The Narrative

The Garden

What did Adam receive in Eden?

What Adam received in Eden was an Ancient Order, a family pattern from God that already existed before the world was created.

Before the Fall, while Adam and Eve were still in that higher state, they walked and talked among divine beings. They lived in paradise, innocent and good, and were taught a pattern that would prepare their family to come into the presence of God.

It was one order, received from God, to be lived with God in their midst. It was not a pattern where every family invented worship for themselves, nor was it a system set up to govern people and place leaders between families and God.

The Ancient Order meant that Adam was ordained a King and a Priest over his family, with Eve as Queen and Priestess. They were to teach their children this one order and carry it forward through their family, so that in time the pattern would continue among the families of the earth with God in their midst.

Adam and Eve

This was confronting and powerful. I began to see more clearly the difference between a living relationship with God and a religion. A family may know God in a living and personal way, and no two families will look exactly the same in every detail.

It also gave me greater love for sincere people who worship God in different religions. Some were led there by God in answer to their heartfelt prayers and desires to know Him. Others were born into a religion and have served Him faithfully all their lives, and that is wonderful. God has loved them and taught them there. However the first sacred pattern He gave on this earth was a family with God in their midst.

So the first man and woman were taught this Ancient Order by divine beings before they left that higher state, before any children were born into this world. Adam received from God the pattern he was to teach, and from the beginning it was family worship before Him.