Hello John and Doves,

 

This month's Prophecy in the News magazine (03.2023) has a very interesting article by Gary Stearman:  The Dark Prophecy:  Satan's Long, Long, Story."

www.prophecywatchers.com

 

Gary provides a whole nother slant on the Garden of Eden/Fall of Man scenario.  God had a plan for the fallen cherub, Satan.

 

Gary wrote that the beginning of the human story starts in the garden of Eden.  Adam and Eve were in "blissful isolation from the rest of the world."

 

"Outside the garden was another world.  The serpent was out there...A little while after their creation, the serpent was allowed to enter the Garden on a mission that has repercussions that resound until this very day."

 

God built a beautiful garden to actually lure the serpent in.  Once in, he convinced Eve that God stood between her and spiritual enlightenment..."the mysterious fruit that has the power to open one's mind to a hidden world."

 

"...the serpent depicts God as standing in the way of enlightenment...In other words, he persuades her that God is hiding something desirable.  Actually, she discovers to her shame and distress, the reverse is true."

 

What God set up was "the serpent trap".  "That is, God built a beautiful garden, then peopled it with the first two human beings.  In their glorified state, they were an irresistible lure to the serpent.  The evil one promised the woman godhood...the woman accepted the offer and indeed, began to know "good and evil", just as the serpent had promised."

 

"But his action had induced sin into the sinless couple and as a result, he was found liable for corrupting the human race.  He had been purposely drawn into a situation in which he felt himself to be in control.  But in fact, his action rendered him vulnerable to divine censure.  The Lord had set a trap and it had accomplished two things:

 

"First, it ensnared the serpent, and second, it also set the stage for the coming Messiah, who would take the sin of humanity upon Himself.  The judgment was:  "And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise they head and thou shalt bruise his heel".  Gen 3:15

 

The garden of Eden was not the whole earth - it was a place that God created to snare the serpent, marking the "point of origin for the great prophecy of the Messiah, who would enter human flesh, to redeem it and to defeat Satan at last."

 

Satan's fall had happened long before God created the garden.  "Then as now, the old serpent is the possessor of this world."  When Satan fell, he obviously was not stripped of his heavenly powers.  "To this day, Satan continues to cut a very wide swath, as he ranges across the earth, tracking the progress of the entire world with an eye toward controlling it completely."

 

"We often tend to think of the temptation of Eve as the first appearance of Satan's evil.  In fact, the first couple were created as the means through which the Messiah would come to correct the evil that had already befallen earth."

 

Years ago, I read that the ancient Hebrew sages said there were actually 5 beasts that circled the throne of God, saying "Holy, Holy, Holy!"  In Rev. 4:7- 8 there are four beasts. The fifth was Satan - a very beautiful bejeweled creation full of pride, who fell from his position in Heaven due to his rebellion against God.

 

 

In Rev. 4:7, we are told that one beast was like a lion, one was like a calf, one had a face of a man, and the fourth was like a flying eagle.

 

Gary wrote, "These four "beasts" are cherubs, each assigned to watch over an animal kingdom ...beast of prey, domestic animals, mankind and the avian kingdom.  If Satan were still in his place - if he hadn't fallen - there would be a cherub to watch of the kingdom of the reptiles, once composing the most imposing group of animals on the face of the earth - the dinosaurs ...terrible lizards.  Their leader has collapsed and they are diminished to humiliation....But their anointed covering cherub is no longer at the throne of God, and they have been reduced to creeping, crawling, slithering creatures, just as Scripture says of their leader.  The great dragon is in the process of becoming a dust-eating serpent."

 

"He had fallen long before he came into the earthly Garden of Eden to tempt the woman...Yet, though no longer co-regent at God's throne, apparently he still retained some of his former glory. That is, until he had finished his work with Eve.  At that point, he and his breed were reduced to the state in which we see them today."

 

Gary ends his article with, "In the end, Satan's downfall resulted in the world's blessing, a blessing that takes perfect reconciliation all the way into the heavens, and beyond."

 

This is a truly amazing story of what really happened in the Garden of Eden.

 

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem!

 

Maranatha!

 

Chance