Bro. Forrest, let me preface my response by showing you how I believe the Scriptures. As Bro. Ruckman has stressed so many times in his preaching and his books, the smallest words in the Bible are oftentimes the most important when it comes to Biblical truth. Words such as "like" and "as" usually trip up people that want to create their own doctrine from the Bible or twist something to defend their beliefs. I'm not saying you do this, I'm simply explaining how extremely careful I am when it comes to the words of the Scriptures.
For instance:
Gal. 2:16 Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. (emphasis mine)
I srongly and emphatically believe that to mean that we are justified by Jesus's faith; also, the "gift" of Ephesians 2:8-9 is faith, not Salvation, if the sentence is dissected properly. Most teach that we have faith and by that we accept Jesus Christ as our saviour, but based on the Scriptures, I believe that even faith itself is a gift, based on the word "of" in Gal. 2:16: "the faith of Jesus Christ."
That being said, I'll try to be more specific as to my belief on Eden.
As you established in the first part of your last post, Eden in Genesis 2 is clearly a Region on the newly created (or renovated) earth. Through the beginning of Genesis 2, it is made clear that Eden is a region where God placed a Garden: Gen. 2:8 And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. (emphasis mine)
Therefore, being very technical about it (as I am prone to do), I specifically say "the Garden IN Eden," not "the Garden OF Eden." While the Scriptures do call it that later in Genesis 2, it is specifically a name only, as its location and whatnot has already been established earlier in the chapter.
Another point of interest is : Gen. 4:16 And Cain went out from the presence of the LORD, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden. Here there is no garden referenced; Eden is simply a region close to where Cain began to dwell.
Now, in Ezekiel, God is speaking through Ezekiel to the "king of Tyrus," while though he was a real king and I'm sure God was really sending him a message, there's no way He was talking to a mere mortal king in this chapter. Like Isaiah's address to the king of Babylon (Is. 14), the king of Tyrus here is obviously a reference to Satan.
Ezek. 28:13 Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; (emphasis mine)
According to the words of this verse, the Eden this passage is referring to is NOT a region, but a specific Garden. We've already established that Genesis 2 is speaking clearly about a region on the earth, but this reference here is speaking not of a region, but of a garden.
In conclusion, I believe it is quite clear that Genesis 2 speaks of a Region named Eden that includes a garden, and Ezekiel 28 speaks of a Garden named Eden, not a Region. By extrapolation, I believe the Eden referred to in Ezekiel 28 as being the original earth: God created it for the angels to inhabit, which they did until Lucifer's rebellion. After that, it was destroyed and then recreated by God in Genesis 1:3, where he put man in dominion over His new creation.
I hope that's a little clearer.
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