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"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:
When God created Adam He placed[1] him into a land, and gave him dominion over it. Land is basic to dominion. A man without land is a slave to those who possess it. The Biblical ideal is for every Family to own property, that is, to be stewards over the Vine & Fig Tree and beautify the Garden for our Lord.
Salvation is God's reversal of the Curse. God returns His People to Eden, food is plentiful, culture and worship are possible. Man exercises Godly dominion again.
When you think of Biblical Salvation, words that should come to mind are trees, planting, and fruit. In singing about God's deliverance of His People into the new Eden, Moses said, "Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the Mountain of thine inheritance" (Exodus 15:17). The Godly man is "like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf shall not whither; and whatsoever his doeth shall prosper" (Psalm 1:3; cf. Jeremiah 17:7-8). The Covenant People are "as gardens by the river's side, as the trees of lign aloes which the LORD hath planted, and as cedar trees beside the waters" (Numbers 24:6).
One of the most remarkable of paradoxes is Jesus' statement that if we seek to save our life we will lose it, while if we are willing to lose our life, we will find life (Matthew 16:25). The same is true of land. Micah's prophecy is of the day when stewardship over land is unmolested and secure. Yet the 20th century reveals that the more anxious and grasping men are to "own" property, the more quickly they lose it. The very means men use to guard their property are often the means of dispossession. The State is the quintessential example of this. The State is constructed to protect property, but eventually "nationalizes" it. We seek to save our property and end up giving it to the banks.
Slavery and theft of property are the acts of unbelief and tyranny (I Kings 21). It brings God's judgment (2 Kings 9:21-26). Economic stability and security are marks of Edenic prosperity. As the Gospel goes forth, and the knowledge of the Lord covers the earth, God's Judgment will be overshadowed by His Blessing. "National Security" is a gift of Gospel Prosperity, not military socialism.
The whole thrust of the Old Testament was summed up literally and symbolically in the promise of an inheritance of land. The concept of the "Promised Land"[37] was both a picture of the King of kings, Who would hold title to the entire planet and entrust it to His stewards, as well as a tangible token of Edenic Property.
In the New Testament, the whole Earth is our inheritance and our dominion under Christ is having a global extension (Hebrews 1:4; 2:6-9).[38] As we defend the rights of Naboths and overcome the persecution by Jezebels occasioned by our righteousness, God will restore property, security and a peace the mortgage-enslaved serfs of the world's rat race cannot know (Mark 10:29-30, John 14:27, 16:33).
All of this speaks of secure property,[39] where
"each of them shall sit under his
vine and under his fig tree."
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{1} rested him, sabbathed him, into the Garden
(37) A parcel of land was promised to Abraham as a place where "the seed of the woman" (Genesis 3:15) could multiply and eventually produce a Messiah, the Savior of the World (Genesis 12:7; 13:15; 15:18; 17:8; 22:17-18; Hebrews 2:16). The land functioned as a kind of geographical incubator for the genetic line leading to Christ (Matthew 1:1-17; Luke 3:23-38). In the New Covenant, neither the land nor the raising of seed (Genesis 3:15; 16:2; 19:32; 38:8ff.; Leviticus 12; 15:16-32) has any prophetic or moral importance, the Seed having come (Galatians 3:16; 1 Timothy 3:2; Luke 20:35; Galatians 3:19). Christians, as the true heirs of Abraham (Galatians 3:7,9,14,28-29; Romans 4:13,16; 9:8; 1 Peter 1:23), are promised the entire world (Matthew 28:18-20; Acts 1:8; see Thesis #93 in our Anarcho-Communitarian polemic, "95 Theses on the State").
(38) Rush quote: see revised "booths"
(39) Property and Anarchism -- Ellickson, Order Without Law
Vine & Fig Tree