A Slice of the Tree of Life

So I've talked a lot about my view that what Christians should be looking forward to is The Resurrection, not an "After Life".  That the perfect Utopia we are promised is not contemporary Heaven but This World restored to something like how it was before the fall.

That to me is the true point of the difference between The Gospel and Paganism is that Pagan myths like those of Gilgamesh, Orpheus or Izanami and Izanagi are about accepting death as a natural part of Life, while The Gospel promises that no Death will be defeated and one day no longer exist.  The Second Death is the Death or Death.

Many people who aren't Christians however view neither what I just described or the more casual Christian understanding of the "After Life" as desirable.  They feel it is grossly naïve to think such a condition would be a good thing.  In Season 4 of Angel, (the spin off of Buffy The Vampire Slayer), what Jasmine is trying to accomplish was essentially how Joss Whedon views Revelation 21 and 22.

I get the sense that at least some Western viewers of Anime probably have the same view about Human Instrumentality in Neon Genesis Evangelion and End of Evangelion (and the many evil schemes in Anime since that are kind of similar, like most recently *Spoiler Alert* what the Taisha wanted to do in Yuki Yuna Is A Hero season 2).  Though there is certainly no Biblical Basis for the rejection of Individuality inherent in that plan.  It's far more likely that it's The Beast and the False Prophet trying to achieve something like that with their Mark system.

Back on topic, the argument for why this should be viewed as bad is typically that there is no freedom or growth in a such world, that conflict and difficulty is necessary for that.  (So it's funny then that sometimes the exact same people make the "why does God allow Evil to exist" argument).

It's pretty difficult for us to even imagine what such a world would be like.  But I definitely view that criticism as an over simplification.  For one thing there is this Quote from Revelation 22:2

"the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations."

Emphasis on the word Healing.  This shows that things are not exactly done.  And I personally believe new children will be born during this era as well.  A certain thing Jesus said about the Resurrection in Matthew 22 is commonly misunderstood ignoring Jesus actual point.  Adam and Eve were supposed to be fruitful and multiply, so if we're restored to that state, it includes that command.

I feel like these criticisms of the world presented in Revelation 21&22 (The Millennium in chapter 20 I don't even view as a true Utopia, but more as a Benevolent Dystopia.  Has that term been used before or did I just invent it?), however morally they word it, essentially comes down to them saying they think it would be BORING.  Like the common rather tong in cheek presentation of traditional heaven as us just sitting around all day on clouds playing harps while hell is a party.

I don't want to be bored either.  I used to spend a lot of time radically declaring Superman Re[dacted] the worst movie ever made because to me it is the most boring.  I am confident however that the New Heaven and New Earth will not be boring, but I've struggled with finding a good way to explain how.  till today.

Pause and Select is an Anime Analysis YouTube Channel.  I just a little while ago, on the night of January 10/11th 2018, watched their four part series on Japanese Apocalypticism in Anime titled Understanding Disaster.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3itZ8UCAizGphd5_cOFylS38JFTV3-Ne

The fourth and final part is what's primarily relevant to what I have to say here.  But the first three parts should be watched first for context, it is all interesting stuff.  (When talking about Akira, the observation about Akira being the object of worship but Tetsuo being the one really running things happened to remind me of my own re-evaluation of the relation between The Beast and the False Prophet).

In the fourth and final part they make a connection between the development of Apocalypticism in Anime and a certain genre of Anime.  They don't use this term in the video, but the genre in question is often most commonly called "Slice of Life".  Fortunately much of the narration is subtitled in the video, especially when quoting someone else.  So here is a pretty and informative screen-cap.

Compare that to Revelation 21:4.

"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."

Another key word used in this portion of the video is "healing", other videos about this genre also associate it with healing and soothing.  But to me and many other fans they are absolutely not boring.  In fact I've often come to find conflict driven narratives to be boring.

One mistake Pause and Select makes is that K-On! in particular is not lacking narrative.  Digibro's praise of the show is all about it's subtle narrative arch and character development.  Meaning there is growth.  But it's not a conflict driven narrative, that is the point.  I'm surprised this video didn't mention Aria.(Aria could be interesting in light of my theory that The Bible foretells colonization of Outer Space.) It doesn't mention Girl's Last Tour because it was published over a year ago.

This genre of Anime has been my favorite for awhile now, for many reasons, and I think Lucky Star is it's Citizen Kane.  But watching this video just today caused it to click to me how maybe these Anime can also help me explain how the New Heaven and New Earth won't be boring.  In theory these Anime exist in the present world and so we don't immediately think of them as being Utopic.  But really they are narrative Utopias.

The video goes on to talk about other Apocalyptic Anime that looks more cynically on the Slice of Life genre.  But because of my Faith in The Bible, I know such a stable future will one day come.

Since I think this post may attract some Anime fans not familiar with what I usually talk about.  I want to add a reminder here that I have become a Universalist, and so this coming Utopic Shin-Sekai will be enjoyed by everyone, not just believers.  Even Nihilistic Atheists like Digibro.

Update August 2019:  I just re-watched much of Star Trek Generations, and it occurred to me how the Nexus in that film is also something that can possibly be read as a cynical view of "Heaven".

I've always liked the scene after Kirk makes that jump with the Horse, saying how it terrified him every-time but just now, because he knew it wasn't real.  And that's why it's important to me to stress that the real "Heaven" is this world as it was meant to be not some alternate realm where there is only spirit and no physicality.

I think in the New Heaven and New Earth it would be possible to fail to make that jump, and that doing so would hurt, a lot, and maybe it'd be months before you've recovered enough to try again.  It's just that there will no death.

Now you may think "that's not taking literally the "No Pain" in Revelation 21:4", the Greek word used there is "Ponos" which the Strongs (Number 4192) says more accurately means "Anguish" or "Toil", it's root is "Penes" (number 3993) which is often translated "Poor".  So I think a specific type of "Pain" is what's meant there.

The only other times "Ponos" is used is in Revelation 16:10-11, where the context is the "Pain" the Kingdom of the beast experiences when it is covered in Darkness after the Fifth Bowl is poured out.  I'm honestly starting to think maybe this word should be translated "Poverty".  Also the word translated "Sores" in Revelation 16 is elsewhere in Scripture used only in Luke 16:20-21 talking about the Beggar Lazaurs.

But more importantly then that, the "anguish" meaning can be taken as meaning it's emotional pain, psychological suffering.

The Trees of The Garden of Eden

I want to talk about a few controversial issues related to the matter of the Trees of The Garden of Eden.

First, many Gap Theorists and Preterists believe it was not physical Death that began when Adam eat the forbidden fruit.  And they insist that him not dying within 24 hours is proof of that, since God said "in that day".  To answer that, I'll quote from Wikipedia.

Robert Alter emphasizes the point that when God forbids the man to eat from that particular tree, he says that if he does so, he is "doomed to die". The Hebrew behind this is in a form regularly used in the Hebrew Bible for issuing death sentences.^[4]

I also want to address what "Knowledge of Good and Evil" means.  First of all it's never called the "Tree of Knowledge" without qualification, it's a certain type of Knowledge.

Also from Wikipedia.

The phrase in Hebrew: טוֹב וָרָע, tov wa-raʿ, literally translates as good and evil. This may be an example of the type of figure of speech known as merism, a literary device that pairs opposite terms together in order to create a general meaning, so that the phrase "good and evil" would simply imply "everything". This is seen in the Egyptian expression evil-good, which is normally employed to mean "everything". In Greek literature, Homer also uses the device when he lets Telemachus say, "I know all things, the good and the evil" (Od.20:309-10).^[1]

This seems to only further back up the perception that this narrative is vilifying knowledge.  But other Bible passages encourage learning, like Paul saying 'Study and be diligent".  Or the entire book of Proverbs.

Another detail from Wikipedia.

In Rashi's notes on Genesis 3:3, the first sin came about because Eve added an additional clause to the Divine command: "Neither shall you touch it". By saying this, Eve added to YHWH's command and thereby came to detract from it, as it is written: Do not add to His Words (Proverbs 30:6).  

I wish I'd known this when I wrote my "Yea Hath God Said" study.

Biblically the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil doesn't come up again outside of Genesis 2 and 3.  The Tree of Life does, but still rather rarely.

Most notably is it coming up in Revelation, in chapter 2 verse 7, and a a few times in chapter 22, verses 2 and 14.  Where it is seemingly depicted as something only those in New Jerusalem have access to, which becomes the foundation of the Conditional Immortality doctrine.

Problem with that doctrine is as special as the Tree is, nothing here says only those Eating from it live forever.  At the same time contrary to popular assumption some access to it may be available to those not permanently living in New Jerusalem.  It's leaves are for "the Healing of the Nations", plural, New Jerusalem is one Nation, the Kingdom Jesus rules directly.  It could be only Citizens of the City can eat the Fruit, but the Leaves are for all.

Genesis 3:22 implies the Tree of Life could have prolonged Adam's life after he'd fallen.  But I don't see that as proof that was it's main purpose.  Clinging to this idea frankly can lead to a conclusion that even Yahuah's immortality is dependent on The Tree.

Proverbs (3:18; 11:30; 13:12; 15:4) uses the term "Tree of Life" but in English at least it seems to not be refereed to with a definite article.  Most interesting is that Wisdom is called "a Tree of Life".  I have been of two minds about who Wisdom is, I've viewed her both as The Holy Spirit, and as Jesus.  Since those two are ultimately the same since I believe in The Trinity, that distinction isn't to important.

There are other ways the word translated Life in reference to this Tree has been translated.  The same word is used to call Yahuah the Living God in Deuteronomy 5:26.  Going back to Proverbs, and the perception that the Genesis narrative is calling knowledge bad.  Perhaps the Tree of Life is the Tree of Divine Wisdom.

There is a theory out there that the Tree of Life and Tree of Knowledge are the same.  Genesis 2:9, could be read that way, as the "and" doesn't have a direct basis in the Hebrew, it could be describing two titles for the same Tree.  I at first saw Genesis 3:22 as an obvious problem for that.  However the word "also" can also mean again.  So maybe it could still be read as referring to only one Tree, and God wanting to prevent continued eating of the Tree while Adam was in his fallen state.

Taken again from Wikipedia.

According to the one-tree theory proposed by Karl Budde, in his critical research of 1883, he outlined that there was only one tree in the body of the Genesis narrative and it qualified in two ways: one as the tree in the middle of the Garden, and two as the forbidden tree. Claus Westermann gave recognition to Budde's theory in 1976.^[4]
Ellen van Wolde noted in her 1994 survey that among Bible scholars "the trees are almost always dealt with separately and not related to each other” and that “attention is almost exclusively directed to the tree of knowledge of good and evil, whereas the tree of life is paid hardly any attention."^[5]

Interestingly the idea of both Trees being the same seems to be the Islamic view.

See also: Tree of life (Quran)

The Quran never refers to the tree as the "Tree of the knowledge of good and evil" but rather typically refers to it as "the tree" or (in the words of Iblis) as the “tree of immortality”.^[18] Muslims believe that when God created Adam and Eve, He told them that they could enjoy everything in the Garden but this tree, and so, Satan appeared to them and told them that the only reason God forbade them to eat from that tree is that they would become Angels or become immortals.

 In the Quran Allah does not refer to it directly as the tree of life or immortality. He only referred to it as the tree; Satan was the one who called it the tree of immortality to trick Adam and Eve.

I'm not sure entirely what to make of all this.  But I feel I have firmly drilled holes in the logic of both Conditional Immortality and the notion that Physical Death was always something Adam was capable of.

If they are the same Tree, why was eating it bad then but not in the Future when we're Resurrected?

Possibly because we'll have been cleansed of Sin in The Blood of Jesus by then.  That the "knowledge" in question wasn't knowledge we were never meant to have, Adam and Eve just weren't ready for it yet.  Remember God knew what was going to happen.

But I'm still ultimately undecided.