The Garden Theology: Discovering Design Acquiring Identity

174 Pages·2018·0.64 MB·English

by  Jan H. Lamprecht

The Garden
Theology
Discovering Design
Acquiring Identity
__________
Jan H. Lamprecht
The Garden Theology
Copyright © 2017 by Jan H. Lamprecht
ISBN-13: 978-0-620-72350-3
ISBN-10: 0620-723505
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced
or transmitted in any form or by any means – except for
brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without
written permission from the author.
Bible translation permissions:
KJV: The King James Version (Authorized)
Public Domain.
THE MESSAGE. Copyright © by Eugene H. Peterson
1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002.
Used by permission of NavPress. All rights reserved.
Represented by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.
DEDICATION
To all the seekers out there
who turned out not to be slaves,
but offspring.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
My wife, Han-Mari, for temporarily ceasing to invent
chores for me to execute, thereby allowing me to focus on
finishing this project. The more I survey the dynamics of
Jesus' love for His bride, the more I love you!
My local church family, Pro Gratia Malmesbury and
everyone at Dynamic Love Ministries.
Cover art and concept by:
Chris Alford at Chris Alford Graphic Design
www.chrisalford.com
Photography in cover art courtesy of:
Harold Head
www.haroldhead.com
Author portrait photo by:
DLM Studios
CONTENTS
Dedication
Acknowledgments
About the author
Foreword
Preface – A design crisis

Part 1 – The cart before the horse
1. A Whiff of Sulphur?........................................................1
2. God is Good.....................................................................8
Part 2 – The finished work
3. Understanding Your Innocence.....................................25
4. Understanding God's Grace...........................................59
Part 3 – The garden in the light of grace
5. Creation..........................................................................81
6. In God's image...............................................................92
7. After His likeness.........................................................109
8. Enculturation................................................................116
9. The tree of knowledge of good and evil...................... 123
10. Objective & subjective realities...................................132
11. The dynamics of His faith............................................135
12. Evicted from the garden...............................................148
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
B
orn in the winter of 1978 in the old Transvaal and
growing up in the corn-capital of South Africa in
the Free-State, Jan Hendrik Lamprecht always felt
the call of God on his life. On leaving school he enrolled in
the MAP (Mission Apprentice Program) presented by World
Missions, at Immanuel World Mission School in the Free-
State. Later he enrolled for a correspondence course in
theology through ICI, but unfortunately that didn't work out
as planned and he didn't complete the course.
Jan Lamprecht and his wife, Han-Mari, currently reside in
Malmesbury in the Swartland region of the Western Cape
where he works as a self-employed plumber. They are
members of Pro Gratia Malmesbury. His passion for the
gospel was rekindled on hearing the good news preached in a
way he had never heard it preached before. He is currently
enrolled in the DLM discipleship course.
FOREWORD
S
ome years ago we wanted to renovate our bathroom.
We got some plumbers in to quote on the job. Jan was
one of them. We started to talk about Jesus that day
and we have not stopped ever since.
Jan is a man that loves truth and want to understand why
things are the way they are. He finds the power of life in the
explanation of the “why”. Why did God make us? Why did
Jesus have to die? Why a resurrection? Why a garden? What
was this garden, what is sin, what is forgiveness, what is
innocence..? This makes me think of the following passage:
“But he that received seed into the good ground is he that
hears the word, and understands it; which also bears fruit,
and brings forth, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some
thirty.” Matthew 13:23
Fruit bearing is found in understanding the word of God,
which is the message that Jesus portrayed to the world. The
Garden Theologyis many years of walking with God in the
quest to understand these concepts placed in a short, yet
thought provoking, as well as explanatory writing that will
enrich the reader.
What I love about the book is the simplicity in which very
complex concepts are explained, prompting you to go and do
deeper study in the Word of God as well as digging deep into
yourself to live the true meaning God has given to life.
The beauty of The Garden Theology is that it is the fruit of
the Holy Spirit through an ordinary man, with an ordinary
job, put in words in such a way that you cannot put what he
says in a theological box of what has already been heard and
known. The relationship based approach of a God whose
desire is to walk with man, and would never abandon His
original plan, is the foundation of this writing and will bless
every person that reads it.
As you read this book make sure you prepare your heart to
be challenged by a different logic than the traditional law
based system that has brought many into bondage. Every sub-
chapter is concise and to the point. You will not be bored by
long theological reasoning that never comes to a conclusion.
Jan, true to himself simply says it as it is when he clearly
explains what grace is and what it is not.
This book will bring a good framework of what the
Gospel is in its essence, bringing understanding that will lead
to a fruit filled life of grace. I am grateful that these truths can
be placed in one book that is an easy read and simple to
understand.
Be ready to think differently about who God is, why you
are here and how this Kingdom operates.
- Bertie Brits
Author of: Born from Innocence & Jesus is the Tithe.
Dynamic Love Ministries
PREFACE
- A DESIGN CRISIS
W
hat is commonly diagnosed in the world and its
people, not only in the church, as an identity
crisis, that is when people can't seem to find
their purpose, is in actual fact a design crisis. Our design
somehow evaded us. Or did we circumvent it on account of a
different influence? I believe the latter to be true. The serpent
in the garden presented man with an alternative design and
the rest is history. Regardless what our individual opinions
may be, the fact remains, we have been oblivious to our
design and that in turn, this caused confusion concerning our
identity. We rejected design from pure ignorance and
approached identity from a slave mindset and works
mentality. As soon as you discover your design, identity
follows suit and immediately starts to take shape. Not
understanding our design results in the absence of identity.
These two go hand in hand and only function on optimal
level as a unit.
How often have you heard people say that everyone is
made in the image and likeness of God? If that was true most
of us who are all too willing to jump on the bandwagon and
exclaim “universalist!” at a mere statement concerning
innocence, would actually also be universalist by this
confession that all of mankind already possess His likeness
too. His likeness is immortality. His likeness is a constant. If
we then say that everyone are already created after His
likeness we somehow skipped salvation, that is acquiring our
identity by acknowledging our divine design and moved on to
immortality. If that's your confession you are way ahead of
the rest of us. Please wait up! You will have to wait for
immortality. Trust me, you are not alone. As you can see this
is a huge generalization brought on by ignorance. It is half a
truth, half assumption. Yes, everyone was made in His image.
If you are a human being, you are created in His image. His
likeness on the other hand is something only Jesus gives and
it is slightly more complex than that. Complex, not
complicated might I add. Thus I felt the need to write this
book.
In this book you will see that being made in His image is
not the ultimate, but that the combination of both image and
likeness is the ultimate. Let us take a pick-up truck as an
example. The pick-up has a certain specification concerning
its loading capacity. That does not necessarily mean it is
already carrying that load. Loading capacity = image/design
and load = identity. Identity in the sense that the pick-up, by
way of speaking, acknowledges its design. Its design is for
argument's sake 750 kg. When you then utilize its capacity by
loading it with 750 kg, you are bringing its identity to the fore
and it“finds” its purpose. We find our purpose and identity
as soon as we see what has already been done for us in Jesus.
When we direct our lives according to that truth, the word of
God concerning our lives, we start to enjoy His quality of
life. But does it stop there? Heavens no! Thats only how it
starts off. We have a glorious inheritance when we
acknowledge our design. His likeness. So what does His