PROPHECY OF PEACE ON EARTH
Peace in Eden
The Garden
of Eden
Peace with
God
Peace
in Marriage
Peace in
the Environment
The Fall - Loss
of Peace
Judgments
- Adamic Covenant
The Garden Eden
The Garden of Eden1 was the last location of peace
on Earth. The Lord created it perfect to resolve the prehistoric
Angelic Conflict after Satan was sentenced to the Lake of Fire and appealed
the sentence. A perfect husband and his perfect wife were created
and placed in the perfect environment of the Garden of Eden. The
man, Adam, and his beautiful Right Woman,
'Ishah, enjoyed a wonderful
honeymoon in the Garden without distractions. Adam and 'Ishah
had
peace with God. The animals were not wild or ferocious but lived
in peace and harmony. Serpents walked on all fours and were beautiful
and friendly, and lions were as docile as a lamb. The weather was
beautiful. There was no rain, no storms, or lightning.
Adam ruled the world, and his wife gladly served him without
a thought of disagreement. It was a perfect Marriage, made in Heaven.
The couple were totally in love and very happy with each other. With
unimpaired capacity for life and love, they were quite satisfied with the
Marriage relationship and didn't need any other entertainment. They
didn't need movies, newspapers, or travel. They were living in the
most beautiful place on Earth. They were without social distractions,
and there were no children to create additional burdens. Life in
the Garden was perfect. Love and peace were everywhere, and Adam
and 'Ishah had the capacity to enjoy it.
God created the Garden with the man and woman as witnesses
to demonstrate peace and harmony as it existed in the Angelic realm before
Satan sinned and started a rebellion. God gave the man and woman
only one negative command, "Do not eat of the forbidden fruit." The
command was simple enough to obey. The man and woman in a state of
peace with God were quite happy to obey. They had no desire to do
otherwise. In spite of all the peace and perfection of the Garden,
God set the stage in it for its eventual destruction by allowing Satan
access to it.
Per the rules of the appeal trial, Satan was allowed to
cross examine the witnesses; and it didn't take the evil genius long to
convince the woman to eat the forbidden fruit and give it to her husband.
The woman was helpless against Satan, and the man was hopeless against
his wife in Spiritual death. The sin of the woman destroyed the Marriage.
It ended the peace and harmony. And the sin of Adam ended the peace
and prosperity of the Garden. Satan had won the first round and become
the new ruler of the world.
One sin ended the peace of the Garden of Eden. Sin
is totally divisive and destructive. Peace comes from God exclusively.
It cannot be manufactured by either man or angels. Sin is incompatible
with the essence of God. God will not coexist with sin. So
long as sin exists, there can be no lasting peace. Evil is the essence
of Satan. There could be no lasting peace with Satan around.
So long as evil exists, there can be no lasting peace.
Peace cannot succeed
in the presence of sin or evil.
Peace with God
Adam was created trichotomous, with a body, soul, and human
spirit. He was created in the "image" of God, which means he was
a representation and representative of the triune God. There was
no sin or evil in his life and nothing to hinder fellowship with God.
He had peace with God so long as he did not sin. He could sin in
only one way: by eating the forbidden fruit. His Spiritual
life was maintained so long as he obeyed God's command not to eat the forbidden
fruit.
Adam was perfect and enjoyed tremendous capacity for life
and love so long as he did not sin. In his role as the first man
and ruler of the world, he named all the animal kingdom. As a genius
with a photographic memory, he was well equipped to learn the intricacies
of God's creation. During the day he studied zoology and at night
astronomy.
Adam was in a state of Spiritual Rapport with God.
God was free to bless Adam in Grace. Adam's response to God's Grace
brought him peace. He was full of Light, and he was the reflected
glory of God. He had great capacity for production. Adam had
access to the Grace pipeline so long as he obey God's command of not eating
the forbidden fruit. In his response to God's Grace, Adam had peace
with God. He and God were in harmony. If God told Adam to do
something, like name the animals, Adam gladly obeyed. He never questioned
God's authority or motives.
In Spiritual Rapport, Adam loved the LORD and enjoyed
personal fellowship with Him. The LORD visited him and taught him
face-to-face in the cool of the day. Even though he had no conscience
and was totally ignorant of sin and evil, Adam in Spiritual Rapport was
a full responder to God and able to enjoy the fulness of blessings from
Him. He was full of light, love, peace, and harmony. He was
mentally adept, physically fit, Spiritually strong, and fully capable of
ruling the world.
Peace in Marriage
Adam was created a husband, and the Lord built his Right
Woman specifically for him. It was a Marriage made in Heaven.
Adam and 'Ishah, enjoyed a perfect Marriage with perfect love and
a perpetual honeymoon. There was no source of friction in the relationship.
There was peace between the man and woman, they enjoyed harmonious rapport.
Adam's love for his wife was perfect, and his wife respected his authority
and saw no reason to challenge it. The two were content in their
love life and never bored.
In Spiritual Rapport, Adam was full of Light from God.
Adam was the glory of God, and 'Ishah was Adam's reflected glory.
The Light represented production. Adam and 'Ishah did not
lack capability. They were geniuses with photographic memories.
And God was free to bless them from His Sovereign Design. They were
the ultimate team and perfect partnership. They enjoyed the perfect
Marriage. Furthermore, their love relationship with each other symbolized
the Love relationship between God and the two perfect members of the human
race. They were happy with each other and never wanted anything else
until Satan entered the picture.
Peace in the Environment
Adam and the woman also enjoyed perfect environment in the
Garden. The animals were not wild. The temperature was perfect.
It didn't rain or storm. And the plants grew bountifully without
pestilence or weeds. The state of perfection, thus, extended into
the environment.
In the Garden there was peace - peace between Adam and
the woman, peace between God and man, peace in the animal kingdom, and
peace in plant life. Everywhere and in everything there was harmony.
Love was the order of the day. There was no competition, no inordinate
ambition, and no lack of consideration for others. The animals did
not bite each other, and the plants did not crowd each other out.
Peace pervaded every part of life. God was Happy, man was happy,
and all of Creation was content. It was a story too good to be true.
And the devil would insure that it did not last.
The Fall - Loss of Peace
Man in Spiritual Rapport was still no match for the evil
genius of Satan. Evil entered the picture through Satan, who was
allowed to cross examine the witnesses. God had warned Adam and 'Ishah
not
to eat the forbidden fruit.1
Genesis
2:16-17
16 And the LORD God commanded Adam,
saying, "From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; 17 but from the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day
that you eat from it dying (Spiritually) you will die (physically)."
It would be a sin to eat the forbidden fruit. The consequence
of the sin would be "dying (Spiritually) you
will die (physically)." This
is the doubling of the Hebrew tWm (muth),
meaning to die, in the Qal infinitive absolute plus the Qal imperfect.
Dying you will die means Spiritual death followed by physical death.
Satan began to work on the woman through her pet serpent
and soon convinced her to eat of the forbidden fruit (Genesis
3:6). She ate the fruit and died spiritually, and then
gave the fruit to her husband and he ate and died spiritually. Spiritual
death replaced Spiritual Rapport.
In spiritual death the Judgment of God replaced the Love
of God, and Hardness of the Heart (scar tissue of the soul) blocked the
Light of God and left the soul in darkness. Man lost his fellowship
with God and became the slave of Satan. The Hardness of the Heart
of Adam and the woman became evident both in their relationship with God
and with each other. When the Lord came into the Garden after Adam
and his wife sinned, they hid from Him in fear. Their hardened hearts
wanted nothing to do with their previous companion. Further, they
lost their harmonious rapport with each other. The man blamed the
woman for causing him to sin, and the woman blamed the serpent for hoodwinking
her.
Genesis 3:12-13
12 Then Adam said, "This woman
whom You gave to be with me, she gave me from off the tree, and I ate."
13 Then the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?" And
the woman answered, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."
Judgments - Adamic Covenant
Sin destroyed the peace in the Garden. The Righteousness
of God cannot live in harmony with sin. Therefore, God could not
bless sinful man and his polluted environment. The Justice of God
would have to condemn it. So, the Lord booted man out of the Garden
and closed it down. The Edenic Covenant of peace was replaced by
the Adamic Covenant, which defined the new rules for life outside the Garden.
The Lord promised a solution to the sin problem, however. A Savior
would pay for sins and provide Salvation for mankind (Genesis
3:15). Adam and the woman accepted the offer of the Savior
and were born again Spiritually. However, they were left with an
Old Sin Nature, and their problems were not over. They would have
to bear the consequences of their actions.
The Adamic Covenant made Adam the authority over his wife,
but it also predicted friction from the woman's desire to usurp his authority
just as Satan had tried to usurp God's authority.
To the woman He said,
"I will greatly multiply your pain
and your conception.
In pain you shall bring forth children.
Yet, for your husband, your desire;
but he shall rule over you." (Genesis 3:16)
There would be blessing and cursing in Marriage Culture.
If authority in Marriage were rejected, there would be no peace.
The female would try to usurp the authority of the husband. Children
would be born by the woman through the suffering of childbirth. If
parents failed and succumbed to the slavery of Satan's Cosmic System, the
children would be prone to follow. Only four generations of evil
could be tolerated in a nation before the nation would have to be destroyed
under the principle of the Four
Generation Curse (Genesis
6:1-6).
Under the Adamic Covenant, the man would have to work
for a living. And both the animal kingdom and the plants would be
cursed. The animals would be wild, and the land would grow weeds.
Because of man's sin, the environment was polluted and must also bear the
Judgment of God. The peaceful bliss of Eden had ended, and the rest
of human history would be a quest to restore the peace of the original
Creation. But that peace would not be fully realized until the heavens
and the Earth were completely destroyed and replaced with the Eternal State
(Heaven).
Abraham
Abraham's
Call
Going Down to
Egypt
Abrahamic
Covenant
Ishmael Persecution
Abraham's Call
After the Flood when the human race almost self destructed
because of a Satanic attack upon Marriage, people multiplied and covered
the face of the Earth. God in His Sovereignty decided to select a
Client Nation to be a dwelling place for Him and to evangelize the world.
So, he called Abram, a Chaldean aristocrat from Ur, and sent him to Canaan
to become the father of a new race of Hebrews (Genesis
12:1-3; 15:7). The Hebrews were destined to become the new
Client Nation, which would be a priest nation to God. The new nation
would be the custodian of the holy scripture, and God would dwell among
them (Exodus 19:5-6; Deuteronomy 7:6).
Abram stopped for a while at Haran where his father died.
God told him to go to Canaan. So he left his relatives behind and
traveled to Canaan with his wife Sara and nephew Lot. Abram had separated
from the world in leaving Ur and separated from his apostate relatives
to go to Canaan. After leaving everything behind for his new Spiritual
life, Abram thought of himself as a "stranger and sojourner" in Canaan.
Even though he prospered as a rancher in the fertile land, he rejected
the evil religion and practices of the Canaanites. When Lot failed
to separate from the world, Abram eventually had to separate from Lot also.
Abram continued to grow Spiritually to the point of peace
with God. He mastered faith-rest. He went through Spiritual
Warfare in his conquest of the evil king of Elam, Chedorlaomer. After
his great victory over the evil king, Abram was given a special reward
called the "Shield of the LORD," which included divine protection for his
family from all the evil kings in the world (Genesis
15:1). As he continued his Spiritual life, Abram went through
suffering and reached the point of sexual death. He was promoted
to Spiritual Maturity at Age 99 (Genesis 17:1)
when he also received the details of the Abrahamic Covenant (Genesis
17:2-14). He also entered Spiritual Rapport at the time
as evidenced by his circumcision. His name was changed from Abram,
"father of high and windy places," to Abraham, "father of a multitude."
And the name of Sara, meaning contentious or bossy, was changed to Sarah,
princess (Genesis 17:15). His Spiritual
Rapport translated into harmonious rapport with Sarah. Later Abraham
completed Evidence Testing in the offering of his son Isaac (Genesis
22:1-19).
Although Abraham was prosperous in every way with 300
cowboys keeping his cattle, he continued to live in a tent. He thought
of himself as a "stranger and sojourner" on the Earth. He lived in
a tent because he understood the doctrine of Heaven where God would build
for him a city. The city would last forever, and in it, he would
finally have the peace for which he longed.
Going Down to Egypt
While Abram lived in Canaan in obedience to the LORD's command
(Genesis
12:1-3), there was a severe famine in the land. So Abram
and Sara went down to Egypt. Egypt represents the world (Cosmic System)
and curses await those who go there (Isaiah 31:1),
but Abram didn't know this yet. Egypt was ruled by Pharaoh, the Evil
King. Now, Sara was a very beautiful celebrity type woman.
Abram knew she was a liability, and people would kill him for her.
The LORD's promise to make of him a great nation was forgotten in Abram's
fear. So, Abram told Sara to pretend to be his sister.
Although Abram had forgotten the LORD's promise, Satan
was well aware of it and saw his opportunity to cross examine Abram and
Sara. In an attempt to thwart the LORD's promise, Satan counterattacked
the Marriage of Abram and Sara. There could be no son if there were
no Marriage. Satan was undoubtedly the inspiration that led Pharaoh
to take the beautiful Sara into his harem and marry her (Genesis
12:10-16). Abram's plot had backfired. Sara was
now living in Pharaoh's castle. And Pharaoh heaped upon Abram gifts
of livestock as well as male and female servants.
Abram and Sara were both using all the doctrine they had,
but they were helpless to get out of the mess. Satan had counterattacked
the Sovereign Design
of God to make Abram the father of a great nation. Sara's obedience
to her husband, who was in the Cosmic System, left her under the power
of Pharaoh, the Evil King, who now called himself her husband. In
God's sight, however, this predicament was necessary to free the Marriage
of Abram and Sara from the Cosmic System. It was called Compatibility
Testing (ref Marriage
Grace). Abram's blessing in Spiritual Maturity was to come through
his Marriage. He was to become the father of the Jewish race by having
a son through Sara. In order to provide maximum blessing to the son,
the child would have to be born from Right Man - Right Woman with at least
one of them in Spiritual Maturity.
Through lack of Spiritual awareness, Abram violated the
geographical will of God and led his wife into a trap in Egypt. Marriage
is a corporate witness in the Angelic Conflict. It can only be successfully
executed Spiritually. If either the man or the woman in Marriage
is in the Cosmic System, there will be no Spiritual Rapport, or peace with
God. Without peace with God, there will not be peace between the
man and the woman. The name, Sara, which means contentious or bossy,
was a sign that she did not yet respect the authority of Abram, her Right
Man. And it was difficult to respect his authority when he insisted
on leading her into Satan's trap.
Both Abram and Sara suffered greatly in Compatibility
Testing. Through the testing, however, they separated from the Cosmic
System and chose the divine solution. Like the Shulamite woman in
Compatibility Testing, Sara did not want to be Pharaoh's wife, but she
had no power to fight Pharaoh. Pharaoh heaped gifts upon Abram.
Gifts for sex amount to prostitution. Whether the gift goes to the
woman is not the issue. For example, the price of prostitution was
often paid to the temple of the Prostitute of Babylon (Deut
23:18; Isa 23:17). In marrying Pharaoh, she had become the
symbol of the Prostitute
of Babylon. Satan had counterattacked her Marriage through his
power as the Prostitute of Babylon. In the Cosmic System the Evil King
practices prostitution with the Prostitute of Babylon.
Now, the LORD struck Pharaoh and his government with great
plagues because of Sara. Pharaoh quickly figured out the source of
his trouble and gave Sara back to Abram Then Abram along with Sara
and his caravan were escorted out of Egypt. Abram's Compatibility
Testing in Egypt was another step toward peace with God in Spiritual Rapport
for Abram and peace with Sara in Harmonious Rapport in the Marriage.
After passing the test, Abram was promoted in his Spiritual life, and he
was given more blessing in peace with Sara. However, he still
had miles to go before he would have the Spiritual maturity to be blessed
with a son and become the father of a great nation.
Abrahamic Covenant
God's desire to dwell among His people became a part of His
Sovereign Design. The implementation of the Sovereign Design called
for Abraham to be the father of a new race that would become God's first
Client Nation. God made a covenant with Abraham, called the Abrahamic
Covenant, to fulfill his promise unconditionally. The fulfillment
of the Abrahamic Covenant depends upon no one except God Himself.
The Covenant is from God's Sovereignty. It will be fulfilled, and
no one can stop it.
The general statement of the Abrahamic Covenant was given
when Abram was called and sent to Canaan (Genesis
12:1-3). Later, more detail was added (Genesis
15:5-21), including the prophecy of slavery in Egypt and the
land grant, or Palestinian Covenant. The Palestinian Covenant deeds
to Abraham and his descendants the land from the Nile River to the Euphrates
River. Part of the land, also called the Promised Land, was conquered
by Joshua. However, Israel will not have all the land until the Millennium.
Abram reached Spiritual Maturity at Age 99 (Genesis
17:1) when the LORD commanded him to walk on the basis of his Integrity
Envelope, which is the Hebrew <ym!T*
(tamim), meaning complete, integrity, and referring to the Integrity
Envelope. At that time more details of the Abrahamic Covenant
were added (Genesis
17:1-21). The LORD called Himself "Almighty
God" - Hebrew, yD^v^ la@,
('El Shadda),
which is a designation for Sovereignty and means the Abrahamic Covenant
is in God's Sovereign Design.
One of the new requirements of the
Abrahamic Covenant was circumcision for males only. Circumcision
of the flesh is a sign of circumcision of the heart, which represents Spiritual
Rapport. Abraham's obedience to the requirement of circumcision at
Age 99 was a sign of entrance into Spiritual Rapport. After circumcision
Abraham recovered from sexual death and received the sexual fountain of
youth along with his wife, who was past the menopause. Abraham's
peace with God in Spiritual Rapport meant that Light could penetrate his
soul and revive his sexually dead body. In Spiritual Rapport he had
new capacity for sexual life. The child of the promise was born when
Abraham was 100 and Sarah was 90. The Jewish custom of circumcision
became a reminder to all future generations of their origin from Right
Man - Right Woman in Spiritual Rapport.
Ishmael Persecution
Abram left Haran to settle in Canaan at age 75. Although
God had promised him a son, Sara had always been barren and was still barren
11 years later. So Sara came up with a plan to help God out.
She gave Abram her maid, Hagar, as a wife so they could have a son.
This amounted to Compatibility Testing for Sara. When Hagar got pregnant,
she mocked Sara as if the pregnancy was a badge of womanhood. Sara
treated her harshly because arrogance is unacceptable for a slave.
Hagar did have a son by Abram when he was 86 (Genesis
16:1-16). The son was a wild
child and was named Ishmael.
He was called a Hebrew, ar#P# (pere'),
a wild ass.
When Isaac was weaned, Sarah saw Ishmael mocking Isaac.
This was the beginning of the Arab persecution of the Hebrew (or Jew).
That is the meaning of the number 86, which stands for the son of the bondwoman
persecuting the son of the free. Sarah demanded that Abraham drive
Ishmael and Hagar away. God agreed with Sarah, and Ishmael and Hagar
were sent away. Ishmael was a believer, who became an Arab prince
and was greatly blessed by God. Yet, the Arabs continued to persecute
the Jews throughout history.
Ishmael and the Arabs are a symbol of those who come out
of Egypt, which is a type of the world, or Cosmic System. There could
be no peace so long as Ishmael and Isaac were together. They must
be separated. The only way Israel would ever have peace was to be
separate from the Arabs and worldliness. Thus, the blessings of peace
require separation from the world.
The Tabernacle
The Model
Client
Nation Model
Shadow of Heaven
The Model
After Israel left Egypt and journeyed in the wilderness on
the way to the Promised Land, the LORD met Moses on Mt. Sinai and gave
him the design of the Tabernacle.3 Moses was warned to
make the Tabernacle
precisely according to the LORD's design specifications.
who serve as a model and
a shadow of heavenly things, just as Moses was warned when
he was about to construct the Tabernacle: "For see," He says, "You
shall make all things according to the design which was shown to you on
the mountain." (Hebrews 8:5)
Violation of the LORD's design or operational criteria for
the Tabernacle meant instant death. The reason for the stern warning
was that the Tabernacle was to be "a model and a shadow of heavenly things."
As a model, the Tabernacle would represent Heaven on Earth. The LORD
would dwell in the Tabernacle in the Holy of Holies in the form of the
Shekinah Glory, and the Tabernacle itself would symbolize the LORD, who
would pay for the sins of the world. The Tabernacle with the surrounding
Camp
of Israel would represent the architecture of Client
Nation Israel as well as all other nations and cities under the Laws
of Establishment. It would also be a shadow type of the Millennial
Jerusalem and surrounding nations as well as the Heavenly Jerusalem and
surrounding nations. Thus, the Tabernacle was a seed type, or kernel,
of all civilizations of human history and of the citizens of Heaven in
resurrection bodies.
The LORD lived in the Tabernacle in the midst of His people,
Client Nation Israel. The dwelling of the Shekinah Glory in the Holy
of Holies was the first step fulfillment of God's desire to dwell in the
midst of His people (Lev
26:11; Ezek 37:27; 48:35; Heb 8:2; Rev 7:15; 21:3). The
Lord Jesus Christ Himself will dwell in the Temple in the Millennial Jerusalem,
and God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ will dwell in the Heavenly
(New) Jerusalem in the Eternal State.
Every part of the Tabernacle represented the Lord Jesus
Christ, who came in the First Advent and dwelt among His people.
And the Word became flesh,
and tabernacled among us, and we have seen the glory, the glory of the
uniquely born from the source of the Father, full of grace and doctrine.
(John 1:14)
"Tabernacled" is the Greek skhnovw
(skenoo), which means to live in a tent; to dwell. The only
way into the Tabernacle was the Gate, which represents the Lord Jesus Christ,
the only way of Salvation (John 14:6).
The four colors of the Gate represent the four Gospels. The three
compartments of the Tabernacle represent the body, soul, and spirit of
Christ, which correspond to the three heavens. The Outer Court represents
the body of Christ, which corresponds to the Earth and its atmosphere in
the first heaven. The Outer Court was surrounded by a wall of linen
which represents sanctification (separation) from the world. The only way
to peace with God is separation from the world. The second compartment
was the Holy Place, which represents the soul of Christ and the Second
Heaven, the sphere of the Angelic Conflict. And the third compartment,
the Holy of Holies, represents the spirit of Christ and Heaven itself,
the dwelling place of God, which is in the north above the Universe.
Client Nation Model
The Tabernacle with the Tribes
camped around it in the Exodus became the pattern for Client
Nation Israel in the Promised Land. Client Nation Israel in the
Promised Land fulfilled the Abrahamic Covenant, including the land-grant,
or Palestinian Covenant. However, all of the land promised to Abraham
will not be acquired until the Millennium.
The Client Nation
Model is the seed type, or kernel, of every continent, nation, and
city under the Laws of Establishment. All the nations of the world
function according to the model of Client Nation Israel. Like Israel
with the Tabernacle in the middle of the camp, the east side is the Spiritual
side, the west side is prosperous, the north side is for authority, and
the south side represents the counterattack.
Shadow of Heaven
The Tabernacle
with the surrounding Tribes
will be a shadow type of the Millennial Kingdom. Jerusalem
will be the home of the Temple and the capital of Israel and the world.
The Tribes of Israel will own land around Jerusalem in fulfillment of the
Palestinian Covenant. And the Gentile nations will occupy the rest
of the Earth.
The Tabernacle with the surrounding Tribes will also be
a shadow type of the Eternal State. The Heavenly (New) Jerusalem
will be surrounded by the nation of Israel with its Tribes, and the Gentile
nations will occupy the rest of the New Earth. The Church will live
in the Heavenly Jerusalem to rule and reign with Christ.
Next
References
1. Larry Wood. "Marriage
Grace," August 1997. http://www.Biblenews1.com/marriage/marriaga.htm#garden
2. Larry Wood. "Sarah,"
December 1997. http://www.Biblenews1.com/docs/sarah.htm
3. Larry Wood. "Grace,"
August 1998. http://www.Biblenews1.com/grace/gracea.htm#tabernacle
Released February 8, 2005 - Revised Sept. 27, 2013
Author: Larry Wood
