Category: Lordship

My theses in case you have been wondering from the first post is that Labor Day and our entire idea of resting outside of the Biblical establishment of true rest is a misguided concept. All excessive holidays and even excessive weekly feasting, can be a detriment to a proper view of the Sabbath.

Bodies need repose as Adam needed rest, but when bodies seek excessive rest outside of Biblical rest, it is akin to sleeping during a night shift in a war zone. It is possible, but highly unlikely to be restful.

The ancient Egyptians and later the French revolutionary calendar tried to modify the Creator’s pattern by establishing a 10-day week only to fail miserably. It is inconceivable that any human invention can alter the certainty of God’s calendar. Labor day or for that matter any day that attempts to undo the eternal plan fails and is intended to suppress the ethics of the Christian week.

Americans and Canadians celebrated Labor Day on the 4th of September. Naturally, they slept in, barbecued with family, and enjoyed a peaceful evening at home. Certainly every man is worthy of rest and for some, the limited rest just isn’t enough. We overwork ourselves and Labor Day becomes a necessary day. It leads man to believe that he deserves such rest. How does the garden fit into this picture? In Genesis 2:15 we read: “Yahweh God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.” Calvin’s words are always instructive: “Whence it follows that men were created to employ themselves in some work, and not to lie down in inactivity and idleness. This labor, truly, was pleasant, and full of delight, entirely exempt from all trouble and weariness; since however God ordained that man should be exercised in the culture of the ground, he condemned in his person, all indolent repose.” Work was made to be a part of man and man was made to enjoy his work. Our culture has substantially perverted that notion by granting a day of rest to people when God does not grant such a day.

The overworked, over-stressed, and over-secularized society undermines and nullifies the sacredness of our labors. Our jobs are to be cultivated, cared for, and loved as God intended. The Labor Day should be a day of unrest for God’s people. There is nothing as ridiculous as resting on a Monday morning when nothing hinders you from working.

A great economist I read frequently wrote to his readers that his favorite holiday is Labor Day. He expounded that on Labor Day the enemies rest, while he rises earlier than usual and works a full day to get ahead of his enemies. Don’t you yet know that in this world competition always results in loss? Let the pagan lose and let the Christian type away.

In every law there is another side: a curse. Genesis 2 goes on to stipulate what you should not do when you labor: “ Yahweh God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it…” Unnecessary repose is evil and corrupts the ethic of the garden. There are always requirements. When you steal (a commandment broken in the garden), when you labor to the expense of your familial duties, you take and eat of the ungodly fruit. Since when does Labor Day fit into God’s pattern of six and one, six and one? It does not! So why do we trade Labor Day for Sabbath Day? True rest, physical and spiritual is needed, but that rest comes when we worship with other saints and when we glorify the Creator of true rest.

Genesis 3:9 says: Yahweh God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” When the garden appeared to be the perfect manifestation of stability, Adam and Eve were easily deceived by the serpent. The Kingdom of God in all its grandeur would come upon Adam’s descendants and righteousness would rule the garden, and eventually the world outside the garden forever. But all crumbled when God’s icons failed and fell. Upon failure, Adam hid as a child hiding from a parent under the visible table. Yet, God the Creator of all things and sustainer of all things seemed to struggle with Adam’s location. He uttered, “Where are you man?” Is God limited in His visibility or is there something else to this enigma?

Open Theists have always delighted on this and many other passages that appear to limit God’s knowledge of the future. They argue, “since God does not know the whereabouts of Adam, then He can’t have perfect knowledge.” But does this argument prove too much? I believe it does. Genesis 3:9 does not present God wondering about the presence of Adam in the future, but the presence of Adam in the present. The divine question is: ” Where are you NOW?”, not where will you hide later? Open Theists cannot have it both ways. They will have to deny God’s knowledge of the future and knowledge of the present in order to be consistent. Furthermore, if this is the case, what hinders Open Theists from denying God’s ability to remember past events?

Open Theism, which is a re-hashing of an old Socinian heresy, fails to understand the purposes of God. God  descends and communicates with man so that divinity can communicate with humanity. Yahweh’s question was an ethical one and Adam knew it. It would be futile for God to appear suddenly and make angelic lights shine from heaven revealing Adam. Moses’ readers knew that God was making a greater point with His question: “Adam, your sin has found you out!”  The voice of God must have infringed upon that which had not been infringed before: Adam’s conscious; the words of God must have echoed in the garden like a loud roar. Adam, man, imago Dei, has exprienced sin and God’s burning question proves it.

Continuing this short discussion on the expanding Garden, my dear friend Rob comments that the Garden is the dwelling place of God. I have no quarrels with that. In fact, Professor Mark Futato brought that to my attention a few years ago. He continues and writes: “From the Garden to the tabernacle, from the tabernacle to the temple, from the temple to the Church. It continues to move forward till eventually heaven on earth becomes fully realized as the dwelling place of God.”

It is undeniable that Redemptive history looks forward (though it appears as a regress in human conception). The Garden is seen in every element of Redemptive history. But that is not the issue I am addressing. If the concept of journeying back to the garden is troublesome, it should not be. I am perfectly comfortable living with this tension. I mentioned before that in the eyes of the world, it is a non-sensical journey. We cannot deny that the Garden is part of our past. It is an earthly garden with earthly people surrounded by earthly things. It is the center of all creation. There was more outside the garden in the beginning, but it was not meant to be inherited by man at that time. In God’s perfect decree He desired that after the fall since man could not go back to the garden, the garden would come to us and man and garden will meet. Man goes back and the  garden comes forward. Since the garden is no longer in one location, we do not seek the same garden that Adam dwelt, but the exapanding garden where elect humanity will dwell.

In the time of Joshua, the garden had already sprinkled itself in the Promise Land. The irony of it is that the original garden expands towards us and we journey back to it. Our journey is not geographical in nature, but our goal is to return to that original garden. The door is now open, the angel with the sword has vanished, and the animals lie with each other in perfect harmony.

When the Old Covenant terminated in Ad 70 the New Heavens and New Earth descended (Rev.21 &22) and the garden continued to spread its peace. Finding the garden is not equivalent to entry into the Eternal New Heavens and New Earth where perfection is pervasive and where Christ reigns supreme with no sin hindering humanity; finding the garden is a close, but yet imperfect environment where righteousness and justice reigns, Christ also reigns supreme (as He has from His ascension to eternity future), but sin still prevails. When elect humanity reaches the garden, the whole world will know of the glory of God, though sin will still be present, it will be as if it weren’t. Our children will live long days, sickness will be a small matter, the gospel will be the reigning theme, and Biblical Law will govern the nations. That very same garden will be upheld by God and when all Christ’s enemies are effectually under His feet, then the Son of Man will come and receive His garden, purify it, eliminate the remaining blemish and He will be all in all in the eternal garden of God where sin is no more.

My contention is that the people of God are making a journey back into the garden where righteousness dwells. However, this garden is not an exact replica of the Garden of Eden. It is still the same garden, but different in purpose. Some have confused my thinking in this matter as if this journey into the garden is our final journey. Nay, this journey is merely a first step towards a perfect world where God dwells supremely and man reigns forever over the angels. The first garden was a piece of land surrounded by rivers. It was limited in dimension and size. The garden the elect of God pursue is the same garden as Eden but no longer limited in size. That garden first created by God for His first human creation suffers an expansion. This expansion will cease only when nothing surrounds the garden. It must overcome land and sea (Isaiah 11:9).

The Garden is first a desired location for Christians. The garden serves as a blessed rest after elect humanity fulfills the Great Commission and Christ brings His enemies under His feet. But the garden continues to be a source of stability for our society as Christ continually makes heaven earth. The garden is a source of morality. The ethics of the garden plays a significant role in restoring sinful humanity to renewed humanity. In the beginning God created male and female. This was the norm for those who are to abide in the garden. If mankind breaks that pattern, then the garden is farther and farther away. After the fall humanity invented a new ethic, an ethic unlike the one in the garden. As a result great curse and misery fell upon the earth. Polygamy came as an attempt to override Biblical ethics. The monogamous beginning of Adam and Eve were replaced with Solomon and his many, many wives and concubines. The result is disastrous. Solomon pursued the gods of his wives. The curse of polygamy is implicit in the Older Covenant. Those who adopted it, suffered for it. Once again the ethic of the garden was lost.

The Garden of Eden is hidden from contemporary evangelicalism because it is not what they want. It is better for some that the reality in Eden be never replicated on earth. The splendor of the garden is lost and now we seek to run away from it; in fact, so far that that reality will never again be a part of our lives. Nevertheless, redemptive history seeks otherwise. Redemption’s progression appears to be a regression in human conception. The Kingdom of God has as its goal getting back to the basics. The basics of the garden, the basics of peace, justice, and righteousness. That which Adam failed, is being restored. We are indeed sojourners. Our journey is not to outer space, but to see the glorious garden from where we came. After the fall, the Garden did not disappear, it was simply guarded by angelic hosts. Now our great leader has opened the gates to the garden, but going there comes with a price. It requires submission. Submission, that is, to the garden’s owner. He gives us the marching orders and we follow his directions. His throne is settled in the heavens, but now He seeks a replica of that throne on earth. O Hail, the King of the Garden!