Avatar and the Garden of Eden Restored

One of the wonderful things about the movie Avatar is that it seems to tap into a racial memory about the Garden of Eden. Numbers of people have become depressed over the fact that they cannot go to a planet like Pandora to see the beauties and wonders of nature as depicted in the movie. It is this writer’s perspective that God intends for man to have this very thing. God wants us to have the reality of what Pandora and the movie Avatar have intimated about what we need.

As I have studied the Bible over the years I have found a few signs of the Garden of Eden and what God plans to do with it, and what He wants to do to reunite it with His people. First of all God has sent His angels to watch over the gate way to the Garden of Eden and kept His angels on guard that no unconverted person enters into the Garden. This of course implies that a converted person would have access to the Garden at some time. For this to be true would imply that the Garden of Eden is out there somewhere waiting for God’s timing to allow us to come back into the Garden and to have access to the Tree of Life once again.

In Ezekiel 47:1-12 is a scene described that is similar to that of Genesis 2:1-15 where there is a river of pure water coming out of the Garden and watering the Earth. Around the headwaters is a tree whose fruit comes out monthly and the leaves of the tree have healing qualities. This scene is similar to that of Revelation 22:1-2 where the Tree of Life is very close to the River of the water of life that proceeds out of the throne of God. This Tree is very similar to that of the tree in Ezekiel 47. This Tree, and this River, and this Throne are in the New Jerusalem. It is almost as if this section of the Garden of Eden was preserved by God in the New Jerusalem for us to see when we are taken to heaven for 1000 years. God tells us that the New Jerusalem will descend from heaven to Earth and then God will recreate the heavens and the earth and restore it to its Edenic beauty for us to enjoy forever.

This scene is spoken of in the writings of Ellen G. White – a woman whom the Seventh Day Adventist Church considers to be a prophetess. She wrote of the Garden of Eden being removed from Earth and taken to heaven as a token of the wonders that God wanted us to have. She also talks about Adam seeing the Garden after taken to heaven. The story goes as follows:

“Before the ransomed throng is the Holy City. Jesus opens wide the pearly gates, and the nations that have kept the truth enter in. There they behold the Paradise of God, the home of Adam in his innocency. Then that voice, richer than any music that ever fell on mortal ear, is heard, saying: "Your conflict is ended." "Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world."

Now is fulfilled the Saviour's prayer for His disciples: "I will that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am." "Faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy" (Jude 24), Christ presents to the Father the purchase of His blood, declaring: "Here am I, and the children whom Thou hast given Me." "Those that Thou gavest Me I have kept." Oh, the wonders of redeeming love! the rapture of that hour when the infinite Father, looking upon the ransomed, shall behold His image, sin's discord banished, its blight removed, and the human once more in harmony with the divine!

With unutterable love, Jesus welcomes His faithful ones to the joy of their Lord. The Saviour's joy is in seeing, in the kingdom of glory, the souls that have been saved by His agony and humiliation. And the redeemed will be sharers in His joy, as they behold, among the blessed, those who have been won to Christ through their prayers, their labors, and their loving sacrifice. As they gather about the great white throne, gladness unspeakable will fill their hearts, when they behold those whom they have won for Christ, and see that one has gained others, and these still others, all brought into the haven of rest, there to lay their crowns at Jesus' feet and praise Him through the endless cycles of eternity.

As the ransomed ones are welcomed to the City of God, there rings out upon the air an exultant cry of adoration. The two Adams are about to meet. The Son of God is standing with outstretched arms to receive the father of our race--the being whom He created, who sinned against his Maker, and for whose sin the marks of the crucifixion are borne upon the Saviour's form. As Adam discerns the prints of the cruel nails, he does not fall upon the bosom of his Lord, but in humiliation casts himself at His feet, crying: "Worthy, worthy is the Lamb that was slain!" Tenderly the Saviour lifts him up and bids him look once more upon the Eden home from which he has so long been exiled.

After his expulsion from Eden, Adam's life on earth was filled with sorrow. Every dying leaf, every victim of sacrifice, every blight upon the fair face of nature, every stain upon man's purity, was a fresh reminder of his sin. Terrible was the agony of remorse as he beheld iniquity abounding, and, in answer to his warnings, met the reproaches cast upon himself as the cause of sin. With patient humility he bore, for nearly a thousand years, the penalty of transgression. Faithfully did he repent of his sin and trust in the merits of the promised Saviour, and he died in the hope of a resurrection. The Son of God redeemed man's failure and fall; and now, through the work of the atonement, Adam is reinstated in his first dominion.

Transported with joy, he beholds the trees that were once his delight--the very trees whose fruit he himself had gathered in the days of his innocence and joy. He sees the vines that his own hands have trained, the very flowers that he once loved to care for. His mind grasps the reality of the scene; he comprehends that this is indeed Eden restored, more lovely now than when he was banished from it. The Saviour leads him to the tree of life and plucks the glorious fruit and bids him eat. He looks about him and beholds a multitude of his family redeemed, standing in the Paradise of God. Then he casts his glittering crown at the feet of Jesus and, falling upon His breast, embraces the Redeemer. He touches the golden harp, and the vaults of heaven echo the triumphant song: "Worthy, worthy, worthy is the Lamb that was slain, and lives again!" The family of Adam take up the strain and cast their crowns at the Saviour's feet as they bow before Him in adoration.

This reunion is witnessed by the angels who wept at the fall of Adam and rejoiced when Jesus, after His resurrection, ascended to heaven, having opened the grave for all who should believe on His name. Now they behold the work of redemption accomplished, and they unite their voices in the song of praise.” The Great Controversy pages 647-648

http://www.whiteestate.org/books/gc/gc.asp

I personally want to be able to go to heaven, and to see the wonderful events spoken of in the above quotation. I want to see the Garden of Eden and I want to taste the fruit of that wonderful tree. This great opportunity awaits every single person who is willing to explore the truths of the Bible with an open and humble heart. I hope to see you there as well.