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Coming Full Circle

Coming Full Circle
What does that mean?
By J.L. Robb

Many of you who are reading this have a keen sense of significance about the Book of Revelation and the prophecies of the Tanach (Old Testament) pertaining to this particular book. So how do you answer when someone, maybe a friend or family member, asks: “Why are you so hung up on this book? It is a morbid story.”

I like to let them know right away that the ending is anything but morbid, that the end is glorious and the scenery, majestic. If there is morbidity involved, it is the journey. This journey was not the plan in the beginning, in the Garden of Eden; though God already knew that man would not maintain and obey His one-and-only Law, a food law.

It seems throughout history that mankind has always sought the easy way out, how to possess the most with the least amount of work; and this desire has now evolved to what it is today in America. Societal philosophy now in the United States is, how do I get everything with zero work. I know millennials that are getting their very first jobs at age 30. Many of you were working at age 10-12, and it wasn’t dusting off a counter. Chores were numerous as a child and usually, difficult. How did we get here?

There is no doubt that mankind had it made in the beginning, in the Land of Eden and the Garden of Eden.

Described in the first book of the Bible, Genesis gives its exact location, though some debate the story today, even with recent archaeological discoveries. There are tales of the Garden of Eden being found in China; but the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and their geographic locations are well documented.

The Land of Eden was big, and estimates claim an area of about 50,000 square miles, starting in the mountains of Turkey and extending southward to the Persian Gulf. A large river flowed through the Land of Eden, apparently for the purpose of watering the Garden that God had given to Adam. We are not sure where Adam was when he was made from dust, but Genesis tells us that God placed him in the Garden; and this was no ordinary garden.

Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. Genesis 2:8 NIV

The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die. Genesis 2:15-17 NIV

During this geological time, rain had never occurred. The large river was fed through underground springs. Genesis is very detail oriented; and after passing through Eden, the river splits into four smaller rivers: The Tigris, the Euphrates, the Pishon and the Gihon.

This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, when the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.

Now no shrub had yet appeared on the earth and no plant had yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no one to work the ground, but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground. Genesis 2:4-6 NIV

Once Adam was in Eden, the really good stuff began. All the clean, fresh, spring-driven water one would ever need, all the vegetables and fruit one could ever desire and all the animals at that time, like Adam, were herbivores. The animals were not meat eaters, so Adam did not have to concern himself with bear or wolf attacks. It was paradise.

Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so. Genesis 1:29-31 NIV

It was paradise, except… Adam was the only human being and had been for who knows how long? He saw the other animals and their companionship, and he longed for the friendship of a companion. God put him to sleep; and when he woke up: Voila! God had answered his prayer.

We are not told how long Adam “slept” while God removed one of his ribs with which to create Eve. He did not make her out of dust but out of blood and bone and genes. And we do not know how old Eve and Adam were when they finally broke the one law. Maybe they did not realize how serious this rule was, since things were always so great: No death, no mourning, no health problems, no hunger, no depression, no war, no animal attacks or insect infestations, no labor pains whenever child birth finally occurred. Life was good, and forever.

Then there was the end of the story. Of the two trees located in the center of the garden, the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, God’s food law only pertained to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Like wet paint, they just had to touch it. That is when they discovered the seriousness of this action.

To the woman he said,

“I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labor you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.”

To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’

“Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field.

By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.” Genesis 3:16-19 NIV

Adam and Eve were thrown out of the garden, and the gates were locked and guarded in order to prevent them from getting to the tree of life. Had they managed to eat the fruit of the tree of life, God knew that evil people would then live forever. With the first sin came a totally different lifestyle, and soon the first murder occurred.

Ever since man lost paradise, we have sought to regain it. That is exactly what happens at the end of Revelation when Heaven becomes God’s Kingdom on Earth.

Revelation is the Finalé, the final act of God’s Great Play. It is a book about the final battle of good versus evil, and the outcome was written long before the event. With a climax that includes the War at Armageddon and the return of Jesus, it will be a relief for those who managed to survive the preceding times. Those who were beheaded, there seems to be a lot of beheading going on during the times of tribulation, will already be in paradise, waiting for the Millennial Kingdom to begin, a thousand years of peace and tranquility.

This is where the story becomes a love story with a great ending. There is no longer morbidity.

This Kingdom is described as a place of solace, peaceful and always pleasant. There is no death, no sickness, no mourning, no policemen informing that a child was killed in an accident, no desire to defy God, no wild animals eating other animals.

The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them. The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. Isaiah 11:6-7 NIV

This is why we who study the prophecies look forward to the coming conflict. Once the conflict is over, all will be good for at least a thousand years, and a thousand years to God could be a really long time. We will have come full-circle.

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