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SUBJECT: Garden of Eden
QUESTION: Why did God put the Garden of Eden in Satan’s
World?
ANSWER:
God crated the Garden of Eden in Satan's world for the same
reason that Jesus took the disciples to the Decapolis (specifically
Caesarea Philippi) just before His final trip to
Jerusalem to die. You read about this in Matthew 16,
beginning in verse 13.
God wants to add to His family. Now He could just create
beings; He had already done that, but 1/3 had rebelled. The
best way to be able to add to His family is to have these
individuals develop their own character of being like
Christ, being repentant and overcoming sin. This is why He
created man.
You are probably familiar with Jesus taking Peter aside and
saying to him that "on this rock will I build my church".
Now clearly, in one spiritual sense He is referring to
Himself; that the church would be built on the foundation of
Christ. However there is another meaning and it all has to
do with WHERE He tells Peter about the church....the
Decapolis. The area around Caesarea Philippi was the most
pagan place on the planet at that time. They worshipped the
god Pan there and while Jesus is there with the disciples,
one could see the statues to Pan all through the rocks
there.
Also at Caesarea Philippi are the headwaters of the Jordan.
They come out of a rock cave. The word "hell" means the
grave or the earth. It was believed by the pagans that the
gods would go down into hell during the winter and emerge in
the spring to bring a bounty of crops and increase.
Jesus takes Peter down by the river and as one can see, to
this day, the banks of the river were huge slaps of rock.
Jesus says to Peter...
Matthew 16:18
And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this
rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not
prevail against it.
Now Jesus could have offered this declarative statement at
any time in the 3.5 years He was with them, but He chose to
do it here, in the most pagan area around.
Why? And what did He mean, "the gates of hell would not
prevail against it?"
He was telling Peter, by referring to the rock, that He
would build His church in the place of sin (meaning the
whole world). This is where sin and rebellion originated
and it is where it MUST be overcome by the beings God
created to build righteous character. Beings who go through
this process will not rebel from God after they are spirit
beings in His Kingdom.
When God calls a person to the truth, He calls them to
repentance of sin, baptism and the laying on of hands to
receive the power of God, the Holy Spirit (Hebrews 6). With
this power, they enter the Salvation Process (see
definition) and if successful there, enter into the
Kingdom of God with eternal life. Everyone who has ever
lived will get this opportunity. Clearly some will fail.
Many will succeed. In the Salvation Process, one must
overcome sin. Go back to the "gates of hell" statement:
In those days of Jesus and before, cities were often built
in such a way as to protect themselves from those who would
attack from the outside. The city would be surrounded by a
high wall and there would be a gate system. This usually
was a tunnle in the wall with a gate at each end. On both
sides of the tunnel were rooms, usually 3 on each side.
These would be filled with soldiers. It would be hard,
therefore, for attackers to make it into the city with
massive amounts of soldiers hitting you from both the right
and left.
Those in the city are Defenders. Those on the outside,
ATTACKING, were the conquerors. Why does Jesus say the
gates of hell would not prevail against the church? Why not
say that the church would defend against the wiles and
attacks of Satan? Simple: WE ARE TO BE ON THE OFFENSIVE
WHEN IT COMES TO OVERCOMING SIN AND THE DECEPTION OF SATAN.
Satan is to be in the gates, not us!
This is why God put the garden of Eden in Satan's world and
why Jesus began His church from the most pagan place in the
world at that time.
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