From Garden to City: Exploring Our Collective Journey

Both at Theology on Tap and on Sammy's blog we're beginning to explore this question - why is paradise originally described as a Garden and why does it culminate in a city?

I feel I'm just beginning to explore this topic but here are a few thoughts in process -

1. Layers of Perfection: This discussion challenges my definition of perfection. The Garden of Eden was perfect but perfection is only one dimension of growth. I always assumed it was the only dimension, but now I've realized that can't be. At what point does an artist create the perfect work. The scale of perfection does not even begin to describe the value of art and likewise perfection is merely the environment or the canvas on which things can develop. Eden was perfect but it was NOT the end only the beginning. Zion is a further improvement that humanity can only enjoy at a greater degree of maturity. Luke tells us that Jesus grew in wisdom. Some might wonder how a perfect being can gain wisdom but wisdom is a different dimension. I believe, as bizarre as it might sound, that when Adam and Eve fell in the garden they lost their holiness but they increased in wisdom. This does not justify their action but it may explain one of the reasons it was allowed. They gained the knowledge of good and evil. They did not know that God was good until the Fall because they had never tasted evil. Zion will be a place of far greater wisdom than Eden and I believe it will encompass other improvements that make its form as a city necessary. From garden to city is a journey from innocence to maturity.

2. The purpose of gardens and cities. A garden is designed for discovery, a city is built for progress. When all the peoples of the Earth came together at Babel to form one city God confused their languages because humanity did not have the maturity for that level of collaboration. God intended us to remain on this journey and to not begin a world-wide collaboration that would make unlimited progress possible. In Zion our redeemed state and lifelong wisdom will be rewarded with the privilege of uninhibited collaborations. Imagine minds like Einstein, Newton and Hawking with purified motives and limitless lifespans creating and building this future Kingdom. Imagine the artistic collaboration. Zion is the ultimate unleashing of this process. In a documentary about New York someone described foundation of the city as an "exchange of ideas". The diversity of resources and the relative proximity of inhabitants makes the city the obvious venue for the next stage of our existence.

3. Journey's End - Living in a city is the restful reward of a journey accomplished. We are here to learn to walk by faith. Abraham lived in tents his whole life and resisted the temptation to live in a city (unlike his nephew Lot) because, as Hebrews tells us, "he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God." Imagine that! All cities on Earth, even in all their grandeur, are poor reflections of Zion. Donald Trump would blush at the comparison between what he has built and that future city.

Implications - So given this journey how should we live? We live in this awkward state between Eden and Zion where we must balance a life lived by faith and a growing maturity toward city living without embracing a counterfeit city life. When God cursed Cain he told him to be a restless wander and the first thing he does is disobey and build a city. Earthly cities are at the same time humanities greatest achievement and our most shameful rebellion. I think it is no coincidence that the most mature non-Christians I know desire to give their lives in the service of building a better city. Perhaps this is because it is our journey's end and what we were created to experience, however, we must avoid the subtle danger of becoming content with building mud castles on the beach in the shadow of a castle designed for a King (metaphor by CS Lewis).