Could Death Exist Before Sin Biblically?
Bodie Hodge, M.Sc., B.Sc., PEI
Biblical Authority Ministries, August 21, 2024 All Scripture
NKJV
Death and sin—these
are two things today’s society seems to want to avoid in a conversation! In
today’s secular society, kids have been taught for generations that death goes
back for millions of years. But there is a huge contrast when you open the
pages of Scripture beginning in Genesis.
The Bible is
the authority on the past (as well as the authority on scientific and
theological aspects), and it is logical that the Bible should be the
authority on the issue of death and its relationship with sin. Getting a
big picture of sin and death and how they are related in the Bible can
make us better witnesses to today’s culture.
Everything Was Originally Perfect
Then God saw everything that He
had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the
sixth day. (Genesis
1:31)
He is the Rock, His work is
perfect; For all His ways are justice, A God of truth and without injustice;
Righteous and upright is He. (Deuteronomy 32:4)
When God finished
creating at the end of day six, He declared everything “very good”—it was
perfect. God’s work of creation is perfect. We expect nothing
less of a perfect God.
What was this “perfect” or “very good” creation like?
Were animals dying? Was man dying? Let’s look closer at what the Bible teaches.
Everything Was Originally Vegetarian
And God said, “See, I have given
you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and
every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food. “Also, to
every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that
creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for
food”; and it was so. (Genesis
1:29–30)
We know that animals and man were not eating meat
originally, according to Genesis
1:29–30. So, meat-eaters today were all vegetarian originally, which
also points to death not being part of the original creation. Plants are not
“alive” in the biblical sense of nephesh chayyah, only animals and
man. So, plants being
eaten did not mean death existed before the Fall. One would not expect
a God of life to be a god of death. When we look at God’s
restoration in Revelation 21–22, there will be no death, pain, or
suffering.
If a Christian wants to side with the atheistic view of a
world where death existed for millions
of years using the majority of the fossil layers as evidence of slow,
gradual accumulation instead of a global Flood, they have major problems. The
fossil layers consist of many animals that have the remains of other animals in
their stomach
contents. As we’ll discuss later, Scripture tells us that sin brought
about animal death, something that did not occur prior to the Fall. This rules
out many of the rock layers as evidence of millions of years because the Lord
declared that everything was originally vegetarian. The Flood of Noah’s day is
a much better explanation of the rock layers, which show animals eating other
animals after sin.
Death Is a Punishment
And the LORD God commanded the
man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; “but of the tree
of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you
eat of it you shall surely die.” (Genesis
2:16–17)
God gave the command in Genesis
2:16–17 that sin would be punishable by death. This is significant
when we look at the big picture of death. If death in any form
was around prior to God’s declaration in Genesis 1:31 that
everything was “very good,” then death would be very good too—hence not a
punishment at all.
Some have pointed out that this passage is not referring to
animal death. In one sense, we agree with them: this verse was not directed
toward animals. But by the same logic, this command was only directed toward
Adam, yet Eve died, and so do we (Adam’s descendants) for sin. This shows
the all-encompassing impact of the sin-death relationship.
Adam Knew What “Die” Meant
Some people have brought up the objection that if there was
no death existing in the world, then how did Adam know what God meant in Genesis 2:17.
God, the author of language, programmed Adam with language
when He created him, as they conversed right from the start on day six
(see Genesis 2). Since God makes things perfectly, Adam
knew what death meant—even if he did not have experiential knowledge of it. In
fact, he probably understood it better than any of us because he had a perfect
mind, uncorrupted by sin and the Curse.
Sin Brought Animal Death
The first recorded death and passages referring to death as
a reality came with sin in Genesis 3 when the serpent, Eve,
and Adam all were disobedient to God. Please note that what happened is the
first hint that things will die:
So the LORD God said to the
serpent: “Because you have done this, You are cursed more than all cattle, And
more than every beast of the field; On your belly you shall go, And you shall
eat dust All the days of your life. (Genesis 3:14)
Genesis 3:14 indicates that animals, which were
cursed along with the serpent, would no longer live forever but have a limited
life (all the days of your life). This is the first hint of animal
death. Since animals were cursed, they too will now die. Though this particular
verse doesn’t rule out animal death prior to sin, its placement with sin and
the Curse in Genesis 3 may very well be significant.
The first recorded death of animals comes in Genesis 3:21,
when God covered Adam and Eve with coats of skins to replace
their fig leaf coverings they assumed would cover their nakedness.
Also for Adam and his wife the
LORD God made tunics of skin, and clothed them. (Genesis 3:21)
Abel apparently mimicked something like this when he
sacrificed from his flocks (fat portions) in Genesis 4:4,
as did Noah after the Flood in Genesis 8:20.
The Israelites did this as well, giving sin offerings of lambs,
doves, etc.
The punishment for sin was death; so, something
had to die. Rightly, Adam and Eve deserved to die, but we serve
a God of grace, mercy, and love. And out of His love and His mercy,
He basically gave us a “grace period” to repent.
The Lord sacrificed an animal to cover this sin. It was not
enough to take away sin but merely offered a temporary
covering. This shows how much more valuable mankind is than animals (see
also Matthew
6:26, 12:12). The punishment for sinning against an
infinitely holy God is an infinite punishment, and animals are not
infinite. They simply cannot take that punishment. We needed a perfect and
infinite sacrifice that could take the infinite punishment from an
infinite God. Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, who is infinite, could take that punishment. These animal
sacrifices foreshadowed Jesus Christ, who was the ultimate, perfect,
infinite sacrifice for our sins on the cross. Hebrews reveals:
And according to the law almost
all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no
remission. (Hebrews
9:22)
This is why Jesus had to die, and this is why people
sacrificed animals to cover sin. These passages make it clear that animal death
has a relationship with human sin, as well as the fact that it
came after sin (see Christian Theodicy in Light of Genesis and Modern Science).
Also, it is the very basis and foundation of the gospel.
Sin Brought Human Death
This same type of proclamation that animals will ultimately
die (all the days of your life) comes back in Genesis 3:17,
where man would also die (all the days of your life). So, like the
animals, man would die in fulfillment of what God said in Genesis 2:17.
Then to Adam He said, “Because
you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I
commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’: “Cursed is the ground for
your sake; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life. (Genesis 3:17)
Some have stated that they believe this was only a spiritual
death, but God made it clear in Genesis 3:19 by
adding that humanity will return to the dust from which we came, which makes it
clear it was not excluding a physical death.
In the sweat of your face you
shall eat bread Till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken;
For dust you are, And to dust you shall return.”. (Genesis 3:19)
Even Paul, when speaking of human death, specifically says:
Therefore, just as through one
man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all
men, because all sinned. (Romans 5:12)
The last enemy that will be
destroyed is death. (1 Corinthians 15:26)
Nevertheless death reigned from
Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of
the transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come. (Romans 5:14)
For if by the one man’s offense
death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace
and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus
Christ.) (Romans
5:17)
If the death God mentioned is only spiritual, then
why did Jesus have to die physically—or rise physically? If the Curse
meant only spiritual death, then the gospel is
undermined.
It is true that Adam and Eve didn’t die the exact day
they ate, as some seem to think Genesis 2:17 implies.
The Hebrew is die-die (muwth-muwth), which is often
translated as “surely die” or literally as “dying you shall die,” which
indicates the beginning of dying (i.e., an ingressive sense). At that point,
Adam and Eve began to die and would return to dust. If they were meant to have
died right then, the text should have used muwth only once, as
is used in the Hebrew meaning “dead, died, or die” and not “beginning to die”
or “surely die.”
Does the Bible Teach Death before Sin?
The Bible tells us very clearly that there was no death
before sin from many passages. In fact, there are no Bible verses indicating
there was death prior to sin.
The only reason some people try to insert death before sin
is to fit man’s ideas of “millions of years” of death from a uniformitarian
view of the fossil record into the Bible. But this makes a mockery of God’s
statement that everything was very good in Genesis 1:31.
Death, animals eating other animals, thorns, cancer, tumors, and so on are not
very good, and yet these are found in those fossil layers.
This leads to compromising what God plainly says to
accommodate fallible man’s ideas. Besides, the Scriptures reveal a global Flood
in Genesis 6–8, after sin, which explains the vast
majority of fossil layers. So, one need not appeal to billions of years to
explain these layers. It is better to trust what God says:
It is better to trust in the
LORD Than to put confidence in man. (Psalm 118:8)
Keep in mind that having death before sin also
undermines the very gospel, where Jesus Christ stepped into
history to conquer sin and death. In doing so, He graciously offered
the free gift of salvation to all who receive him.
Conclusion
Keep in mind there are primarily two views of history
(secular and Christian) with two different authorities (man’s fallible
reason apart from God and a perfect God) with
conflicting views about the past.
According to the Bible, a perfect God created a perfect
creation, and because of man’s sin, death and suffering came into the world.
But through Christ, we look forward to a time when there will be no more pain
or death or suffering (Revelation 21:4).
In a secular worldview, there has always been death. So,
when Christians try to incorporate the secular idea of
millions of years into their theology, two main questions arise. Was there
really a change when Adam and Eve sinned? And what will heaven really
be like then?
This article was first published here.
Reprinted by Permission.
