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Near St.Austell in the county of Cornwall in the UK, in what was once a china clay quarry, you can enjoy a visit to ‘The Eden Project’. A dedicated team of people have created an exhibition of the world’s varying climates and the plants that grow in those climates.

To achieve this they have constructed two enormous bubble greenhouses called ‘Biomes’ that look like a huge insect’s eyes. Inside one dome you can wander about in a Mediterranean climate and in the other you experience a tropical climate. Outside the domes in the surrounding gardens there are many varieties of plants growing in our temperate climate.

In the guide to the Project, Dr Tony Kendle, director of the Eden Foundation, writes under the heading ‘A Foundation for the Future.’ He starts by referring to the Bible:

‘The original Garden of Eden is a symbol of paradise, but also of mankind’s rejection from it.’

The article doesn’t develop this theme, except to comment at one point that:

‘humans have caused problems in the world’,

which some would say is a bit of an understatement! But further on he does say,

‘Most of all however, we wanted Eden to be a symbol of what is possible when people put their mind to the challenge of regeneration and restoration.’

In an accompanying leaflet we are told that the Project is

‘dedicated to break down the barriers of communication, sharing information and ideas with the widest possible audience. To explore the potential of working with the grain of nature, catalysing collaboration in science, arts, technology and commerce, creating a constituency for change and then – putting it into action.’

There is no doubt that the people involved in this project have managed to create in this almost barren crater – to use their words – ‘a vibrant reminder of our place in nature.’ Our view as we read these statements was to be impressed by the aims of this Foundation. ‘Together we want to identify the barriers to a better understanding and a better world, and start to break them down.’

The more we read the literature we can see that Christadelphians have similar aims. The Almighty has told us that our first parents were ejected from the Garden of Eden because of sin (see the facts about the Devil and Satan). However it is also true to say that at the same time, He set in motion another long term ‘Eden Project’ that would eventually bring about the elimination of sin and its effects and the regeneration and restoration of that original paradise.

Paradise restored
This great work is centred in and around the Lord Jesus Christ and while we can admire the ambitions and optimism of the people who have set up and run this ‘Eden Project’, we know that they are up against tremendous problems. Their high ideals are hampered and hindered by the limitations of human nature and we doubt whether God’s ultimate plan for the world figures in their aims for the future. It is Christ’s work to bring blessings on all the nations of the earth and it is the 'honour of his saints' to join with him in establishing God’s Kingdom on this misused earth:

‘Yes, all kings shall fall down before him; All nations shall serve him. For he will deliver the needy when he cries…He will redeem their life from oppression and violence…There will be an abundance of grain in the earth, On the top of the mountains; Its fruit shall wave like Lebanon; And those of the city shall flourish like grass of the earth’ [Psalm 72.11,12,14,16. NKJV].

If we join hands with Christ now and follow him we can be co-workers with him when the final phase of God’s ‘Eden Project’ begins, when as the prophet Isaiah foretold:

‘…the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose…For waters shall burst forth in the wilderness…The parched ground shall become a pool…the redeemed shall walk there, And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with singing, with everlasting joy on their heads … And sorrow and sighing shall flee away’ [Isaiah 35. 1,6,7,9,10. NKJV].