Real Restoration: Back to the Garden

And I dreamed I saw the bomber death planes
Riding shotgun in the sky,
Turning into butterflies
Above our nation.

We are stardust, we are golden,
We are caught in the devil’s bargain,
And we got to get ourselves back to the garden.

— “Woodstock” by Joni Mitchell

I don’t know that Joni Mitchell was writing with Christian theology in mind, but Isaiah could have said “amen” to these words. You see, a major theme of the scriptures is God’s work — his mission — to return humanity to the Garden — and away from the devil’s bargain. And somewhere in all that, the swords will be beaten into plowshares — and the bombers might just turn into butterflies.

(Isa 2:2-4 ESV)  2 It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established as the highest of the mountains,
and shall be lifted up above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it,
3 and many peoples shall come, and say:
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob,
that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.”
For out of Zion shall go the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
4 He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide disputes for many peoples;
and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war anymore.

Let’s start at the end.

(Rev 21:1-4 ESV) Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.  2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.  3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.  4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

When the End comes, God will create a new heavens and a new earth — recapitulating Genesis 1 but better — and the new Jerusalem in heaven will come down from heaven to earth so that “the dwelling place of God” will be with man and all mankind will be God’s people and he will be their God. Death and pain will end because heaven and earth, God and man will be joined.

(Rev 2:7 ESV)  7 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.’

(Rev 22:1-2 ESV) Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb  2 through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

“Paradise” is from a word meaning “garden.” At the end of time, we’ll be returned to the Garden — and the tree of life from the Garden of Eden will be transplanted to the new heavens and new earth, where man will walk with God in the cool of the morning.

The direction of scripture therefore is the restoration and renewal of the Garden of Eden, a return to what once was right but was broken. But nothing is broken beyond God’s ability to repair.