Where is the Garden of Eden today?
Question
Gramps,
Where is the Garden of Eden today? With Cherubim and a flaming sword guarding the way to the tree of life, we should be able to see it as it was not taken from the earth?
Robert
Answer
Hello Robert,
Jackson County, Missouri, according to modern revelation, is the known location for the Garden of Eden, the home of our first parents, Adam and Eve. Â President Brigham Young once declared,
“Joseph the Prophet, told me that the Garden of Eden was in Jackson County, Missouri. Â When Adam was driven out he went to the place we now call Adam-ondi-Ahman, Daviess County, Missouri. Â There he built an altar and offered sacrifices” (notes from a meeting, as quoted in Matthias F. Cowley, Wilford Woodruff: History of His Life and Labors [1909], 481).
The second question pertaining to being able to see the tree of life and a Cherubim with a flaming sword doesn’t appear likely: Â 1) We don’t know which tree, or what type of tree. Â 2) We don’t know if the Cherubim and flaming sword can only be seen with spiritual eyes (think of the story of Balaam who could not see the angel in his path with a drawn sword until his eyes were opened, (Numbers 22:23-31). 3) The tree of life could have possibly remained in a perfect state, which did not fall with the earth, as did other life.
The location of the Garden of Eden is sure and true, Jackson County, Missouri in Independence. Â The second question is pure speculation and your thoughts are as good as mine.
Gramps
I always figured that the Lord removed the Garden of Eden when he flooded the earth. So that’s my guess, which is at least as good as somebody else’s.
Two trees are mentioned in the Garden of Eden story; The Tree of Life, and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. In the Book of Mormon, Lehi and Nephi’s visions tell us that the Tree of Life represents the love of God. And so it was symbolic, and not a real tree. Because of this, we have no reason not to believe that the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil is symbolic as well. The Cherubim guarding the Tree of Life with a flaming sword is some law or principle keeping unprepared people from obtaining eternal life until they have exercised faith and repentance through our savior Jesus Christ. Adam and Eve had not had time to do so, and so they were forbidden and cast out into mortality until they could do so. Nephi and his family however, (save Laman and Lemuel), had already exercised faith and repentance through our savior Jesus Christ, and so they could approach and partake of the Tree of Life freely. I suspect the Cherubim with the flaming sword were symbolically keeping Laman and Lemuel from partaking, because they were not prepared.
The Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil had to be literal to some degree, as did the Garden of Eden considering that Jesus Christ taught Joseph Smith the Garden’s literal location.
The Book of Mormon doesn’t specify that the tree of life and the tree in Lehi’s dream are the same tree. Both trees are symbolic. Symbolism doesn’t negate reality. Symbolism is often rooted in reality.
If the Garden of Eden was in North America, how did everything else that took place in the bible end up in and around the middle east considering Adam and Eve were the first humans on the earth according to scripture?
That is easy. Noah build the ark in the Americas and it was on the waters for about 1 year and it stopped in the Middle East. It did not stay in one place it moved with the tides.
You seriously believe that. That all life bottled necked on the Ark about 4,400 years? That all the races of people, including the Native Americans (which are of Asian descent by the way) developed in that short of time into what we see today? And just how do you explain histories of civilizations, before, during and after the flood completely uninterrupted? I have faith, but I won’t believe in things that are not true. And your answer is not only impossible, it is not true.
The answer is that continental drift had not occurred yet, and the original land mass known as Pangea broke up into what is known as today’s continents (Gen. 1:9, 10:25, etc. – I’m sure you’ve noticed that all of the continents fit together like a jigsaw puzzle). As for life on the Ark, all it had to carry was land animals. Marine life had nothing to worry about. Did it carry all species of dogs or birds? No – just the originals. Differing breeds took place afterwards. Ask any dog breeder or bird breeder how quickly new variations can be cooked up that would easily explain the variations of animals. Just note that they are still birds or dogs, no matter how many species or breeding techniques. The best attempt ever mounted to estimate the time of creation before the flood dates it at 4,004 B.C. As for ancient civilizations, here’s something for you to ponder: Do the math on human population growth, and look at what the numbers tell you going backwards. I’ll cut to the chase – human populations mathematically only go back a few thousand years to (drum roll please) about when the flood of Noah is recorded to have taken place, which is estimated at 3426 B.C..