Wisdom for Heaven on Earth

By John E. Wade II

This book summarizes and elaborates on my prayers and thought processes behind the destiny -- Heaven on Earth, or Heaven -- that God has intended for humanity all along. While my prayer is for everyone to go to Heaven, or Heaven on Earth, the subject of this book is Heaven on Earth, as evidenced by the past, present, and predictions about the future of Earth. What are my qualifications for making a bold declaration such as this? To be less than modest, I will say that I am honest to a fault, quite ambitious, logical, and I "think big."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Feb 28, 2020
• ISBN: 9781796087178

Book preview

Copyright © 2020 by John E. Wade II.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the Holy Bible, King James Version (Authorized Version). First published in 1611. Quoted from the KJV Classic Reference Bible, Copyright © 1983 by The Zondervan Corporation.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 03/12/2020

Xlibris

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

805884

CONTENTS

Preface

Chapter 1: What Is Heaven on Earth?

Chapter 2: My Inspiration for the Ten Elements

Chapter 3: The Centrality of Wisdom

Chapter 4: Wisdom and Values

Chapter 5: Internalized Stigma

Chapter 6: Hope, Faith, Resilience, and Love

Chapter 7: Peace and Security

Chapter 8: Freedom

Chapter 9: Democracies

Chapter 10: Prosperity

Chapter 11: Gender Harmony

Chapter 12: Racial Harmony

Chapter 13: Spiritual Harmony

Chapter 14: Ecological Harmony

Chapter 15: Health

Chapter 16: Moral Purpose and Meaning

Chapter 17: Individual Paths to a Heaven on Earth

Chapter 18: What Should You Do Now?

Appendix A: My Faith Statement in Brief

Appendix B: Financial Literacy and Investment Ideas

Appendix C: Web Resources

Appendix D: Recommended Books

Appendix E: Recommended Periodicals

Notes

Bibliography

Dedication

I am proud to dedicate this book to

my daughter, Miriam and to my grandchildren, Gabrielle and Evan.

Acknowledgments

I especially want to thank Zach Bartlett. He’s been a wonderful

editor as well as teacher in terms of the book business and much

more. He has a bachelor’s degree in journalism and a masters

degree in library science. Dan Agatino, an intellectual property

attorney was instrumental also along with Zach. Dan has a Ph.D

in communication and a doctorate of jurisprudence. Charlotte

Piotrowski was helpful as an editor in the early stages.

Let’s roll—persistently, faithfully, successfully

toward heaven and heaven on earth!

Preface

For God, all things are possible.

—Matthew 19:26

For those who have not read my previous two books, How to Achieve a Heaven on Earth and Glimpses of Heaven on Earth, I’d like to introduce myself and tell you a little bit about why I hope you will thoughtfully consider my vision for Heaven on Earth. I’ll also present some of the many challenges ahead as we pursue that journey of destiny.

There is no question about it. Each of the ten elements I describe faces awesome risks and obstacles. Yet humankind has ventured from the caves to the Innovation Age. Our all-powerful and loving God has been on our side all along. While we can’t understand God, I believe His wonders will never cease.

I began writing and pondering the possibility of Heaven on Earth back in 2000, probably subconsciously influenced by that historic date and the new millennium. Subsequently I began to pray daily for all people, whether American or citizens of any country around the world, as well as all the world’s governments, to receive God’s love and help in achieving the ten elements I’d determined to be essential for achieving Heaven on Earth: peace and security, freedom, democracies, prosperity, gender harmony, racial harmony, spiritual harmony, ecological harmony, health, as well as moral purpose and meaning. By design, these elements are broad and overlapping, showing how interconnected the concepts are and how vital it is they be adopted as a whole.

This book summarizes and elaborates on my prayers and thought processes behind the destiny—Heaven on Earth, or Heaven—that God has intended for humanity all along. While my prayer is for everyone to go to Heaven, or Heaven on Earth, the subject of this book is Heaven on Earth as evidenced by the past, present, and predictions about the future of Earth. What are my qualifications for making a bold declaration such as this? To be less than modest, I will say that I am honest to a fault, quite ambitious, and logical, and I think big.

In all levels of my formal education, through my Masters of Accountancy, my favorite class was an honors course in symbolic logic at the University of Georgia. I believe that if you truthfully assemble facts, knowledge, and ultimately wisdom during your life, you can earn worthwhile judgment. Struggle and resilience can help too, and I’ve certainly had those pieces in my life puzzle. Also, there is a real perception of the future that accompanies my determination as I follow my calling to be a pathfinder toward Heaven on Earth. That calling is not only ambitious, honest, and big but also a deep spiritual faith for me to strive to help fulfill that loving destiny. My prayers are honest, ambitious, and worthy of our loving God.

I tend to universalize minor thoughts, facts, actions, people, and all sorts of knowledge with an imagination that I seem to have inherited from my father. Late in my mother’s life, she told me that my father thought big, which is evidenced by the fact that the football stadium at Mississippi State University, Davis Wade Stadium, is named after him. My father had been a lifetime supporter of Mississippi State University, especially in football. But their teams had real difficulties competing in the Southeastern Conference. Nevertheless, my father saw what other State fans did not fully ascertain. So he used a part of his Aflac stock as the anchor gift to help enlarge and modernize the football stadium. He saw only one season in the greatly improved and enlarged venue. A later sizable addition by others has been added to their north end zone as well as a sizable modern scoreboard at the south end zone.

After my father’s death, the football team has become quite successful with an ongoing streak of bowl appearances. Additionally, my father’s first cousin funded with Aflac stock the Cullis Wade Depot, which stands right by the football stadium. It includes Cullis’s clock collection and a Barnes & Noble bookstore for the students.

Both my father and Cullis had vision as they invested in Aflac stock, which produced a fortune for each of them. My father was a visionary in his major investments and in Mississippi State University football. His big thinking was also demonstrated in his conversion of a $50,000 investment (with some guarantees of fellow investors) to over $1 million in just a few years (in 1970 dollars). He also had sharp enough foresight to see the potential in Aflac, sat on the board from 1963 to 1975, put 99 percent of his liquid assets in their stock, and made his fortune that way.

In 1963, I was accepted to the United States Air Force Academy. After a successful summer as a basic cadet, I contracted meningitis in the fall and came very close to death during a multiple-week hospitalization. About a month later, I experienced what I now believe was my first episode of bipolar disorder, originally diagnosed as intense depression. I’d originally applied to the Air Force Academy to begin pursuing my dreams of running for public office and eventually becoming president of the United States, but I knew my unspoken political hopes were overshadowed by that terrible affliction. I was overcome with something we didn’t have a term for at the time, but I’ve since put a name to it: internalized stigma.

Internalized stigma occurs when people harbor bad thoughts about themselves because of what they or others presume about any aspect of their person, such as their mental illness, physical disabilities, or appearance. I spent years in therapy and learned to turn my bipolar disorder into a gift. I harnessed the positive effects, such as creativity, energy, and big thinking, while controlling the negative aspects. I believe this growth has led me to enlightenment, helped me develop a greater wisdom, proven my strength of character, and enhanced my mental resilience. It wasn’t until much later, in 1999, that my faith deepened and played a bigger part in my recovery.

Perhaps the most important part of my history is a decades-long course of intense psychoanalytical treatment and follow-up I underwent with Dr. Talaat Mohamed. Toward the end of our work together, he told me that I had a gift for expressing complex concepts in simple terms. Much of this book may seem simplistic at first, but it is backed by deep thought, self-reflection, and prayer dating back to the year 2000 and further.

In 2016 I published my memoir, The Bipolar Millionaire. It gives a more complete recounting of my life and the events that have influenced me up to this point, including many of the concepts in this book.

Eventually I moved ahead with my life. I returned to my studies, transferring to the University of Georgia, where I was recognized as the most academically outstanding senior in the accounting major. I was elected president of the accounting honor society and earned a BBA in accounting and then a master’s degree of accountancy. I passed the CPA exam on my first try and spent almost thirty years in public, private, and federal governmental accounting.

I’ve felt a genuine, persistent calling since I first began contemplating the awesome potential of Heaven on Earth. What could society actually look like once we get there? To answer this question, I collected 101 essays—eighty written for the book and twenty-one reprints of articles and speeches, all written by others—and the result was How to Achieve a Heaven on Earth, a book I’m still immensely proud of.

My next literary project was Ronald Reagan’s Wisdom for the Twenty-First Century, which includes wonderful quotes by President Reagan accompanied by commentary by Daniel Agatino and me. I believe President Reagan was the greatest president in my lifetime to date and feel that we’ll need his brand of leadership in order to progress toward Heaven on Earth. This is why I actively support candidates with similar principles and fortitude.

I followed that with another book, Glimpses of Heaven on Earth. Four coauthors joined me for its creation, and we combined inspiring quotations from across the globe with our own essays on the ten elements plus examples of individual paths toward Heaven on Earth. That book offered a glimpse into what can and will be humanity’s ultimate destiny.

My vision of Heaven on Earth comes through thought, prayer, life experiences, reading, writing, logic, judgment, and my basic honesty and ambition. The trek to Heaven on Earth will not be easy. Yet I have an abiding faith that God is guiding us through twists and turns and mountains and valleys—onward, lovingly, and powerfully—to that wonderful predestination.

Chapter 1

What Is Heaven on Earth?

If the only prayer you ever say in your entire

life is thank you, it will be enough.

—Meister Eckhart (1260–1320)

I believe that we will achieve Heaven on Earth when all of humankind is united in our goals and all feel the same love for Almighty God and each other. It will involve an evolution from the present age, which I call the Innovation Age, to the next one, which I’ll call the Spiritual Age. Our current age is a period in which rapid technological change is affecting every single aspect of human life and society across the globe: government, education, business, communication, health care, and even religion. The Spiritual Age will essentially be synonymous with the state of Heaven on Earth. I believe that all who have gone before are already in Heaven and those who die before Heaven on Earth will immediately travel to Almighty God’s loving Heaven. I pray for these gifts from God each day.

In the Spiritual Age, love will surround each of us and all of us—eternally. Almighty God will finally embrace all who came before and those living at the time, which will culminate in the perpetual state of Heaven on Earth. As our world makes steady progress toward that ultimate destiny, Almighty God will guide us along the righteous path with wisdom and love.

Of course, cynics will quickly say that human nature won’t allow us to reach this ideal state. However, history has taught us that the truly revolutionary changes future generations can achieve are often beyond the imagination of generations past. For example, humankind once thought that Earth was flat until daring explorers circumnavigated the globe. In the 1960s, President Kennedy set the goal of putting a man on the moon and bringing him back safely. Who would have thought that feat would be possible a century—or even twenty years—prior to Neil Armstrong taking that historic first step on to the lunar surface? Our ability to progress is limitless technologically, socially, and spiritually in all worthwhile human endeavors with God’s enduring, steadfast love. I deeply believe that humankind will have that love eternally.

I have faith that the ten elements will come to be accepted by humankind as Almighty God guides us toward Heaven on Earth. The ten elements are as follows: peace and security, freedom, democracies, prosperity, gender harmony, racial harmony, spiritual harmony, ecological harmony, health, as well as moral purpose and meaning. In this book, I devote a chapter to each of these elements and their possible implementation in detail. I will also describe some of the obstacles to achieving each element.

Wisdom will be essential on our journey toward the wonderful destination of Heaven on Earth. The late Copthorne Macdonald wrote a brilliant essay, The Centrality of Wisdom, in my book How to Achieve a Heaven on Earth. His full essay can be found in chapter 3 of this book. In it, he emphasized how important wisdom is in addressing the ten elements of Heaven on Earth. He included his own vital, wisdom-associated values: empathy, truth, honesty, justice, cooperation, peace, compassion, universal well-being, creativity, and comprehensive knowledge. The negative values he identified are selfishness, greed, envy, hate, and revenge. Chapter 4 describes each of these values in depth.

Heaven on Earth will mean all for all. Work will not disappear but be such that each person’s life will be of a fulfilling nature, full of appreciation and love from and to all others. Without the negative values of selfishness, greed, envy, hate, and revenge, work will take on an entirely new place in our lives. It will be uplifting and consequential. The significance of what each of us does will not only be satisfying on a personal level but will also enrich and enlighten society. Think of times in your life when you did something positive and received genuine satisfaction. That will be your daily duty in Heaven on Earth.

Generally speaking, people who like their work are good at it, and when they are good at it, they tend to like it. Of course, this can change over time. I once liked being a CPA, and now I like being an author, investor, and pathfinder toward Heaven and Heaven on Earth. Life itself contains challenge after challenge. We will learn to accept adversity or the twists and turns of our being. This will be taught globally in all human entities, including families, schools, religious institutions, and most importantly, by the very presence of Almighty God.

Wonder and awe are keys in both our journey and our destination. The majesty of the universe attests to a creation of marvelous proportions. Right by my desk, I have posted a quote from the Bible: For God, all things are possible. To me, the universe itself tends to demonstrate this Christian scripture. Of course, Heaven on Earth will entail multiple loving faiths traveling up that mountain for the same view from the top.

My pastor once said that God created us so as not to be alone. My own belief is that we are all children of God, each with a little piece of God to light up our lives. There may be many ways of recognizing that little piece of God through the spirit, love, soul, goodness, and kindness of all humankind across the world. Whatever you call it, it is the hope of the world for achieving Heaven on Earth.

My calling is calling to become a pathfinder so that one day our planet may be filled with people who have only positive values and always act in accordance with those God-sent values. It will be a time of love and deep, continuous enjoyment all around, and, of course, being close to Almighty God is what will make it all possible.

Much of the poetry of today is in our music—the international language of our minds, bodies, and little pieces of God. Music can have a multitude of effects. I believe this is one of the keys that can lead us toward compassion for ourselves and others. In fact, I believe Heaven on Earth will be full of personal music that will help us invigorate our lives, providing a joyful nature to tasks that might otherwise be unpleasant. Music will also motivate us to follow worthwhile passions.

The sun and the stars will fill the skies, and humankind will live in thankful gratitude to our Creator. Romantic love and all other forms of love and compassion will fill our days and nights. Hope will shine along the way, and gladness will run with abandon through our minds, bodies, and little pieces of God when we arrive at the ultimate Promised Land.

Why do I call it a Promised Land? From everything I know and believe, God loves us with an enduring and steadfast love. To me, that implies a promise to lead us to Heaven and Heaven on Earth because we are God’s children.

Our progression to Heaven on Earth will be a matter of faith, and it will greatly depend on our transformations in our current Innovation Age. This will include all aspects of human life, from religions and businesses to governments and education. Rome wasn’t built in a day, but changes will come at a rapid rate. The most important of those changes will be the adoption of positive values in every human endeavor while ridding ourselves of those negative values.

Innovation Age

We are now in the Innovation Age, a time of vast social and technological change and a precursor to the Spiritual Age—or Heaven on Earth. I’ve read Walter Isaacson’s wonderful book The Innovators. It is primarily a well-documented, great story about the development of computers, starting about two hundred years ago.

I invest for growth and diversity, primarily in computer and gene-editing-related companies.

We must innovate in ways that make improvements for all of humankind in government, education, spirituality, and so on.

In all these and other areas we must consider the following:

Think!

Think!

Think!

Focus!

Focus!

Focus!

Simplify!

Simplify!

Simplify!

Pray!

Pray!

Pray!

One of the most important things we need to do is bring joy into everyone’s work. Understanding ourselves and others, as well as improving ourselves and helping others improve, is a basic tenet in this monumental, awe-inspiring leap that we as a people need to make. Prayer will be an integral part of our journey. It won’t be possible without God’s enduring, steadfast love, which even if some haven’t realized or acknowledged it, has always been with us and will be—eternally.

As part of my daily prayer, I name the ten elements of Heaven on Earth. Additionally, I pray for all who have come before to be in Heaven or any deaths in the future to go to Heaven upon death. However, this book is about Heaven on Earth, a work of creative nonfiction based on history, the present, and reasonable predictions of the future. The book is meant to motivate and inspire us.

Chapter 2

My Inspiration for the Ten Elements

It appears that the first time that I wrote about Heaven on Earth was in essays on January 3, 14, and April 21 in the year 2000. This was well after the Operation had begun in late 1998 or early 1999. What is the Operation? I wrote extensively about it in The Bipolar Millionaire and the Operation and a second edition, The Bipolar Millionaire.

The Operation was the name I gave to the pervasive, extensive, and amazing people, vehicles, music, planes, helicopters, signs on streetcars, license plates, and much more. This has gone on for about twenty years and counting. Simply put, I think the Operation first wanted to heal me from bipolar disorder and then to do research. But it seems the Operation’s ambitions grew with my own. As I experienced the enormous feats of the Operation, I came to the distinct conclusion that humankind could have Heaven on Earth. Of course, this could only be possible with Almighty God’s enduring, steadfast love. But if humans could carry out the Operation, surely Almighty God, the Creator of the universe, could and would use His love to help us reach beyond this Innovation Age to the Spiritual Age and Heaven on Earth.

I pray for Heaven and Heaven on Earth daily.

I was inspired to conceive the original ten elements over three years, from 2000 to 2003. In a sudden burst of inspiration, I came up with the last three elements—ecological harmony, health, as well as moral purpose and meaning. I realized at the time that these three would be the most difficult to attain. When the last three came to me, I said them aloud: peace, security, freedom, democracies, prosperity, spiritual harmony, racial harmony, ecological soundness, health, as well as moral purpose and meaning. Perhaps subconsciously I related the ten elements to the Ten Commandments. I didn’t specifically set out to reach the number ten, yet it felt spiritually significant. Recently, my former editor Charlotte suggested gender equality as one of the elements. I considered the need to include something about gender and settled on the term gender harmony. I then combined peace and security—a logical pairing—to keep the list at ten. To me, peace means being free of any sort of war or combat, and security means being free from individual crime or terrorism; this is similar in nature, with the difference essentially being one of scope.

At an annual