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                          According to Jewish tradition, the only tree under Adam's care in the Garden of
                   Eden that did not shed its leaves after the progenitors of the human race partook of the
                   fruit, WAS THE FIG TREE. It was the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. But
                   with our Savior's miracle on the Mount of Olives during that last week of His life, it
                   meant THAT THIS SYMBOLIC TREE WAS NOW WITHERED AND DEAD! Do you
                   understand that? Let Ernest Martin explain:

                          It [the withered and dead fig tree] signified that NO LONGER would that
                          symbolic tree be in the midst of humanity TO ENCOURAGE MANKIND TO
                          SIN IN THE MANNER OF OUR FIRST PARENTS. But there is even more
                          teaching. It meant that when Christ went to that miraculous tree looking for some
                          figs to eat (like Eve did), CHRIST WOULD NOT FIND ANY WHATSOEVER!
                          This signified that there was NOT going to be a REPETITION of what Eve (and
                          later Adam) did in regard to the fig tree that they partook of. One fig tree [in the
                          Garden of Eden] was the instrument to bring "sin" into the world, BUT THE SON
                          OF GOD COULD NOT FIND ANY FIGS ON HIS FIG TREE (the miraculous
                          tree on the Mount of Olives that was typical of the Tree of the Knowledge of
                          Good and Evil). Christ cursed THAT symbolic tree at the top of Olivet SO THAT
                          NO MAN WOULD EAT OF IT AGAIN. And to COMPLETE his victory over
                          sin, four days later Christ was going to be SACRIFICED FOR THE SINS OF
                          THE WORLD JUST A FEW YARDS AWAY FROM THIS WITHERED AND
                          DEAD TREE. -- Secrets of Golgotha, p.260.
                          Isn't that awe-inspiring?

                          What Yeshua (the second Adam) was actually doing during the last week of His
                   life on planet Earth was ACTING OUT A SYMBOLIC VICTORY over the very factors
                   in the Garden of Eden around which Adam and Eve failed! Do you grasp that? The Tree
                   of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was now WITHERED AND DEAD, and the TREE
                   OF LIFE, a short distance away on the spot where Shem buried the skull of Adam
                   (Golgotha -- Place of "THE" Skull), became the very tree on which the Messiah was put
                   to death! THE TWO TREES -- THE FIG TREE ALONGSIDE THE ROAD AND THE
                   TREE YESHUA DIED ON --         SYMBOLIZED THE TWO TREES IN THE GARDEN
                   OF EDEN!!


                                           The Fig Tree and the Church of God!

                          The symbolism doesn't end here! The FIG TREE also represents the Church of
                   God; and the lessons we have already learned can equally be applied to YEHOVAH's
                   church in the last days! The Parable of the Barren Fig Tree, found in the thirteenth
                   chapter of Luke, is a POWERFUL WARNING to a church NOT bearing fruit--              an
                   apostate church that has left a state of much truth and plunged into a state of luke-warm
                   theology and rampant compromise.

                          Leading up to this parable, Luke records the warning words of Yeshua, as He rails
                   against a church blinded by lethargy and corruption.
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