Trees Walking

     The Garden and Eden were real. Even today, the foundation stone is believed to be covered by the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. Because of the foundation stone's importance, and because Jerusalem means "foundation of peace," that location is believed to be the Garden. (One of my next books will be on the location of Eden and the Garden). On that rock, Adam's dust was likely gathered to form his body. Adam's (Hebrew Ādhām) name means "man" (Etymology Online). He represents mankind, or his fellow man. Adam was surely created without a navel since he was formed from the dust. That rock is known as "the navel of the world." That description has two implications: (1) Adam's navel, and (2) the torque axis around which continental drift turned. Many maps of what scripture calls "the firmament" show one land mass called Pangea - "all earth" from the Greek (ibid).
     Adam was created whereas everyone else was born. Technically, Eve was born of Adam. The Creation and the reality of the Garden of Eden is imperative to the Christian belief: "The invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse" (Rom 1:20).
     The Creation, what can be seen, is evidence of God. That is crucial. By definition, gods create, and if truly gods, it would take only one. Any lesser being would not be God. Since evolutionary theory is relegated to chance, "Chance" becomes the "unknown god" of the world (Acts 17:23). Science is therefore a religion because it takes greater faith to trust in that theory.
     The Creation (capitalized because it was a Divine act) is important for there to be a New Creation: "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new" (2 Cor 5:17). A person truly born again (John 3:7) is a new creation; that transformation is what theologians call "regeneration." The meaning of that is "re-origination" or a "re-genesis." The Book of Genesis is important because without the Creation, there wouldn't be a New Creation - Adamkind (Ādhām) was given a second chance by grace. Because Jesus was born pure, he was the Second Adam: "And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit" (1 Cor 15:45). To be clear, that means, Adam had life put into his pre-existing soul, and Jesus's pre-existing Spirit was made alive. 
     Because God, "according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love" (Ephes 1:4), all people, as was Adam, pre-existed as souls. With Adam, God's Spirit was in him as he was made in the image of God: He used both "in His image" and "in our image" (Gen 1:26-27). "Ours" of course means Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; hence Adam was made in the image of Jesus whose appearance God foreknew before he was incarnated (John 17:24). On the other hand, after the original sin of Ādhām, everyone else, except for Eve ,was born with an empty soul whose contents would be filled with something. 
     When the newborn baby is crowned, it's soul begins to die as the influences of the world begins to fill it. David called that "shapen in iniquity" (Psalm 51:5). The New Creation cleanses the soul from the influences of the world, and imbues God's Holy Spirit within the clean soul. As sin soon re-enters the New Creature, God continues to re-cleanse as the soul regains worldly influence.
     Satan is Prince of the Air (the world): "Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience" (Ephes 2:2). The "power of the air" is the spirit of Satan and his demons. In a basic sense, regeneration exorcises demonic influences and makes the soul inhabitable by God's Spirit.
    The Creation is then imperative in a physical sense to be re-created spiritually. Therefore, the Garden of Eden must have been natural (real), but it seems to be extremely supra-natural as well. God had a plan for mankind to give us an "expected end" (Jer 29:11) . The Plan was contained in the Garden of Eden. The focal point of the Plan was in the midst of the Garden, and was the Tree of Life (Gen 2:9). That "tree" was later identified to be God manifested (Rev 22:2), who is called Jesus (Mat 1:25). (Note: Jesus was there in the beginning (John 1-2,14) so anytime God showed himself He was revealing Jesus.)

(Continued tomorrow)