Some christians believe that the Garden of Eden is analogy, some fairy
tale scenario that God has given us to explain creation in parallel terms.
Well, the Bible does use anagogy, parables and even hyperbole, but the
Garden, and all that is said to have transpired there, is an accurate
account. Just because it seems far fetched doesn't make it untue.
Remember, it is in The Word of God, and is divinely inspired, so it is as
though it were written by the hand of God, Himself.
Eden is about
precedents, for many of the principles we are mandated to live by, and
others we are expected to understand, are first revealed there. Thus, it
is imperative that we have an intimate knowledge of exactly what occured
there, and what impact it has upon us and the ages that follow.
Man
was created by God perfect, without sin, from the dust of the earth. The
first man, Adam, was the most intelligent, most comely, most powerful, and
most everything else, of any man who ever lived. The same is true of the
woman. And in case you may be wondering "Wha hoppen?"; Every generation
down to this moment carry mutated genes which dilute the purity which was
man as he came from God's hand. These mutations are compounded with each
generation, which is to say that man gets worse and worse, not vice
versa.
Adam was made the Ruler of Earth and spent his days
categorizing the creatures that inhabited his domain. There was much more
to his life, but God has not seen fit to expand on that subject. The Word
does hint at the quality of Adam's life, however, in the several verses
which allude to "trees". These trees apparently either had supernatural
qualities which provided entertainment and other activites and pleasures,
or they represent those principles. We simply do not know. It is
reasonable to believe, however, that Adam had many interesting and
absorbing pursuits to take up his time apart from just naming critters,
bugs and plant life.
Other uses of the tree in scripture indicate
that they were a representation of some aspect of life. There is a tree in
the "garden of God", said to be in or near His Palace in heaven, which is
called the "tree of life". This tree is reserved for elite members of
God's family, those that executed His plan for their lives in time.
Entrance into the garden is not permitted to "loser" believers who did not
live the christian life on earth.
"Blessed are
they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of
life, and may enter in through the gates into the city."
(Rev:22:14)
"He that hath an ear, let him hear
what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I
give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Garden of
God." (Rev:2:7)
I find it very interesting that God created
the woman, not of the dust of the earth, but from the body of the man.
Since it states that Adam's body contributed a "rib" as the raw material
for her, we can be reasonably certain that our rib cage was once solid
bone, and not with the spaces it has today. The spaces are the bone and
flesh removed to fashion Eve.
Adam and Eve were the first husband
and wife, and many principles that apply to the divine institution of
marriage are based upon, or first applied to, our oringinal parents.
Perhaps the most misunderstood of these, down through the ages, is sex.
Let's face the fact, right up front, that sex was created as recreation.
Even today some religions hold the idea that sex is only meant for
procreation, but this is just not true. The original intent was that man
and woman should enjoy the delights of intercourse as an expression of
their love. And I'll go one farther; Sex between a husband and wife is a
"no holds barred" arrangement, whatever both parties find
acceptable.
Although child birth would come along at some unknown
point in their relationship, God did not invent sex for that purpose.
Nothing God created in the beginning was designed to be subject to sin and
condemnation, and since the first man and woman had no concept of
propriety, as we do today, they were uninhibited in their enjoyment of one
another. It should be clear, however, that both spouses must be
comfortable with the sexual preferences of the other. Niether a man nor a
woman have the right to force their mate to engage in sexual conduct which
is offensive to them.
God designed sex for one man and one woman in
a state of matrimony. Apart from it's obvious attractions, sex is a
relationship "enhancer" which becomes necessary when two human beings live
in close proximity to one another for an extended period. There is a
condition called "cabin fever" which was well know to the '49ers in the
gold fields. They discovered that regardless of how much you might like
another person, or how agreeable their personality may be, that they get
on your nerves when you must be confined with them in a small space for a
long period. To head this disaffection off at the pass between a husband
and wife, God introduced sex. For that reason it has a mellowing effect,
especially on the man, who tends to become too critical of his wife and
loses his toleration of her personal habits. The woman seems to benefit
most from the fact that the passions of sex allow her to vent her pent up
emotions, which left to smoulder in her subconscious, would evetually
erupt in a less than apppealing display of temper or self pity. Emotions
are a powerful and little understood force which can be a crippling enemy
of the human race.
Although it is possible for almost any two
people to get married and have a successful relationship, if they at least
share the same values, God designed one woman, and one woman only for
every man. The tragedy of this great gift is that just a very few of the
divinely matched couples ever get together. The problem is that in God's
provision of this gift are certain prerequisites, the solid foundation of
His Word being chief among them. It is in this context that we find the
root cause for God's prohabition of extramarital sex. In case you
wondered, God isn't a perverse Person who takes delight in denying us the
things we love to do. He set boundaries for sexual involvement for a good
reason.
As I mentioned, one positive influence of sex is the
enhancement of a marital relationship, and there are other benefits, but
the effects of these provisions for the maintenance of a relationship are
muted when either party becomes sexually active before marriage. As I
heard one party put it once; "If you've been driving a farm truck for
years, it's impossible to do justice to a Maserati." Just so, if a person
becomes accoustomed to the unique stimuli of illicit sex there is a good
chance that they will never fully appreciate the intended benefits of
marital bliss, so far as sex is involved.
Every cell of our bodies
is contaminated with the old sin nature, a flaw we inherited from Adam. In
sex, when we succum to the prohibited delights of intercourse outside of
marriage, the body is highly stimulated. Few people, who have experienced
both premarital, and marital sex, will disagree with the statement that
illicit sex is far more exciting, preceded by a tremendous mental and
physical surge of energy, probably adrenalin. Sex in marriage is also a
very powerful stimulant in the first few years, but it loses its' appeal
gradually until most couples begin to have problems in that
area.
One of the most pronounced problems is common to those who
have an active sex life before marriage, because marital sex, especially
after a perios of years, just doesn't stir up the powerful emotions and
anticipation that illicit sex did. The consequences are obvious, the
intended benefits of "relationship maintenance" are lost.
But,
enough about sex.
Moving right along, for there are many
fascinating subjects which are based on Eden, let's look at another common
misque that deals with the Garden; One aspect of the orginal sin which
sheds light upon another critical category of doctrine; Satan's policy for
operating his kingdom, of which we are a part.
That particular
aspect I allude to is the nature of Satan's influence in this world. Most
people probably believe that the Prince of Darkness only gets involved in
bizarre and grotesque practices. This, sadly, is not so. Satan's most
effective thrust, as far as the workings of our societies and
institutions, is his good! That's correct, I said his
good!
"Counterfiet Good" is Satan's highest
priority!
I draw your attention to the nature of the forbidden
tree, called the tree of the "knowledge of good and evil". Has it occured
to the reader that the "good" in this title is not God's Righteousness?
Please note that Adam and the woman already knew God's Righteousness.
Besides, no knowledge of divine good could lead to cursing and damnation.
Note also that the words "good and evil" are stated as synonomous,
not in conflict with on another.
This is Satan's kingdom, and it
complies to his policies. With few exceptions, big companies, governments,
institutions and social orders in this world are primarily the agents of
Satan. Add to that list, big charities. This might be a shock to some, but
big charities, like United Way, and even the Girl Scouts, are unwitting
accomplises in Satan's policy of counterfeit good, or what we might
correctly call, "evil".
It requires some mental dexterity to sort
out the function of evil, and the function of Divine Good in the scheme of
things. Things can get complicated, for example; What is it when a
believer with bible doctrine is involved in, say, the Girl Scouts? Is she
an evildoer?
The answer is "Ofcourse not!". We must survive in this
kingdom, behind enemy lines. It's fair to say that the deck is stacked
against us. The culture we have today in America is a prime example; Where
can you look, if you're a practicing Christian, and see encouraging signs?
Things that reflect the Righteousness of God? Those things are tragically
very few. There have been eras in human history when the power of Divine
Good was ascendent in societies, and particularly client nations, or those
national entites that were given the stewardship of The Word, and mandated
by God to send missionaries to all corners of the earth. America, since
it's victory in the War of Independence, has been a client
nation.
This is the manifest glory of God, the power of His Grace
and the inevitability of victory in the war of Good vs. Evil. Even in
Satan's own back yard, with most of Satan's policies in force, and
controlling most of this planet, God will ultimately prevail.
Lest
we get a big headed about this great victory; As human beings, born of
this world and very much a part of it, it is our nature to conform to the
Cosmos. Apart from God's intervening Grace, we would be Satan's pawns,
deeply emmersed in evil of every sort. This conflagration, between Good
and Evil, is such that we all, at any given moment of any day, are on one
side of the line or the other. We are either on the ground of intrinsic
Good, or Satan's -good.
To see a classic example of Satan's
seductive genius at work we look to the Garden, and his crafty
manipulation of a woman with a monumental intellect, our original Mother,
Eve. This was no ordinary woman, nor found on a par with even the most
accomplished ladies of today. Ishah, which was her original name, in the
Hebrew, was the most magnificent feminine creature God ever created. She
was endowed with a mentaility far greater than our most legendary
thinkers, Einstein comes to mind.
Her pulchritude and beauty were
nothing less than spectacular. The scriptures say that even the fallen
angels lusted for her. This fact speaks of Ishah's striking appearance,
for the angels are vastly superior to us in every way, and for an angel to
lust for a human being speaks volumes about her exquisite
features.
Ishah was no chump, nor a being to be taken lightly, for
she also possessed a decidedly feminine power, called intuition. No man
alive today, or for all of history, could have matched wits with Ishah and
come out on top! She was just too smart. But Satan maneuvered her with
relative ease. Thus, by the biblical account of Satan's effortless
deception of Ishah, we have not appreciated the formidable nature of the
person he led astray, Ishah, later known as Eve.
Kindly note the
trap that Satan laid for Ishah, and the significance of the
bait.
One of woman's foibles is her preoccupation with competing
with man for mental King of the Mountain status. This aspect of a
relationship, be it casual of intimate, is very important to the woman.
She must feel secure in her relative ability to think at least as well as
her mate, and preferably, out think him.
This was Satan's
bait.
Note another of the prudent tactics of the devil. Eve was
under Adam's authority, thus, if he convinced Adam to eat of the forbidden
fruit (and it would just have been a matter of time and a different
strategy) Adam could have commanded the woman to eat the apple, and this
would have voided her culpability in the transgression. In obeying Divinly
appointed authority, Eve would have been innocent of sin.
So, Satan
attacked man at the most vulnerable, and it appears the most ingenious
point. He convinced the woman that God forbade them of eating of the tree
because He didn't want them as smart as He is. This challenge was more
than the woman could resist, to not only out think Adam, but God Himself.
The prospect was just too delicious for Eve to pass by.
Yet another
dimension of Satan's intelligence is obvious in his choosing the woman; He
knew something about man, even in the short time he had to observe him. He
knew that Adam was protective of the woman, to the extent that he would be
hard put to abandon her. Such was the case, for Adam was not deceived, but
comitted a sin of cognizance. He knew exactly what he was
doing.
Adam took a long look at the woman, who had lost her glory,
and was "naked", and munched that apple! He knew the issue, and chose for
the woman in a state of corruption, rather than God.
In a sense,
Adam did the honorable thing, the chivilrous thing. He knowingly
sacrificed his life to remain with the woman, for had he deigned to sin,
Eve would have been exiled from the garden, and she would have been alone.
She would have to fend for herself, and would have been lost to Adam
forever.
These are the thoughts that went through Adam's mind, and
compelling they were, for he knew full well that he would lose his
relationship with eternal God. At that point, neither of them fully
understood what it meant to die, except that it obviously involved
something they would rather not get involved with.!
Remember, dying
is part of the knowledge of good and evil, and thus they could grasp the
principle behind the admonition, that they would die if they ate of the
tree, but could not grasp the full nature of death.
A poor
translation in the KJV oscures what God actually told Adam and Eve
concerning the penalty of death for eating of the tree. His exact words
were; "dying, you shall die...". The Hebrew word for death, "muth", is
used twice. There are two deaths involved here. The death they
would experience first was spiritual death, and subsequently, they
would die physically.
The cognizance of Adam's sin is the reason
that scriptures which speak of our ignoble birthright, spiritual death,
originated with Adam, and not Eve. He is the source of the old sin nature
in our bodies, passed to the female egg by his sperm. Adam's seed are
contaminated with the old sin nature.
Please note the additional
evidence of this fact; that God had to provide a means by which His Son,
who would be born without sin, would come into the world. This would mean
that; (1) The seed of a human male could not enter into the egg of the
woman, Mary, to form the first gamete, and eventually, the fetus which
would be Jesus.
(2) The egg of the woman must be uncontaminated by the
old sin nature.
There is medical evidence of this process, called
"myosis" and "polar body". The female egg has 46 genes and chromasomes
when it travels down the philopian tube, but 23 are cast off in the
aforementioned processes. When the 23 genes and chromasomes of the man's
sperm fertilize the egg, then the old sin nature has comtaminated the
egg.
Thus, the phenomenon of Jesus' birth was caused by God the
Holy Spirit, who injected 23 pure genes and chromasomes into Mary's ovum,
forming the first and only baby without the sin nature in his body. This
Divine work explains the virgin birth, for Mary was a virgin, and
therefore it was virtually impossible that a human being got her
pregnant.
For a more in-depth examination of this topic read Virgin
Birth.
There are other fascinating ramifications of the Garden,
events which took place there as a result of the transgression that tell
us about the future, as well as the nature of our own
existence.
Right on the spot, when God spoke to the man and woman,
and the serpent, He laid out the basic design for the rest of human
history. The woman is the child bearer, and the man received the curse of
the "sweat of the brow", to labor in sorrows bringing forth fruit from the
earth. That pretty much nails down the way things are.But there are some
other ramifications which came to pass.
All of nature had a curse
put on it, because the ruler that God had set over it had fallen. The
ground brings forth thorns, and we can add weeds into that unpleasant
outcome, no? The sun's light was diminished to one seventh of its'
original brightness. This is refering to the actinic aspect of light (if
memory serves), not the calorific. Calorific light, as you know, is the
heat from the sun.
On the brighter side, when Christ defeats Satan
at the Second Advent, and assumes rulership of the world, perfect
environment will be restored. This covers an impressive amount of natural
activity. Animals will no longer be carniverous, but even predators will
become herbivors and subsist upon plant life. Never again will one animal
kill another to survive.
Poisonous animals will loose their venom,
so no rattlesnake will ever strile fear into a human's heart
again.
Since bacteria will be removed from the earth, apparently a
result of the actinic strength of the sun being restored, people will not
age. All of the people who are alive at the Second Advent will still be
alive at the end of the following 1,000 years. Death will take a holiday,
and no person or animal will die apart from capitol punishment.
Oh
yes! There will still be crime! But not much of it, for Jesus Christ will
establish a system of perfect justice, only the guilty will be punished,
and there will be a strict code of crimal law. If a person commits a
capitol crime, they will be executed swiftly. Thus, the societies on the
earth will be almost crime free.
Autobon will be pleased to know
that nature will be resplendent beyond his wildest dreams! There will no
longer be rain, for a mist will rise form the ground every evening and
nourish all flora. The deserts will be green with waist high grasses, and
crops will grow tall and plentiful. The hole in the ozone layer? The rain
forests? Global warming? forget it! These are initiatives of the Satanic
rule on this planet, and designed to destroy freedom. No business, or
other activity, will destroy our environment. The Creator will see to
that!" Human prosperity will reach unparalleled heights. There will be no
starvation, sickness or squalor. Free enterprise will flourish, and every
person will reap the fantastic benefits. There will be no poverty, and
justice will reign on earth.
These are just some of the
ramifications of a restored environment, and gives us some idea of the
pickle ol' Adam has gotten this world into! Death, sickness, poverty,
crime....what a mess!
The only other event of the Garden I will
look at is the prophecy of "Operation Footstool", the great victory of
Jesus Christ at His Second Advent, and the passing of the rulership of
earth to Christ. Satan will be caast into prison for 1,000 years, and the
wolrd will live in peace and great prosperity. The account of the Second
Advent is one which every Christian should know well, for we will be
riding those white horses behind Christ when He appears.