Dogma Wednesday: The Church as Eden

We were created to worship. We are built to attribute worth and praise to something we see as higher than ourselves. Ecclesiastes writes of how God "set eternity into a man's heart" with a longing and a desire for worship (3:11). In the Garden of Eden, our worship was pure and unhindered by sin. We were honest about ourselves as we were honest about God. But because of the Fall, our worship turned inward. In sin, we worship ourselves.

But because of Christ, we have been made new to worship God, even though sin still hinders us. We experience a renewal of Eden in Christ as we enjoy the presence of God once again. As a result, we look to expand the boundaries of Eden into a lost and dying world by proclaiming the Gospel and making more worshipers. And we look towards the day when we can experience God's presence and worship Him uninhibited. So, as we still live in today, I want to expound on what it means when theologians name the Church as "Eden", how Scripture supports this assertion, and how it should affect our lives today. To do this, I must start at the very beginning.

Eden: God's Dwelling Among Us

God made Himself known in the Garden of Eden. Genesis signifies that God dwelt in the Garden by the explicit statement that He was "walking in the cool of the day" (3:8), a regular action which the verse implies God often did. Not only explicitly, but implicitly, Genesis notes the presence of God in the Garden, stating that "a river flowed out of Eden to water the garden and there it divided and became four rivers" (Gen. 2:10). For the New Creation (the New Eden), Revelation references "the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb" (22:1). From the New Creation, which is the restoration of all things including God's relationship with mankind, we can see that the river in the Garden was not simply a river, but a implication of God's presence in Eden.

God dwelt in the garden because "there He put the man whom he had formed" (Gen. 2:8). From the Garden of Eden to the New Creation, God has purposed within His divine will to dwell among us. As Zion descends onto Earth, we will behold that "the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as their God" (Rev. 21:3). In the Garden, God commanded Adam and Eve, "be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it" (Gen. 1:28). He did not just command Adam and Eve to multiply through their offspring, but he commanded them to fill the earth, expanding the boundaries of the Garden. As mankind spread through all the earth, the presence of God would spread, and, therefore, Eden would spread.

But we do not live in a world filled with the visible presence of God, do we? Instead, Creation is marred by sin, death, and sorrow. Adam refused to obey God. Rather, he chose himself and his wife over God's perfect plan. As Eve was deceived by the serpent, Adam took willfully of the fruit and ate it. "Sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned" (Romans 5:12). The presence of God that at one time gave life and liberty had become something to fear and hide from (Gen. 3: 8-9). Because of Adam's sin, God cast him and the woman out of the Garden and from His presence, barring it with a cherubim and a flaming sword (3:24). But before casting them out, He clothed them with the skin of a slaughtered animal and made a promise to the serpent that Eve's offspring would eventually crush his head (3:15).

The Tabernacle/Temple as Eden

In the first eleven chapters of the Bible, one can feel the burden of being exiled from Eden: Cain's killing Abel (Gen. 4), the Flood (6-9), Noah's drunkenness, Ham's incest (9), and the Tower of Babel (11). Along the way, God reveals both His wrath and His grace to the just and the unjust. In chapter twelve, the reader is looking for restoration, a way back to Eden, someone that will fulfill God's promise in Genesis 3:15. Here, we meet Abram, a nomad. God makes a covenant with Abram (Abraham) that He will give an offspring that would number the stars and the sand, a land to call his own, and a blessing for all nations through his child.

Genesis walks the reader through Abraham's line, finally focusing on one people group, Israel, about which the entire Old Testament would write. Exodus continues the story of Israel, detailing the events of her bondage in Egypt, God's rescue of her, and His bringing her to Sinai. There, at Sinai, God makes a covenant with Israel. There, He also reveals His intention to dwell once again with mankind in the tabernacle. The tabernacle was built to reflect Eden and also represent the heavenly dimension of God's dwelling.

Exodus 25-26 and 31-34 detail the blueprints of the tabernacle. Even with the curtains, God displayed His intention to reflect Eden as cherubim were woven into them (Exod. 25:18-22). G.K. Beale and Mitchell Kim, in God Dwells Among Us, writes, "just as the angelic cherubim guarded the way back to God's presence (Gen. 3:24) and God's throne in the heavenly temple (e.g., Rev. 4:7-9), so the sculpted cherubim guard the ark of the covenant in the Holy of Holies (1 Kings 6:23-28)" (1). The later temple built by Solomon reflected the same truths as the tabernacle. It served as a microcosm of God's sanctuary in heaven and anticipated the final revelation of God's presence with man in the New Creation.

Sadly, like Adam, Israel rebelled against her God and was exiled. Solomon's temple destroyed, the Israelites lost the hope of knowing God's presence was with them. Even the new temple, built by Ezra and Zerubbabel, paled in comparison to the original. Today, the Islam Dome of the Rock sits on the temple mount. But the Old Testament prophets, by the word of the Lord, gave hope to Israel through their prophecies of a New Covenant, a New Israel, a New Temple, and a New Creation.

The Church as the New Temple

Paul puts plainly in 2 Corinthians 1:20, "for all the promises of God find their Yes in [Christ]. That is why it is through Him that we utter our Amen to God for His glory." Christ came to restore all things and to reconcile man to God. Because of Christ, we have access to the presence of God "by the new and living way that He opened for us through the curtain, that is, through His flesh" (Hebrews 10:20). The book of Hebrews gives us the picture of Christ not only providing access to the temple of God, but Himself being the temple of God. He, as the prophets foretold, is the New Temple. After all, His name is Immanuel, which means God with us (Matthew 1:23).

As the Church is one with Christ, we too are being built together as a temple. Paul writes, "in Him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit" (Ephesians 2:22). Peter also states that, since Christ is the cornerstone, "you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 2:5).

As the Temple reflected Eden, and as the Church is being built up as a Temple through Christ, the Church is therefore an imprint of Eden. We, as Paul said, "are a dwelling place for God" (Eph. 2:22). Sadly, we often fail to live this truth out. The Church and her members are called to live differently because God dwells within her. But instead, Christians treat church as another social club marked by division but not as a temple in which to know God. We await, dear reader, that day in the New Creation when our faith is made sight, all things are consummated, and God's presence is visibly known. Without the veil of this mortal world, we will see Him face to face.

Dogma to Pragma: Expanding Eden

As we understand who the Church is as Eden, we must also reflect on how this truth should affect our lives, specifically as we interact with unbelievers. Like Adam, we have been given the charge to expand the boundaries of Eden by preaching the Gospel to the nations. Christ's commission in Matthew 28:18-20 imitates God's mandate in Genesis 1:28. Just as Adam was called to create worshipers of God throughout all the earth through physical means, the Church has called to create worshipers of all nations through the spiritual means of Gospel proclamation.

Beale and Kim write, "many idealistically plunge headlong into a sacrificial commitment to the poor or unreached or hurting, compelled by brokenness over their plight, but the resources of that idealism dry when tested by the challenge of costly obedience. However, when our resources run dry, we drink more fully and deeply from the abundance of life found in God's presence. Our God gives joy and strength to endure" (2). Our strength to advance Christ's kingdom and expand Eden's boundaries comes not from ourselves. Rather, it comes by finding delight in the God who dwells in our midst.

Notes/Recommended Reading

(1) G.K. Beale and Mitchell Kim. God Dwells Among Us: Expanding Eden to the Ends of the Earth. (Downers Grove: IVP, 2014), 53.

(2) Ibid., 22.