REFORMATION BIBLE COLLEGE
FINAL PAPER
FROM EDEN TO THE NEW JERUSALEM
BIBLICAL THEOLOGY
BY
THOMAS BOOHER
SANFORD, FLORIDA
DECEMBER, 2011
From Eden to the New Jerusalem
encapsulates the scope of God’s purpose for creation. Alexander lays out the
“meta-story” of Scripture, showing us the purpose of the earth’s existence and
human life, which are intricately connected. Starting from the end of
Revelation, we unfold God’s plan for humanity, and seeing the big picture, we
are better able to enjoy, recognize, and participate in the detailed plans of
God for man. In the preface Alexander says that the life to come will be more
similar to life now than many think, and the final chapters of Revelation
enable us to peer into the main themes of the biblical meta-story.[1]
These last
chapters of Revelation give insight into the new heavens and new earth. In the
end, God once again comes to dwell with humanity, this time forever (Rev.
21:3). This is similar to Eden, where Alexander argues that the entire earth
was to be a residence for both God and man. The rest of Scripture is about how
earth can once again become the dwelling place of God with His people.[2]
There are some differences however. For instance, Genesis describes an earth
that needs to be cultivated, but Revelation envisages a city spread across the
earth that God Himself will inhabit, along with His people.[3]After
the fall of man, God’s presence is associated with heaven, and man is expelled
from His presence.
Genesis 2:15 says
that Adam was to “work and keep the garden,” the language likely indicating
that Adam was responsible not only for cultivating it but protecting it from
evil intrusion.[4]
Yet when Adam and Eve side with the Serpent, they fail their priestly duties
and lose their priestly status.[5]
God ordained Adam and Eve to be King and Queen over Creation, God’s
vicegerents, exercising rule and dominion over the entire earth, but instead
they succumbed to the serpent.[6]
This rule was not to be tyrannical, but it was to reflect how God rules His
creation, with great care.[7] While they are still to fill the earth and
subdue it after the fall, angels now take the responsibility of guarding the
Garden of Eden. For punishment, man now
has trouble tilling the ground, and thus man, and what he was made from (the
dust of the earth), are at enmity with one another.[8]
The great flood is a cleansing, even a recreation for the earth, due to the
extent of man’s wickedness and rebellion, but even after the flood man remains
obstinate, refusing to fulfill the creation mandate by trying to ascend into
heaven with the construction of the tower of Babel.[9]
Now that man and earth are corrupted, there is
no holy space for God to dwell. Thus, after God establishes a covenant with the
Israelites at Mt. Sinai, they construct a lavishly decorated tent so that God
may dwell there[10]. The
mobile tabernacle and immobile temple is where God dwells with His people, a
holy place where the inner sanctum can only be visited once a year by the high
priest, and then only if he is righteous at the time he enters. The Ark of the
Covenant, placed within the inner sanctum, can be understood as a footstool,
where the divine king rests his feet. Alexander argues that this links heaven
and earth once again, thus advancing the meta-story.[11]
Yet the throne and presence of God is confined to the tabernacle and temple,
and this does not change until Jesus Christ ascends after atoning for sin, when
the Holy Spirit indwells both Jew and Gentile. At that time, the presence of
God is no longer associated with the temple but those indwelt by the Spirit -- their body becoming the temple of God.[12]
The temple Solomon
constructs and the temple in the New Jerusalem share striking similarities. The
proportions of the New Jerusalem make a perfect golden cube, matching the
proportions of the holy of holies, the inner sanctuary of the temple. Thus
Alexander concludes that the New Jerusalem is an expanded holy of holies.[13]
He then goes on to compare Eden to a temple, or temple-garden, which connects
it to the temple and New Jerusalem as well. The point is to illustrate that all
of redemptive history is about getting back to the Garden of Eden -- the temple -- only now in the New Jerusalem it has been cultivated into an enormous garden-city
that covers the whole earth. The tabernacle and temple were models of the ideal
cosmos, and as such were to remind people of God’s original purpose for the
earth and point to its future fulfillment.[14]
People understood this, as illustrated by the pilgrimages that were taken to
Jerusalem (as well as the gold sent there) to approach the special and focused
presence of God, and to dwell within His holy city.[15]
In first Kings we read that Solomon built the temple “so that all peoples may
know that Yahweh -- He is the incomparable God (8:60).” Thus the temple is a
“conduit of blessing to the entire world.”[16]
Yet as Isaiah and other prophets illustrate, the inhabitants of Jerusalem were
usually no holier than any other people, and thus were frequently expelled from
God’s presence and temple, being unfit to live near Him, not unlike Adam and
Eve.[17]
Next Alexander explains
that the Jerusalemites were doing a poor job building the city of God and were
unholy, but he contrasts that with the picture Isaiah 2 paints of the future New
Jerusalem. Coming to pass in the latter days, the New Jerusalem will be the
mountain of the house of the Lord, established as the highest of mountains, a
cosmic mountain.[18]
All nations and peoples shall come to it to learn to walk in the ways of the
Lord. God’s people will live in peace and walk in the light of the Lord.[19]
Alexander says that the use of mountain imagery exhibits that God Himself will
be magnified and exercise sovereign authority over the whole earth, bringing to
fulfillment God’s creation blueprint.[20]
Isaiah 65:17-25 shows that the New Jerusalem will not have the deficiencies of
the present one, God Himself will make sure of it.
Alexander then
turns to Ezekiel, who tells us that the temple will be destroyed. Though it is
rebuilt, the waywardness of God’s people has proven that something else must be
done for God’s plan to come to fruition.[21]
The church must become the temple of God. As Alexander states:
In moving from the Old Testament to the New
Testament, we discover that the Jerusalem temple is replaced by the church and,
with its outward expansion from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth, God’s
dwelling place also spreads outward. As we shall see below, this transition is
bound to the incarnation of Jesus Christ, in whom the concepts of temple and
body are united.[22]
Paul
in Ephesians views the church corporately as God’s temple. Each member can be
viewed as individual bricks of the temple, each with a particular role to
fulfill in God’s kingdom. They are empowered to fulfill that role by the Holy
Spirit.[23]
Alexander helps us understand how we can be part of the temple of God by
pointing to Christ:
Since Christ’s body is the temple of God
and since, as Paul repeatedly emphasizes, Christians are those who are ‘in
Christ’, it naturally follows that the church, as the body of Christ, is also
the temple of God….nevertheless, citizenship within a divine city remains part
of the Christian hope.
The individual churches will grow together
into one “holy, universal sanctuary for the Lord’s indwelling.”[24]
The apostles and prophets are the foundation, and Christ is the chief
cornerstone around which all else is built. This is why the church is for
believers, for believers alone are indwelled by the Spirit and make up the body
of Christ and temple of God. Thus, those who are unrepentant as in the 1 Cor. 5
passage are to be cast out of God’s temple.[25]
There
are parallels between the coming of the Spirit in Acts 2 and the Spirit of God
coming to fill the temple in the Old Testament. The Spirit first comes to Jews
and then spreads to the Gentiles in Cornelius’ house, showing that God will
dwell not only with, but in, all peoples and nations.[26]
The indwelling of the Spirit is a significant shift in God’s dealing with His
people. This will ensure that God’s purposes will be completed, for He Himself
will help accomplish them through His people, empowering them and convicting
them through His Holy Spirit. Yet, as Hebrews says, God’s people have no
lasting city here, but the hope is in a city that is to come. While God’s plans
are realized through the body of believers today, it will not be fully realized
until He comes again, creating the new heavens and new earth, the New Jerusalem.[27]
Now,
in chapter three, Alexander seeks to re-establish the sovereignty of God. He
argues that God’s presence will ultimately fill the New Jerusalem, which is the
completion of His creation project.[28]
While God is sovereign over all, His sovereignty does not go unchallenged,
since those whom He sent to represent His reign and rule, Adam and Eve, sided
with God’s enemy, the devil, who himself fell from the heavens in the hopes of
usurping God’s sovereignty. God appoints Adam and Eve as viceroys over the
creation[29],
given a holy and priestly status in order to carry out God’s command. [30]
The very name given to man, image of God, was understood at the time to
indicate a kingly or priestly status. Unfortunately, man failed to fulfill
their duties and exercise dominion. Alexander brings out the magnitude of the fall:
By betraying God and obeying the serpent,
the royal couple dethrone God. Adam and Eve, commissioned by God to play a
central role in the building of his holy garden-city, not only forfeit their
priestly status but also betray the trust placed in them to govern the earth.
The ones through whom God’s sovereignty was to be extended throughout the earth
side with his enemy. By heeding the serpent they not only give it control over
the earth, but they themselves become its subjects.[31]
The
result is the spread of sin and chaos in what was God’s beautifully ordered
creation. Now man has to till the earth by the sweat of his brow, and eat the
flesh of animals to survive. Animals fear man, and will attack if threatened.
Famine, disease, pestilence, and death ensue. The penalty is great, but as
Alexander illustrates, the sin was great as well. The punishment fits the
crime. Alexander says the rest of Scripture also expounds on how the sovereignty
of God will be restored over the entirety of the earth -- how will his kingdom
and throne be re-established, and how will human beings be saved from the
enemy?[32][33]
The answer begins with the theocracy of Israel. God covenants with Abraham and
his descendants. Abraham is blessed by the priest-king of Salem, Melchizedek,
who is a representative of righteous kingship. Abraham sides with the righteous
Melchizedek, and has character traits of humility and obedience to God, things
required for a righteous king.[34]
As a righteous leader promised many descendants, blessing and much land by God,
God’s sovereignty begins to be re-established and God’s kingdom will expand,
both geographically and in number.[35]
Then in Exodus God rescues His people from enslavement, showing that He saves
sinners from their sin and physical distress in order to establish His
sovereignty over the earth again.[36]
While the
Israelites began, at times, to recognize God’s sovereignty, foreign nations
rarely did. Thus, there was much work that remained. Tension remained between
God’s people and other nations, as they warred frequently with one another.
When God’s people in Jerusalem rejected His sovereignty, He had them sacked by
evil nations to remind Israel who was in charge. Their faithlessness indicates
the need for Jesus to inaugurate the kingdom of God.[37][38]
Alexander
notes:
When we move to the New Testament, the kingdom
of God replaces the theocracy of Israel, which is inaugurated through the
coming of Jesus. The establishment of this kingdom, one of the central ideas of
the Gospels, is intimately associated with who Jesus is and what He does.
Kingdom ideology underlies Matthew’s portrayal of Jesus as the Son of David who
fulfills Old Testament expectations…Matthew summarizes the teaching of…Jesus in
the sentence ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’[39]
The coming of the
kingdom of God is important because it is the re-establishment of man as
vice-regents over the creation.[40]
As a human, Jesus Christ receives the kingdom, and thus God’s sovereignty begins
to be re-established through His own Son, as a man. Christ is the perfect
vice-regent, and as such Romans calls Him the “second Adam.” Through Christ,
all that was lost in the fall is being recovered. The reign of Christ and
kingdom of God are already present realities, but will not be completed until
Christ returns in glory for His people and when His enemies are judged and
sentenced.[41]
In the meantime, God’s people are to establish the Kingdom of God on earth,
with the hope and expectation that in the end “God will be victorious and his
throne will be exalted in the golden garden-city that will one day fill a
transformed earth.”[42]
Recall that this kingdom will not be established through military might, but
rather as the gospel takes root in people’s hearts and man submits to the
authority of God.[43]
A
similar emphasis is presented and repeated in chapter four, where Alexander
addresses the devil and his demise. Though after the fall the devil has
dominion over the earth, that power is being wrested from him gradually.[44]
As the devil attempts to divert attention from the Bible’s meta-story, he
establishes himself as ruler of this world, undermining God’s plan.[45]
The devil possesses and oppresses people, leading them into wickedness and
atrocities against both God and man. He is the Christian’s chief adversary and he
sends his demons to tempt believers to sin. Thus, while Christians are called
to fill the earth and subdue it, they must also contend against the devil’s
cunning. In the end, however, the Lord will throw the devil, his demons, and
all who are evil in the lake of fire forever.
In
chapter five Alexander focuses on the redemption of creation as accomplished
through the slaughter of Christ, the lamb. Being called a lamb associates
Christ with the Passover, and He becomes the Passover lamb for His people.[46]
In communion, believers partake symbolically of the body and blood of Christ.
This blood of Christ, like the blood of the lamb in Passover, likely
consecrates God’s people as priests. Alexander states:
The sacrifice of the animal atones for the
sin of the people, the blood smeared on the doorposts purifies those within the
house, and the sacrificial meat sanctifies or makes holy all who eat it.
Understood in this way, the Passover ritual enables all of the Israelites to
obtain a holy status, an important requisite for becoming a royal priesthood
(Exod. 19:6)….In order to restore the holy or priestly status of human beings,
there had to be atonement, purification and sanctification. When we turn to the
New Testament these same three elements are associated with the death of Jesus
Christ at Passover. [47]
Atonement
brings peace with God, but purification removes the stain of sin. The blood of
the Lamb cleanses us from the stain. The death of Christ and the indwelling of
His Spirit makes holy, sanctifies, His people. This is necessary, for if holy
God is to dwell with His people, they too must be holy.[48]
Chapter
six discusses further how God’s people will be holy in the New Jerusalem. On
earth there are degrees of holiness, with only the high priest being able to
enter the holy of holies. The holy place was the intermediate level of
holiness, and the lowest level of holiness was the court of the Gentiles. When
man sins he becomes unclean and defiles what he touches, which is why there
were laws for purification and cleanness in Leviticus. Yet since the New Jerusalem
is the Holy of Holies on a grand scale, all true believers will be fully
cleansed, fully sanctified, holy as their Father in heaven is holy. The
spotless lamb, Christ, had to die to make His sheep spotless, thus recovering
their place as priestly kings and God’s viceroys over the cosmos. God’s people
will be made both spiritually holy and physically whole, unblemished, in the
New Jerusalem. There will be no more death or disease, for Jesus tasted the
wages of sin for His sheep.[49]The
tree of life will be in the New Jerusalem, and all God’s people will feed from
it freely. There the physical earth will be freed from the taint of sin as
well, and all will be in the prime of life, for all of life.[50]
The new earth will represent all cultures and ethnicities, and cultural and
social structures will be perfected as well. All ethnicities will co-exist with
one another.[51]
The
book concludes, stating that the New Jerusalem is the fulfillment of God’s plan
to rescue sinners from Satan’s control in order to complete his plan for the
world.[52]The
author encourages a decision to be made to live either for God’s plan, or
against it, contrasting godless Babylon with the New Jerusalem.[53]
Babylonians are those who have forsaken God for the things of this world,
particularly riches. Unfortunately, Alexander seems to think that competition
is something that should be, and will be, done away with in the end, and shares
his opinions about the current global distribution of wealth, almost implying a
need for social justice.[54]
The final paragraph in the conclusion, however, wonderfully sums up the
highlights of the book:
Although our future experience of life will
have something in common with the present, it will also be radically different.
Everything that detracts from experiencing life to the full will one day be
totally eradicated. Then, and only then, shall we know life as God intends it
to be. Then, and only then, shall we truly grasp the immensity of the grace of
God, whose love for rebellious and errant human beings was demonstrated through
the gift of his own unique Son. Then, and only then, shall we know God fully in
all his majestic glory and splendor. With such a prospect in view, what more
could we possibly desire?[55]
Indeed, what more could we desire?
May the Lord hasten the day of His return, so that His people may be with Him,
and rule for Him, free from sin.
[1]T.
Desmond Alexander, From Eden to the New Jerusalem: An Introduction to
Biblical Theology (Grand Rapids: Kregel Academic & Professional,
2009), 7
[2]
Ibid. 14
[3]
Ibid.
[4]
Ibid. 26
[5] T.
Desmond Alexander, From Eden to the New Jerusalem: An Introduction to
Biblical Theology (Grand Rapids: Kregel Academic & Professional,
2009), 27
[6] Stephen
G. Dempster, Dominion and Dynasty: a Biblical Theology of the Hebrew
Bible (Downers Grove, Ill.: IVP Academic, 2003), 59
[7] T.
D. Alexander, The Servant King: The Bible's Portrait of the Messiah (Regent
College Publishing, 2003), 16
[8]
Ibid. 17
[9] T.
Desmond Alexander, From Eden to the New Jerusalem: An Introduction to
Biblical Theology (Grand Rapids: Kregel Academic & Professional,
2009), 29-30
[10]
Ibid. 41-45
[11]
Ibid. 33
[12] T.
Desmond Alexander, From Eden to the New Jerusalem: An Introduction to
Biblical Theology (Grand Rapids: Kregel Academic & Professional,
2009), 18
[13]
Ibid. 20
[14]
Ibid. 41
[15]
Ibid. 47-48
[16] Stephen
G. Dempster, Dominion and Dynasty: a Biblical Theology of the Hebrew
Bible (Downers Grove, Ill.: IVP Academic, 2003), 149
[17] T.
Desmond Alexander, From Eden to the New Jerusalem: An Introduction to
Biblical Theology (Grand Rapids: Kregel Academic & Professional,
2009), 49
[18] Stephen
G. Dempster, Dominion and Dynasty: a Biblical Theology of the Hebrew
Bible (Downers Grove, Ill.: IVP Academic, 2003), 149
[19]
Ibid. 51-52
[20]
Ibid.
[21] O.
Palmer Robertson, The Christ of the Covenants (USA: P & R
Publishing, 1981), 271-2
[22] T.
Desmond Alexander, From Eden to the New Jerusalem: An Introduction to
Biblical Theology (Grand Rapids: Kregel Academic & Professional,
2009), 60
[23] T.
Desmond Alexander, From Eden to the New Jerusalem: An Introduction to
Biblical Theology (Grand Rapids: Kregel Academic & Professional,
2009), 66
[24]
Ibid. 61
[25]
Ibid. 65
[26]
Ibid. 68-69
[27] T.
Desmond Alexander, From Eden to the New Jerusalem: An Introduction to
Biblical Theology (Grand Rapids: Kregel Academic & Professional,
2009), 72-3
[28]
Ibid. 74
[29] Stephen
G. Dempster, Dominion and Dynasty: a Biblical Theology of the Hebrew
Bible (Downers Grove, Ill.: IVP Academic, 2003), 59
[30] T.
Desmond Alexander, From Eden to the New Jerusalem: An Introduction to
Biblical Theology (Grand Rapids: Kregel Academic & Professional,
2009), 76
[31]
Ibid. 78-9
[32] T.
Desmond Alexander, From Eden to the New Jerusalem: An Introduction to
Biblical Theology (Grand Rapids: Kregel Academic & Professional,
2009), 79
[33] Stephen
G. Dempster, Dominion and Dynasty: a Biblical Theology of the Hebrew
Bible (Downers Grove, Ill.: IVP Academic, 2003), 69
[34] T.
D. Alexander, The Servant King: The Bible's Portrait of the Messiah (Regent
College Publishing, 2003), 64-68
[35]
Ibid. 29-30
[36] T.
Desmond Alexander, From Eden to the New Jerusalem: An Introduction to
Biblical Theology (Grand Rapids: Kregel Academic & Professional,
2009), 85
[37]
Ibid. 89
[38] O.
Palmer Robertson, The Christ of the Covenants (USA: P & R
Publishing, 1981), 271
[39] T.
Desmond Alexander, From Eden to the New Jerusalem: An Introduction to
Biblical Theology (Grand Rapids: Kregel Academic & Professional,
2009), 89
[40]
Ibid.
[41]
Ibid. 95
[42]T.
Desmond Alexander, From Eden to the New Jerusalem: An Introduction to
Biblical Theology (Grand Rapids: Kregel Academic & Professional,
2009) 96
[43] T.
D. Alexander, The Servant King: The Bible's Portrait of the Messiah (Regent
College Publishing, 2003), 134
[44] T.
Desmond Alexander, From Eden to the New Jerusalem: An Introduction to
Biblical Theology (Grand Rapids: Kregel Academic & Professional,
2009), 100
[45]
Ibid. 118
[46]
Ibid. 124-126
[47] T.
Desmond Alexander, From Eden to the New Jerusalem: An Introduction to
Biblical Theology (Grand Rapids: Kregel Academic & Professional,
2009), 129
[48]
Ibid. 135
[49]
Ibid. 154-5
[50] T.
Desmond Alexander, From Eden to the New Jerusalem: An Introduction to
Biblical Theology (Grand Rapids: Kregel Academic & Professional,
2009), 159-60
[51]
Ibid. 170
[52]
Ibid. 172
[53]
Ibid. 175
[54]
Ibid. 184-6
[55]
Ibid. 192
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