The Tree in the Midst of the Garden Meaning?
1) Direct Answer
It means the two great choices God set in the very center: the Tree of Life (Christ, God’s own Life and Word) and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Satan’s reasoning). In the “midst” of the garden stood life by the Word or death by unbelief.
2) Scriptural Explanation
- The Bible says there were two trees in the midst: “The tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil” (Genesis 2:9). Eve later refers to the forbidden one as “the tree which is in the midst of the garden” (Genesis 3:3).
- God’s command: “Of every tree… thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it” (Genesis 2:16–17). The issue was obedience to God’s Word.
- When they chose the wrong tree, “their eyes were opened,” shame entered, and death followed (Genesis 3:5–7; Romans 5:12).
- God then guarded the Tree of Life with cherubim and a flaming sword (Genesis 3:22–24), showing that life is now only by God’s appointed way.
- The Tree of Life is Christ. “In him was life” (John 1:4). He said, “I am the life” (John 14:6). Wisdom is called “a tree of life” (Proverbs 3:18), and Christ is the wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:24).
- Access to the Tree of Life is promised again to the overcomer: “To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life” (Revelation 2:7), and it appears in the New Jerusalem (Revelation 22:2,14).
3) Simple Clarifying Logic
- Now notice: it wasn’t an apple. Eating fruit doesn’t open spiritual eyes, bring moral shame, multiply sorrow in conception, or create two opposing seed lines. Yet Genesis 3:15 declares two seeds at enmity, and 1 John 3:12 says Cain “was of that wicked one.” That shows the forbidden “knowledge” was Satan’s corrupt approach to life and reproduction, not a harmless bite of produce.
- The serpent was cursed to go on his belly (Genesis 3:14), meaning he was different before the curse. Through that subtle beast Satan introduced a carnal, unbelieving union, and death followed. Adam and Eve were to live by every Word of God; instead, Eve received the serpent’s reasoning against the Word (2 Corinthians 11:3; 1 Timothy 2:14).
- So the “midst” marks the center of decision: Will man live by God’s revealed Word (Tree of Life), or by a mixture—good and evil together—offered by the serpent (tree of knowledge)?
4) Reinforcing Statement
You see, the question of the garden is still the question today. Choose Christ the Word and live, or mix the Word with human reasoning and die. The way back to the Tree of Life is opened through Jesus Christ, and the overcomer will eat of it again.
Ask a Follow-up Question
What did the Laodicean Church Age (our age) Angel (- messenger) Say about this?
Ranked passages from the local William Branham sermon and Church Age Book database. Relevance is relative, not a statement of doctrinal certainty.
Satan's Eden
65-0829 §22
And that's why Satan has done this. And he has worked through the ministry to do it, as God promised He would do. Now, he began by a religious deceit in Eden and has continued ever since; not by setting up a bunch of communists---communists has nothing to do with this. It's the church that's where you have to watch, see. It's not the communists that will deceive the very elected; it's the church that will deceive the very elected, see. It isn't communists. We know they deny God. They're antichrist---sure they are i...
Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever
52-0810E §42
I said, "In my heart." That's right. And I said, "The trouble of it is, doctor, in the Garden of Eden, there's two trees; one was knowledge and one was faith. One was life. One was death of knowledge, other one was life by faith. And as long as they eat by faith of this tree, all right, they lived. But when he got on this tree, he died. The first bite he took, he separated himself from God. And man continually has been biting off of that tree. And every time he takes a bite by knowledge, he destroys himself. God de...
The mark of the beast
56-0715 §29
In the garden of Eden there were two trees. One of them was a tree of life. The other was a tree of death. And man refused the tree of life and accepted the tree of death. And that's what the world's done today. It's refused the tree of life, which is Christ, and has made a woman their god. She's American goddess. That sounds hard and I'm stripping down the women. And I want to tell you. After all a woman, let me bring you up on this, and men, you're coming next. Look, a woman is not ... even so low, she's not even...
An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages
CAB 3:E-37
"Who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks." How meaningful are those words when viewed in the light of the Scripture, which describes Him as "Christ Who is our Life". For Christ, indeed, is the life of the church. She has no other life. Without Him she is simply a religious society, a club, a meaningless gathering of the people. As a corpse bejeweled and dressed is still a corpse, so the church, no matter what her programs and her gracious efforts might achieve, without Christ she is a corpse also....
Preparation
53-1111 §17
In the Garden of Eden there were two trees, one was life, one was knowledge. Man left the Tree of Life to eat off the tree of knowledge. And the first bite he took he separated himself from God. And every time a man bites off of that tree of knowledge, he destroys himself. He bit off gun powder, killed his comrades. He bit off automobiles off the tree of knowledge, kills more people than all the wars. He's bit off himself a hydrogen bomb now. What's he going to do with that? Everything, he destroys himself by knowl...