The Garden of Eden

Have you ever wondered what happened to the Garden of Eden?  The Word of God tells us that, to keep Adam and Eve from eating the fruit from the tree of life, which would cause [them] to live forever in their cursed condition, "the Lord God sent [Adam] out from of the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken.  He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life" (Gen. 3:23-24).  I used to believe that this barrier to the garden of Eden continued until God caused the flood that covered the earth.  End of story for the garden of Eden.  Or was it?


We know from Revelation 2:7 that the same tree of life that was in the garden of Eden will one day be in the new Jerusalem: "To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God." Rather than having been destroyed, it appears that the garden of Eden remained a real place, just no longer accessible to mankind.  

So what did happen to the garden of Eden?


Randy Alcorn writes of the garden in his book Heaven:


"Eden was not destroyed.  What was destroyed was mankind's ability to live in Eden.  There's no indication that Eden was stripped of its physicality and transformed into a 'spiritual' entity. It appears to have remained just as it was, a physical paradise removed to a realm we can't gain access to -- most likely the present Heaven, because we know for certain that's where the tree of life now is (Revelation 2:7).


God is not done with Eden.  He preserved it not as a museum piece but as a place that mankind will one day occupy again -- and to a certain extent many now occupy in the present Heaven. . .Though the rest of the earth fell under human sin, Eden was for some reason treated differently.  Perhaps it had come from Heaven, God's dwelling place, and was transplanted to Earth.  We don't know.  But we do know this:  God came to Eden to visit with Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:8), which he would no longer do after Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden after the Fall.  Whether or not Eden was created along with the rest of the earth, clearly it was special to God, and it remains special to him (pp. 56 - 57).  


What a wonderful thought to know that one day we Christians will live in the restored Garden, eat from the tree of life as those who are no longer under the curse of sin, and fellowship with the One who made it all possible.  Doxology!