THERE WERE TWO TREES IN THE GARDEN  (2)  #298

Good Morning, Meetpastordan Readers…I thoroughly enjoyed preparing and presenting the last series, “The Time of The End. Are We There Yet?”  I felt strongly drawn to that topic, especially since we are living is such crazy times when so many signs of The Tribulation are lining up. Jesus told us to be mindful of the signs, and to watch and listen.  The presumption in that directive was that people would know what to watch and listen for. But unfortunately, we are living in a culture that has drifted so far away from Bible reading and study that this subject matter is often mocked and ridiculed out of ignorance of the Truth. My intent was to present the principles of the Book of Revelation in a clear and succinct manner, hopefully making it easy for both Believers and unbelievers to understand.

But now it’s time to move on, and this seems like the perfect topic. I borrowed the title from a book by Rick Joyner, “There Were Two Trees in The Garden” as my title for my blog today because I’m sure I could not have come up with a better one. I read this book a couple of years ago and was very impressed by Joyner’s presentation.  He began by stating, “The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and the Tree of Life are symbolic of two spiritual lineages or “family trees.” The Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, is a history of these two lineages.  Understanding this can help us understand the most common errors besetting the entire human race, including those that have continually misled the Church. Between them lies the focal point of the dichotomy between the Kingdom of God and the present evil age.”

Genesis 2:8-9, 3:1-5 presents this scenario. “Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden, and there He put the man (and woman) He formed. The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground – trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food.  In the middle of the garden were the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the other wild animals the Lord God had made.  He said to the woman, Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden?’ The woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it or you will die.’ ‘You will certainly not die’ the serpent said to the woman. ‘For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.’ When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it.  She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.”

Now bear in mind, Satan did not tempt Eve with the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil just because the Lord prohibited it. He tempted her because the source of his power was rooted in that tree. And furthermore, the Lord did not restrict Eve and Adam from eating from that particular tree just to test them; He prohibited the eating of its fruit because He knew it was poison. It was not just man’s disobedience that brought death to the world; it was also the poison (lies, deception and accusations) contained in the fruit.

So, you might be asking yourself, “What relevance does the story of the two trees have to do with the state of our world today?  And I would say, “Absolutely everything!” In the Genesis scenario above, there were choices to be made; there was deception, accusation and temptation; the irresistible seed was planted, “You could be your own god”; the offer to participate in sin was introduced; the result of that choice ended with Adam and Eve being banished from Paradise. This summation of choices represents the dichotomy referenced above by Joyner concerning the Kingdom of God and the evil world in which we live.

Life is a series of choices.  The Tree of Life IS Jesus Christ, who “came to give us life and life to the fullest.” (John 10:10) 2 Peter 1:3-4 gives us this truth: “The more we grow in our relationship with Jesus, His divine power gives us everything we need for living a Godly life through our knowledge of Him, who called us by His own glory and goodness. Through these He has given us His very great and precious promises, so that through them we may participate in His divine nature, having escaped the decadence of the world around us caused by evil desires.”  Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil and to set the captives free! (Us) “And how did He do this”, you ask? By arming His followers with the Truth of God’s Word!  To choose Jesus is to choose life…eternal life.

The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil is wordly teaching, or teaching that is contrary to the Word of God. Unfortunately, this teaching has made its way into our schools and our colleges and universities. God and His Word are mocked while the secular teachings of man, and philosophies of the world, are exalted. The most challenging proposition to the intellectual mind is to surrender to something greater than “self”, especially when it is beyond our five senses.  Apostle Paul nails this in I Corinthians 1:18-21: “I know how foolish the message of the cross sounds to those who are on the road to destruction.  But we who are being saved recognize this same message as the very power of God. As the Scriptures say, ‘I will destroy human wisdom and discard their most brilliant ideas.” (Isaiah 29:14) So where does this leave the philosophers, the scholars, and the world’s brilliant debaters? God has made them all look foolish and has shown their wisdom to be useless nonsense.  Since God in His wisdom saw to it that the world would never find Him through human wisdom, He has used our foolish preaching to save all who will believe.”  The world says, “I’ll believe it when I see it.”  Christ-followers say, “I see it (through revelation), therefore I believe it.”

When we are born into this world, we are born into an eternal morality play of “Good” vs “Evil”.  Granted, we don’t know that we’re actors in a play, but we certainly are. The role we play depends on the choices we make. Ephesians 1 tells us that God had a plan even before this world was created, and Revelation tells us that after this world ends, His plan will continue to be carried out in the world to come.  As we learned in the past series concerning the Time of the End, those who are in Christ experience eternal life, and those who remain unbelievers will experience eternal separation from God.

I will close with this Scriptural truth found in Romans 6:23. It is actually two Scriptural truths in one. It captures the very essence of this and the last five blogs. “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”  The choice is ours to make.

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May God bless you abundantly,

Dan Presgrave (a.k.a. Pastor Dan)