In the biblical Garden of Eden, the human being was created by God and given the authority to govern themselves. The only rule or law was to obey God. The consequence of good governance was daily companionship with God, access to every beautiful and pleasant thing in the Garden, and peaceful companionship with one another. The consequence of poor governance or violation of that one rule meant losing access to the garden, losing daily onsite access to God, and having the inevitable consequences of overemployment, underemployment, and unemployment. Having lost the freedom of self-rule, they now had the burden of self-governance. With God’s presence and the peace, wealth, and security of the Garden gone, moral, social, political, and economic problems arose, continually threatening their survival.
Countless years later, with the population of earth having swelled to over seven billion people the problem of governance remains. Great minds have argued the benefits of one form of human government over another, but it seems to me that highest form of governance is still self-rule that was granted in the Garden of Eden. Perhaps as we look at our religious, political, ethnic, racial, and national histories we will find that our greatest divisions and the greatest threats to our continued existence have come when we missed opportunities to emulate, teach, and encourage self-rule under God. The teaching of every major religion point to self-rule under the authority of their God. In my own faith, Jesus was crucified because he dared to rule himself in order to obey God.
While we need parents, teachers, leaders, and governments, as guides, regulators, and emulators, we cannot regain the freedom of self-rule until no person, place, or thing can hinder us from returning to the Garden of God’s presence with daily visitations.