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Is The Garden of Eden A Mere Parable?

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Hi J___,
Thank you for your question. You ask:

The answer is that like every parable or type and shadow of scripture, the creation story is both literal and a parable.
In the parable of Lazarus and the rich man, Christ makes this statement:

Luk 16:19 There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day:

“There was a certain rich man” is the exact same phrase used in the first parable of this very same chapter.

Luk 16:1 And he said also unto his disciples, There was a certain rich man, which had a steward; and the same was accused unto him that he had wasted his goods.

We know beyond a shadow of a doubt that both stories are parables because we are told in Mat 13:

Mat 13:34 All these things spake Jesus unto the multitude in parables; and without a parable spake he not unto them:

But the only way a parable can mean anything to anyone is to know that there really is a literal rich man somewhere and a real poor man somewhere and a real steward, etc. All of these things have to be obviously real for the parable to have any significance or substance to it.
So it is with the story of creation. If Adam and Eve were not real people, then Adam did not really live to be 930 years old at all.

Gen 5:5 And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died.

If those words are not really true, then neither are the words concerning Noah and the flood and the number of years Noah lived.

Gen 9:28 And Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years.
Gen 9:29 And all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years: and he died.

Now if Noah and the flood were not real, why would we believe Abraham really existed, or King David or Jesus Christ?

Act 2:29 Men [ and] brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day.
Act 2:30 Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne;

That is what is taking place in your heart and mind as you pose this question. There is a battle taking place in your “heavens” over whether God’s Word is true or whether it is all simply a parable which never really happened. The Adversary is roaming about “seeking whom he may devour” with his lies and false doctrines.

1Pe 5:8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:

Satan devours only those “he may”. He devours only those who are given him to devour. I hope this all helps to give you the ability to believe the truth of these words:

1Co 10:11 Now all these things [ actually] happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.

“All these things [ really did] happen to them for ensamples, and they are written for our admonition…” The word ensamples is translated from the Greek word ‘tupos’, or types. It is not that different in its function from the word ‘parable’. Both are used to convey a lesson, and both are based on reality. The only difference is that while the story of a parable is not necessarily real, the principles involved are real. There really was a rich man, there really was a poor man, and there really was a valley of the sons of Hinnom, called ‘Gehenna’. It was not called ‘hell’. In a type or a shadow, both the principles involved and the story itself are true, and really did happen.

Heb 8:5 Who [ Old Testament priests] serve unto the example [ Greek – tupos] and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount.
Heb 10:1 For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.

Your brother in Christ,
Mike

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