Thesis 11: Patriarchy and the Mountain

The Garden of Eden was on a Mountain.[1] Our sin caused us to be cast out of the Mountain.[2] When God reveals His Edenic Grace through Redemptive acts on mountains,[3] He symbolizes concretely what the Prophets foretold by speaking of this Mountain: the future Edenification of the Earth.[4] These prophecies are now coming to pass.[5] The vision of the “Vine & Fig Tree” is a vision of the restoration of Patriarchal society and Edenic conditions.[6]

Notes

1. Genesis 2:10-14; Ezekiel 28:13-14
2. Genesis 3:24; Exodus 19:12
3. Genesis 22:2; 2 Chronicles 3:1; Exodus 24:9-11; Matthew 5:1; Mark 3:13f.; 2 Peter 1:16-18; Matthew 26:30; 28:16-20; Acts 1:9-12
4. Isaiah 2:2-4; 11:9; 25:6-9; 56:3-8; 65:25; Daniel 2:34-35,44-45
5. Hebrews 12:22; Revelation 2:7; Matthew 5:14 + Isaiah 60:3; #89
6. Micah 4:1-5

References
See David Chilton, "The Holy Mountain," Paradise Restored, chapter 4.

Don't think "Mt. Everest" when you see "mountain" in the Bible; just think "elevated plateau."

Text at note 5 says mountain prophecies "are now coming to pass." The Bible speaks of days when God's Holy Mountain is elevated above the hills. In a sense, that elevation took place at the first Christmas, when Christ was resurrected and ascended. This is called the "preterist" view. In another sense, there is still future fulfillment. The Bible never posits a time when human beings do not act. Human action is purposeful behavior; action aiming at an end or goal. This means there is always building, development, or perfection. [This in itself is an extraordinarily controversial thesis, if you think about it.] As an example, in "the New Heavens and New Earth" of Isaiah 65, when people are living in God's Holy Mountain (Isaiah 65:25), they are described as building houses and planting vineyards (v.21). The Prophet Isaiah would say that with the coming of Christ, this New Heavens and New Earth has been inaugurated, and we are on God's Holy Mountain. But not all the houses that will be built have been built. There are infants (v. 20) being born (v. 23), who eventually need houses built.

See Gary North, Millennialism and Social Theory, chap. 5.

Since there is Growth and Progress even in the New Heavens and New Earth, we need to start Thinking Like Adults.