Chapter 86—Life In the Eden Home
Eden to Be Restored—The Garden of Eden remained upon the
earth long after man had become an outcast from its pleasant paths. The
fallen race were long permitted to gaze upon the home of innocence,
their entrance barred only by the watching angels. At the cherubim-
guarded gate of Paradise the divine glory was revealed. Hither came
Adam and his sons to worship God. Here they renewed their vows of
obedience to that law the transgression of which had banished them
from Eden. When the tide of iniquity overspread the world, and the
wickedness of men determined their destruction by a flood of waters,
the hand that had planted Eden withdrew it from the earth. But in the
final restitution, when there shall be “a new heaven and a new earth,”
it is to be restored more gloriously adorned than at the beginning.
Then they that have kept God’s commandments shall breathe in
immortal vigor beneath the tree of life; and through unending ages the
inhabitants of sinless worlds shall behold, in that garden of delight, a
sample of the perfect work of God’s creation, untouched by the curse
of sin—a sample of what the whole earth would have become had man
but fulfilled the Creator’s glorious plan
The great plan of redemption results in fully bringing back the
world into God’s favor. All that was lost by sin is restored. Not only
man but the earth is redeemed, to be the eternal abode of the obedient.
For six thousand years Satan has struggled to maintain possession of
the earth. Now God’s original purpose in its creation is accomplished.
[540]
“The saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the
kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever.
“The Redemption of the Purchased Possession.”—God’s orig-
inal purpose in the creation of the earth is fulfilled as it is made the
eternal abode of the redeemed. “The righteous shall inherit the land,
and dwell therein for ever.” The time has come to which holy men have
looked with longing since the flaming sword barred the first pair from
1
Patriarchs and Prophets, 62
.
2
Ibid., 342
.
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