Thursday, December 8, 2011
“Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:” (Romans 5:12 KJV).
Historical secular geology teaches that earth’s fossil record was assembled over a period of four billion years, the result of at least five mass extinctions that wiped out 90% of earth’s species.
Modern humans, scientists claim, have existed for just a small fraction of earth’s 4.6-billion-year history (at most two million years). In other words, historical geology claims that death was not caused by man’s sin (since the fossil record contains the remains of plants and animals that died before man “evolved”). This is obviously contradictory to the Bible, which plainly teaches sin and death came into the world after man/Adam disobeyed God (today’s Scripture). According to the Bible, there was no such thing as death until man’s existence.
If we believe that creatures died prior to man, then we are also forced to conclude Adam’s sin did not cause death, and thus, we undermine the Gospel of Grace. The Bible clearly declares that just as eternal death came by Adam’s disobedience, so eternal life comes by Jesus Christ’s obedience (Romans 5:15-19). If the Bible is wrong about death being associated with Adam’s sinfulness, then could it also be wrong about eternal life being associated with Christ’s sinlessness? See how evolutionary theory even attacks the Gospel of the Grace of God?
Either we believe God’s Word (the Bible) or we believe evolutionary theory. It is that simple, friends. We either believe God or we do not. Evolutionary theory does not fit the Biblical creation account.
The placement of death before man’s existence is just one of the many theological (and scientific) flaws of evolutionary theory. Not only does evolutionary theory diminish God’s purpose and plan for mankind, but it also blinds the minds of the lost. Evolutionary theory keeps the unsaved from seeing their sinful state and their need for the salvation that God has so graciously provided us in Christ Jesus and His finished crosswork on Calvary.
Evolutionary theory is extinct!
333 Words of Grace 
Hey Shawn,
Since you shared this with me, I feel obligated to express my views on the subject 🙂
First of all, I think that the “death” that Paul is referring to in Romans 5:12 is a spiritual death. By “spiritual death”, I mean a physical separation from God or His Holy Spirit (just as physical death is a separation of one’s body and spirit).
I will cite two lines of evidence for this spiritual death from the Bible. The first comes from Romans 5:12 itself. It is clear that Paul connects death and sin; not only the original sin, which brought death into the world, but the sins of all, which cause the deaths of the individual sinners. In other words, the direct effect of sin is spiritual death (see Romans 6:23).
To further this point, my second line of evidence comes from Genesis. After God placed man in the Garden of Eden, He commanded him not to partake of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil saying, “for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” (Genesis 2:17). Note that God tells Adam that he will die in the DAY he eats the fruit. We know that Adam ate the fruit and we also know that he lived for 930 years (Genesis 5:5), many of those years occurring after he partook of the fruit. We must conclude that when God told Adam that he would die on the day that he partook of the fruit that He was not referring to an immediate physical death. I believe that Adam suffered a spiritual death on the day he partook of the fruit.
Now, that being said, I do believe that Adam brought the physical death of mankind into the world through partaking of the forbidden fruit. I personally believe that there could have been organisms that lived and died before Adam was created. These are my personal views. If you want to know more about what my religion teaches regarding the subject of death and the fall of man, I direct you to 2 Nephi chapter 2 in the Book of Mormon. Here is a link https://lds.org/scriptures/bofm/2-ne/2?lang=eng The whole chapter is good, but the most pertinent information begins in verse 14 and continues through the end of the chapter.
Thanks,
– Martell
Hello Martell. Thanks for your input. Thank you for that reference in the book of Mormon. I read it and considered it.
Romans 6:23 is a good reference on the subject of sin and death. “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Interestingly, there are two deaths spoken of here–notice “wages [plural] of sin is death.” The “death” taught in Romans 6:23 is actually two deaths–spiritual and physical death because they are always found together (they are both the result of sin).
Indeed, like you said, Adam lived physically some 900 years after he ate the forbidden fruit. Right, physical death wasn’t instant. But, spiritual death was instantaneous, as noted by Gen 3:6: “the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked….” But like Romans 6:23 says, spiritual and physical death cannot be separated–where one is, they both are. Adam died physically because he had already died spiritually (remember, spiritual and physical death always exist together).
Okay, so consider this:
1. We both agree that spiritual death resulted from Adam’s disobedience (sin).
2. Romans 6:23 indicates two deaths are associated with sin–physical and spiritual death.
3. If there was physical death prior to Adam, as you suggest, that implies spiritual death was also present, doesn’t it? (According to the Bible, [i.e. Rom 6:23] they always exist together. Physical death and spiritual death cannot exist separately–they exist together. Can we honestly say that physical death existed prior to spiritual death, that organisms died before Adam brought about spiritual death? The Scriptures don’t indicate physical death existed prior to spiritual death; if anything, it teaches the opposite, that spiritual death resulted in physical death.)
4. Romans 8:18-23 describes the sin’s curse on creation (“the bondage of corruption”)–sickness, pain, suffering, death, etc. Compare that to what Genesis 3:14-19 says, where God cursed creation in response to Adam’s sin. According to these Scriptures, there was no suffering/pain prior to Adam’s sin; would it be fair to say “death” is a form of suffering?
Okay, well, think on that, friend and fellow geologist! Thanks.
I agree that both physical and spiritual death came about because of the fall of Adam, but I’m not sure that it applied to anything other than Adam, Eve and their posterity. In other words, I think that a valid reading of the scriptures could be that the two deaths brought about by Adam’s transgression applied only to the race of man. The Bible, after all, is an account of God’s dealings with mankind. I don’t see anything in those verses that deals with plants, animals, or prokaryotic organisms.
It is useful in our field of study to accept the principle of faunal succession as a means of dating strata and geologic events. I haven’t seen anything in the plain reading of the KJV of the Bible that either implicitly or explicitly forbids me from believing that those organisms lived and died before Adam was placed on the earth.
Good discussion!