Previous | | Next | | E-Mail | | Contents | | V&FT
"The Mountain of the House of the LORD
Will be established as the chief of the mountains,
And each of them shall sit under his
Vine and under his fig tree
With no one to make them afraid."
Micah 4:1,4
The Nature and Purpose of Man in the Garden of Eden included the following.
- A Mandate to Exercise Dominion
- over a Fruitful Garden
gaining Knowledge
- in Harmony with Nature
- enjoying the Freedom to Glorify God
- in a Family-centered life
- lasting many healthy years
- as Stewards over the creation
- Planted Securely on the Land.
Let's explore:
Science, or, literally, knowledge (from the Latin scientia), was also a task of man, who was given the opportunity to study the animals and to name them. Naming is a kind of Dominion, and this act of classifying was appropriate for man, God's image-bearer, even as God's Dominion was seen in the naming of the Day (Genesis 1:5), Heaven (1:8), and the Earth (1:10).
Before the Fall, man's acts would bring the sinless Garden to perfection (Genesis 2:15; 1:26-28), and as food was plentiful, his main task was knowledge of God and His Creation (Genesis 2:19). But after the Fall, man's knowledge of God is mainly preservative, keeping the effects of sin from multiplying, and restorative, reversing the effects of sin so that God may Bless and Heal. The Garden of God is not isolated. We cannot closet ourselves into a garden and neglect to minister to those who suffer the effects of sin in the City of Man. To do so is neither Spiritual nor does it increase our knowledge of God (Jeremiah 22:15-16).
But neither is Biblical Dominion compatible with modern "science" or "knowledge" (1 Timothy 6:20). What we have said throughout this Essay should make clear that the Garden-Blessings of Salvation are not achievements of Man, they are the gift of God. Faith's sister is Contentment (1 Timothy 6:6-8). Godliness, in the form of acts of restoration, brings the security of life on God's Mountain (Matthew 6:33), not the credentials and awards we might receive from the City of Tinsel and Glitter. "Justification is by Grace through Faith alone."
The prophet Jeremiah speaks of knowledge:
Shalt thou reign, because thou closest thyself in cedar? did not thy father eat and drink, and do judgment and justice, and then it was well with him? {16} He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well with him: was not this to know me? saith the LORD. Jeremiah 22:15-16
In stark contrast to knowledge through contentment and mercy is modern "science." For modern man, "knowledge is power." "Science" is based primarily on greed, not service. In the Bible, true "knowledge" is knowing how to serve God and others according to His Law. Knowledge which is used to bring glory to ourselves "puffs up" (1 Corinthians 8:1) and leads to conflict: as Sartre said, If I am God, then my neighbor is the Devil. Modern justifications for the so-called "free market" implicitly admit that the modern entrepreneur's heart may be gangrenous with greed, but insist that his success is possible only if he is "serving" the consumer. Modern idolatrous guilt-ridden American pagans are easily manipulated and can be conned into buying the stupidest of products. But Biblical service is not in cultivating his greed or in catering to a man's lusts. Peter warns us that we be not "served" in this manner (2 Peter 2:3).
It is interesting to note that "civilization" is usually the result of the efforts of unbelievers (cf. Genesis 4:21-22). While God often gives this wealth to believers (Proverbs 13:22; Psalm 105:44;) it is clear that their "progress" is attributable to their lack of moral restraint, or as the "free-market" economist might call it, "risk taking" (Proverbs 28:8; cf. Luke 16:8). There is tension between the advancing City of Progress and the stable Garden of Traditional Values.
We are beginning to see the effects of man's perverted quest for self-sufficiency in the agricultural realm: pesticides have destroyed many species of the wildlife over which man is commanded to have dominion; ambitious water projects, funded through State deficits which, by inflating the money supply, redistribute wealth from the poor to the friends of the State, are beginning to show their long-term deleterious effects; depletion of the soil has been the basis for predictions of coming food shortfalls; government mis-management of crops has resulted in oppressive shortages and surpluses which destroy the few remaining Family farms. Agricultural abundance is the plain promise of God for obedience (Deuteronomy 28:1-14). But the State has centralized control of agriculture in an attempt to gain "salvation by works." It has been a miserable failure, as it was in ancient Babylon and her sister Empires.
This stands in total contrast to Godly Dominion, or Godly Science. Rather than destroying the environment, man is called to beautify it. Rather than working autonomously for agricultural surplus, man is called to know its Source and enjoy it. "Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever." (Westminster Shorter Catechism, Q. 1) True Science is rooted in the Garden.
What passes for "technology" in the Empire of Man is merely manipulation: gimmicks with few Godly uses, sold to the gullible rich, to friends of the State, and too often, to the poor. Such "technology" would never be purchased by any contented, hard-working saint if there were no persuasive advertisements rooted in envy, covetousness, and the desire to be worshiped by one's peers. "Keeping up with the Joneses" is the religion of the Garden-hater. "Adult toys" are his sacraments.
Militarism is also an important component of modern "technology." Were it not for Statist Imperialism and the lust for power that characterizes the modern industrial-financial statesman, much of the West's "economic growth" would not have occurred. Statist jingoism encourages "patriotic" participation in the democratic-industrial dream of John Dewey and the Secular Humanists at the expense of Christian missionary concern for Third World nations. Contentment brings peace; man in rebellion prefers salvation by war. We explored this aspect of "science" in The Fifth Archetype.
To buttress the power of the State and its military-industrial extensions, Gospel knowledge must be replaced by mythology. Because the modern commercial spirit runs counter to Biblical Knowledge and Dominion, it must attack the Bible and silence its message. It is no coincidence that the rise of the Modern State and its sister, the "Industrial Revolution," demanded the philosophical justifications that were provided by men like Kant, and which culminated in the evolutionary hosannas occasioned by Charles Darwin.
Among all of the modern statist myths of "progress," "science" "economic growth," "success," "peace through strength,"[27] and "fulfillment," the greatest is the obvious attempt to replace the Garden of Eden and the Biblical History of Salvation: "Evolution."
Evolution is, of course, no new idea, dating back to ancient pagan Empires like Egypt and Babylon. Nor was the "Industrial Revolution" a unique or sudden event. Both are outgrowths of a rebellion against the true knowledge of God, which is suppressed by continuing in a greedy pursuit of pleasure and luxury. Paul spoke of this war against knowledge in Romans 1. There the unrighteous, who are "covetous" and "full of envy" (1:29) "exchange the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image like to corruptible man and to birds and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things" (Romans 1:23). Paul says that sexual immorality is one symptom of this lust for power. America's University-credentialed homosexuals[28] are those "God gave up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own bodies. . . " (1:24). We shouldn't be surprised if, when the evolutionists tire of incest and child pornography, they turn to the animals.
Evolutionism, an enemy of Garden-knowledge and the Blessings of Salvation, leads us to consider the Godly man's relationship with the animals.
Previous | | Next | | E-Mail | | Contents | | V&FT
(1) who is also trying to "be as god" (Genesis 3:5)
(27) a variation of the "survival of the fittest" mythos
(28) Despite claims of "discrimination," homosexuals have the highest income levels of any population group (nearly $60,000/yr).