THE ENVIRONMENT OF GLORY by Dr Myles Munroe

CHAPTER TWO

The Environment of Glory

THE PRESENCE OF GOD IS THE PERFECT ENVIRONMENT FOR OUR FRUITFULNESS.

Every living thing needs a proper environment in which to display its God-given glory. A bird was created to fly; therefore, the glory of a bird is to fly. Birds need the sky and the open air to fully express their glory. If you take a bird and lock it in a cage, it cannot show its full glory. The bird’s glory is restricted by its environment.

A fish was created to swim; therefore, the glory of a fish is to swim. Only in water can it give its glory full expression. It is natural for a fish to swim. That which is natural to a thing is its glory. A fish doesn’t struggle in the water; it swims. Swimming is its glory. When I see fish swim, I get jealous. They don’t have to wear snorkels, or air tanks, or masks and fins; they simply…swim. That’s their nature. When I go in the water, I struggle just to keep up. The fish all crowd around me and laugh.

On the other hand, if I take a fish out of its watery environment, it will start having problems immediately. It will flop around for dear life and begin to suffocate. If I do not put it back into the water, it will die within minutes. A fish can’t breathe in a dry envi- ronment. Its gills are designed to filter oxygen from water. Only in the water can a fish survive and thrive. Only in its proper environ- ment can a fish display its glory.

The environment we live in is deadly for a fish, and the fish’s environment is deadly for us unless we carry part of our environ- ment along in the form of air tanks and masks. Likewise, we cannot enter a bird’s domain without the assistance of some kind of artifi- cial flying machine, such as an airplane, helicopter, hang glider or hot-air balloon.

Like the bird and the fish, mankind was also created to func- tion in a prescribed environment: the presence of God. We thrive best in the environment for which we were designed. Our glory is to be like God and to rule like God in fellowship and harmony with God. Like a bird in a cage, anything that hinders us from becom- ing everything God created us to be restricts our glory. The only way we can really learn how to be like God and to rule like God is to live in an environment that is permeated with the presence of God. In order to be like God, we must know God, and to know God, we must spend time in His presence.

Before God created life on the earth, He prepared suitable environments according to what every variety and species would need. He established the oceans, lakes, and rivers in their proper places, then filled them with aquatic life. He set apart the dry land with a temperate climate and all the soil nutrients necessary for plant life to flourish. That plant life then provided nourishment for the land animals and birds that followed.

Man, God’s greatest creation, needed something more. A moderate climate and plenty of fruits, herbs, and vegetables to eat were not enough for beings made in God’s own image. In order for them to function properly and fully display their glory, Adam and Eve needed an environment where they were surrounded by the presence of God, a place where they could be in continual union with Him. God provided just such a place. The Bible calls it Eden.

MAN’S IDEAL ENVIRONMENT

Before God created man, He prepared an environment per- fectly suited to him.

The Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there He put the man He had formed. And the Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowl- edge of good and evil….The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die” (Genesis 2:7-9;15-17).

The Scripture says that “the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden.” The use of the past perfect tense here suggests that God fashioned the garden before He formed the man who was to tend it. Judging from the description, the Garden of Eden must have been a beautiful and pleasant place. This is only to be expect- ed since God intended it as a home for His greatest creation.

The word Eden is a direct transliteration from the Hebrew. Although its origin is uncertain, it probably stems from the primi- tive root adan, which means “soft,” or “pleasant” (Strong’s, H5727). As it appears in Genesis 2:8 and 15, eden means “pleasure,” or “de- light” (Strong’s H5730, H5731). The Garden of Eden, therefore, could also be called the Garden of Delight. In other parts of the

Old Testament, particularly in Isaiah and Ezekiel, eden is referred to as the “garden of God,” or the “garden of the Lord.”

All of these meanings put together show that there was more to the Garden of Eden than simply a geographical location. It repre- sented a state of pure, complete, and unbroken fellowship between God and man. Eden was a special spot on the earth that God chose, where the unseen world touched the seen world, where the spiritual met the physical. It was an open door between Heaven and earth, a place where the presence of God covered like a cloud. The Garden of Eden was a unique spot on the earth in which lay an open door to God’s presence. Eden was more an environment than a location.

First, God made man (Heb. adam) in His own image, then He placed man in His presence to live, to work, and to thrive. Eden was the perfect environment for Adam to bring forth all he was and thereby display his glory. By functioning fully just as he was cre- ated, Adam would bring glory to God. As long as he remained in the Garden, Adam experienced perfect joy and complete fulfill- ment in the presence of his Creator.

Adam found not only the presence of God in the Garden; he also found purpose. Human beings cannot experience complete fulfillment in life unless they find purpose in life. Fulfillment comes with purpose. God gave Adam purposeful

work to do in the Garden. Adam didn’t spend his time lying around lazily popping grapes into his mouth. He had the responsibility to “work” the garden and “take care of it.” By God’s design, Adam was steward of the Garden and master of the created order. That was his “glory.” The glory of man was to expose and manifest God’s nature and character through his exercise of dominion in the earth by his inherent gifts, talents, and abilities.

FILLING THE EARTH WITH GOD’S GLORY

God’s original purpose extended beyond the Garden. He wanted Eden to be duplicated throughout the world so that His glory truly would fill the earth. This, too, was to be part of man’s glory. Within the environment of the Garden, God made Eve to be Adam’s mate, partner, and companion. Then He told them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it” (Gen. 1:28b). Being fruitful means to bring out that which is on the inside; to expose the hidden glory. To be fruitful means to be pro- ductive, as well as to reproduce oneself.

What is the true glory of an apple tree? To produce apples. Everything needed for the production of apples is already in the tree, but until the ripe, red fruit appears on the branches, the tree has not fully displayed its glory. It has not completely fulfilled God’s purpose. In Matthew 21:19 Jesus cursed an unfruitful fig tree. In Luke 13:6-9 He tells a parable about a vineyard owner who wanted his servant to cut down a fig tree that had produced no fruit in three years. Fruitfulness is important to God. It is part of His cre- ative design and fundamental to His nature.

God instructed Adam and Eve to “increase in number” and “fill the earth.” The King James Version of Genesis 1:28 says, “mul- tiply, and replenish the earth.” All of these words involve the prin- ciples of reproduction and duplication. God wanted them not only to reproduce themselves by having children, but also to reproduce their environment. He said, in effect, “Adam, begin here in this Garden. I want you and Eve to have children—lots of children. I want you to raise a righteous seed who will grow up loving My pres- ence the way you do. I want you, through them, to duplicate this paradise, this ‘Eden’ of My presence, over and over and over until the whole earth is filled with My glory.”

It was a grand design befitting the mind of an infinite, omnipo- tent Creator. Adam and Eve were fashioned to function in fellow- ship with God. His presence was the only environment they needed. Under His covering they were completely free to be fruitful, to multiply, and to become everything He intended for them to be. Only in God’s presence could they attain fullness of person- hood. Only in His presence could they fully expose their glory. Only in His presence could His glory shine through them.

It is important to understand the difference between the pres- ence of God and the glory of God. Many believers today make the mistake of equating the two, when really they are quite different. The presence of God is the active manifestation of God that fills the environment in which creation exists and lives. Presence means “pre-sense”; we get a “sense” of God before He fully manifests Him- self. The presence of God is His pre-determined environment for us to function and be fruitful.

The glory of God, on the other hand, is the attributes and character of God on dis- play. While the presence of God is an envi- ronment that is very real but invisible, the glory of God is an actual, observable thing. God’s glory shows us what He is like. At times His glory may be hidden but it is never invis- ible. When Moses came down from Mt. Sinai with the stone tablets containing the Ten Commandments, the Scripture says that his face was radiant because He had been in the presence of God (see Ex. 34:29-35). There was a lingering glow of divine glory on his face, something so tangible and visible that Moses donned a veil to hide it.

In the Garden of Eden, both the presence and the glory of God surrounded and defined the lives of the first human couple. Adam and Eve never went to a “worship service.” Their worship was fellowshiping continuously with God and being everything He had created them to be. They never fasted or prayed because they were in constant communion with their Maker. They needed no Scrip-

ture to read because they were always in the presence of the living Word Himself. The presence of God has always been the conducive environment for man to be all he can be. It is the open door to everything else. We can realize our greatest potential only when we are in a full and right relationship with God. Some scholars believe that Adam and Eve did not have to wear physical clothing because they wore the manifested, tangible glory of God. They lost that glory as a result of the fall, and so now we understand better the statement in Genesis 3:7, that “they realized they were naked.”

In the environment of Eden, Adam and Eve enjoyed that rela- tionship. Equipped with everything they needed to fulfill God’s purpose, they were poised on the brink of filling the earth with the glory of the Lord. What went wrong?

TROUBLE IN PARADISE

In the third chapter of Genesis, Moses records the fall mankind from perfect relationship with God with these words:

Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the gar- den’?” The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the gar- den, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’ ” “You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wis- dom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they werenaked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves (Genesis 3:1-7).

One significant characteristic of the Eden environment was freedom. Adam and Eve were created as self-determining and responsible moral beings. They were free to choose whether they would walk in the liberty of the bright path of submission and obe- dience to God or tread the dead-end trail of disobedience and rebellion. This freedom to choose, along with their conscious, ongoing love relationship with God, was at the very core of their being and is what made them humans instead of robots and distin- guished them from the lower orders of creatures.

True freedom always comes with limits and obedience is meaningful only where standards of behavior exist. This is why God iden- tified one particular tree in the Garden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and set it off limits. It is quite possible that an alternative to submission and obedience to God never even entered the minds of Adam and Eve until the day Eve had her conversation with the adversary.

Disguised as a serpent, satan, chief of the fallen angels, that “liar and the father of lies” ( Jn. 8:44b) who held “the power of death” (Heb. 2:14b), deceived and tempted Eve. Together, she and her husband traded their birthright as co-regents with their Cre- ator for false promises of enlightenment and a quest for illegiti- mate glory. They surrendered their regal status to an evil pretender to the throne.

Genesis 3:7 says that after Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit their eyes were opened and “they realized they were naked.” This statement deals with more than just the status of their ward- robe. Until then, Adam and Eve had enjoyed the unbroken cover- ing of the presence of God. Now, because of sin, that covering was gone and they stood apart from God, naked and exposed, cowering under the blinding glare of His holiness.

In the blink of an eye everything had changed. Gone were the warm fellowship and the joy of walks with the Lord in the Garden in the “cool of the day” (Gen. 3:8). Gone were the simple inno- cence and childlike trust that had characterized their relationships with each other and with God. Gone was their sense of purpose as well as their royal status. The rulers became refugees.

God evicted them from the Garden for their own good as well as to protect His presence. Satan and his angels had been cast out of Heaven when they threatened to contaminate it with their rebel- lion. Adam and Eve were cast out of Eden for the same reason. In judgment, however, there was mercy. If Adam and Eve had stayed in the Garden, they might have eaten of the tree of life and been condemned to remain forever in their fallen condition (see Gen. 3:22). Everything God does toward man is redemptive in nature. Evicting Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden was no different. God drove them out in order to protect them and their descendants until He could bring to pass His plan to restore them their original state.

COUNTING THE COST OF REBELLION

Outside the environment of God’s covering presence, man cannot function properly. We were created for Eden, and apart from it we are “out of our element.” What was the cost of rebellion to Adam and Eve and, through them, to the whole human race? We can best answer that question by considering two things: first, what man did not lose in the Fall and second, what he did lose. There are at least six things that man did not lose in the Fall, although the Fall did alter their quality and character.

1. Man did not lose Heaven. Please understand me on this. You cannot lose what you never had. Man was notcreated for Heaven but for earth and, specifically, for Eden. Heaven is the realm of God and the domain of His holy presence. Earth was the realm of man and Eden was the place where the two realms touched. Psalm 115:16 says, “The highest heavens belong to the Lord, but the earth He has given to man.” Today, we who are believers look forward to Heaven as our eternal home. Philippians 3:20 says that we are citi- zens of Heaven, and First Peter 1:4, that we have a spiritual inheritance kept for us in Heaven, but in the beginning we were designed for earth. Satan and his angels lost Heaven, but man did not. We did not lose Heaven because we never had Heaven to start with. The Bible begins on earth and ends on the new earth. Could it be that our “Heaven” will be the “new earth,” where “the dwelling of God is with men, and He will live with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God” (Rev. 21:3b)? God is going to restore that which man lost.

2. Man did not lose the earth. It is still our home, the envi- ronment in which we live, breathe, work, play, and die. What we did lose, however, is our mastery of the earth. No matter how much we have tamed the ele- ments and learned to survive and even thrive in a basically hostile and threatening environment, we are no longer truly masters of the earthly domain. We have fallen far from the lordly state we enjoyed at Cre- ation and, in this dispensation of God’s redemptive work, are helpless to return to it fully.

3. Man did not lose his spirit. We are still spirit beings. Unlike all other creatures, we possess a spiritual nature that, whether good or bad, sinful or righteous, lives forever. This is part of the divine image of Him- self that God placed inside each of us.

4. Man did not lose his body. Just as life in space requires aspace suit, life on earth requires an “earth suit.” God fashioned our physical bodies to be suited to the earth environment He prepared for us. Sin has cor- rupted both our bodies and the earth, so neither function as well as they should. The natural harmony that once existed between them is gone. Life in the Garden was joyous and purposeful; outside the Gar- den (away from God’s presence) it is a difficult, often empty struggle. That which was immortal has become mortal, or death-full.

5. Man did not lose his soul. By “soul” I mean our full men- tal capacity. The soul consists of the mind, the will, and the emotions. Each of us still has a mind that thinks, emotions that feel, and a will that acts. We are conscious, independent beings with freedom of choice, just as God created us. Because of the Fall, however, we have a sin nature that causes us to make wrong choices. Our will has become a victim of our fallen, corrupt nature. Our desire is overpowered by our will. We are slaves to our sinful nature and, on our own, helpless to overcome it. Even when we desire to do the right thing, our sinful will causes us to do otherwise. The New Testament writer Paul described this dilemma perfectly when he wrote:

I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do….As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out….So, I find this law at work: when I want to do good, evil is right there with me (Romans 7:15;17- 18;21). Paul goes on to say that it is only in Christ that we can find freedom from this bondage.

6. Man did not lose his potential. Even in our fallen state, the human race possesses enormous potential. Poten- tial is untapped power, unused ability, unrealized dreams, unfulfilled promises. We can think of poten- tial another way as undisplayed glory. God always sees in us more than we see in ourselves. I have said many times before that God sees things in us that everyone else ignores. Sin has blinded us to who we really are and what we can really be and do. We need the pres- ence and power of God to help us bring out the potential—the glory—that lies dormant inside us.

THE LOST TREASURES OF MAN

If in the Fall man did not lose Heaven, the earth, his spirit, his body, his soul, or his potential, what did he lose?

1. Man lost his purity. The word purity is another word for holiness. Both words convey the idea of cleanliness, of being without spot, stain, or blemish. A related idea is that of transparency, meaning “no cloud or shadow of deception or falsehood.” What was the first thing Adam and Eve did after they disobeyed God? They lied and tried to cover up their actions. They also tried to “pass the buck.” Adam blamed Eve for giving him the fruit, and even implied that God was at fault for giving Eve to him in the first place. Eve blamed the serpent for tricking her. Loss of purity means loss of honesty and openness. It means a life characterized by lies and deception. Adam and Eve tried to cover up their sin, and humanity has been a race of “cover-ups” ever since. In contrast, purity and holiness have to do with integrity. The word integrity, which means “complete or undivided,” is related to the word integrate, which means “to unite or to form into a unified whole.” In other words, integrity has to do with “oneness.” Purity and holiness mean that what we say and what we do are the same thing; there is no difference between our public life and our pri- vate life. That’s integrity. Another word for purity, holiness, and integrity is glory. That’s what Adam and Eve lost. Impurity breeds hypocrisy. Before the Fall, they enjoyed perfect openness and trust in their rela- tionships. Afterward, they were unable to be honest with God, with each other, or even with themselves.

2. Man lost the Holy Spirit. When Adam and Eve sinned, the personal presence of the Lord in their lives—the Holy Spirit—departed. His absence handicapped them because the knowledge, wisdom, power, gifts, and fruit that He provided, and which they had taken for granted, were gone. It became impossible for them to function properly, or to understand fully who and what they were and what they were capable of. This reality is still with us today. Without the Holy Spirit, man can never experience his full glory.

3. Man lost Eden (the covering presence of God). After God drove out Adam and Eve, “He placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life” (Gen. 3:24b). The word cherubim is plural. The way back into Eden was guarded by at least two angels, and possibly an entire host of them. With this eviction, God accomplished two things: He protected His holy environment from sinful man’s contaminat- ing presence, and He protected sinful man from eat- ing of the tree of life and thereby living forever in his fallen condition. By protecting them from the tree of life He protected them from eternal damnation. If man had eaten from the tree of life in his fallen, contaminated state, it would have rendered him a per- manent, eternal sinner. God in His perfect wisdom and grace protected man from his own eternal damnation and gave hope for the redemption of future generations in Adam’s loins. The immediate and long-term consequence of the Fall was that man, spiritually impaired by sin, had to try to function in an environment he was not designed for. In the Gar- den, life was purposeful. Even the work of tending the Garden was not laborious because Adam and Eve were fulfilling their natural glory. Outside, however, the environment was hostile and resistant. Life became a continuing cycle of blood, tears, toil, and sweat.

4. Man lost the fullness of the glory of God. Without the cov- ering presence of God, and without His indwelling Spirit, Adam and Eve could not even fully express their own glory, much less the glory of God. Despite sin, man still had the image of God, although it was marred and distorted. The latent glory of God in them could not come out because it was buried under the sinfulness of their fleshly nature.

5. Man lost dominion over the earth. Satan used trickery and deceit to induce Adam and Eve to disobey God. By their own choice they forfeited their dominion over the created order. Those who were created to rule took their crown and seal of authority and hand- ed them over to an unemployed cherub. The true glory of the sons of men has since been buried under the confusion, ignorance, and frustration of the Fall.

6. Man lost his sense of purpose. As the generations passed, man quickly forgot who he was, why he was here, where he came from, and where he was going. Life became a daily grind of fear, despair, and hopelessness. Having lost Eden, man was out of his element and malfunctioned. We have been malfunctioning ever since, struggling hard to answer those questions and to find a way back to where we once belonged. The presence of God conceals the purpose of man. Without God’s presence man has no purpose, and without purpose, life is an experiment.

LOST, RESTLESS, AND WANDERING

We find in the biblical account of Cain a perfect example of this lostness of man. Cain, you may recall, was the firstborn son of Adam and Eve who murdered his brother, Abel (see Gen. 4:1-8). In pronouncing judgment on Cain for his deed God said, “Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth” (Gen. 4:11-12). “A restless wan- derer on the earth.” That describes all of humanity since the Fall.

What effect did God’s judgment have on Cain?

Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is more than I can bear. Today You are driving me from the land, and I will be hidden from Your presence; I will be a restless wan- derer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.” But the Lord said to him, “Not so; if anyone kills Cain, he will suffer vengeance seven times over.” Then the Lord put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him. So Cain went out from the Lord’s presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden (Genesis 4:13-16).

Cain considered his punishment unbearable. He was filled with self-loathing. Outside of God’s presence we develop a self- hatred. Faced with his loss, Cain developed a death wish. Only God’s specific intervention kept it from happening. It is interesting to note that for Cain, the most unbearable thing was not death but the loss of God’s presence. The rest of chapter 4 of Genesis talks about Lamech, Cain’s great-great-great grandson, who was even more murderous than his ancestor. After that, Cain’s family line dis- appears from Scripture.

Cain represents the millions of people throughout history, even to our own day, whose glory never comes out. They, like he, are “restless wanderers” on the earth, without purpose or meaning. Cain never revealed his true glory. We will never know who Cain could have become.

PROTECTING GOD’S ENVIRONMENT

One of the biggest issues in our world today is protecting our natural environment. Ozone depletion, carbon dioxide buildup, global warming, rain forest destruction, extinction of species, and availability and quality of drinking water are foremost concerns in the minds of many people around the globe. In the past, massive oil spills from damaged supertankers have captured worldwide attention amid fear and speculation concerning their harm to the environment. The explosion and radiation leak at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the former Soviet Union sent shock waves of fear around the world.

Our concern for the earth’s environment says two things about us. First, it reveals that we still have the spirit of dominion over the created order that God gave us in the beginning. Despite our sin- ful nature, we still have a proprietary interest as overlords of the earth. Second, it demonstrates what a generally poor job we have done. Ever since the Fall, we have been refugees in our own domain and in many ways have lost control of it. Now we are scrambling to get it back. Even as fallen creatures, we understand the importance of protecting our environment.

God understands the importance of protecting His environ- ment, too. Sin made it necessary for God to remove man from His presence. God is very jealous for His name and His holiness. He protects His own environment because His nature and function require it. That is why God could not ignore sin. He had to deal with it. Sin disturbed His presence, and therefore disturbed His glory. It threatened the integrity of the entire created order. Sin was so serious to God that He sent His only Son to get rid of it by dying on the cross. God’s presence is His priority and our necessity. Pro- tecting God’s presence should be our priority.

At the root of sin is willful rebellion against the known will of God. That’s what Adam and Eve did. They didn’t lie (at first), they didn’t steal, they didn’t curse, they didn’t murder, they didn’t com- mit sexual sin; they didn’t do any of the things we generally think of as sin. Adam and Eve consciously and willfully rebelled against the revealed will of God. He commanded them, “Don’t eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” They replied, “We will eat from it,” and they did. Their rebellion brought contamination, and God had to separate Himself from it. Anything that disrupts the presence of God should be our greatest concern.

God’s judgment on Adam and Eve may seem harsh, but that’s the consequences of sin. Sin is always hard, bitter, and destructive. We cannot function properly without God’s presence, nor can we enter His presence while corrupted by the stain of sin. God created us in His image. He hid a part of Himself in us and bid us to man- ifest our true selves by revealing our dominion power, which has its source in the same power He Himself exercises as Lord of the uni- verse. Sin made it impossible for us to accomplish our purpose because it separated us from God’s presence. We can’t become what He created us to be without His presence. God’s Word and will must be fulfilled, however, so He began right away to carry out His plan to restore us to our proper environment.

Even as fallen sinners, we still carry God’s glory around with us, hidden inside these “earthen vessels” (see 2 Cor. 4:7 KJV) that we call our bodies. Our sin retards His presence and consequently sup- presses that glory and keeps it from coming out. God says, “I will do whatever is necessary to put you back in the right environment so

that you can truly reflect and display My glory. I will do whatever is necessary for you to become everything I created you to be.”

That process began even in the Garden of Eden itself when God told the serpent (satan), “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; He will crush your head, and you will strike His heel” (Gen. 3:15). God’s Son, the offspring of the woman, would come and crush the head of the author of sin and the father of lies. The wages for man’s sin is death, and God said, “I’ll pay it.” God created us to display His glory. He will do whatever He needs to do to restore us to Himself and see His glory revealed in us.

PRINCIPLES

1. In order to be like God, we must know God, and to know God, we must spend time in His presence.

2. Before God created man, He prepared an environ- ment perfectly suited to him.

3. Eden represented a state of pure, complete, and unbroken fellowship between God and man.

4. God’s original purpose was for Eden to be duplicated throughout the world so that His glory truly would fill the earth.

5. The presence of God is the active manifestation of God that fills the environment in which creation exists and lives.

6. Everything God does toward man is redemptive in nature.

7. Outside the environment of God’s covering pres- ence, man cannot function properly.

8. At the root of sin is willful rebellion against the known will of God.

9. God will do whatever He needs to do to restore us to Himself and see His glory revealed in us.