Paradise, Eden, and the Kingdom of God

PARADISE, EDEN AND THE KINGDOM OF GOD

1-16-2019

The Garden of Eden as described in the book of Genesis has generated a considerable amount of speculation in both religious and secular circles.  Was it an actual place created by God at the beginning of creation for Adam and Eve or is it merely symbolic imagery representing a perfect area of the world?  Of course, most people consider Eden a metaphoric addition to the Genesis record but let’s suppose it was a real place.

If Eden was an actual area of land, which is a high possibility, then it would be the model for the Kingdom of God or a window through which heaven would come to the earth.  The earth was to be an expression of heaven and the will of God, but this was to come as the earth progressed from chaos to the appearance of the garden.  The Garden of Eden is/was also called “paradise”.  God placed Adam in the orchard or garden of Eden and instructed him to care for it and to maintain it. Afterwards He created Eve from a part of Adam so that both Adam and Eve would be of one body.

Paradise began as a small limited piece of real estate. Some claim it was possibly located in the northern Iraq/Turkey area.  Adam and Eve were called to increase the Kingdom until it filled the whole earth. If Adam had been able to do so, all things would have been put “under his feet” (Psalm 8:6).

Psalms 8:4-6 NET Of what importance is the human race, that you should notice them? Of what importance is mankind, that you should pay attention to them, (5) and make them a little less than the heavenly beings? You grant mankind honor and majesty; (6) you appoint them to rule over your creation; you have placed everything under their authority

However, Adam failed, and so this calling was transferred to the “last Adam,” which is Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 15:45 NET (45) So also it is written, "The first man, Adam, became a living person"; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.

The gateway to the Earth of the paradise of Eden is Jesus Christ.  It is prophesied by Isaiah that the world will eventually become a replica of the Paradise of Eden.  However, it will not instantly occur at the return of Jesus but only after a period of time when all people have been resurrected and instructed by the power of the Holy Spirit.  The Millennium lasts for a thousand years.  At the end of the Millennium all remaining people will be resurrected and reeducated by the fire of God.  At this time will be the possible restructuring of the earth into the paradise of Eden occur.

When the Kingdom of God transforms the entire earth in the paradise of Eden, some animals will no longer be lethal to each other or to people.

Isaiah 11:6-9 NET A wolf will reside with a lamb, and a leopard will lie down with a young goat; an ox and a young lion will graze together, as a small child leads them along. (7) A cow and a bear will graze together, their young will lie down together. A lion, like an ox, will eat straw. (8) A baby will play over the hole of a snake; over the nest of a serpent an infant will put his hand. (9) They will no longer injure or destroy on my entire royal mountain. For there will be universal submission to the LORD's sovereignty, just as the waters completely cover the sea.

Other Old Testament millennial prophecies include:  Zechariah 14:8-21; Joel 3:18;  Psalms 46:4; Micah 4:1; Isaiah 65:17-25; and Isaiah 66:18-24.

The animals will eventually become as they were at creation, tame and docile.  Genesis 2:19 seems to indicate that all the animals, including birds, willingly approached Adam to be given a name.

Genesis 2:19 NET The LORD God formed out of the ground every living animal of the field and every bird of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them, and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name.

The finale of the Kingdom may be found in Revelation 21.  John envisioned a “new heaven and a new earth”.  The exact definition of this statement (new earth) is unknown.  Most commentators doubt that a new planet will appear to replace the original earth.  It could be that a transformation of the earth will present the appearance of a new earth. 

Revelation 21:1-3 NET Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and earth had ceased to exist, and the sea existed no more. (2) And I saw the holy city -- the new Jerusalem -- descending out of heaven from God, made ready like a bride adorned for her husband. (3) And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying: "Look! The residence of God is among human beings. He will live among them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them.

“And the sea existed no more” It is thought that the original earthly creation did not contain surface water, with the water all being underground within the earth.  During the flood of Noah, Genesis states that it actually rained but the majority of the water came from under the ground. In the new earth the oceans and seas may again become underground reservoirs.

The word “Jerusalem” is said to be a plurality designating two Jerusalems.  The old earthly Jerusalem is supposedly prophesied to be destroyed according to Isaiah 26 but the New Jerusalem will perhaps be created by God on the new earth although it is said to descend from heaven.  As the city of the glorified saints it will be as a bride for Jesus Christ, who is the husband.

Genesis 2:24 KJ3  Therefore, a man shall leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife and they shall become one flesh (or one family).

As previously stated, the transformation of the earth to Paradise will not happen suddenly.  It was perhaps take about 1000 years.  The glorified saints of the first resurrection will be given authority to subdue the nations to Christ during the Tabernacles Age which will also be the seventh or Sabbath Millennium and there will be no debts or servitude.  The end of the seventh Millennium will also witness a war consisting of unbelievers attacking the people of God.

Revelation 20:7-8 NET Now when the thousand years are finished, Satan will be released from his prison (8) and will go out to deceive the nations at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to bring them together for the battle. They are as numerous as the grains of sand in the sea.

The mentioned, God and Magog, may be similar people but are not the same people of Ezekiel 38 and 39 which has already been mostly fulfilled by the Khazarian Jews from Russia and Eastern Europe and ended with the state of Israel in 1948.

At the Great White Throne judgment all remaining people will be resurrected at the second resurrection.  Each will confront the court of judgment and they will receive the judgment of God.  The law requires that all law breakers will be symbolically sold to various masters or redeemers as a version of mandatory subjection.  Their redeemers will be granted the responsibility to teach each of them righteousness.

Isaiah 26:9 NET I look for you during the night, my spirit within me seeks you at dawn, for when your judgments come upon the earth, those who live in the world learn about justice.

Adam’s sin prevented him from completing his calling which was to subdue the earth into a paradise as an expansion of the Garden of Eden.  He was given the Fruitfulness Mandate but was unable to fulfill it.  The Mandate may have been passed down through all the generations after Adam but it was definitely given to Abraham by God.  Then it was given to Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Ephraim, etc.  At the second coming Jesus Christ will attain the Fruitfulness Mandate and it will then be totally fulfilled.

Genesis 1:28 NET God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply! Fill the earth and subdue it! Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and every creature that moves on the ground."

The Soon Filfillment of the Birthright Mandate

THE SOON FULFILLMENT OF THE BIRTHRIGHT MANDATE

1-06-2019

After the creation of Adam and Eve, God issued two mandates:  The Dominion Mandate and the Fruitfulness Mandate.  The first established Kingdom Authority; the second established Kingdom Purpose, which was to "be fruitful and multiply".

Genesis 1:28 NET God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply! Fill the earth and subdue it! Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and every creature that moves on the ground."

Although most professing Christians have a general understanding of the Dominion Mandate which was fulfilled with the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, very few have any understanding of the Birthright Mandate.  Most assume in a physical sense that it means having children and cultivating crops much like the self-imposed Bible teacher exerted below named Jacob Gerber.

Jacob Gerber    https://jacobgerber.org/fruitfulness-biblical-theology-productivity/

At the beginning of the Bible, God both forms and fills his creation. Then, God commands that his people carry forward his work of creation through cultivating and keeping God’s creation.

This will mean that God’s people should raise up more image bearers (through fruitful multiplication) who have plenty to eat (through fruitful cultivation)

Although the Mandate has a very limited relation to children and crops this is a small amount of application.  For instance the Gospel of the Kingdom was initially presented to the Judeans and afterwards it was significantly presented throughout the nations of the migrated descendants of the ten northern tribes called Israel.  It was designed to generate saints/elect/overcomers as future administrators of the Kingdom and nurtured only a very small number of chosen individuals.

Also, this population of European descendants migrated to North America to invent and establish an amazing arsenal of crop machines:  planters, harvesters, land cultivation, fertilizer enhancements, and refining mechanisms.

Although the two above paragraphs are important to the world for its establishment of the Church and plant harvesting features it will not be fulfilled until the second appearance of Jesus Christ when the two Mandates will be combined into a single entity.  The first appearance of Christ fulfilled the Dominion Mandate and the second appearance will fulfill the Fruitfulness Mandate.

The Mandate was given by God prior to the sin of Adam and Eve.  If Adam had fulfilled the Mandate prior to death and the ground being cursed because of sin he would have produced children in his image and likeness--which in turn was the image and likeness of God.  Humans having the likeness of God as Jesus foretold in the transfiguration is the fulfillment of the plan of God.

After the sin of Adam and Eve the Birthright Mandate came to a temporary halt and various difficulties were added to their lifestyle:  labor pains were greatly increased; the woman would desire to control her husband; the ground became cursed; growing crops would be painful; thorns and thistles would arise; and everyone born would to destined to sin and ultimately die to be returned to the ground from which they were created.

Genesis 3:16-19 NET To the woman he said, "I will greatly increase your labor pains; with pain you will give birth to children. You will want to control your husband, but he will dominate you." (17) But to Adam he said, "Because you obeyed your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat from it,' cursed is the ground thanks to you; in painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. (18) It will produce thorns and thistles for you, but you will eat the grain of the field. (19) By the sweat of your brow you will eat food until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you will return."

The actual fulfillment of the Birthright (or Fruitfulness) Mandate would be delayed until the second appearance of Jesus Christ.  Lesser fulfillments would and were accomplished by the people, but not the Glorified nature of mankind. Because children were conceived and born after Adam had lost the image of God through sin, mankind was only able to produce children after Adam’s fallen likeness.

The Sonship message that is more clearly set forth in the New Testament is actually the fulfillment of this Fruitfulness Mandate which can be seen in John 1:12-13.

John 1:12-13 NET But to all who have received him -- those who believe in his name -- he has given the right to become God's children (13) -- children not born by human parents or by human desire or a husband's decision, but by God.

Those who believe in His name (i.e. what He represents along with His teachings) He has given the right (not at that moment but at His return) to become God's children.

Both mandates must be combined at His return (i.e. the Millennial Kingdom of God) as it was prior to the sin of Adam and Eve.  A King must have a Kingdom and the Dominion must have son-ship or children of God.  One aspect requires the other for completeness.

Of course, one must kind in mind that the sin of Adam and its consequences were foreknown by God.  The divine plan and the opposition to the plan is the narrative sequence of the Bible.  The scriptures contain many illustrations of opposition and usurpation of the Divine Plan so that individuals would know how to rule by the mind of God as well as how to come into the manifestation of the Sons (or children) of God.

 

The religious leaders of Jesus’ earth days temporarily stole the throne of the Kingdom by executing the King.  Today, the people calling themselves Jews have attempted to steal the Birthright Mandate by naming their country Israel.  They have also brainwashed the so-called Christian Zionists into believing there are actually the congregated 12 tribes of Israel, which they are not. 

Today Judas has arisen again, but this time in the dispute over the birthright of Joseph and the birthright name, Israel. Christian Zionists are the modern Judas, thinking that they can force Jesus to return by igniting Armageddon. They do not realize that you cannot fulfill prophecy by betraying Jesus. Judas discovered this only too late, and he hanged himself

The name “Israel” was given to Jacob by God when he (Jacob) finally realized that God is in complete control and did not need the assistance of either Jacob or his mother, Rebecca.  Jacob passed the name “Israel” to Joseph which was then passed down to Ephraim, the son of Joseph.  No modern nation has the right to call itself by the name of Israel.

No person can attain the Birthright of Joseph and/or become a Child of God, unless that person accepts Christ as the Birthright Holder in His second coming. Jesus Christ is the one whose robe is dipped in blood.

Genesis 37:31 NET So they took Joseph's tunic, killed a young goat, and dipped the tunic in the blood.

Revelation 19:13 NET He is dressed in clothing dipped in blood, and he is called the Word of God.

The manifestation of the glorified children of God is only the beginning of the final outworking of the divine plan for the earth. That divine plan was set at the beginning of creation. Much of the Church has no vision of this, thinking that when the second coming of Christ occurs, virtually everything will come to an end:  i.e. Armageddon; the earth burned up with fire; all life gone due to the misunderstood symbolism of the Revelaton. They do not realize that Christ's second coming is only a new beginning, one where the first-fruits will be manifested and later there will be universal reconciliation.

Romans 8:19-21 NET For the creation eagerly waits for the revelation of the sons of God. (20) For the creation was subjected to futility -- not willingly but because of God who subjected it -- in hope (21) that the creation itself will also be set free from the bondage of decay into the glorious freedom of God's children.

In the law of first-fruits, once the first-fruits are offered to God, then the real harvest can begin.  The overcomers are the first-fruits of the harvest to come. The manifestation of the sons of God represents the time when the first-fruits are offered to God, or are presented to God as Sons. Once God has been presented the first-fruits, then it is lawful for the others to begin harvesting their crop.

Metaphorically, when God inspects the first fruit portion of the harvest, and when He finds it "holy," then the rest of the field is deemed ready for harvest as it was in the laws of God. Only then is the entire field acceptable to Him. This is why the manifestation of the sons of God marks the beginning of a much greater harvest of souls for the Kingdom of God.

The First Resurrection will occur at the second coming of Christ and will be known as “the first of the first-fruits” that will be presented to God. It is the first presentation of the children of God, which is symbolized by barley wave sheaf offering, which is the first-fruits offering that is presented to God on the first Sunday after Passover. The Church calls it by its Babylonian name, "Easter," named for the goddess Ishtar.

According to Dr. Stephen Jones the order of coming events as prophesized by the feast days are the following:

1.   Feast of Trumpets: The resurrection of the overcomers (i.e., "leaders of the people") occurs at the blowing of a single trumpet (Num. 10:4; 1 Cor. 15:52; 1 Thess. 4:16).

2.   Day of Atonement/Jubilee: The Church repents in panic and fear for seeming to have missed "the rapture" as they have been taught. The Church fulfills the Day of Atonement (mourning); the overcomers fulfill the Jubilee (rejoicing).

3.    The First day of Tabernacles: The overcomers are given immortality, joining with the resurrected overcomers from past ages who were raised two weeks earlier at Trumpets. This represents the New Birth of the corporate New Man.

4.   The Middle of Tabernacles: Christ comes to join the Head with the Body of overcomers, in order to make this corporate body complete and eligible to be presented to the Father. This pattern of Christ's coming in the midst of the feast is found in John 7:14.

5.    The Eighth Day of Tabernacles: The completed and perfected body of overcomers (sons of God) are presented to God on the eighth day according to the law (Ex. 22:29, 30).