from the garden to the city: 2

jeremy had some great thoughts, not least the idea that gardens are designed for discovery, while cities are designed for progress. he writes, inter alia:

When all the peoples of the Earth came together at Babel to form one city God confused their languages because humanity did not have the maturity for that level of collaboration. God intended us to remain on this journey and to not begin a world-wide collaboration that would make unlimited progress possible. In Zion our redeemed state and lifelong wisdom will be rewarded with the privilege of uninhibited collaborations. Imagine minds like Einstein, Newton and Hawking with purified motives and limitless lifespans creating and building this future Kingdom. Imagine the artistic collaboration. Zion is the ultimate unleashing of this process.

i posted @ jeremy's weblog:

i'm reminded, when jeremy writes about progression toward maturity, of parts of perelandra where ransom is blessed to be able to watch the lord and lady of a world take their rightful place as rulers. "the world is born today," said malacandra. "today for the first time two creatures of the low worlds, two images of maleldil that breathe and breed like the beasts, step up that step @ which your parents fell, and sit in the throne of what they were meant to be. it was never seen before. because it did not happen in your world a greater thing happened, but not this."

redemption of the world. putting things in perfect order. on earth, our father and mother in the garden were placed in the garden to obey and enjoy god and, yes, to learn good from evil. on malacandra, the first parents "have learned of evil, though not as the evil one wished us to learn. we have learned better than that, and know it more, for it is waking that understands sleep and not sleep that understands waking. there is an ignorance of evil that comes from being young: there is a darker ignorance that comes from doing it . . . ." all is coming to fruition w/ the return of the edenic state, and it is perfect but not as perfect as it will be after "we will fill this world w/ our children. we will know this world to the core." they will creatively make the beasts wiser, all the while progressing toward that farther perfection that will culminate in the holy city. and once they/we arrive, the journey is only just beginning, for the king said "i set forth even now on ten thousand years of preparation -- i, the first of my race, my race the first of races, to begin. i tell you that when the last of my children has ripened and ripeness has spread from them to all the low worlds, it will be whispered that the morning is @ hand."

his name be praised!