GARDEN OF EDEN
Definition
Description
Purpose
The Fall
Going Back to the
Garden
Two Gardens
Satan's Attack
of Marriage
Purity in the
RM-RW Relationship
Testing
Definition
1. Hebrew /G^(gan)
= garden, as an enclosure (Gen 2:8).
a. LXX, paravdeiso"
(paradeisos) = paradise, derived from the Zendic pairi-daêza,
a hedging round; came into Hebrew as sD@r=P^
(pareddes), a park (SOS 4:13; Eccl. 2:5; Neh. 2:8).
2. Hebrew /d#u@
(eden) = delight, pleasure (Gen 2:8).
Description
1. The
Garden of Eden (Gen 2:8) was a paradise of Earthly delight; a place of
peace, love, happiness, and bliss. There was no sin and no work.
God gave Adam and 'Ishah a life and supplied all their needs in
Grace. He provided food for them to eat.
2. Adam and 'Ishah
celebrated a honeymoon in the Garden. The woman was very beautiful
and the man handsome. They were the perfect couple. They were
naked and unashamed (Gen 2:25). They enjoyed the perfect uninhibited
love and ecstatic sex of Right Man and Right Woman. They had the
capacity for life and love to enjoy the peaks of sexual climax without
emotional or physical detriment. Their love was harmonious rapport
in spirit, soul, and body.
3. The Garden was a Divine Dynasphere
of protection from the Cosmic System. Satan and the Fallen Angels
could only watch from a distance.
4. The animals were not wild,
and green plants flourished without weeds or thorns.
5. The Garden of Eden was
the closest thing to Heaven on Earth.
6. Adam and the woman could
enjoy life in the Garden so long as they obeyed God's command not to eat
of the forbidden fruit. The only way they could sin was to eat the
forbidden fruit (Gen 2:17).
7. Inside the Divine Dynasphere
Adam and the woman had fellowship with God. They talked with the
preincarnate Lord, who appeared to them as an Angel.
Purpose
1. The Garden of Eden was God's opening argument in
the Appeal Trial of Satan. One man and one woman without sin in a
perfect love relationship in Marriage in perfect environment symbolized
the perfect love relationship between God and angels before Satan sinned.
2. The man and woman in the Garden were witnesses
in the Appeal Trial. This was symbolized by the constellation Gemini.
3. At some point Satan was allowed to tempt man
to sin.
4. After man sinned, God provided the Redemption
Solution. The Lord Jesus Christ paid for the sins of the world,
but He let man choose whether to accept the Divine solution and receive
Eternal Life.
a. Those who believe in
Christ will go to Heaven.
b. Those who do not believe
will go to the Lake of Fire with Satan.
5.
After the Fall God provided a Divine Dynasphere for man patterned after
the Garden of Eden (Eph 1:19; Col 1:11).
a. Job was in a Divine
Dynasphere protected by a hedge (Job 1:10).
b. Abraham and Sarah were
protected by a shield (Gen 15:1).
c. Right Man and Right
Woman in the Church Age have the potential of going back to the Garden
by using the Filling of the Holy Spirit and the Edification Complex of
the Soul (Eph 5:25-31).
6. The RM-RW relationship symbolizes the love relationship
between Christ and the Church (2 Cor 11:2; Eph 5:32).
The Fall
1. Sin destroyed the love relationship of the man and
woman in the Garden. It also destroyed the environment and made the
animals wild.
2. The man and woman were thrown out of the Garden.
a. The environment was
cursed (Gen 3:17-18; 5:29; Jer 12:4, 11; Rom 8:20–22; Heb 6:8).
b. Man had to work to
eat (Gen 3:19).
c. The woman must bear
children (Gen 3:16).
3. Sin in the man and woman must be handled with
the Redemption
Solution.
Going Back to
the Garden
1.
After the Fall the potential exists to go back to the Garden Spiritually
in the Marriage of Right Man and Right Woman in the Divine Dynasphere.
This is the subject of Song of Solomon.
2. Going back to the Garden requires handling the
problem of sin. This requires the Redemption Solution, Sanctification
from the world, and Spiritual growth.
a. Redemption
Solution – purification from sins at Salvation and by Rebound
after Salvation.
b. Sanctification – separation
from the world – Positional and Experiential Sanctification (2 Cor 6:17;
Lev 11:45).
c. Spiritual growth to
Maturity and Spiritual Rapport (Mk 4:28; Jn 17:17; Rom 15:29; Eph 3:19;
4:13).
3. The Right Man – Right Woman relationship inside
the Divine Dynasphere symbolizes the Marriage of Adam and 'Ishah
in the Garden.
4. Spiritual Rapport with God is required to go
back to the Garden.
5. Even if one of the partners falls into sin and
rejects the Divine solution, the other one can still advance to Spiritual
Rapport. In the absence of a willing Right Man or Right Woman partner,
it is best not to marry (1 Cor 7:26-27).
6. The one who advances alone can advance to Spiritual
Rapport without the distraction of Marriage (1 Cor 7:35). This one
can be devoted to the Lord as a pure virgin (2 Cor 11:2).
7. However, the Right Man – Right Woman relationship
continues until death and is the source of testing (Rom 7:2; 1 Cor 7:39).
8. Residence in the Divine Dynasphere (going back
to the Garden) requires Capacity for Life, Love, and Happiness as well
as purity in soul, spirit, and body (1 Cor 7:34; 1 Thess 5:23). The
believer must avoid being choked by the world (Luk 8:14).
Two Gardens
1. After man was expelled from the Garden of Eden,
members of the human race were born under Marriage
Culture with the desire to go back to the Garden.
2. Life on Earth under Marriage Culture is like
being in a spiritual Garden. The spiritual Garden is not visible
but can be perceived spiritually.
3. The symbol of the Garden is an enclosure represented
by the Chinese characters tián and yuán and corresponding
to the Persian word for paradise.
4. The Garden of Eden was the Garden of Earthly
delights with great blessing and a curse.
a. Blessing included Right
Man - Right Woman love (Gen 2:22-25; 1 Thess 4:4; Tit 2:4).
b. The tree in the center
of the Garden carried the curse of death from sin (Gen 2:17; Deut 30:19).
c. Obedience to God brought
great blessing, but sin resulted in dying and death.
5. Outside the Garden man had the opportunity to
obey God and have blessing or sin and die the Sin Leading to Death.
6. There are two Gardens: the Garden of Earthly
delights of God in the Divine
Dynasphere and the Garden of Worldly delights of Satan in the Cosmic
System.
a. Those who obey God
in the Garden of Earthly delights can have great blessing (Eccl 9:9).
b. Those who obey Satan
in the Garden of Worldly delights will have cursing and death (Prov 5:5).
Satan's Attack
of Marriage
1. As soon as Satan recognized the power of the Divine
Dynasphere of the Garden, he counterattacked.
a. He convinced the woman
to sin in the Garden and empowered her to lure her husband into sin (Gen
3:4-6).
b. After the Fall he ordered
a full assault on Marriage to destroy the possibility of going back to
the Garden.
2. In the antediluvian civilization Satan's demons
married women and cohabited with them to produce a race of giants (Gen
6:1-4).
3. After the Flood he attacked Noah through drunken
reversionism and homosexual incest (Gen 9:21-24).
4. Satan attacked the Marriage of Abraham and Sarah,
who were RM-RW, through Pharaoh of Egypt and Hagar (Gen 12:14-15; 16:3-4).
5. Satan's counterfeit Garden was idolatry in which
he was worshipped as the Evil King (Antichrist) and Prostitute of Babylon
(Deut 12:2; 2 Ki 16:4; Isa 14:13-14; Jer 2:20).
6. Satan counterattacked David through adultery
with Bathsheba (2 Sam 11:2-4).
7. Satan counterattacked Solomon through the Prostitute
of Babylon (1 Ki 11:4-8).
8. Satan counterattacks the Church through Jezebel
(Rev 2:20). This includes false teachers and apostasy (Phil 3:18;
Col 2:8; 2 Tim 2:26; 3:6; 2 Pet 2:17-19).
Purity in the
RM-RW Relationship
1. The Love of RM/RW must be pure (Eph 5:3).
This requires Rebound and the Filling of the Holy Spirit plus sanctification
from the world (Eph 5:26).
2. The Prostitute of Babylon and Antichrist must
be defeated to be pure. Otherwise, there will be slavery to the Cosmic
System and idolatry (1 Cor 6:16-17).
3. Spiritual Freedom inside the DD requires avoiding
Lawlessness and Legalism (2 Cor 6:7).
4. Sanctification of the RM/RW relationship requires
forsaking all others, not making passes or being seduced by others, not
fornicating or committing adultery (1 Cor 6:18; Eph 5:4; Heb 13:4; Jas
4:1-4).
5. Immature attitudes, illusions, fetishes, perversions,
hang-ups, and sexual lusts must be overcome (Matt 5:28; 2 Cor 10:5; 2 Tim
2:22; 2 Pet 2:14).
Testing
1. Rigorous testing of the believer occurs each step
of the way back to the Garden. When the test is passed, the believer
is promoted (1 Pet 5:6). When the test is failed, the believer is
punished or demoted (Jas 4:1-6). Promotion means more Grace and capacity
for life and love.
2. The RM/RW relationship is also tested with special
tests for each phase of the relationship (Identification, Compatibility,
and Spiritual Rapport).
3. Testing is designed to prove obedience to Bible
Doctrine in the RM/RW relationship. During the pressure of testing,
the sins of legalism and lawlessness must be avoided.
4. Childish and immature illusions, fears, and
worries must be overcome. Examples include:
a. Hang-ups about nudity,
which is not a sin.
b. Lust of the eye and
other vision problems (Job 31:1; Prov 6:25; Matt 5:28; 1 Jn 2:16).
5. Opportunities for illicit sex in any form, including
fornication, adultery, sexual impurity, and seduction must be rejected.
6. Testing may include being the victim of sexual
harassment. Potiphar's wife tried to seduce Joseph and ripped his
clothes off (Gen 39:6-18).
7. Testing in Spiritual Rapport requires defeating
Satan as the Antichrist and Prostitute of Babylon (Jas 4:7; 1 Pet 5:9).
References
1. Larry Wood. Redemption,
May 14, 2014.
2. Larry Wood. Fellowship
with God, July 29, 2014.
3. Larry Wood. Right
Man - Right Woman, May 13, 2015.
4. Larry Wood. Satan's
Attack on Marriage, Sept. 23, 2013.
Author: Larry Wood, Released - June
13, 2015 - Revised May 28, 2016