The Pleroma (6) - Charles H. Welch

No.6. Paradise Lost and Restored. 

If ‘before the overthrow of the world’ and ‘before the age times’ refers to the same datum line, and if the ‘overthrow’ be Gen. i. 2, then Gen i. 2 must have taken place before the ages began, and consequently we have an indication that the ages are coincident with the present temporary creation which, together with its ‘firmament’, will pass away when the purpose of the ages shall be accomplished. The opening and closing members of the purpose of the ages may be set out as follows: 

A | The Beginning. Before Age times. | 

    a | Christ. Firstborn of all creation. Image of invisible God. 

        b | Satan. Cherub (Ezek. xxviii. 12-19). 

            c | The overthrow (Gen. i. 2). 

               * * * * * * * 

A | The End. Age finish. | 

    a | Christ. Head. Every knee shall bow. 

        b | Church. In the heavenlies. Satan destroyed. 

            c | Reconciliation achieved. 

The space indicated by the (* * * * *) is spanned by the ages. The first of the series of fullnesses that fill this gap is, as we have seen, the six-day creation of Gen. i. 3 - ii. 14. The opening generation is NOT that of Adam, as recorded in Gen. v. 1, but of “the heavens and the earth” which occupies Gen. ii. 4 - iv. 6. This is followed by twelve generations, which open with “The book of the generations of Adam” (Gen. v. 1), and closes with “the book of the generation of Jesus Christ”. The relationship of these generations may be set out as follows: 

It will be observed that the word “generation” is used in the plural of each except the last. The generations refer to the descendants, as may be seen by an isolated generation like that of Ruth iv. 18-22; the generation of Jesus Christ however refers to his human ancestry not to His descendants, for He had none. In the generations of the heavens and the earth, are recorded the following features: 

(1) The forming of man from the dust, and his becoming a living soul. 

(2) The planting of the garden eastward in Eden. 

(3) The prohibition concerning the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 

(4) The naming of the animals and Adam’s conscious loneliness. 

(5) The formation of the woman as a help meet for him. 

(6) The temptation and the fall, the curse and sorrow. 

(7) The promise of the seed of the woman and ultimate victory. 

(8) The return of man to the dust from whence he had been taken. 

(9) The expulsion from Eden and the placing of the sword and cherubim. 

(10) The two seeds as manifested in Abel and Cain. 

(11) The appointment of Seth instead of Abel. 

Fuller details could of course be included, and the reader must remember that there is no significance in the number that we have indicated. In view of the balancing feature in the book of the Revelation, we can write over this period the words “Paradise Lost”, without borrowing any ideas from Milton, even as we can write over the closing chapter of the Revelation “Paradise Restored”. The book of the Revelation does not reach as far as “The end” of I Cor. xv. 24. 

Two main themes commences in Gen. iii. that continue to the end of time, and which constitute the conflict of the ages. These are (1) The promise of the woman’s Seed, (2) The continuous enmity between the two seeds until ultimate victory is achieved. For long after the New heavens and earth, death will still be an enemy (I Cor. xv. 24-28). The loss sustained as a consequence of the Fall is symbolized in the expulsion from the garden with the consequent denial of access to the tree of life, but restoration is pledged by the placing of the cherubim together with a flaming sword to keep the way of the tree of life. In the sequel, when the intervening gap is filled by the fruits of redemption, we are taken by a series of steps back to Eden and its blessedness, as is made manifest by the following extract from the close of Revelation. 

“And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away . . . . . and he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life . . . . . and there shall be no more curse . . . . . that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city” (Rev. xxi. 4; xxii. 1-3, 14). 

Here is the complete reversal of the consequences of the fall of man in Eden, and we have surveyed yet another “fullness”, the fullness of Redemption that spans the ages and their burden of sin and death. One feature demands a somewhat fuller treatment here, and that is the cherubim and their purport. The several occasions when the cherubim are introduced into the Scriptures are as follows. Beginning with the passage in Ezekiel which antedates Eden we have the following: 

If we set out these passages in the form of a correspondence, we immediately become aware of some member that is missing. It will be worth the space if this necessity can be demonstrated and felt. 

Something is missing that will counterbalance the pride and the fall of the anointed cherub at the beginning. The very fact that the word “anointed” might be included, points us to Christ, the true anointed, for that is the meaning of the Hebrew “Messiah” and the Greek “Christos”. We remember that when the cherubim in the O.T. or the living creatures in the Revelation are described, we have mention of four faces, that of a lion, an ox, a man, and an eagle, and these symbols have from earliest times been associated with the four Gospels. 

Where the anointed cherub aspired with blasphemous attempt to be like the Most High, the Son of God voluntary left the glory that was His by right and stooped down to death, even to the death of the cross. In this He ‘undid’ (luo) the works of the devil (I John iii. 8). Into the space marked A therefore we can put the missing line. 

A | The Anointed, His humiliation, His Triumph, 

and the record is complete. Thus the outstretched firmament coincides with the outstretched wing of the cherubim, the whole span of the ages being “under the Redeeming Ægis”. "The term ‘ægis’, really a Latin word, means a ‘goat skin’ and later a shield . . . . . this redeeming conception took a primeval form in the cherubim set up, together with the sword of flame, at the gate of the lost Eden . . . . . the idea of atonement, therefore is as old as the Bible, nay, as redemption itself . . . . . this ‘Day of Atonement’ itself was called ‘Yom Kippur’ i.e. the ‘Day of Covering’ . . . . . ours is at bottom an evangelical universe, no other form was ever conceived for it in the mind of God" (Under the Redeeming Ægis by H. C. Mabie, D.D., LL.D.). The next pair of corresponding passages will be as follows: 

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(From The Berean Expositor, vol. 42, page 209).
http://charleswelch.net/BE%20Vol%2042%20Final.pdf

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