“you have not passed this way before”
(Jos. 3:4, AMP)
The previous three teachings were a type of intermezzo, an in-between presentation that had us veer off of our current path so that we can pause and spend a moment thinking about the process of knowledge-gathering that we are engaged with. We are clearly on a new path here, and that which God said to Joshua in Joshua 3:4 (AMP) feels strangely apt at this juncture, too: “you have not passed this way before”.
Since the third reformation started, in other words, the seventh day after Adam and the third day after Jesus (Hos. 6:1-2), there has been a release of words that were kept secret, from the book of life that was sealed, all according to a prophesy of Daniel. The prophet thus also notes that because this release has taken place, knowledge will greatly increase (Dan. 12:4). This also means that our way of reading, thinking and understanding will change and be extended. For most believers, who hold onto only a traditional method of reading the Bible and engaging in exegesis, the word in Isa. 29:11-12 is upsettingly true: “The whole vision has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one who is literate, saying, ‘Read this, please.’ And he says, ‘I cannot, for it is sealed.’ Then the book is delivered to one who is illiterate, saying, ‘Read this, please.’ And he says, ‘I am not literate.’” Our reading practice needs to be greatly altered if we are to be able to read the new revelation in a responsible manner.
It is now already much more possible to read the entire story in Gen. 1-3 as a typology, which through its narrative conventions explains the seed plot of the entire gospel. It is undoubtedly much more than just a simple narrative about the disobedience of the first man. What happened to Adam really took place, but also took place exemplary of typological terms, as his story is also the story of every other human being. Adam represents what man is in his very being, how he is, why he is. He represents man as we are familiar with him, with all his abilities, capacities and faculties.
Our distant memory of the Garden of Eden, that which hovers in our collective memory about the Paradise in the East, has left a remnant over the ages, through the dreaming thoughts, myths, traditions and stories of faith of all groups of earth in history.
There is indeed not a people or nation on earth that does not present man’s origin as a lost period of purity, peace, living in harmony with nature, and in an intimate relationship with a greater Being. The hieroglyphs of Egypt, the clay tablets of Assyria, the Edda of Scandinavia, the legends of Tibet, the Sumerian mythological story of Enki and Ninhursag, the narrative of the garden of Hesperides in the Greek myths, as well as the stories that originate from ancient Rome all basically present the same primitive storyline. Even if God has a different name in each narrative, and the first man appears in different guises, they are undoubtedly derived from the same ancient narrative in the archetypal psyche.
We as believers should by now know that the Garden of Eden is clearly not a concrete space with GPS-coordinates that locates it somewhere in ancient Mesopotamia or in contemporary Iraq. Such a place has never physically been located, even if there is correlation with real rivers that may have once flown through and bordered this magical space. There are suspicions that these two rivers still flow today, but within their shores no paradise is alas to be found (we should probably also keep in mind that the flood in the time of Noah obviously changed the topography of the earth, and thus also the flow of the rivers!). No explorer can claim that he’s been able to find this mythical symbolic space. The cherubs with a flaming sword who guards the entry to this holy space has thus also not been found. But it is of great importance that we understand who or what these cherubs of which Gen. 3:24 speaks are, as they/it are what is keeping us out of paradise/the garden of Eden/ the New Jerusalem/ the heavens/ the third dimension!
The Garden of Eden that is described in the Biblical book of Genesis is thus not a physical space, but a spiritual state of consciousness. It is a higher level of functioning than this physical, earthly state in which we are born, and in which we function as prisoners of time and space. It is the original state in which we functioned before we fell from grace and landed on this earth, or realm of the dead, which we call man’s habitat.
Eden represents man in the presence of the living Creator God. Eden is man as ruler who, with the unblemished, eternal life of God within him, reigns over all things. Eden encapsulates man as he lives without sin, without illness, pain, decay, degeneration or death.
Yet there is in this perfect garden of Godly-human glory the germ cell, in man’s being and in his environment, that can lead to his fall and the removal of God.
Strangely enough man was in the garden, but he also was the garden. Scripture explains it thus in Gen. 2:8: “The Lord God planted a garden eastward in [the garden of] Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed.” In the original language, the word “put” is actually “appoint” (The Complete WordStudy Dictionary). Man was being and environment, and these elements corresponded with one another in all instances. All the circumstances that surrounded man in this environment were also the realities of his deepest state of consciousness, his heart. The original man, with his nature, characteristics, abilities and potential is also what we see represented in the space of Eden. The external circumstances of man’s environment accord with man’s inner nature, which carries the potential for both good or evil, life or death.
The great truth of man’s original state of existence that thus also included or encapsulated the Garden of Eden, runs like a golden thread throughout the entire Bible, from Genesis to Revelation. In the last book of the Bible the Garden of Eden eventually becomes the wondrous city of God, the New Jerusalem, the city which we too, as the Bride of the last Adam, ARE ourselves (Rev. 21:9-11). In Isa. 60:14 this is presented in prophetic terms: “And they shall call you The City of the Lord, Zion of the Holy One of Israel.”
In Rev. 22, the last chapter of the Bible, we read about what this “city of God” looks like – it is firstly explained as a garden, almost akin to the one in Genesis! Verses 1 and 2 make this clear: “And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.” Here we find a few details and elements that were not found in the original garden of Eden, but the primary and most important “item” of paradise still remains – the tree of life.
One should then ask, as one did earlier – was this tree transplanted from the Garden of Eden to the New Jerusalem? Indeed, it was not. The Garden of Eden IS the city, the corporate Body of Christ in which every person who is part of the Bride still lives! It is a spiritual reality which is also called the kingdom of God, or the kingdom of the heavens. The risen Bride is a completely new species on this age-old earth, with another nationality and inhabitants that observe the laws and constitution of another country (2 Cor. 5:17).
Yet there is a marked difference between the Garden of Eden and the New Jerusalem that we need to take into account. Genesis describes the Beginnings, and Revelation describes the Execution. I’m specifically capitalizing both of these concepts, as both are names of Jesus the Christ, the Yes and the Amen. In the Beginnings there was a dedicated plan and blueprint of God’s eternal resolution: “All this is proceeding along lines planned all along by God and then executed in Christ Jesus.” (Eph. 3:11, MSG). Planned and then executed. The book of Revelation is a rich tapestry where all the golden threads of this history of salvation is woven together through typology, symbols, prophesies, promises and forecasts. The entire preceding Scripture is taken up into this revelatory text, and woven into a type of virtual tour of Godly intention. It describes, in a Masterful way, the finer details of God’s glorious salvation plan, the manner in which He has destined the sustainable interweaving of all things.
But in the New Jerusalem a few things are different from the Garden of Eden, because “the former things have passed away” (Rev. 21:4). This is indeed the proclamation of the one who Completes, or Executes: “Behold, I make all things new. And He said to me, ‘Write, for these words are true and faithful.’” (verse 5). In the next verse, He then officially and dramatically announces: “It is done!” This certainly makes Him the “Finisher [bringing … to maturity and perfection]” (Heb. 12:2, AMP). It is in His nature to finish, or to complete – remember His words on the cross: “It is finished!” (John 19:30).
We can thus absolutely look forward to the conclusion of the current epoch. Clearly this conclusion points to God’s finishing of all things according to His blueprint. But the deep bond between man and earth is also demonstrated in another way. Believers can thus also, as Phil. 1:6 suggests, “being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ …” The Amplified Bible presents it even more beautifully: “developing … and perfecting and bringing it to full completion in you”. This is what Eph. 4:12 (Webster) means with “the perfecting of the saints”. [Just remember: the day of Jesus Christ is TODAY when He appears, not one day, during the so-called second-coming.]
In the teaching of Day 1419-1421 we wrote extensively about the two trees in the Garden of Eden, at the hand of Rev. 22:2: “In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.” Verse 14 notes that those believers “that overcometh” gain the right to the tree of life when they enter into the gates of the city. We now know the truth – the tree did not move; it is still in the same time-space. In the New Jerusalem, ON THAT PROJECTED TIME AND SPACE, there is however no mention of a tree of the knowledge of good and evil! This means that in that habitat of Man’s functioning the wall of division between soul and spirit has been removed. The negative consequences of the fruit of the forbidden tree has gained a new guise! The KNOWLEDGE of good and evil that man gained with the eating of this tree, has now been replaced with the KNOWLEDGE of glory. This all occurs “in our hearts” (2 Cor. 4:6), which have darkened due to the fall, become hard and uncircumcised. This “hidden person of the heart” (1 Pet. 3:4), who was treacherous and unknowable (Jer. 17:9), has now changed for good. In the New Jerusalem, there is no natural light from the sun or moon, “for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light. And the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light … (there shall be no night there).” (Rev. 21:23-25). Before we WERE the darkness, NOW we are the light (Eph. 5:8).
And immediately it brings us to Gen. 1:2: “The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep.”
- Selah: Try to understand the implications of the last paragraph.
- Read: 2-4; 1 Thess. 1-5; 2 Thess. 1
- Memorise: 2:10 (how very apt!)
