Garden of Eden
The name Eden, according to Cruden, means /pleasure/,
526:30 /delight./ In this text Eden stands for the mortal, mate-
527:1 rial body. God could not put Mind into matter nor in-
finite Spirit into finite form to dress it and
527:3 keep it, - to make it beautiful or to cause it
to live and grow. Man is God's reflection, needing no
cultivation, but ever beautiful and complete.
527:6 /Genesis/ ii. 16, 17. And the Lord God [Jehovah] com-
manded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou
mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good
527:9 and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou
eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
No temptation from God
Here the metaphor represents God, Love, as tempting
527:12 man, but the Apostle James says: "God cannot be
tempted with evil, neither tempteth He any
man." It is true that a knowledge of evil would
527:15 make man mortal. It is plain also that mate-
rial perception, gathered from the corporeal senses, consti-
tutes evil and mortal knowledge. But is it true that God,
527:18 good, made "the tree of life" to be the tree of death to His
own creation? Has evil the reality of good? Evil is un-
real because it is a lie, - false in every statement.
527:21 /Genesis/ ii. 19. And out of the ground the Lord God
[Jehovah] formed every beast of the field, and every fowl
of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he
527:24 would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living
creature, that was the name thereof.
Creation's counterfeit
Here the lie represents God as repeating creation, but
527:27 doing so materially, not spiritually, and ask-
ing a prospective sinner to help Him. Is the
Supreme Being retrograding, and is man giving up his
527:30 dignity? Was it requisite for the formation of man
528:1 that dust should become sentient, when all being is the
reflection of the eternal Mind, and the record declares
528:3 that God has already created man, both male and
female? That Adam gave the name and nature of
animals, is solely mythological and material. It can-
528:6 not be true that man was ordered to create man anew
in partnership with God; this supposition was a dream,
a myth.
528:9 /Genesis/ ii. 21, 22. And the Lord God [Jehovah, Yawah]
caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and
He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead
528:12 thereof; and the rib, which the Lord God [Jehovah] had
taken from man, made He a woman, and brought her unto
the man.
Hypnotic surgery