw this interview with an ex-transgender woman and thought you might find it interesting:I found particularly interesting the parts where he indicates that he found a group of “activists” that encouraged him to transition when what he really needed was therapy and sobriety. It’s also interesting that young men/woman fleeing the labels and baggage of “gay” or “lesbian“ may pursue gender reassignment, rather than unwrapping their trauma and accepting themselves for who they are.I just wish all the nuances of this were better aired. Another fan of the Dish anticipated our coverage this week with a “pre-emptive email”:I wonder whether the Supreme Court leak has caused you to reconsider your stance on the culture wars and whether it was the woke who are really the big enemy here. After all, while certain elements on the far left do much damage to themselves and to their own cause, their biggest achievements seem to be about gender-neutral toilets and pronouns, while it is the reactionary right that actively tries to curtail hard-won rights such as the right to vote, or the right to legal and safe abortion. Is it only a culture war when the left does it? Even when you have admitted that both sides are guilty, there seems to be a grudging reluctance to accept that one side is significantly more dangerous than the other, or to pretend as if it was the left’s fault all along and the right was merely reacting to it. Following on from January 6th and the wave of right-wingers across the globe currently dominating our news agenda (Putin, Trump, Bolsonaro, Orban, Le Pen, et al), it seems evident that there is a radical asymmetry in the scale of the threat that each side poses. Yes, there is much on the left that deserves to be called out, but it is nothing like as dangerous or as damaging as the very real risk that our liberal democratic norms are overturned by reactionaries in the name of a kind of Theocratic Nationalism. An approach that says “A plague on both your houses” seems to me the height of fatuity. Who is the bigger threat here, Donald Trump, or Bernie Sanders? There seems to be a skewed kind of moral equivalency going on. It reminds me of those US conservatives who used to say “Yes the Tea Party is terrible and there is real racism, but Obama is just as guilty for stirring them up.” This simply will not do. From the Tories and Brexit, to Putin and Ukraine, Republicans and abortion, is it not clear that everywhere you look at the moment, it is the right — the conservative, reactionary, radical right — that poses a greater and more urgent threat to our democratic way of life? There’s a balance to be struck here — and I’m not saying it’s easy. But the way in which the far left empowers the far right and vice-versa is an important part of the toxic dynamic. I’ll just note that, when push came to shove, I voted for Biden. There is no conceivable scenario in which I would vote for a deranged wannabe-tyrant like Trump. Next up, “a looong-time reader who discovered you in the early aughts”:After a discussion this evening with my housemate I was inspired to look for your It's So Personal threads.  I don't seem to see them in the Substack, and it looks like your dish.andrewsullivan.com site is no longer active. Can you make this thread available to revisit? The whole thread is compiled here. How I framed it at the time:Perhaps the best posts of 2009 were penned by readers, and the most illuminating, gripping and emotional posts were related to late-term abortion, in the wake of the assassination of the abortion doctor George Tiller. I’ve never seen the power of this blog medium so clearly and up-close: one personal account caused a stream of others. How could old-school reporting have found all these women? How could any third-person account compete with the rawness and honesty and pain of these testimonials? It was a revelation to me about what this medium could do.Another listener looks ahead:David French just wrote the op-ed, “A conservative Christian quietly battles against right-wing hysteria,” and he would be an excellent podcast guest.”David is actually scheduled to record a Dishcast later this month, so stay tuned. Another suggestion:Hope you are weathering Covid ok and are feeling better. Suggestion: check out the staggeringly brilliant new essay by N.S. Lyons, “The World Order Reset: China’s Ukraine Catastrophe, the Rise of Trans-Atlantis, and a New Age of Power.” You’ve linked to one of his essays previously, saying it depressed you for a week. You should try to interview this mystery person. Everybody is wondering who Lyons really is. It would be a real coup for your podcast/Substack.Thanks for the suggestion. We’ve actually been in touch. You can send your own guest idea here: dish@andrewsullivan.com. Lastly, because we ran out of room this week in the main Dish for the new VFYW contest photo (otherwise the email version would get cut short), here ya go:Where do you think it’s located? Email your guess to contest@andrewsullivan.com. Please put the location — city and/or state first, then country — in the subject line. Proximity counts if no one gets the exact spot. Bonus points for fun facts and stories. The winner gets the choice of a VFYW book or two annual Dish subscriptions. If you are not a subscriber, please indicate that status in your entry and we will give you a free month subscription if we select your entry for the contest results (example here if you’re new to the contest). Happy sleuthing! Get full access to The Weekly Dish at andrewsullivan.substack.com/subscribe

Coined originally by Sir Thomas More for his 16th-century book, Utopia; a utopia is an imagined community or group that retains highly desirable or nearly faultless merits for its participants. Throughout history, society has strived to create a utopia in small pocket communities, or on a large scale. If utopia is truly a possibility though, what's holding us back from attaining it? Join The Wolf, Bull, and Baewolf in episode 45 as they discuss their opinions on utopia, some modern examples, and whether or not a "nearly faultless" existence can be achieved. New episodes are released weekly! --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/wolf-and-the-bull-podcast/support

Coined originally by Sir Thomas More for his 16th-century book, Utopia; a utopia is an imagined community or group that retains highly desirable or nearly faultless merits for its participants. Throughout history, society has strived to create a utopia in small pocket communities, or on a large scale. If utopia is truly a possibility though, what's holding us back from attaining it? Join The Wolf, Bull, and Baewolf in episode 45 as they discuss their opinions on utopia, some modern examples, and whether or not a "nearly faultless" existence can be achieved. New episodes are released weekly! --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/wolf-and-the-bull-podcast/support

En una cultura polarizada y de cancelación de quienes despreciamos, la idea de aprender algo bueno de quien no nos parece tan bueno puede sonar fantástica. Sin embargo, una reciente nota editorial de Margaret Renkl, publicado por The New York Times, nos presenta la figura históricamente ambivalente de Sir Thomas More, canciller del rey Enrique VIII de Inglaterra. Para los anglicanos, More fue fanático católico sediento de sangre. Para los católicos, es literalmente un santo protector de políticos y estadistas. Así que, existe la posibilidad de que alguien no sea tan malo para ser completamente rechazado, o que no sea tan santo como para que lo aceptemos de forma total y absoluta. ¿Se podrá aprender algo bueno, de alguien malo? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Over 500 years ago, Sir Thomas More wrote about utopia. Since then, countless communities around the world have worked to create their own versions of a perfect world. This hour, we look at examples of utopian communities from around the world. GUESTS: Avery Trufelman: Host of the podcast Nice Try! Akash Kapur: Author of Better to Have Gone: Love, Death, and the Quest for Utopia in Auroville Samir Patel: Editor-in-chief of Atlas Obscura Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. The Colin McEnroe Show is available as a podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and never miss an episode! Colin McEnroe, Jonathan McNicol, and Cat Pastor contributed to this show, which originally aired August 18, 2021.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to the Instant Trivia podcast episode 384, where we ask the best trivia on the Internet. Round 1. Category: English Lit 1: During his "Travels" , he visited the flying island of Laputa. Gulliver. 2: This Bronte sister died 1 year after the publication of her second novel, "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall". Anne Bronte. 3: She introduced Mr. and Mrs. Dalloway in her first novel, "The Voyage Out". Virginia Woolf. 4: On this fictional Sir Thomas More island, the interests of the individual are subordinate to those of society. Utopia. 5: This author of "The Forsyte Saga" published his first novel, "Jocelyn", under the pen name John Sinjohn. John Galsworthy. Round 2. Category: Ancient Vip's 1: Books about him were written by Plato and Xenophon, both students of his. Socrates. 2: This Hebrew king taxed his people into rebellion, which may not have been too wise. Solomon. 3: The period during which he ruled is often referred to as "The Golden Age of Athens". Pericles. 4: Uncle of Caligula and stepfather of Nero, this Roman emperor was poisoned by his wife, Nero's mother. Claudius. 5: In the 6th century B.C., he conquered Babylon and made Persia the greatest empire in the world. Cyrus the Great. Round 3. Category: Beatles Songs 1: Originally, this title woman was called Miss Daisy Hawkins, but that didn't sound lonely enough. Eleanor Rigby. 2: For Paul McCartney, this Beatles song title will become true on June 18, 2006. "When I'm Sixty-Four". 3: (Alex: Alright, let's go to Cheryl at the Santa Monica Pier for this) Today, we're all living in a yellow submarine; the Beatles found this colorful body of water in the song. Sea of Green. 4: "Let me hear your balalaikas ringing out, come and keep your comrade warm" here, the title of a '68 song. "Back in the U.S.S.R.". 5: He's "As blind as he can be, just sees what he wants to see". "Nowhere Man". Round 4. Category: Play This 1: This "avian" skateboarding legend has produced several high-flying video games for Activision. Tony Hawk. 2: It's off to Skull Island for Peter Jackson's official video game adaptation of this ape movie. King Kong. 3: In New Super Mario Bros., Mario can go head-to-head against this brother of his. Luigi. 4: Advent Children and Chains of Promethia are just 2 of the many episodes in this popular role-playing game. Final Fantasy. 5: DDR for short, this groovy game can help keep you in shape. Dance Dance Revolution. Round 5. Category: Mtv Movie Awards: Best Kiss 1: Gwyneth Paltrow and Joseph Fiennes won for this movie in 1999. Shakespeare in Love. 2: For a 2003 win, she locked lips with an upside-down Tobey Maguire in "Spider-Man". Kirsten Dunst. 3: (Hi, I'm Vivica Fox) In 1997 this actor and I won the MTV Movie Award for "Best Kiss" for the kiss we shared in "Independence Day". Will Smith. 4: 1998's winner's were Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore for this film. The Wedding Singer. 5: Woody Harrelson and Demi Moore won for this 1994 film. Indecent Proposal. Thanks for listening! Come back tomorrow for more exciting trivia!

TOPICS: Thomas Jefferson and the Declaration of Independence, debating a cashless society, & Sir Thomas MoreHost Scot Bertram talks with Matthew Spalding, Vice President of Washington Operations and Dean of the Van Andel Graduate School of Government at Hillsdale College, about how Thomas Jefferson influenced and helped shape the Declaration of Independence. New York Times bestselling author and economist James Rickards presents the current state of the cashless society. And Stephen Smith, Dean of Humanities and Professor of English at Hillsdale, discusses Sir Thomas More and his recent book, THE ESSENTIAL WORKS OF THOMAS MORE.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

TOPICS: Thomas Jefferson and the Declaration of Independence, debating a cashless society, & Sir Thomas More Host Scot Bertram talks with Matthew Spalding, Vice President of Washington Operations and Dean of the Van Andel Graduate School of Government at Hillsdale College, about how Thomas Jefferson influenced and helped shape the Declaration of Independence. New York Times bestselling author and economist James Rickards presents the current state of the cashless society. And Stephen Smith, Dean of Humanities and Professor of English at Hillsdale, discusses Sir Thomas More and his recent book, THE ESSENTIAL WORKS OF THOMAS MORE.

The British didn't say ghost. They said haunt or spectre. If you read Chaucer, Shakespeare, or Sir Thomas More, they mention haunt. “Haint” is the Gullah dialect for "haunt”. Haint blue keeps the haints out.

Over 500 years ago, Sir Thomas More wrote about utopia. Since then, countless communities around the world have worked to create their own versions of a perfect world. This hour on the Colin McEnroe Show, we look at examples of utopian communities from around the world. GUESTS: Avery Trufelman - Host of the podcast Nice Try! Akash Kapur - Author of Better to Have Gone: Love, Death, and the Quest for Utopia in Auroville Samir Patel - Editor-in-chief of Atlas Obscura Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today's episode of the Alchemy of Art podcast features a chat about the history of Sir Thomas More's book Utopia and the lessons to be learned from Utopian ideals. On the Alchemy of Art podcast we chat about the creative process and philosophy.  Each episode includes stories, dreams and reflections to inspire you and keep you going.  Hosted by Vita, a contemporary impressionist painter, art teacher, author and public speaker.  Find out more at https://studioalchemy.art/. Take online creativity classes at:  https://the-alchemy-of-painting.teachable.com/courses

This Sunday's episode of Catholic Life Lessons explains the Catholic view of conscience through the example of Sir Thomas More.

A Man for All Seasons is the true story of Sir Thomas More, Chancellor to King Henry VIII who was executed in 1535 for his refusal to sign the Supremacy Act. Bolt's play was adapted for the screen by Fred Zinnemann in 1966. The film, featuring Paul Scofield as Thomas More, won 6 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor (Scofield). It's a thrilling tale of conscience, politics, friendship, faith, and love. Make sure to listen to the episode, and then watch the movie!

In the 1966 film adaptation of Robert Bolt's A Man for All Seasons, the indelible Paul Schofield, who played Sir Thomas More, then Lord Chancellor of England, roared like a lion during his exchange with his young son-in-law, William Roper. The subject of their contention – Richard Rich, the man who would later betray Sir Thomas and become Lord Chancellor himself – asked the incorruptible Sir Thomas if he would employ him under his charge. Sensing Rich's lack of moral fortitude, he denies the request, and the eager Roper implores him to arrest Rich before he becomes an interloper at Court. Having committed no crime as of yet, Sir Thomas says that he shall let him go until he broke a law, even if Rich was the Devil himself.

On this episode, we discuss the thirty-ninth Best Picture Winner: “A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS.”"A Man for All Seasons" is a British biographical drama based on Robert Bolt's play of the same name and adapted for the big screen by Bolt himself. When the highly respected British statesman Sir Thomas More refuses to pressure the Pope into annulling the marriage of King Henry VIII and his Spanish-born wife, More's clashes with the monarch increase in intensity. A devout Catholic, More stands by his religious principles and moves to leave the royal court. Unfortunately, the King and his loyalists aren't appeased by this, and press forward with grave charges of treason, further testing More's resolve.  Directed by Fred Zinnemann, the film stars Paul Scofield as Thomas More, Wendy Hiller as Alice, Leo McKern as Cromwell, Robert Shaw as Henry VIII, Orson Welles as Cardinal Wolsey, Susannah York as Margaret, John Hurt as Rich, Corin Redgrave as Roper, Nigel Davenport as Duke of Norfolk, and Vanessa Redgrave as Anne Boleyn.Here on The Envelope, we discuss & review every Best Picture Winner in the Academy Awards History. We are a Cinema Squad Production, presented on the Cinema Squad Podcast Channel. You can reach anyone here at TheCinemaSquad.com – Just go there to email us, check our bios, and keep up with the latest episode.

sermon transcript Introduction Ever since Adam and Eve were evicted from the Garden of Eden and a Cherubim was put at the entrance with a flaming sword flashing back and forth to prevent access to the Tree of Life, the human race has yearned to get back to that place. We have in our hearts a sense of a perfect society in a perfect world, including a perfect government with a perfect economy with perfect human relationships, no war, perfect prosperity and peace, harmony with nature, perfect beauty. Philosophers, artists, political dreamers, and theorists, religious cult leaders and many others have concocted their own views of what this perfect world would look like. People have been dreaming and writing about this for a long time. In 380 B.C., Plato wrote a book entitled The Republic in which just city states were ruled by philosopher kings bringing in a perfect society. Within a few decades after Christopher Columbus discovered the new world, Sir Thomas More wrote a book called Utopia — meaning literally “no place,” or sometimes “good place” in the Greek — in which he posited an island in the new world in which there was a perfect ideal society. In the 19th century, as America expanded westward, more and more attempts toward creating idealized societies popped up all over the landscape, especially after the Second Great Awakening. These groups were communistic in nature, seeking to create a perfect society in their own space. In 1905, H.G Wells wrote a book called A Modern Utopia. He created the ideal setting on another planet, but with a portal, a doorway in a valley in the Swiss Alps through which one could enter the perfect world. The Bible has its own ending of the story of mankind after the fall and eviction from the garden in Revelation 20-22. After the Second Coming of Christ, one of two things will happen. Either there will be a thousand-year reign of Jesus Christ physically on the earth, leading ultimately to an eternal state called the New Heaven and the New Earth, or immediately after the Second Coming of Christ on Judgment Day, the New Heaven and the New Earth will be set up. The thousand-year reign is known as the millennial kingdom, during which Christ reigns physically on earth, a concept which many Christians say is taught in these verses. Satan will be bound for a thousand years and righteousness and blessings will flourish. People will experience lavishly blessed, healthy, long, successful lives. There will still be birth, aging, death, and sin, but those will be reduced and reined in. At the end of the thousand years, Satan will be released for one final battle. These verses speak to this but say nothing beyond naming it as the final battle, Gog and Magog. Immediately following the battle, Judgment Day and the New Heaven and the New Earth will follow. Either this Millennial kingdom will occur, OR Christ will return, win the battle of Armageddon, and we will go immediately to what is known as the Great White Throne Judgment in which all nations gather and Christ separates the sheep from the goats. Satan and his demons and all the reprobate — the unbelievers — will be judged and cast into the Lake of Fire at once. The righteous will receive their glorified resurrection bodies at once with no possibility of a future fall and sin, and the New Heaven and the New Earth will appear. The first Heaven and the first earth will pass away in a conflagration of fire, Peter tells us, and we will come into the eternal state. Of the two scenarios, I am not sure which I subscribe to. I always seek to settle every text in the overall corpus of Biblical teaching. I believe in the law of non-contradiction. There is harmony with all of the things God said to us in His Word, and theology is a task of harmonizing everything we read into a growing body of truth and non-contradiction. This is where things get challenging. The word “millennium” comes from the Latin, meaning “thousand years.” It comes right from this text. Christ’s eternal physical reign on earth in a wonderfully blessed world surrounded by the redeemed from every nation on earth will happen with either scenario. Bible-believing Christians agree that Revelation 21 and 22 describe that. The question is, what is happening in these verses in Revelation 20. The physical world that we will enjoy in the New Heaven and New Earth, in which we will be in physical bodies, or a “spiritual body” as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, is not depicted here in Revelation 20. If anywhere, it is described in Old Testament visionary passages in books such as Isaiah or Ezekiel. Perhaps those passages describe the Millennial kingdom, or perhaps the eternal kingdom, or even the spiritual blessings of the Gospel. Physicality is not what differentiates the Millennium from eternity. If there is to be a physical Millennium, there is a vast difference between now and that time. The Millennium will be a greatly enhanced blessed world that still includes birth, sin and death, none of which will be included in the eternal state. Now, Christ is reigning physically in Heaven, where he ascended. He is now sitting at the right hand of God, and “Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy…” (1 Peter 1:8). Now, Christ rules his invisible spiritual kingdom by the work of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of converted people. In the Millennial kingdom, Christ will be reigning physically on earth, settling disputes among the nations — necessary because sin nature will still be present. He will cause people to live at peace with one another. Now, Satan is roaming the earth with his demons continually tempting us to sin. In the Millennium, he will be locked up in a prison, unable to deceive the world. Now, the world system that Satan has set up is continually alluring and enticing us to sin. In a physical Millennium, with Christ reigning on earth, there will be no alluring world system pulling us toward evil and sin. Now, the world is groaning in bondage to decay and corruption and a cycle of death. In the Millennium, the effects of sin, Adam’s sin will be greatly reduced, but not totally removed. Now, the work that we do is under the curse of Adam. We wrestle with the ground, and it produces thorns and thistles. In the Millennium, labor will be lavishly blessed and fruitful, providing deep satisfaction though not yet perfection. Now, our bodies are racked with pain and sickness, and all of us will die, probably on average around age 80 or so. In the Millennium pain and sickness are reduced though not removed; people are more robustly healthy. Death is deferred, though not entirely removed. People will still die, but on average, they will die much at a much later age. Revelation 20 does not provide this information about rich blessing and lavish agricultural and long life. In Revelation 19, Christ returns, then in Revelation 20 he binds Satan for a thousand years. During those thousand years, Christ is reigning over the nations; those alive at the time will be occupied in some way. To understand the lavish blessing of having Christ on earth as king, we must look mostly to Old Testament visionary passages like Isaiah 65:17-25. Interpreting the book of Revelation as a whole, and this particular passage in detail, is challenging. There are not many passages that clearly depict Millennial life that cannot be referring to the New Heaven and the New Earth, or the spiritual blessings of the Gospel, but that refer exclusively to the Millennium. A passage in the Old Testament which describes lavish agricultural blessings on a previously barren land in Isaiah may be referring to the blessings of salvation by faith in Christ, like the outpouring of the Spirit. Jesus frequently used agricultural analogies: “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit.” [John 15:5] Descriptions of lavish agricultural blessing may be spiritual rather than literal. We know that Jesus is not literally a vine. He is using agricultural images to teach us the blessings of the Gospel. That passage might be referring to spiritual blessings, or to the blessings of the restoration of Israel from exile to Babylon, or to the blessings of Millennial life, or to the blessings of the New Heaven and the New Earth. The answer to the question “What will millennial life be like?” requires Scripture that cannot refer to the other categories of blessings. Isaiah does the same thing. For example, Isaiah 44:3-4 says, “For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants. They will spring up like grass in a meadow, like poplar trees by flowing streams.” Which of the four categories of blessings does that passage cover? It could be any of the four or all of them. Is Isaiah talking about God literally turning the desert into a paradise, or is he speaking of the effects of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on people? Whole books, 450-500 pages long, have been written about the Millennium. The topic has been debated throughout history. Augustine debated in his day with Chiliasts, or Millennial thinkers; Calvin and Luther did as well. Jonathan Edwards, following the Calvinist/Augustinian pattern, spiritualized the Millennium, seeing it as the advance of the Gospel throughout church history and the overthrowing of the false Roman Catholic system. The two views have been in opposition of each other for a long time. I have gone back and forth on the topic, sometimes on Monday one thing and on Tuesday the other. Unlike any other theological topic, the more I study it, the more difficult it gets for me to resolve. In 2002, I was with a friend of mine at the Southern Baptist Convention in St. Louis, Tom Schreiner, who wrote a very long commentary on the Book of Romans and is a professor of New Testament at Southern Seminary in Louisville. He is, in my opinion, one of the leading New Testament scholars in the world. At this convention, when we were talking about the Millennium, I was in the process of working out my views at the time, leaning toward Amillennialism. This is the view that the thousand years is symbolic language for the spread of the Gospel throughout the church age, which is recapitulated in the battle of Armageddon ending, or Gog and Magog. In this view, Satan is bound by the spread of the Gospel. The other option I was considering was Pre-millennialism. Most evangelicals are pre-millennial, they believe in the thousand year reign. Just going back over it, and he said he was a pre-millennialist This view has to do with the timing of the Second Coming relative to the Millennium, meaning Jesus comes back prior to the Millennium, the thousand-year reign of Christ on Earth. In that conversation, Tom said he was pre-millennial because of the apparently chronological order of the chapters in Revelation, which seem to be unfolding the story of God’s judgment on earth, with Revelation 17 and 18 as an aside describing Babylon. Jesus’ Second Coming is described next, followed by the Millennium, followed by the eternal state. Given his input, I decided that I most agreed with the Pre-millennial view. Years later, as I was writing my commentary on the book of Isaiah, I came to Isaiah 65:17-25. “‘Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create, for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight and its people a joy. I will rejoice over Jerusalem and take delight in my people; the sound of weeping and of crying will be heard in it no more. [This sounds like the eternal state in Revelation 21, the New Heaven, New Earth, no more weeping. But listen to verse 20:] Never again will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not live out his years; he who dies at a hundred will be thought a mere youth; he who fails to reach a hundred will be considered accursed. [In the New Heaven and New Earth, there is no more death, mourning, crying or pain, but here in verse 20 we see birth (implying marriage) aging, death. Jesus told us in that in the Kingdom, there will be neither marrying nor giving in marriage.] They will build houses and dwell in them; they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit. No longer will they build houses and others live in them, or plant and others eat. For as the days of a tree, so will be the days of my people; my chosen ones will long enjoy the works of their hands. They will not toil in vain or bear children doomed to misfortune; for they will be a people blessed by the LORD, they and their descendants with them. Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear. The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox, but dust will be the serpent's food. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain,’ says the LORD.” This passage is key for descriptions of Millennial life and is a doorway to look to other similar passages in Isaiah with other aspects of the Millennial kingdom. It is hard enough to preach or have a conversation about it, but when publishing a commentary, there must be some resolution. So I called Tom Schreiner, described my dilemma with this passage in Isaiah, and asked for his input since he was Pre-millennial. In the middle of my synopsis, he stopped me and said, “Actually, Andy, I’m Amillennial now.” I could have dropped the phone. I am not the only one who is unresolved on this issue. I am not seeking to confuse you, and I know that some of you are resolved on it. In the history of evangelicalism, some have thought that holding an Amillennial view implies that one is a theological liberal. However, that is ignorant of church history: John Calvin, who was Amillennnial, had a high view of Scripture. Currently, for the most part, either of these views is acceptable among evangelicals, less fundamental than inerrancy of Scripture regarding bodily resurrection in a resurrected world. If you are active in putting sin to death, growing in holiness, and sharing the gospel, then what you believe about the millennium will not affect your spiritual walk. We ought to work at it because it is in the Scripture, but with the understanding that the answer will not be finally resolved until it happens. If you are Amillennial and there is a literal Millennium, you will not be left out. You will be where you are supposed to be. If you are Pre-millennial and we go straight to the eternal state, you will not be sad or disappointed. Sometimes a Pre-millennial view may cause one to focus more on the Millennium the eternal state. Certainly we will be in the Millennium for a while, if there is one, but the eternal state will be for eternity, so we must spend more time on that. Revelation 21-22 clearly describes aspects of the eternal state. The best I can do to help us figure this out is to read the Scripture and preach it. Romans 4:3 admonishes, “What does the Scripture say?” We will walk through this together through two sermons to do our best to understand it. To any here who are unbelievers, it really does not make a difference what you believe about the Millennium. What matters is that your sins are forgiven through faith in Christ. First we need to review for context. Revelation 20 will not make much sense if we do not look at where we have been. Revelation is an unveiling of the invisible spiritual world, but also of the future. Revelation 1:1 tells us that Jesus Christ is revealed, given to show his servants what must “soon” take place. The word “soon” means soon in His economy — the next thing that will happen. So this book is given to unfold the future. In Revelation 4, John goes up through a doorway by the power of the Spirit into Heaven, where he sees God on His throne. The central reality of the universe is God enthroned. We see through John’s eyes a heavenly vision of concentric circles of thrones and worship for God, the Creator. In Revelation 5, we see a scroll in the right hand of the one seated on the throne; the scroll is sealed with seven seals. Jesus the Lion and Lamb, takes that scroll. He has the authority, the right to open it. In Revelation 6, Christ breaks open the seven seals. Each seal contains a judgment sent from Heaven to earth. In Revelation 7, we see a multitude greater than anyone could count from every tribe, language, people, and nation that are redeemed by the blood of Christ. The redemption of lost people from all over the world is the point of the entire story. Revelation 8-9 bring seven trumpets judgments which devastate a third of the ecology and economy of the earth. They are so grand and vast and devastating that it is not possible to spiritualize them or say they have already happened. Nothing like these judgments has ever been seen. Since he is telling us what must soon take place, they have not yet happened. Revelation 12 shows us, behind the scenes, the serpent — the dragon —mentioned in our text in Revelation 20, who is Satan. We see clearly his hatred for the people of God and for Israel. He desires to pursue and kill the children of the woman who is Israel, as well as believers who follow who follow Christ and obey His commandments. This satanic attack on the people of God on Earth is happening now in the invisible spiritual realm. In Revelation 13, Satan’s final phase is a devastating attack on the church: he brings forth the Antichrist, or the Beast from the Sea, the one-world ruler who is coming. After that, the Beast from the Earth, who is the false prophet, arises, enabled to do miraculous signs and wonders to deceive the nations. He causes all people to bow down to an idol, a statue of the Antichrist, establishing a wicked one-world religion. As a sign of loyalty to the Antichrist, he causes people to receive a mark on the forehead or on the hand. Those who do not receive it cannot buy or sell, resulting in economic strictures and persecution of people who will not worship the beast. Revelation 14 says that those who do receive the Mark of the Beast will spend eternity in Hell. There is a clear demarcation of believers and unbelievers. The elect, the true followers of Christ, will not bow down, and therefore must run for their lives. It will be a very difficult time. Revelation 16 depicts the final bowl judgments poured out on the ecology of the world. This time it is not a third but the entire sea turns to blood and every living thing in the sea dies. At the end of Revelation 16 is the battle of Armageddon. Lying, deceiving spirits go around the world and gather everyone together for a climactic battle. Amillennials see this as the same battle as the one in Revelation 20, Gog and Magog. Pre-millennials see it as an additional battle. Revelation 17 shows the kings of the earth under the Antichrist gathering for this battle with one purpose to give their power to the Antichrist. They gather to fight for him to slaughter the Jews who now believe in Christ, so all Israel will be saved, as Romans 11 says. The kings are coming to Palestine, to Armageddon, ultimately to try to get to Jerusalem to slaughter all of the Jews that are now believing in Christ as their Messiah. They think it will be an easy battle, but they do not understand with whom they are dealing. In Revelation 19, the Bridegroom returns — the Second Coming of Christ — to rescue his Bride. He wreaks carnage on his enemies — dead bodies everywhere, a river of blood. This climactic battle brings us to Revelation 20, beginning with the binding of Satan. Satan is Bound The Millennium Starts with the Binding of Satan Revelation 20:1-3 says, “And I saw an angel coming down out of Heaven, having the key to the Abyss and holding in his hand a great chain. He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil, or Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. He threw him into the Abyss, and locked and sealed it over him, to keep him from deceiving the nations anymore until the thousand years were ended. After that, he must be set free for a short time.” The chapter opens with a powerful decisive action, the binding of Satan. A single angel, who has the key to the Abyss, comes down from Heaven to bind him. The word “abyss” in the Greek literally means bottomless, so he is thrown into a bottomless pit. Other texts also mention the Abyss as a pit of punishment for demons. Revelation 9:1-3: “The fifth angel sounded his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth. The star was given the key to the shaft of the Abyss. When he opened the Abyss, smoke rose from it like the smoke from a gigantic furnace. The sun and sky were darkened by the smoke from the Abyss. And out of the smoke locusts came down upon the earth and were given power like that of scorpions of the earth.” Satan is identified as the king of the Abyss. Revelation 9:11: “They had as king over them the angel of the Abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek, Apollyon.” Both those words mean “destroyer”. Revelation 9 provides an image of billowing smoke as out of a smoke stack, bringing locusts which plague the earth. 2 Peter 2:4 says that “God did not spare the angels who sinned, but threw them down into Tartarus [in Greek mythology, a deep pit] and delivered them to be kept in chains of darkness until judgment.” This is the same idea, a pit with chains, but those demons were locked up in an earlier time. Some scholars think it was demons that fell right before Noah’s flood, but we do not know. Jude 6 says, “…the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their own home — these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day.” This covers the same thing — demons that fell in some previous time, locked in a pit with a chain. During Jesus’ ministry on earth, his miraculous signs and wonders included healing people who were possessed and controlled by demons. One was the demoniac of the Gadarenes — naked, howling at the moon, breaking chains — a terror to the entire population of the surrounding countryside. Luke 8:30-31: “Jesus asked him, “‘What is your name?’ ‘Legion,’ he replied, because many demons had gone into him. And they begged him repeatedly not to order them to go into the Abyss.” They plead with Jesus not to send them prematurely to their prison; they want to retain their freedom to roam about causing trouble. After he drives them out, they inhabit a herd of pigs, which go mad and rush into the sea and die. We can imagine that as they are begging not to be sent to the Abyss, they have in mind the other demons who were sent there. Here, Satan is seized by this angel with a commission from God, bound with a great chain and thrown into the Abyss. Jesus Binds Satan Key to the Amillennial position is the idea that when Jesus came to earth the first time and began preaching the Kingdom of God, to some degree he bound Satan. Jesus’ enemies — Scribes, Pharisees, and other unbelieving Jewish leaders — claimed that he was a deceiver and was driving out demons by Beelzebub, the king of demons. In reply, Jesus described what he was truly doing. Matthew 12:29 says, “…how can anyone enter a strong man's house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man? Then he can rob his house.” The strong man is Satan; Satan’s possessions are people. The one stronger than the strong man is Jesus, who overpowers this strong man and ties him up, enabling him to steal people from Satan’s dark kingdom. The Amillennial view says that is what the thousand years is all about. The binding of Satan is a provisional binding to keep him from deceiving people in reference to the Gospel, so that the Kingdom of God can advance. Another passage like this, Luke 11:21-23, says, “When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are safe. But when someone stronger attacks and overpowers him, he takes away the armor in which the man trusted and divides up the spoils. He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me, scatters.” In other words, gathering and assembling the Kingdom of God is an act of spiritual violence. He is conquering a wicked king, plundering his kingdom, building the kingdom out of plundered living stones that have been quarried from a dark kingdom, sending his church over the walls of Hades — the gates of Hell will not prevail against it. We undertake a rescue mission into dark territory to rescue living stones; we plunder and Satan cannot stop us. This has been going on for 2000 years. Colossians 1:13 says, “For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves.” We have been rescued from that dark kingdom, and Jesus bound the strong man to make that happen. The Purpose and Result of Binding The purpose and result of the binding is clear. Revelation 20:3 says, “He threw him into the Abyss, and locked and sealed it over him, to keep him from deceiving the nations anymore until the thousand years were ended.” The essence of Satan’s power and reign is lies. This is how he deceives the nations and rules his kingdom. When God said to Eve in the Garden, “What have you done?” she replied, “The serpent deceived me and I ate.” Jesus said of His enemies, who hated the Gospel, in John 8:44: “You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” Satan’s deception of the nations has been essential to his kingdom. It is what he does. He deceives every generation through the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the boastful pride of life. “Sin won’t damage you. It’s fine.” He deceives people into false religions — Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam are all constructs of the Devil. He is lying to their adherents and to atheists and other philosophical systems. All are included in the system of lies and deceptions. The greatest deception ever will come from the reign of Antichrist. 2nd Thessalonians 2 says, “He will send them a powerful delusion.” This will come through the whole story of the Antichrist, by the fact that he and the false prophet are able to do miraculous signs and wonders to deceive even the elect, Jesus said, if that were possible. It is not possible, but that is a powerful delusion. If there is a literal Millennium, the people who live on the earth at that time will come to faith in Christ, like all of us did. Likely, there will not be a different system of justification then, meaning those in that generation must also believe in Jesus, but it will be very different than it was for us. They will have the tremendous advantage of not having to overcome Satan with his system of lies in the world, having to overcome false religions. I imagine there will not be any. They will believe in a literal, physical Jesus right in front of them, just as people — like the thief on the cross, Peter, and others — in Jesus’ age did. That does not mean that every single solitary person in the Millennium will be a believer in Christ. There will be some unbelievers, and they will be the ones gathered at the end to fight that final battle. The “Thousand Years” and Other Numbers All we can say about the number 1000 is that it is ten times ten times ten — ten cubed, a perfect number. Just because it is a perfect number does not mean it is not a literal number. Symbolic and literal are not mutually exclusive. Frequently in the Bible, the word thousand years can mean a long time, as in 2 Peter 3:8: “With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.” Psalm 90 says, “A thousand years in your sight are like an evening watch that goes by.” This could refer to a long time or a literal thousand years. How “Bound” Is Satan? Is He Bound NOW? The question in front of us that Amillennials must struggle with is whether Satan is bound now. In Revelation 20, Satan is locked up, wrapped up with a great chain and thrown and sealed into the Abyss. He is not limited or blocked in that verse; he cannot be more bound than that. But we do not see that either scripturally or experientially. Right now, Satan is fighting everything we are trying to do. Many verses in the New Testament say that. For instance, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who sowed seed — some seed fell on the path and the birds came and ate it up. When one hears the word and does not receive it, Satan comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. That is happening all the time. Satan follows behind preachers like me, and if people do not have a soft heart, he plucks away immediately any impact of what they have heard. Satan is active. Ephesians 6 admonishes us to put on the full armor of God, not because Satan is locked up, chained in the bottom of a pit, but because “our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” James 4:7 says, “Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” We are told in 1 Peter 5:8-9, “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” That is not restrained, chained and thrown in a pit. No, he is out and about. We need to be aware of what he is doing. 1 Corinthians 5:5 says, “…hand this man over to Satan, so that the sinful nature may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord.” Satan is not bound and thrown in a pit. He was active in Corinth in this man’s life; Paul said to hand him over to the unbelievers, the wicked surrounding satanic world. When he repented, Paul said to welcome him back (2 Corinthians 2:11) “…in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.” Paul recognized that he is always fighting Satan. “For we wanted to come to you—certainly I, Paul, did, again and again—but Satan blocked our way.” [1 Thessalonians 2:18] This is a strong argument then for the Pre-millennial interpretation of Revelation 20:1. I cannot leave it like that. Next week we will go to the other side to balance our understanding. I will make the quick point that I do not accept a literal Millennium outright without question because The biggest problem I have is that it does not seem to be taught clearly anywhere else in the New Testament. For example, the Apostle Paul does not seem to acknowledge it. In 1 Corinthians 15, when Paul talks about the bodily resurrection, you would think he would mention a thousand years in which there is a partial resurrection. 1 Corinthians 15 makes us long for our full resurrection body. Christ is the first fruit of resurrection, then when he comes, believers will be resurrected, but will it be only partial? I think these questions are worth asking, but they are not ultimate or fundamental questions. We all have eternal souls, and as I said, the next thing that will happen after the Second Coming is either this or that. No matter what happens with the Millennium, it is appointed for each one of us to die unless we are in the final generation. After death, we face judgment. If you have not come to faith in Christ, you will be lost. If you came here today as an unbeliever, perhaps you are confused about what you have heard. Perhaps you want to know how your sins can be forgiven. Maybe you are feeling guilty for the ways that you violated your conscience or feeling lost with no purpose or feeling desperate. It is my joy, my duty and my responsibility to tell you that there is good news in Christ. The Millennium is not the most important thing I have to say to you. No, the most important thing is that Christ died for your sins according to the Scriptures; He was buried and He was raised from the dead on the third day. If you repent — turn away from your sins and trust in Him — you will have eternal life. Lord, thank you for the time we have had to consider the difficult, challenging topic of the Millennium. We thank you, Lord, for the provision that you have made for sinners like us at the cross, for the empty tomb, and for Christians to commemorate that through the Lord’s Supper. We ask now that You would bless us with your presence, and that you would strengthen our faith and help us to partake in a manner worthy of the Lord. We pray these things in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Looking Forward to the Heavenly City Well, this morning, you've already heard the text that Chris read. We're going to look at one of the most provocative and powerful sections of Isaiah's prophecy, the vision he had concerning the future universe as recreated in Christ, the new Heavens and the new Earth that are coming. The aspects of it here seem like it might be discussing elements of what theologians call the Millennium or the Millennial kingdom. And so we're going to have to look at that as well and try to understand it. No matter what we end up believing this passage is the truth and tells us in some kind of language of a glorious future that should fill all of us with hope, and joy. And that's the outcome, the ultimate outcome. My desire is to create in each one of you who listen to me today a forward-looking perspective, that you're going to be looking forward to what is coming. Colossians Chapter 3, verse 1-4 says, "Since then, we have been raised with Christ. Set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things for you died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory." So, set your minds on things above, and clearly in that text, things to come. When Christ appears, the Second Coming. Hebrews 11:10 says that Abraham was "looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God." Looking forward, that's a faith perspective. Again, 2 Peter 3:13, it says, "In keeping with his promise, we are looking forward to a new Heaven and a new Earth, the home of righteousness." So this looking forward, this forward-looking perspective, can only be done by faith, really can only be done in Christianity. We have a supernatural religion based on prophecies given to us by the eternal mind of God. And there's no other religion in the world that has this, predictive prophecy of what is yet to come. And so only by revelation, only by the unveiling that Scripture does, can we see both the invisible God and the invisible world that he is promising us. Faith is the eyesight of the soul, and God is the revealer of the unseen. Faith comes from hearing the Word. So my desire is that your faith will rise from an exposition of Isaiah 60:5, and your eyesight will get clearer, and that you will see the unseen, the invisible, the invisible God and the invisible coming worlds. I. Dreams of a Perfect World Now we all have, I believe, within our hearts, dreams of a perfect world. Throughout recorded history, mankind has imagined perfect world, perfect societies. This is all over the world. People do this. Since the fall of Adam into sin, the world has been cursed. In Genesis 3, to Adam God said, "Because you listen to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, you must not eat of it, cursed is the ground because of you. Through painful toil, you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow, you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken. For dust you are, and to dust you will return." So that's the curse. So both the Earth itself and human labor on the Earth was cursed there. And the struggle for survival was on, the bitter struggle for survival was on, and it is bitter. Life on Earth became an instant grief to the human race. Ecclesiastes 1:2-4, "Vanity of vanities... Vanity of vanities. All is vanity. What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun? A generation comes, and a generation goes, but the Earth remains forever." Sense of emptiness, of vanity to our labors in our life, doesn't mean anything. And creation itself has been groaning under this, the burden of this curse. Death has been rampant, constantly threatened, both for man and for beast. Ecclesiastes 3:19-20. It says, "Man's fate is like that of the animals. The same fate awaits them both. As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath. Man has no advantage over the animal. Everything is meaningless. All go back to the same place. All come from dust, and to dust, all return." Ecclesiastes 3. Now, human hearts and therefore human society, was corrupted to the core by sin, by the sin of Adam. We are corrupted in our hearts. Adam and Eve, as soon as they ate from the tree, their eyes were open. They realized they were naked, and they hid from each other in shame and they made fig leaves to cover their shame. It wasn't long after that that Cain killed his brother Abel, the very next chapter. So we see an expansion of sin. And by the time of Noah, the contagion of sin had spread to epic levels. All over the world, all the thoughts of human hearts were only evil all the time. And the link between human sin and nature's groaning is clearest in the flood. All the air-breathing animals that were not on the ark were killed, swept away because of human sin. Man sinned, animals died. So, this lamenting, this groaning pain-filled seemingly meaningless existence seems so wrong to us, doesn't it? Something's wrong here. We have a sense of a perfect world I believe, imprinted in our souls, like paradise in our souls. And mankind has always yearned for it and imagined it. Authors and poets, cult leaders and statesmen, conquerors and song writers, scientists and architects have all yearned for a paradise, have used their skills to kind of describe it if they can, some kind of a utopia that could be ushered in, a golden age free from this frustrating curse. Plato's Republic written around 370 BC, is one of the oldest efforts in human literature, to capture this desire for a golden age, a perfect society. About 150 years before Christ, a Greek merchant, Iambulus, wrote a book called Islands Of The Sun describing a perfect society in some distant island, in the Eastern sea. In the year 421, after Christ, a Chinese writer named Tao Yuanming wrote a fable called the Peach Blossom Spring in which a fisherman accidentally sailed up a river into a forest made entirely of blossoming peach trees. The river, led to a grotto with a narrow passage way through which he was able to squeeze and there he found a village, with animals and people of all ages. The villagers were shocked to see him but they were friendly. It was an ideal society cut-off from the outside world. He left and marked his path with signs so he could find his way back, but he could never find it again. A yearning for a perfect world, a perfect society. In 1516, Sir Thomas More in England, coined the term utopia by writing a book with that same name, the word, literally means no place. And it describes an island in the recently discovered new world, Columbus had discovered the new world just a few decades before that. And in that island there was a perfect society. Robinson Crusoe, Gulliver's Travels, HG Wells kind of expands it out to other planets. So we're going to be moving through the cosmos finding a planet with a perfect society. The quest goes on and on. It's deeply rooted in our hearts. Ecclesiastes 3:11 says, "God has set eternity in the hearts of men," but I think he's also set paradise there too, a sense of a perfect world, free from this curse. However, no vision is better than the Bible's, amen? We just heard it sung, we've read it again and again in Revelation 21, and 22, and when we come to Isaiah 65:17-25, we come to Isaiah's vision of that future perfect world. God alone has, if I could use this word, the imagination and the mental power to create a perfect world, in terms that we understand. God alone can work out all the details of that world in a way most glorifying to him and most perfectly satisfying to us. The Bible actually does describe a perfect ideal world, in which people live in harmony with nature and with each other. And it's coming. It's not just an idea, it's actually a prophecy, it's coming. Many passages in this book of Isaiah describe it so also does the book of Revelation. The Power of Predictive Prophecy So we come to Isaiah 65:17:25, and we come to an unveiling of God's perfect future world. "Behold," says God, " Behold," right at the beginning, "Behold me, and my perfect world." And then the questions that all Christians struggle with in understanding not just this perfect world, but we are so curious, "I want to know the details," and friends the details are going to probably just kill us as I walk through it in this text, but we'll do the best that we can. I was talking to somebody recently about this sermon, I have been working on this sermon for two months that's why it's, you know, an hour and a half long, it just keeps going on and on and on. It actually was going to be two sermons in one, we were going to do some Isaiah 65. We're going to spend a bunch of time in Revelation 20, and this morning I said, "Okay, we're not doing that." I think all of us, everyone, not just some of us, all of us are like, and please forgive this geeky illustration, but we're like circuit breakers. We can only take so much current flowing through and then we trip over. And the amount of information that you all... That we all can handle is limited. And so I'm going to do my best to make it clear, to try to just walk through Isaiah 65 and explain these words, and to try to explain, especially verse 17, and verse 20 and how hard they are to harmonize and to describe the Millennium whatever that means, and to do it in a way that helps all of us. Now, as I said, what we're doing here as Christians is something that we're the only ones that can do, it's the only religion in the world they can do this. We're looking at predictive prophecy. We're looking at words written by God that tells us what's going to come, what's coming in the future. God again and again claims to be the only one that can do this. Isaiah 46:9-10, he says, "I am God and there is no other. I am God and there is none like me, I make known [listen to this] the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say my purpose will stand and I will do all that I please." So God has pleased to think of the end and now he is sovereignly going to bring it about. Questions of the Millennium! So we come to this and the questions of the millennium. Isaiah 65 is going to bring us to ask some of the most exciting and debated questions there are in Christian eschatology, the study of the end of the world, that's what eschatology means. Age old debates about the possibility of a literal thousand-year reign of Christ on earth after his second coming, the possibility of a greatly enhanced life on earth, something that's free, essentially, for the most part, from the curses that we labor under, in which the effects of sin and death are greatly reduced though not totally removed. That's the essence of the Millennium verses the Eternal State. These questions will come up not naturally from Isaiah 65, but from the Bible as a whole, with Isaiah 65:17-25 as a key reference text. If there will be a literal thousand-year reign of Christ on earth before the Eternal State, the new heavens and the new earth, and if life in that Millennial kingdom, is described anywhere in the Bible, it is almost certainly described in this text here. Now that's a lot of careful speaking, isn't it? If and if. But if there is going to be a Millennium it's described here. Either way, either whether there's going to be a Millennium or not, Isaiah 65:17-25 is legitimate prophecy for us as Christians. It's either going to come true in the Millennium or in the Eternal State, either way we get it and we're blessed and we should be happy and filled with hope. Now, I have a certain level of uncertainty in this, I suppose you can already tell. It's not a good thing. No topic in theology that I've studied for decades has so eluded final resolution as this one for me. I stand before you today like a theological ping pong ball. And you might ask, "What side are you on today?" Well, today I'm essentially amillennial. I don't know if I will be at the end of this sermon. Something might happen in the middle, and some new aspect of 1 Corinthians 15 or Revelation 20 or something will hit me and I'll ping back again. This is bad, this is not a good thing, this is a bad thing. Howard Hendricks said to all preachers, "A mist in the pulpit is a fog in the pew." Now, we have decided with our worship services to avoid smoke machines, we don't want the fog machine wafting from the front across the congregation, so, we walked out in a total fog. I don't want that, but I'm going to do the best that I can. II. Isaiah 65: God Says “Behold Me... and My New Universe!” First let's get a little context in Isaiah 65, this is my second sermon in this chapter, I preached the first last week and we followed the keyword as you remember, behold, behold, that word of unveiling. And I gave you a four-part outline to the whole chapter. We did the first three parts last week, now the fourth. So it began with the word behold, that archaic word, that unveiling word. "Behold me," says God, God's humble self-revelation to Gentiles, remember we peered through the Book of Romans, the Apostle Paul said, "This is the Gentiles." Isaiah 65:1, "I said behold me, behold me, unto a nation that was not called by my name." Those are the Gentiles. So God stands in the gospel before Gentile nations around the world and says, "Behold me, look at me," and that's through Christ, through the Gospel. Secondly, "Behold my judgments," verses 2-7, God says, "Behold it is written before me, I will not keep silent, I will repay." And there the context Paul tells us is unbelieving Jews who've had the rich blessings of the Mosaic covenant, but who are Pagans, essentially pagans, living a Pagan life. And then thirdly, we saw, behold my servant singing while the wicked are shamed and excluded. And so God speaks to the wicked as outsiders telling them the blessings that he's going to give to his servants. Verses 13 and 14, "Behold my servants shall eat but you shall go hungry, behold my servants shall drink but you shall be thirsty, behold my servants shall rejoice but you shall be put to shame, behold my servants shall sing for gladness of heart, but you shall cry out for pain of heart and wail for breaking of spirit." And he does this now in the text to warn outsiders to stop being outsiders, but to come in while there is time so that they can feast at the end of the world. III. Walking Through the Text, Weighing Its Promises But now, we look to verses 17 and following, "Behold, I will create a new heavens and a new earth." And then again in verse 18, "For behold, I create Jerusalem to be a delight and its people a joy." So those are last two beholds. So there's this unveiling of the new heaven and the new earth, and an unveiling of the new Jerusalem. Let's just walk through the text and let's just weigh its promises. What is described here is an idyllic experience of rich blessing, never yet seen on this sin-cursed earth. This was not fulfilled after the exile to Babylon ended, nothing like this happened at all. So this is as yet unfulfilled, we are still waiting for this. This is a future prophecy. Listen to the text again verse 17 and following, "'Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create, for behold, I will create Jerusalem to be a delight and its people a joy. I will rejoice over Jerusalem and take delight in my people; the sound of weeping and of crying will be heard in it no more. Never again will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not live out his years; he who dies at a hundred will be thought a mere youth; he who fails to reach a hundred will be considered accursed. They will build houses and dwell in them; they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit. No longer will they build houses and others live in them, or plant and others eat. For as the days of a tree, so will be the days of my people; my chosen ones will long enjoy the works of their hands. They will not toil in vain or bear children doomed to misfortune; for they will be a people blessed by the LORD, they and their descendants with them. Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear. The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox, but dust will be the serpent's food. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain,' says the LORD." Alright, let's look at key points, verse 17, God declares that he will create a new heavens and a new earth. The future creative work of God similar to Genesis 1, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth," but greater, better. It will be so radically different it will drive out all the thoughts of the old world so radically improved. Verse 17, "For behold I will create new heavens and a new Earth. The former things shall not be remembered neither shall they come to mind." Notice that it begins with the words, "For behold." Verse 17, the word "for" which doesn't show up in some other translations but all of those that are precise have the word "for," it causes us to look back at least one verse, verse 16, alright, and verse 16, it says, "Whoever invokes a blessing in the land will do so by the God of truth. He who takes an oath in the land will swear by the God of truth, for the past troubles will be forgotten and hidden from my eyes, for behold, I will create a new Heavens and a new Earth and the former things will not be remembered." So that's the whole thing. You're not going to remember the past things, all of the past sorrows and grief. Now, as we read this obviously Revelation 21:1-4, comes to mind. There it says, "Then I saw a new heavens and a new earth, for the first heavens and the first Earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband, and I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, now the dwelling of God is with men and He will live with them, and they will be his people and God Himself will be with them and be their God, and He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there'll be no more death, or mourning, or crying, or pain. For the old order of things has passed away." Do you not see the beautiful harmony there between Revelation 21 and Isaiah 65? They come together. Now the new heavens and the new earth in Revelation 21 is what most people just simply call heaven. But I think we forget the new earth part. Can I just say this right now? If you vigorously believe, as you should, in a coming physical new earth and a spiritual new heaven that is harmonized in Christ, with the throne of God on that new earth, and you will walk on that new earth in a resurrection body and you are eager for that future world to come, it doesn't make a difference what you believe about the Millennium. It won't affect your missions at all, it won't affect your prayer life at all, it won't make any difference whatsoever in your marriage, in your parenting, in your church membership. None of it matters. The only reason we care is we're trying to be faithful to the text and understand it, "But what... Pastor, you're saying that this actually won't make a difference, your sermon will not be applicable at all." I'm not saying that. I want you to set your mind on eternity, the blessings that are described here could be begun in the Millennium and perfected in heaven. Set your heart on the new heavens and the new earth, that will affect how you live. That will affect your marriage, it will affect your parenting, it will affect your prayer life, it'll affect everything. But the precise difference between the two? It won't matter, if you vigorously believe in a new heavens and new earth, and they are coming. So now you can check out some of these like, "I don't need to wander through the Millennium," stick with me. There's good things yet to come. The new heavens and the new earth in Revelation 21, what most people simply call the Eternal State or heaven, there, clearly all death and misery are gone forever. They're gone. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain. Now, back to Isaiah 65 it says verse 18, it will be a place of eternal joy, where people will have cause to rejoice forever. The naming of the city of Jerusalem and her people is a source of eternal joy. "Behold I will create Jerusalem to be a delight and its people a joy." So it's a place of delight, joy, satisfaction. Verse 19, God declares that he will rejoice over Jerusalem, eternally, and the sounds of weeping and mourning will never be heard in it again. Do you see that in verse 19? Now we get to verse 20. Let tell you something about verse 20. Verse 20 is one of those amazing moments. You know those trendy expressions like this one, "Wait, what?" You ever heard that one? What is... What happens? What is, "Wait, what?" It's like we're going along and then something happens like, "Wait a second, what just happened?" Verse 20 is like that. It's maybe one of the greatest, "Wait, what," moments in the whole Book of Isaiah. Look what it says, "Never again will there be an infant... " Wait a minute, what? "An infant who lives but a few days or an old man," wait what was that? An old man? "Who does not live out his years. He who dies at 100 will be thought a mere youth and he who fails to reach 100 will be considered accursed." Like, okay, I thought we were in the new heavens and the new earth. That's what verse 17 said, right? Now we've got birth, aging, death and curse? What about Revelation 22:3 which says, "No longer will there be any curse"? What about Mark 12? It says, "When the dead rise, they neither marry nor given in marriage," there's no more procreation, no more infants. So the seeming existence of birth and death in verse 20 are the very things that makes some people think this must be the Millennium. That's the difference between the Millennium and the Eternal State is the presence of birth, aging and death and sin. And the rest of the chapter tells us the rest of the aspect of the Millennium, a greatly enhanced experience in which your works are blessed and will not be frustrating. You'll build things and they will work out and you'll plant things and you'll get a full harvest. So that's the enriched experience of life. But still, there's birth, aging death and sin. That's the essence of what the Millennium is all about. Verse 21 through 23, it says, "They will build houses and dwell in them. They will plant vineyards and eat their fruit. No longer will they build houses and others live in them, or plants and others eat. For as in the days of a tree, so will be the days of my people. My chosen ones will long enjoy the work of their hands. They will not toil in vain or bear children doomed to misfortune, for they will be a people blessed by the Lord, they and their descendants with them." This lavish language here, Old Covenant images I think, the blessing of the Earth, the rich harvest, the curse is either completely removed or at least greatly reduced. Verse 22, an unusually long life like the redwood trees, living just centuries old. "As the days of a tree, so will be the days of my people," but trees do die. Even redwoods die. So there's the sense of long life. The overall language as I've said if you're familiar with Old Covenant blessings and curses language, which is in the Book of Deuteronomy and then in the prophets, this is just like it. Agricultural rich blessings. Verse 23, "They will not toil in vain or bear children doomed to misfortune, they will be a people blessed by the Lord, they and their descendants with them." Verse 24 promises amazing access and intimacy with God. "Before they call I will answer. While they're still speaking I will hear." There's that intimacy with God. And then verse 25, a repeat of earlier language on the amazing supernatural piece that comes on earth by the transformation of animals. So the animals have basically, essentially a different nature, different than what we've known. Look at verse 25, "The wolf and the lamb will feed together and the lion will eat straw like the Ox, the dust will be the serpent's food, they will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, says the Lord." It reminds us distinctly of Isaiah 11:6-9, which says, this should sound very familiar, "The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together and a little child will lead them. The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together and the lion will eat straw like the ox, the infant will play near the hole of the cobra and the young child put his hand into the viper's nest, they will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea," that's Isaiah 11:6-9, very similar language. This seems to be talking about an idyllic relationship with the animal kingdom. No more of an adversarial predator-prey type of relationship. Wolves will stop acting like predators against lambs. Leopards will be the same toward goats. Cows will stand side-by-side next to lions, with no fear, the carnivorous destructive nature of the animal kingdom will be changed. What Alfred, Lord Tennyson, called nature red in tooth and claw, all that mindless ripping and shredding that animals do with each other. That seems to be done, gone, even the serpent, the cobra and the viper is transformed from an enemy to a friend, or humbled in some amazing way, the infant has nothing to fear at least. And then in Isaiah 11, there's that universal knowledge. The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. To sum up it seems that this section of scripture speaks of a stunning level of blessing on earth so great that it has never been seen in the history of the world. It comes under a title in verse 17 of new heavens and new earth that God will create, it's centered in Jerusalem. It involves such amazing joy that the sounds of mourning will not be heard in it at all, it involves rich agricultural blessing, sowing and reaping, no crop failure at all, building houses, other structures, no destruction at all, work is lavishly therefore blessed and successful. There seemed to be no enemies, no danger, no sorrow but there is birth and death, there are infants there and people live unnaturally long lives. So the combination of the term, new heavens and new earth with the presence of birth and death is problematic for every Christian interpreter of this passage. No one knows what to do with those two things. There's not an interpreter on earth that's totally comfortable with 17 and 20. People try to harmonize as best they can. Now I heard a preacher say years ago, there's not a preacher, on earth that hasn't at least once been tempted to give God advice on how it would have been better for him to have written this text. So Lord, if you don't mean a Millennium why did you give us verse 20? Can I just make a suggestion? But listen, who has ever given counsel to the Lord, that the Lord should listen to him. God knows exactly what he's doing and he wants us to wrestle and so we wrestle, and do the best we can. A word about Premillennialism and Evangelicalism We need a little bit of history about Millennialism, pre-millennialism, evangelicalism just to know where we're at in our context. First of all, what do I mean by the Millennium? The word literally means the 1000 years, 1000 years. Mille is the Latin for 1000, annus, mille, annus 1000 years. That idea comes only in one place, the literal 1000-year citation as such, but what we're talking about here is only found in one place in the whole Bible: Revelation 20, it's no where else. Ideas concerning it are debatably in other texts as we're looking at today, but the Millennium itself is only found in Revelation 20. Now, in the 20th century, biblical Christians fought a battle against modernism or theological liberalism, in which there were severe questions raised about the Bible. Post-Darwinian evolution and all that, they were just questions raised about the inerrancy of the Bible, the truthfulness of the Bible and that battle was fought, frequently called "The Battle of The Bible" began with the fundamentalists at the beginning of the 20th century. And at that time, DL Moody, other evangelists kind of link themselves together with a certain eschatology involving prophecy. And they basically said, "If you're Evangelical, if you're a Bible believer you're going to believe in the literal 1000-year reign and the premillennial coming. Jesus is going to come back and then the 1000 years, and that's almost a litmus test of whether you believe the Bible or not. Unfortunately, it got linked with other completely vital and valid issues such as the virgin birth, the substitutionary torment of Christ, his bloody death on the cross, his atoning sacrifice for our sins, his bodily resurrection from the dead, his actual working of literal miracles in space and time all of those things were part of the fundamentalist movement, part of biblical conservativism, but premillennialism got woven in there as well, and I think it shouldn't have. And so it came to the point where if you didn't believe there was going to be a literal 1000-year reign of Christ after the second coming, you didn't believe the Bible. And that is really just not true and it doesn't show much knowledge about history. Some of the most passionate inerrantists passionately committed to every word of the Bible, were amillennial, they didn't believe in a literal reign of Christ, physical reign of Christ on earth in this pattern. So I think we just separate them. People, pastors lose their jobs over this. I hope I'm not going to, I hope we don't have a growing premillennial, kind of faction in the church. I think it's possible to believe every word of the Bible is God's word. But recognize that prophetic literature and apocalyptic literature are hard to interpret. We just do the best we can to interpret them. III. Could This Be the Millennium? So, could this be the Millennium? Well, the word 1000 years comes from Revelation 20:1-6, which mentions the 1000-year period, seems after the second coming of Christ, if you take a consecutive order there in which the devil is bound with chains somehow, thrown in a pit and some, if not all, of the saints are resurrected to reign with Christ. After the 1000 years, the devil's set free. That's where it comes from, Revelation 20. The idea of a period of rich blessing during that time is not found in Revelation 20. You don't get any of that there. It's just the binding of Satan so that he should not deceive the nations anymore and the raising up of souls that were beheaded during the reign of the Antichrist and they are resurrected and reign with Christ for a thousand years. At the end of the 1000 years, the devil is released and apparently he causes trouble again. So in Revelation 19, we have a clear description of the Second Coming of Christ in which Jesus comes back, destroys the beast, the Antichrist and his army, this huge army. Destroys the beast, throws the beast into hell, into the lake of fire. Huge carnage at that point. Then you got Revelation 20, which is 1000 years. Satan is bound so he cannot deceive the nations. Martyrs slain by the beast are raised from the dead and sit on thrones and reign with Christ for a thousand years. At the end of the thousand years, Satan is released from his prison. He goes once again on the Earth and deceives people. Gathers them for one final battle. The evil army of rebels is massed and marches against the city of God's people, but God destroys them with fire from heaven. Then at last, the devil is cast into the lake of fire to be tormented forever. After that comes the Great White Throne Judgment in which all human beings that have ever lived are judged by the books of God. Everyone whose name is not found written in the Lamb's Book of Life is thrown into the lake of fire. Revelation 20. Then Revelation 21, you heard sung so beautifully for us today. That's the New Heaven and the New Earth. I've already read it. Descends from heaven, you have the Eternal State. Revelation 21 and 22 seems to be heaven, the Eternal State. So the sequence is important for premillennialists. They think first the Second Coming in Revelation 19, big battle, Second Coming. Then the 1000 years, that's the premillennial. Then the eternal state. Alright. The Case For Premillennialism Why do premillennialists have a good case? What are arguments for it? Why do I act like a ping pong ball, back and forth? Alright. Well, the sequence of chapters in Revelation 19, 20, and 21 seems pretty weighty. And it was very weighty for a counselor of mine who is a teacher at Southern Seminary who I asked advice on this when I had to write this chapter or commentary. And he had switched from being premillennial to amillennial in the three years that I had talked to him. That was not helpful. I was very disappointed. I wanted some premillennial help and he said, "Sorry. I can't help you. I'm an amillennial now." Maybe he switched back in the last month. I don't know. But I had to write the chapter. So the sequence is determined if he told me that. And he said it's first, the Second Coming, Revelation 19, then the 1000 years, and then you've got the Eternal State. Secondly, the binding of Satan. So apparently, he has no ability to roam or to deceive the nations is troublesome for amillennialists. because we know that Satan is very active on planet Earth. It says in 1 Peter 5, "Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour." Seems like he is free to roam, free to deceive, free to tear people apart. So it seems like the vigorous binding that's described, that is the essence of the 1000 years there, is not happening now, so it must be in the future. Also, the Millennium seems to be the best way to understand Isaiah 65:20. I don't know how else to... What do you do with this incredibly, richly blessed world in which there's birth, life and death? I don't know. If there's not going to be a Millennium, I don't know what to do exactly with those words. And then one final argument for premillennialism is, it seems to make sense big picture. Redemptive history. What was it all about? You know what I think it was all about? At the garden, the human race through Adam and Eve wanted an education. Do you remember? It was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. So we wanted an education in evil. Well, we've gotten one. And what's it been like? At every level of redemptive history, I'm not a dispensationalist, but at every unfolding of God's redemptive history, as more blessings have been poured out on His people, sin has stubbornly remained and made it difficult, including right now. Do you know what I mean? We have Pentecost blessings, we have the Indwelling Spirit, we're adopted as sons and daughters, and still we wrestle every day with sin. And it's like kind of like the final step of that drama is Jesus physically reigning on Earth, having already come and all that and still there's sin. It makes sense, doesn't mean it's true, but it does make sense. The Case For Amillennialism What about amillennialism? First of all, amillennialism is a misnomer. It means like there's no Millennium. Amillennials don't believe that there is no Millennium. It's just that it's a symbolic number in the Book of Revelation. 10 cubed. 10 times 10 times 10. There's a lot of this cubing thing. I'm about to preach through the Book of Revelation all the way through to the end. So I've got a long time to figure out what I believe about Revelation 20, so you can pray for me. Also, I want you to know this is the very topic I'll be discussing on Wednesday night at 6:30 up in the Upper Room in Acts. We're right here in our eschatology study, Millennium. So come and argue with me, debate with me, whatever you'd like to do. That's a good format for that. Amillennialists don't believe there's no 1000-year binding of Satan. We just think the binding is going on now in a limited sense. It's specific. He's bound so that he cannot deceive the nations to the end that they would mass together and to attack the people of God wholesale and try to destroy them. That seems to be the way the binding is. Or you could say he's not able to deceive the elect of the nations concerning Christ. When Jesus came in Matthew 12, he's talking about driving out demons. Remember that? And they said it's by Beelzebub that he drives out demons. How can Satan drive out Satan? You want to know what's really going on here? Matthew 12:29. He says, "How can anyone enter a strong man's house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he can rob his house." So that's a huge verse for amillennialists. They're saying the binding happened at the First Coming of Christ so that he cannot deceive the elect of the nations and believe in Jesus. It's not incredibly convincing when you read Revelation 20, but it's at least a possibility. Another reason for amillennialism. It's just the simplest answer for everything. Ever heard of Occam's rule? Just choose the simplest answer. Alright. The next thing that happens after escalating tribulation and the Antichrist is the Second Coming of Christ, all of Jesus' enemies are destroyed, all of his elect are resurrected, judgement happens then an Eternal State. For me probably the weightiest reason why I believe that amillennialism is the way to go is because it says in 1 Corinthians 15, that at the second coming of Christ He will destroy all his enemies not some of them, and the last enemy to be destroyed is what? Death, death. So after his second coming, there can be no death. I think that's a very strong argument. Sam Storms who's probably the most articulate advocate of this position said, that if you're a premillennialist there are several things with which you have to reckon. Number one, you must necessarily believe that physical death will continue after the second coming of Christ. Secondly, you must necessarily believe that the natural creation will continue beyond the time of Christ's second coming to be subjected to the curse in some measure of the fall of man. After the second coming that curse is going to continue, they'll mitigate it. Thirdly, you must necessarily believe that the new heavens and the new earth will not be introduced until 1000 years subsequent to the return of Christ. Fourthly, you must necessarily believe that unbelieving men and women will still have the opportunity to come to saving faith or reject Christ for at least 1000 years after his return in kingly glory. Fifth, you must necessarily believe that unbelievers will not be finally resurrected until at least 1000 years subsequent to the return of Christ. And sixth, you must necessarily believe that unbelievers will not finally be judged and cast out into eternal punishment until at least 1000 years after the return of Christ. So what's wrong with this? Well, it seems the New Testament explicitly denies each of those six things. It just seems the second coming is when it happens friends. At the second coming all... Everything is settled. 1 Corinthians 15, 22 and following: "For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive but each in his own turn, Christ the first fruits then when he comes those who belong to him," do you hear that? That's the timing. When he comes, "Then the end will come when He hands over the Kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. For he must reign until He has put all His enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death." And then again, 1 Thessalonians 4, "We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him." Jesus is coming back, he's descending from heaven, in the clouds, he's going to bring with him those who have fallen asleep, those are the dead in Christ. So Jesus will descend, the voice of the archangel, the trumpet call of God, the second coming of Christ and the dead in Christ will rise in resurrection bodies and they'll go up and be caught up together with the Lord in the clouds. And then those who are still alive and are left will also be caught up and in a flash, in a twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet they will be resurrected and at that moment all of the believers in Christ will have resurrection bodies and then he descends, finishes his judgment on all his enemies and the Eternal State comes, that's the way the amillennialist sees the order. V. Applications So my evaluation? It really doesn't matter, what does matter is, do you believe in the new heavens and the new earth? And are you preparing yourself for it? That's the thing. 2 Peter 3, says, "The day of the Lord will come like a thief, the heavens will disappear with a roar, the elements will be destroyed by fire and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare. Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and Godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed it's coming. Be holy, be evangelistic, internal journey, external journey, be holy as you look forward to the day of God and speed it's coming." That's what Peter tells us to do in light of what's coming. I would add one other thing, Peter would not mind I don't think, be hope-filled, be filled with hope about all this. This is a glorious chapter. Do you see the beauty of this? All difficulty between verse 17 and 20, set it aside for a moment, the radiant beauty of what's coming should fill you with hope. Let your hope shine to lost people around you, let them see the hope that you have, let them see how optimistic and joyful you are. You don't get dragged down into the current events, you are floating above that to some degree, very aware of what's happening but so filled with hope and let that joy give you a platform for explaining the Gospel to the lost. My final word is to those of you who are lost and you know that you're outside of Christ, please don't leave this place lost. God our Heavenly Father, who set all of this up, sent his Son our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who lived a sinless life, who died on the cross, a bloody death in your place as a sinner, you have violated God's laws, you have broken the 10 Commandments, you've broken the two great commandments, we all have, all of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. God sent his son to save sinners like you and me, don't leave this place unconverted. Call on the name of the Lord, trust in him, just look to Christ, look to him and all of your sins will be forgiven and then this beautiful promise will be yours as it belongs already to all of us. Close with me in prayer.