The Kingdom of God: A Reinstitution of Eden on Earth! 

A Major Focus of Biblical Prophecy

By Paul W. Syltie, Ph.D.

 Prophecy comprises about a third of the entire Scriptures, so we must conclude that they are extremely important for us to dwell upon. This fact also begs the question, “What is the primary focus ofthese prophetic statements that apply to us today?” After all, the Bible is as relevant today as it was at thetimes it was written, so let’s examine this most important issue and discover what the overall focus ofScriptures really is. 

 Eden Lost

 We all know so well the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Eve was convinced by theSerpent to partake of the forbidden fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and finding itwas “… good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise” (Genesis3:6; NKJV), she ate of it, and then offered Adam of its fruit. Choosing for themselves what is right andgood, rather than carefully adhering to the directions of the Creator God who knows what is best for us —for if they despised such direction they would surely die (Genesis 2:17) — resulted in their being expelledfrom the Garden, wherein life was beautiful, secure, loving, and joyous beyond belief. As a consequenceof their error they were thrust into the outer world where they would need to sweat and suffer to procuretheir food, in a world where the soil was cursed, and thorns and thistles would compete with the foodcrops that sustained them. Moreover, wars and murder soon erupted as Cain killed his brother Abel (Genesis 4:8) … and the record of history proves that such killing and mayhem has never ceased since then.Eden and its life of peace, prosperity, and love has indeed been lost.

The destructiveness of man knew no bounds! We read in Genesis 6:1-7 that “… the Lord saw that thewickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evilcontinually …. ‘I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth …’” (Genesis 6:5, 7;NKJV). The sons of Elohim had no small part in this utter depravity of mankind made in the Eternal’simage, marrying women and giving rise to the giant Nephalim, who had to be eliminated. Only Noah andhis family had preserved their genetic purity (“perfect in his generations”; Genesis 6:9), while the entirecivilization of earth was corrupt and filled with violence. The great Flood came and wiped away thiswicked civilization along with the giants.

 God’s Program to Restore Eden

 Our Creator and Sustainer is magnificent and loving beyond imagination, not willing to force anyoneto obey Him. We and the saints throughout history have chosen to live in His Son’s footsteps … and so thegreat plan of redemption for mankind unfolded through the obedience of one man out of all the gentile nations after the 70 nations — outlined in Genesis 10 — the patriarch Abram. The plan to restore Eden tothe earth had begun, but it was to be a fiery and complicated restoration that would take millennia to complete.

[Insert somewhere here the picture of Abraham, with the caption, “Abram was called out from underthe nose of the Babylonian Empire to begin the process of the redemption of mankind from sin and destruction, leading to Jesus Christ and His ultimate sacrifice that made eternal life possible for us all!]

The Book of Jasher (Jasher 11:15) reveals that Abram’s father was captain of the host of Nimrod, thebrutal leader of the Babylonian kingdom after the Flood. Abram barely escaped being killed by Nimrod,and thereafter we pick up the story of Abram’s trek out of Mesopotamia, first to Haran, and then on intothe land Canaan, with his wife Sarai, Lot, and those who accompanied them (Genesis 11:31-32; 12:1-6).

Surviving within a world replete with armies and people intent on destroying this small entourage ofblessed people, destined to inherit the fairer portion of the earth and become a great nation (Genesis 12:1-3), was not an easy task. Without the Eternal guiding and protecting theses people of promise there wouldhave been no hope in negotiating the incredible obstacles that Abram — later renamed Abraham — facedcontinually. 

His barren wife miraculously in her old age bore a son named Isaac, and Isaac, through Rebekah, boreJacob, whose 12 sons formed the nucleus of the Israelite nation which was prophesied by Jacob to carryout the awesome commission of greatness over all the earth (Genesis 49:1-28). Moreover, from the tribeof Judah was to come the Messiah, Jesus Christ, many generations later. The plan to restore Eden to theearth had begun through one man, Abraham, who was called out from under the very nose of the evilBabylonian empire, just as the spiritual restoration of the entire earth had begun with one Man, JesusChrist, who was born and lived under the very eyes of the Roman Empire and the corrupt religious systemthat had developed in His days. Moreover, the saints were being called one-by-one out of this wildernessof sin from all nations, and shown the love of the Creator for them, from a God who willed that none belost (II Peter 3:9), and who Himself was destined to live on earth as one of us, experience the same temptations we do, be crucified in our stead, and arise from the tomb as the firstborn of many brethren (Romans 8:29). These brethren of His are to be kings and priests and reign on the earth (Revelation 5:10),alongside Jesus Christ, having defeated the Beast and False Prophet at the last battle before the millennialreign of Christ begins (Revelation 19:11-21). The works of Satan to try and stop this magnificent restoration of Eden will finally be utterly thrown down … for that was the express purpose for which Christ cameto earth (I John 3:8).

Let’s Make Sense of All This

So … we have Satan cast into the bottomless pit and bound for a thousand years, shut up “… so that heshould deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished” (Revelation 20:3; NKJV). Thisis the same Satan who, in the Garden of Eden, tempted and deceived Adam and Eve into choosing theirown way rather than the Eternal’s ways of lawful, loving living.

Thence begins a thousand years of restoring Eden upon the earth, without the continual destructiveinfluence of the Devil trying to destroy the plan of God! We have no idea of how great and wonderful atime this will be, when our children and generations thereafter will finally be living within an environmentperfectly designed for them — like in Eden — free of war, hurricanes, mosquitoes, thistles, theft, divorce,sunburn, and the 8-to-5 grind. Space limits how much can be said about the nature of this new age, but Ihave gone into considerable detail in The Bridge to Eden to elucidate the character of this new age. 

[Insert the “Timeline of History” somewhere here, with the caption, “This diagram encapsulates thehistory of the first Eden to the coming Eden, and the three 40 Jubilee cycles that separate them. Pleaserecognize that this timeline is for discussion only, for we do not know precisely the day and the hour ofJesus Christ’s return (Matthew 24:36).”]

Let me close this message by quoting two scriptural references to help us begin to understand the incredible future we have to look forward to in this new age, if we will but endure to the end.

“The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, the calfand the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. The cow and thebear shall graze; their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw [forage]like the ox. The nursing child shall play by the cobra’s hole, and the weaned child shall put hishand in the viper’s den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, for the earthshall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” (Isaiah 11:6-9; NKJV).

“Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing[anapsyxis, ‘refreshing, recreation, rest’] may come from the presence of the Lord, and that Hemay send Jesus Christ who was preached to you before, whom heaven must receive until thetimes of restoration [apokatastasis, ‘a restitution of a thing to its former state’] of all things,which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began” (Acts 3:19-21; NKJV).

What was the former state of things on earth? It was the order, lawfulness, joy, peace, and blissful living within the Garden of Eden, that perfect environment for mankind and all of the creation! Read Genesis 1 and drink in of the nature of this original creation and try to imagine the soon-coming age that willrepeat this original state of things, but this time on a worldwide basis, not just in Eden, the mountain ofGod, replete with tame animals, no wars, no poverty, moderate climate pole to pole, and food for the taking from all sorts of plants, including the Tree of Life whenever one is hungry. Elohim’s character will beimprinted upon all things!

Does prophecy teach us plenty about our immediate future, and the nature of the Kingdom [government] of God. You bet! It is worth every ounce of our energy to serve the living God and be there withHim when He returns, to meet Him in the air and be with Him forever! 

Paul