MOD 1:Death Before Sin?

Death Before Sin?
James Stambaugh M.Div., M.L.S. IMPACT No. 191, May 1989
Most people are familiar with the creation/evolution issue, yet not manypeople realize the importance of death to each view. The fact is that, forevolution, death is a sort of creative force. Those who believe in evolutionmust believe that death has always existed. This is exemplified by theisticevolutionist Dr. Howard Van Till, who says: "It is an incontrovertiblescientific fact that there is a long history of life and death for period ofbillions of years before people like you and I appeared on earth. Sophysical death before the fall must be accepted as a fact of science."[1]Those who accept the Bible believe that death is a punishment for sin; deathmust have come into existence after Adam fell. This article is designed toprovoke the thinking of God's people about the significance of death andwill examine various aspects of the creation as recorded in Scripture, bothbefore and after the fall. We will explore the state of God's originalcreation and the effects of God's cursing the creation, and consider theeternal state when death will be abolished. Meaning Of "Good" How are we to understand the original state of God's creation? Here we mustexplore what God meant when He declared His creation to be "very good," inGenesis 1:31. The Hebrew word for "good," like the English word, has manymeanings. In fact, the Hebrew word has ten meanings.[2] The majority of theoccurrences can mean "beautiful" or "expensive." When it is used of men, itoften has moral implications. The word "good" is here modified by the word"very." "Very" occurs in the Old Testament 300 times, and carries with itthe idea of a superlative.[3],[4] Elsewhere, the phrase "very good" is used bymen—men who have been affected by the fall of Adam. But in Genesis 1:31, thestatement is made by God—the One who is perfect in all that He does. Thevery least one can note about God saying this of His creation is that He hasgiven it His approval. Dr. John Davis says that the statement is accordingto the purpose of God,[5] denoting that the original creation was suitableaccording to God's purposes. This is also noted by Nigel Cameron: "The worldwhich God made for man to inhabit was 'very good.' It had been prepared toreceive him as its crown, and the setting was constructed so as to be idealfor the probation to which Adam and Eve were called. The world was notcreated with the Fall in prospect, still less with the curse already letloose." [6] There is not much said about the diet of man and the animals in the Gardenof Eden. An integral part of the evolutionary scenario is that both men andmany of their animal ancestors have always been carnivorous. Yet God saidvery clearly that both man and animals were only to eat plants, in Genesis1:29. This we can see as part of being "very good," and is God's best forHis creation. We are not told when animals became carnivorous, yet we doknow that man was not to eat meat until after the Flood (Genesis 9:3). This raises an interesting problem for the evolutionist. He must believethat God intended man and animals to be carnivorous, even though God's wordsare very clear (Genesis 1:29). He must, in all reality, call God a liar; hemust say that God did not mean what He said. If men and animals werevegetarian, then the possibility of death in the original creation becomesremote. Plants Not Alive The above statements do not rule out death of plants. Some see this as amajor stumbling block. Dr. Hugh Ross observes that plants die. He says:"Some have interpreted this verse (Romans 5:12) as implying that there wasno death of any kind before the sin of Adam, and, therefore, only a few dayscould possibly have transpired between the creation of the first life andthe sin of Adam. However, the absence of death would pose just as much aproblem for three 24-hour days as it would for three billion years. Manyspecies of life cannot survive for even three hours without food, and theingestion of food requires at least the death of plants."[7] This is, ofcourse, true, except that the Bible never ascribes to plants the status of"life," (nor to the "lower" animals, for that matter). The Bible is very clear about the nature of life. Life, according to theBible, resides in the "soul," or the Hebrew word "nephesh." This might beequated roughly with the concept of consciousness. This quality is ascribedonly to man and some animals, but never plants. The Bible is also very clearas to what happens to plants—"they wither and fade" (Isaiah 40:6-8; James1:10) but plants never die. They have biological life, but not Biblicallife. Men and animals could eat plant life without death, in Biblical terms,taking place. Adam's Sin Brought Death Let us consider death in God's original plan. The passages most oftenreferred to on this topic, Romans 5:12-21 and I Corinthians 15:20-26,clearly illustrate the fact that our death resulted from Adam's sin. Yet theBible has more to say which helps us bring this issue into focus. The wording of Genesis 2:17 is very clear—"but of the tree of the knowledgeof good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatestthereof thou shalt surely die." What did God mean by "die"? If we examinethe events of the fall, we will find that Adam did not physically die whenhe first ate the fruit, tempting many to say that Adam fell only in aspiritual sense. But we must note two things that differentiate Adam fromourselves. First, Adam was created perfect and sinless. Second, because hewas created sinless, he was not originally condemned to physical death. WhenAdam ate from that tree, he truly died, just as God promised he would. Hedied spiritually at that moment, but he was also cursed with the ultimatereality of physical death. Physical death is the result of spiritual death,so that 930 years later, Adam's body finally caught up to his spirit. Adam's sin had a tremendous effect on the entire world. We can see thisclearly stated in Genesis 3:17,18 and Romans 8:19-21. The Genesis passagestates that all creation was cursed by God for man's sake. It seems that Godwanted to give the human race an object lesson. The lesson, it would appear,is to make the outer world of man like the inner world of man. Man is now afallen sinner, and so God shows him what his spiritual state is like when helooks at nature. So when man looks at nature, he can see the glory of God,although it is veiled by the curse of sin. Such a demonstration of theresults of sin should drive men back to God for His solution to sin anddeath. The passage in Romans 8:19-21 confirms the thought of Genesis. In fact,these verses are Paul's commentary on Genesis 3:17, 18. Here Paul tells usthat the whole of creation has been subjected to "vanity" by God because ofman's sin. The word "vanity" refers to that which fails to attain its basicgoal. This means "that the non-human creation has been subjected to thefrustration of not being able to properly fulfill the purpose of itsexistence."[8] The entire creation experienced the same fate that man did whenhe fell. Now, since man is the initiator of the curse on the earth, he mustalso somehow be the initiator of the restoration of the creation, and thisis exactly what Paul is trying to tell us. God was to be glorified by thesmooth running of nature. When man fell, his act brought sin and death.Therefore, if death prohibits the smooth running of nature, then death mustnot have been a part of God's original plan. The Effects Of Sin Removed Scripture plainly tells us that God will remove the effects of man's sin.This is the conclusion of Romans 8:19-21, yet we can see other passageswhich picture the results of God's intervention, such as Isaiah 11:6-9 andRevelation 21, 22. The Isaiah passage clearly depicts a totally different picture of naturethan we presently experience. Animals are eating only plants. Once again,there is no more carnivorous activity. Animals, even poisonous snakes, canplay with infants. This is a totally different future for the world than ispredicted by evolution. The two chapters in Revelation show that after sin is vanquished, death, pain, and sorrow will also be vanquished. If this is the restoration of thecreation, we are left with a plaguing question about death if we believe inevolution. Why is death being done away with? If God originally intendeddeath to be an integral part of His creation, then God should allow death tocontinue into eternity. So we are left with the conclusion that death is an aberration caused by man, in God's plan. Conclusion There is a very practical side to the above discussion that affects everybeliever in Jesus Christ. This study has suggested a causal relationshipbetween sin and death. Yet because of God's grace and mercy, there isanother aspect to that relationship, for the Bible also presents arelationship between sin, death, and atonement. When man fell, God cursed him with both physical and spiritual death. Godtook it upon Himself to provide an atonement for the original couple; Hetook two animals and made clothing. In order to get animal skins, theanimals must have been killed. Sin always brings with it death, and this isthe first recorded death. These two animals provided a blood sacrificeatoning for Adam's and Eve's sin. We are told in Hebrews 9:22, "without theshedding of blood is no remission." So a blood sacrifice isonly necessary if there is sin. The rest of the Old Testament has similartreatment of sacrifice for atonement. If there was animal death before thefall of man, then God and all those who followed His pattern did uselessacts. One must observe that in the atonement the animal loses its life inthe place of the human. If animal death existed before the fall, then theobject lesson represented by the atoning sacrifice is in reality a crueljoke. The New Testament has one sacrifice for atonement, for Jesus Christ iscalled the "Lamb of God." If we believe that death has always existed, thenwe make a mockery of the death of Christ. This is exactly what evolutionmeans. The atheist is at least honest about his position. We can observethis by the statement of G. Bozarth. He says: "Christianity has fought,still fights, and will continue to fight science to the desperate end overevolution, because evolution destroys utterly and finally the very reasonJesus' earthly life was supposedly made necessary. Destroy Adam and Eve andthe original sin, and in the rubble you will find the sorry remains of theSon of God. If Jesus was not the redeemer who died for our sins, and this iswhat evolution means, then Christianity is nothing."[9] If death is not thepenalty for sin, then Christianity is meaningless. The death of Christ wasmade necessary because of man's sin. Man's sin brought death, which in turnbrought God's Son to pay the penalty in our place.
References 1. Van Till, Howard. Audio taped debate held on October 27, 1988. Return to Text 2. Brown, Driver, Briggs. Hebrew Lexicon, Oxford Press, 1975. pp. 373-375. Return to Text 3. Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, Moody Press, 1980. p. 346. Return to Text 4. See for example: Genesis 24:16; Numbers 14:7; Judges 18:9; 1 Samuel 25:15; II Samuel 11:2; Jeremiah 24:2,3. Return to Text 5. Davis, John. Paradise to Prison, Baker Book House, 1975. p. 62. Return to Text 6. Cameron, Nigel. Evolution and the Authority of the Bible, Paternoster, 1983, p. 66. Return to Text 7. Ross, Hugh. Biblical Evidence for Long Creation Days, Unpublished paper, n.d., p. 7. Return to Text 8. Cranfield, C.E.B. Romans. 2 vols., T & T Clark, 1975. I:413. Return to Text 9. Bozarth, G. Richard. "The Meaning of Evolution," American Atheist, 20 (Sept. 1979), p. 30. Return to Text
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