“The mind, once stretched by a new idea, never returns to its original dimensions.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson
The Garden of Eden
Eden and the Garden of Eden are two different places.
but ask yourself these questions ...
- Has anyone found it, or seen it in the past 7000 years?
- Have you ever seen a Tree of Life?
- Do you believe that a Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil exists somewhere?
- Is there a nursery where you can buy these trees?
- How about a tree with a flaming sword swinging around it to keep people away?
- Eden had at least one snake. Do snakes talk?
- Have heard of any cherubim guarding a likely spot?
- Was Adam really the first human?
- Were there other people there?
- Who planted it? Who owns it? Who takes care of it?
- How do I get there? What's it cost to get in?
The Garden of Eden is not a buy a ticket, get in, ride the rides, eat the food, play the games kind of place. It is not physical; it is spiritual. To see it the way it was meant to be seen you must look through your spiritual eyes.
To get the most from the Bible in general you have to pull back a little on the literal part of your brain and give the spiritual part a little more slack. It's kind of like daydreaming'. Strict reality and logical thinking work a lot, but there are times and places where they do not. Eden is definitely a 'do not'.
The 6th Day - Humans
During day six God created man - male and female - in His image. What can honestly be drawn from this?
At some unspecified time and at some unspecified place or places God created man, male and female, both sexes at once, in an unspecified manner. I use the term 'unspecified manner' because he could have done it in many ways. The statement that you can't create something from nothing is true - for us - but we are not God. He could also have spoken people into existence or he could have allowed evolution to do it for him. Regardless, male and female humans were on the earth way before Adam.
Just for kicks look at the first line below. "Let the earth bring forth ..." I'm just saying.
Genesis 1:24-31 - "And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so. And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so. And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day."The Bible is not a history book nor is it a science tome. The religious dogmas concerning times, places and methods that we believe about the creation and humans came to us through opinions generated in the past. They are, unfortunately, regarded today as fact. They are not.
Matthew15:6-9 - "Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition. Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men."
Merriam-Webster Dictionary:
Tradition - an inherited, established, or customary pattern of thought, action, or behavior (such as a religious practice or a social custom), b: a belief or story or a body of beliefs or stories relating to the past that are commonly accepted as historical though not verifiable.
Doctrine - a principle or position or the body of principles in a branch of knowledge or system of belief: dogma
We rely on preachers, teachers, books, pamphlets, papers, TV, movies, radio, friends, and social media to tell us what we need to know. God tells us to rely on the Bible alone for our study and research of Biblical matters.
God Formed Adam
Adam was not 'created' as males and females were during day six. Adam was 'formed' out or the dust of the earth. Into his body was breathed the breath of God. This gave Adam eternal life in a dust (human) body. A type for Jesus, the second Adam - God's spirit in a human body.
Genesis 2:7 - "And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul."
Genesis 3:19 - "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return."
The words "breath of life" (nshmth chiim) are used in two places in the Bible. Here in Genesis 2:7 where he breathed it into Adam and in Genesis 7:22 where the people killed in Noah's flood were those who had the breath of life in their nostrils - ion other words, the living descendants of Adam, not everybody in the world.
A date for Adam's creation is unknown. Where he was created is known because all of his descendants, down to Noah, were located in what is now western Turkey, near Mt. Ararat. The Euphrates and Tigris Rivers begin as springs in this area.
Genesis 2:16-17 - "And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die."
The Hebrew manuscripts use an idiomatic construction literally translated “dying you shall die - 'muth thmuth' - to die you shall die. Adam and Eve ate "the apple", eternal life was taken from them, they were reduced to a human existence and subject to death.
Again, a type for Jesus, the second Adam, who, when putting on the human form became subject to death.
Philippians 2:7-8 - "But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross."
Was Adam both male and female? Physically I don't think so but he did have all of the female and all of the male attributes. It was the female attributes that were taken from the male and from which the woman was formed.
Genesis 2:24 - "Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh."
Matthew 19:5 - "And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh?"
Eden/Heaven
Genesis - "And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow very tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads."
Eden is Heaven. It is in a different dimension. It is the abode of God, the Word, and the Holy Spirit. The other beings that inhabited Eden (Heaven) were angels, thousands, maybe millions or billions of them. Their job, in th beginning, was to build the universe (universes), and whatever dimensions God had in mind. They did that job tirelessly without question. They did it exactly. They did it because they were told to.
God planted a garden in the eastern part of Eden, on the physical earth. The river that watered the garden came from from under the throne of God, living water that flowed out of Heaven, east through the garden, and out into the rest of the real world. In this garden, on earth, God put Adam.
Eve Separated from Adam
Adam could have lived for a couple of days or a million years before 'Eve' was removed from him. But, we do know through Biblical genealogy that the time between Adam being ejected from the Garden of Eden and the birth of Jesus was four of God's days (4000 human years). From Jesus to today 2 of God's days (2000 human years) God's plan for his people is 7000 years long. The last 1000 years (day 7) begins immediately at the return of Christ which will occur very soon.
Expelled From the Garden of Eden
The First Family
Everything that is done in the Heavens and on earth follows God's plan exactly.
Adam and Eve had no parents. God formed them, special, and on purpose. They were the beginning pair of "humans". The progenitors of a line of descent directly, and traceably, to Jesus. Satan's job in all this is to stop, or redirect, the descent.
Adam, Eve, Cain, Abel and Seth were the first family, they were real people, they are unique in the annals of history. They were not created n the sixth day of Genesis 1:24-31
Neither Adam or Eve had a mother or father. God really did 'form' them out of dirt, the dirt of the Fertile Crescent of Mesopotamia to be exact. Cain, Abel and Seth had no grandparents.
Now, back to the Eden thing - understanding Eden takes spiritual thinking.
We are living in the end times. Knowledge is increasing. We have at our fingertips massive amounts of knowledge. We carry all worldly knowledge on the Internet on a cell phone in our pocket. We can, at a moments notice find out anything about anything. This has never happened before. My mom and dad used encyclopedias huge heavy things. They spent lots of time in libraries and reading books, periodicals, magazines, and newspapers. We carry all that and more in our pocket.