PART I — Eden: God’s Dwelling, Humanity’s Calling, and the Story We Flattened Into a Coloring Book
Most Christians think Eden was a perfect, universal paradise. But Genesis never claims that. The Bible says God “planted a garden in Eden” (Gen. 2:8), a sacred space inside a larger region. Ezekiel calls it “the mountain of God” (Ezek. 28:13–14). Eden was God’s dwelling place, not a global utopia. Only inside Eden did God walk with humanity (Gen. 3:8). Outside the garden lay the rest of the earth—good, but not yet sacred space. The story starts with geographic holiness, not widespread perfection.