Bible Students

The Garden of Eden, a location introduced in the first pages of Genesis, is the original dwelling place of God with humanity. The Millennial Kingdom, expounded on by Apostle John’s letter, the Revelation, is the final dwelling place of God with man before the eternal state. These two places make proper bookends for the journey of the dwelling place of God with mankind on this current earth, before God creates anew. The two are far more similar than one might think, which would lead one to believe the Millennial Kingdom may be a mirror of the Garden of Eden, even going to far as to call it a partial or full restoration of the Garden on earth. Before comparing the two, it is important to give an overview of each individually. 

The Garden of Eden is a place of great mystery in Genesis. Many details are given without proper explanation. It would seem the biblical author expects the reader to dig deeply into the text to uncover the meaning of these attributes. 

The first attribute which will be discussed is known as the cultural mandate. In the Garden of Eden, God gives Adam and Eve the divine command to subdue the earth and populate it (Genesis 1:28). Michael Heiser, author of Unseen Realm, believes this mandate is what is means to be made in the Image of God. In other words, not only is this command something humans must do, but the very thing people are made for. God creates order, therefor mankind must follow in His footsteps. Their job is to expand the Garden into the places that the Garden is not realized. 

The second attribute I’d like to discuss is the physical presence of God in the garden. Both mankind and God are physically present in the Garden. Before the fall, while the earth was still generally good (you will see in a moment why I say generally), humanity inhabited physical bodies. Physical bodies were not taken on after the fall, but before. In addition, God was localized in the Garden, for He walks around as localized beings do.

The third attribute I’d like to talk about is free will and evil. In the Garden, there was free will. God did not make it impossible for Adam and Eve to choose something other than Him. He gave them free will, and with free will comes the potential for evil. Even before the fall of humanity, there was a fall of some sort of being: the serpent. The serpent was already an opposor of God by the time Eve ate the fruit. Even in the good Garden, evil and free will were still present. 

Another very interesting part of the Garden of Eden was the elongated lives that Adam and Eve took part in, even after the fall. The mention of a Tree of Life in Genesis 2 is strange, since there is no immediate development of this idea. It would seem the Tree of Life mentioned had something to do with their abnormally long lives, but the connection is unclear. Nevertheless, a defining attribute of the Garden of Eden is the long lives of those who inhabit it. 

Lastly, after the Garden laid judgment. When Adam, Eve, and the serpent sinned against God, they were cast out of the Garden. The land was cursed, child rearing would be more painful, and the serpent would eat dust all its life. These certainly were impactful curses upon the serpent and the land. However, There was also a promise of salvation: A Messiah was promised who would crush the head of the serpent. As hopeful as that was, it would take around two millennia for this Messiah to come, and many more for Him to come again. 

The Millennial Kingdom is also a place of great mystery. Revelation 20 and Isaiah 65 shed some light on this subject. Firstly, in the Millennial Kingdom, humans will be reigning with God on earth. Rather than God reigning on His own, or even reigning with angels as His soldiers, God chooses to reign with humanity in the Millennial Kingdom. Those who love Christ and obey His commands will reign, and those who do not will not. 

Secondly, God is physically on earth. God is not reigning from the heavens, but reigning as Christ on earth with His people. This again shows that the physical world is not evil and unclean in itself, as some gnostics might say, but rather than God is comfortable reigning physically in His own creation. 

Thirdly, there is still free will in the Millennial Kingdom. Satan will be bound in the Millennial Kingdom, but his agents of evil will still be present and active. Those who oppose Christ will not be eliminated just yet. There is still the option to sin in the Millennial Kingdom. One’s free will is not taken away once Christ becomes king, and somehow there will be people who choose to go against Him rather than be with Him. As a side note, this unashamed defiance in the literal face of Christ may shed light on the nature of hell, why hell is eternal, and why the fallen angels are already destined there without possibility of return. It may be that some choose God, and some choose to oppose God, and nothing will ever change their minds. 

Additionally, the nature of extended lifetimes in the Millennial Kingdom is quite interesting. In the Millennial Kingdom, it will be a tragedy when a young man dies at 100 years old, and no baby will die in infancy again. From this, it seems the Millennial Kingdom will still have death, but the average lifetime of humans will be drastically increased, seemingly to the level it was back at the Garden. 

Finally, after the Millennial Kingdom comes judgment. When the thousand years are over, God will judge the righteous and the wicked. The righteous, who ruled and reigned with Christ, will go with Him to eternal life. However, the wicked, who rejected Christ during the Millennial Kingdom, will be judged for their sins against God, and sentenced to everlasting punishment. The good will go with God, and the evil will go to the lake of fire. 

Clearly, the Millennial Kingdom and the Garden of Eden are both very similar, but it seems the Millennial Kingdom is at least a partial fulfillment of the Garden episode. In other words, while the Millennial Kingdom seems to be a mirror image of the Garden of Eden in many regards, it also seems to be more than that in many other instances. The Millennial Kingdom is a better Eden. Rather than remake the same Eden in the beginning, where all of the trouble started, God brought a kingdom that was better than Eden, and solved many of its original areas of weakness. That is not to say that the Garden was flawed, but that the Kingdom with the presence of the Messiah is greater than the Garden with only the promise of the Messiah. 

Firstly, in the Garden, man was made to rule with God. They were made to expand the garden as a part of the Cultural Mandate, and further the Garden into the wilderness around them. They were called, as Imagers of God, to do what God does: create order. Where Adam and Eve dropped the ball, the humans in the Millennial Kingdom do not. They reign with Christ on earth for 1,000 years. Instead of choosing against God they, empowered by His Spirit, choose Him and subsequently rule with Him. 

Secondly, in the Garden, God was physically present. He walked in the Garden and spoke to Adam and Eve. It is clear God appeared as a localized being. Now, in the Millennial Kingdom, Christ rules as the focal point of all creation. The Millennial Kingdom also takes place on the same earth that the Garden of Eden did. Before the recreation and restoration of the world, the Millennial Kingdom redeems the physical kingdom that Adam and Eve corrupted at the fall. 

Thirdly, free will is present, which means evil is present too. In the Garden, the serpent acted as an agent against God before the fall of mankind. Even in the garden, evil was in the midst of the people. In the Millennial Kingdom, as well, evil will be in the midst of the people. Before the judgment of the unrighteous, evil people still live in the world. However, they have much less of an impact since the Serpent of old is bound. 

Fourthly, the people in these special places experience very long lives. In the Garden of Eden, the people were sustained by the Tree of Life and lived indefinitely. Even after the fall, Adam lived for significantly longer than a normal person. In the Millennial Kingdom, people will return to their abnormally long lifespans, living significantly longer than they do now. The curse of a shorter life span, seemingly implemented at the time of Noah, will be removed for the present kingdom of God. 

After the Garden of Eden, Adam, Eve, and the serpent were all judged for their sins. Adam and Eve were given difficult things to overcome, but the serpent was cursed to crawl on its belly for the rest of his days. In the Millennial Kingdom, not only is the serpent bound up further than having to crawl on its belly but it is made almost unable to do anything. In addition, the seeds of the serpent, those who do not choose God, are judged at the end of the Millennial Kingdom, and those who love God will be taken to life with Him. 

Lastly, in the Garden, a deliverer was promised to the woman, a man who would come and crush the head of the serpent who caused them to fall. This meta-narrative of the entire Bible, the coming of the Messiah, was actualized in the Millennial Kingdom. Whereas Christ had come to earth as a servant before, He now comes as a king, rightfully taking His kingdom. He binds the serpent for destruction at the end of the age and rules righteously until that time. In this coming kingdom, the promise to Eve is almost completely fulfilled, and at the crushing of Satan at the end of the Millennial Kingdom, it will be completely fulfilled. The Messiah will have come to rule His people and take them out from under the rule of the false king. 

It is clear, from this short comparison, that the Millennial Kingdom is a better Eden. The Garden of Eden, a place named Paradise, was a beautiful home where God and man dwelled together. When the serpent caused Adam and Eve to fall God cast them out of the Garden, but not without a promise of one who would undo this separation. The entire biblical narrative chronicles this journey, from patriarchs to judges, to kings, to exile, and eventually, two thousand years later, to the coming of that promised Messiah to earth. Now, another two thousand years later, we look to the future for the coming of the Millennial Kingdom, where the Christ will actualize His physical reign over the earth and over Satan, the same earth that hosted the Garden of Eden so many years ago. That Millennial Kingdom is a return to the innocent Garden, where God dwelled with mankind in order and community. This story of the biblical narrative, which has spanned almost half a dozen millennia, will finally come to an end at the coming of the Messiah. 

Maranatha; Lord Jesus come quickly.