Here is a 5-Minute Summary, with a young-earth claim by two prominent advocates and a Bible-based response by me:
John Morris says, "Here is the problem. If death existed before Adam, then death is not the penalty for sin. How, then, did Christ's death pay the penalty for our sin? If death is not tied to Adam’s sin, then life is not tied to Christ’s death and resurrection, and the Christian faith is all in vain." {from Death before Sin? with emphasis added by me}
Ken Ham says, "As soon as people allow for millions of years, they allow for the fossil record to be millions of years old... [with] the death of billions of creatures. ... The Bible is adamant though, that death, disease, and suffering came into the world as a result of sin. God instituted death and bloodshed because of sin so man could be redeemed. As soon as Christians allow for death, suffering, and disease before sin, then the whole foundations of the message of the Cross and the Atonement have been destroyed. ... If there were death, disease, and suffering before Adam rebelled — then what did sin do to the world? ... The whole message of the gospel falls apart if one allows millions of years for the creation of the world." {from The necessity for believing in six literal days with emphasis added by me}
John and Ken ask, "If death is not tied to Adam’s sin, ... then what did sin do to the world?" and the answer is clearly stated in Genesis 3:22 when God explains how death is tied to sin: "The
man has now [after he ate from "the tree of the knowledge of good and evil"] become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not
be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and
eat,
and live forever"; and the chapter ends with "a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life" so humans could not eat from "the tree of life" and "live forever." In five articles about sin-and-death by Morris and Ham, Genesis 3:22 is never cited, even though it's the most important verse in the Bible for understanding the origin of sin & death that later was converted, by the grace of God through Jesus, into salvation & life.
They claim that "if death existed before Adam, then death is not the penalty for sin" and "death, disease, and suffering came into the world as a result of sin," thus implying that ALL death began in Genesis 3. But in doing this they ignore God's clearly stated reason for removing the tree of life: God removed it because Adam had become a sinner, so "he must not be allowed to... live forever." In Genesis 3:22 the new death penalty due to sin was for sinful humans (who earlier, before their sin, had the potential to live forever through the power of God that was symbolized in a "tree of life") but a death penalty was not needed for animals (because they never had this potential for supernatural divinely-provided immortality).
When we carefully examine Genesis 3, we see our problem, with human sin causing
human death. Later in the Bible, we see God's solution — for converting sin & death into salvation
& life — that will work whether the earth is young or old, despite erroneous young-earth claims that "if [animal] death existed before Adam... the Christian faith is all in vain" and "the whole foundations of the message of the Cross and the Atonement have been destroyed."
In Genesis 3 the fall into sin, with Adam breaking his part of a conditional if-then covenant with God,* produced three results: an inherent decrease
in relationship with God to produce spiritual death, due to a human response; a decrease
in quality of life, due to a divine judicial penalty; and another divine judicial penalty, causing physical death due to the loss of supernaturally sustained everlasting life. Through God's grace
and power, the initial gift of full life (with relationship, quality, and immortality)
was offered to Adam, but was lost by his sinful disobedience. {* Basically, the covenant was that IF humans didn't eat from "the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" and thus become disobedient sinners, THEN they could eat from "the tree of life" and "live forever." }
Later,
this gift of full life (with relationship, quality, and immortality) was won back
for us by
our savior. Jesus Christ accepted the penalty of death that each of us
earns by our sinful disobedience, and (by living in sinless obedience
to the Father)
Jesus earned the right to make His own everlasting life available, as a gift of
grace, to all humans who will accept.
The "tree
of [everlasting] life" was (and will be) a supernatural gift from
God, who
gave the tree of life to humans (in Gen 2:9), temporarily removed it (Gen 3:22)
due to the disobedient sin of humans, and will give it back to humans (Rev
2:7,
22:1-2,14) through the salvation that Jesus earned for humans and offers to
us (John 3:16, Romans 6:23). At that time, after our physical resurrection in heaven, God's goal
of "no sin and no death" will be permanently actualized.
Could animal death occur before
human sin? Yes. This is possible because God's gift of eternal
life through His supernatural "tree of life" (in Genesis
2-3) was available for humans in Eden, but not for animals
before Eden. Although a claim that “death is the result of sin” is correct, a young-earth claim that “all death
is the result of human sin” is incorrect. Instead, the Bible teaches us that “human death (not all death) is the result of human sin,” and this biblically-justifiable claim is
compatible with a young earth or old earth. {more about Animal Death before Human Sin}
Advocates of young-earth views should be admired for their sincere desire to believe what they think the Bible teaches. But they should seriously consider the possibility that their interpretation is unjustifiably rigid, and is wrong. { If you think the Bible requires a young earth, I encourage you to read the rest of this page and Bible-based Theology for young-earth Christians. }
Efficiency
and Humility
In addition to the theological questions summarized above, part of the appeal of a young earth is a human preference for elegance and efficiency, when we ask "Isn't a long process of creation a waste of time? Why
use billions of years, instead of 144 hours?" This question is based only on human aesthetic preference, and it has no theological significance. But the virtue of humility, with respect to God, is important.
God has plenty of resources, including
time, and the evidence of nature strongly indicates that God — like
a gardener lovingly caring for a garden, or a master potter carefully molding
clay —
really did take a long time to shape the creation, to gradually form its inhabitants
along with the earth's geology and ecology. And perhaps the process
was pleasing: "Maybe God enjoys watching his universe
operate. Maybe he delights in seeing processes he has designed unfold.
Maybe a few billion years watching an incredibly intricate, complex, beautiful
creation in exquisite operation does not strike him as a waste of time.
And maybe we should be a bit cautious about humanly decreeing that it would
be. (Del Ratzsch, in The Battle of Beginnings)" Instead
of challenging God's wisdom by asking “Why did you waste billions of years?”,
it seems wise for us to adopt an appropriately humble attitude, "Surely
I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know. (Job 42:3, in the context of 36:22
to 42:6)"
Animal
Death before Human Sin
Could animal death precede
human sin? In a process of old-earth creation, many animals would
live and die. Young-earth critics of old-earth theology claim that
a loving God would not use this cruel process, and that "death before
sin" is incompatible with the central Biblical doctrine (firmly established
in Genesis 3, Romans 5,...)
that death is the result of sin.
Initially this argument seems impressive. But
when we look more closely, we see very little in the Bible about sin and animal
death. Instead,
the focus is on people, with sin and death being enemies of humans, to be overcome
by the sinless life and the death and resurrection
of
Jesus
Christ. Animal death before human sin is not a theological problem
if God's gift of eternal
life through the supernatural "tree of life" (in Genesis
2-3) was available for humans in Eden, but not for animals
before Eden. Although a claim that "death is the result of sin" is correct,
a claim that "human death is the result of human sin" (which is
an old-earth view and also a young-earth view) is more justifiable than "all death
is the result of human sin" (which
is only a young-earth view).
A theology of "human death being
allowed by God due to human sin" is consistent
with the history of salvation: a supernaturally enabled
life without death (symbolized by the tree of life)
was offered by God to humans (Genesis 2:9), was lost by Adam (Genesis 3:22),
was regained for us by Jesus (I
Corinthians 15:12-57), and will be actualized
in the future (Revelation
2:7 & 22:2,14). {
This brief outline is examined in
more
detail below. }
Supernatural
Protective Power
Ken Ham & Jonathan Sarfati, young-earth creationists who ask "Why
is there death and suffering?" (*), help us understand why life is what
it is now, after God decided to "give
us what we asked for: a taste of life without God" because of
our sinful disobedience.
They describe life with God's full protective power: "In
the Old Testament, we get a glimpse of what the world is like when God upholds
things one-hundred percent. In Deuteronomy
29:5 and Nehemiah
9:21, we are told that the Israelites wandered in the desert for
40 years, and yet their clothes didn't wear out, their shoes didn't wear
out and
their feet didn't swell. Obviously God miraculously upheld their clothing,
shoes and feet so that they would not wear out or fall apart as the rest of
the creation is doing. One can only imagine what the world would be like
if God upheld every detail of it like this. / The book of Daniel, chapter
3, gives us another glimpse, when we read about Shadrach, Meshach
and Abednego walking into an intensely blazing furnace yet coming out without
even
the smell of smoke on their clothes. When the Lord Jesus Christ, the
Creator of the universe, upheld their bodies and clothing in the midst of
fire (v. 25),
nothing could be hurt or destroyed." {* This was on the web for free, but now it's only for sale.}
The supernatural protective
power provided by God can be either miraculous-appearing (as
in the furnace, or viewing the Israelites for 40 years) or normal-appearing (as
in viewing the Israelites for a short time), it can vary from partial
protection to full protection, and during
a stage of history it can be universal (applied
to all of creation at all times) or selective (applied
to only some parts of creation at some times), and it can be physical and/or spiritual.
Although it might appear that the
laws of nature were different in Eden — since the beneficial aspects
of natural process (allowing life and pleasure) were
not being balanced by its detrimental aspects (allowing death and suffering) — this
would not be necessary because nature is not governed by the "natural
laws" that
were designed by God and are being sustained by God.
Instead, God is
governing nature by sovereignly determining the
protective powers that He does and doesn't use during
each stage of history and in each situation during a stage. The sin of Adam broke his part of an if-then conditional covenantal relationship with God, and God decided to temporarily decrease the extent of His protective powers for humans.
Protective Power in Two Views
In the young-earth view of Ham & Sarfati,
God provided full protective power for all of creation, from the beginning
and
into Eden. After the disobedient sins of Eve and Adam, God decided to
make the protective power only partial and selective, until the new creation
when full protective power (and more) will be restored, as described in Revelation
21-22. Ham's young-earth view of protective power during history
is: full,
partial, FULL. { The "full
protection" in
Eden was physical but, since God allowed the fall into sin, was not spiritual; by
contrast, in heaven the "FULL
protection" will be both physical and spiritual, with no possibility
of falling into sin. }
In my old-earth view, God provided
full protective power in Eden for humans. (*) After
the disobedient sins of Eve and Adam, God decided to make His protective power
only partial and
selective,
until the
new creation when full protective power (and more) will be restored. In
all of this, Ham and I agree. But unlike Ham, I think that before Eden
the protective power was partial and selective (*) but was less than it is
now because there were no humans to protect. My
old-earth view of protective power during history is: partial, full,
partial, FULL.
{* nephesh-animals
inside Eden may have been fully protected, but maybe were not
because the Bible says only that "the
tree of life" was offered to humans}
{* In
pre-human formative history, did God provide any protective power? Christians
with old-earth views answer in a variety of ways (ranging from NO through
MAYBE and PROBABLY to YES) but this is not an important theological question, so
the table for three histories of death has "partial protection?" (with "?")
as the answer. }
from Current Bondage
to Future Freedom
A common young-earth claim is that the character of the
entire creation changed, due to Adam's sin, from a state with no death to a
state with death. A passage often cited is Romans 8:18-25, "For
the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the
will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated
from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children
of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains
of childbirth right up to the present time. (Romans 8:20-22, NIV)"
But in this passage the present state of
the creation, without full protective power, is being compared to a future state
with "the glorious freedom of the children of God"
as described in Revelation 21:4, when God "will wipe
every tear from their eyes; there will be no more death or mourning or
crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. (NIV); ...the
former things are passed away (KJV); ...the first
things have passed away (NAS)" Instead of saying "creation
will be restored to its first state," John says "the first things have passed away," which does not support a
young-earth claim that "clearly, this future state
reflects the paradise that was once lost, not some imaginary land that never
existed." No, this claim is not clearly taught in the Bible.
Probably the paradise of Heaven will be similar to Eden in some ways, but not
others. And the Bible clearly teaches that God has enough imagination
and power to create a wonderful paradise (with all of the characteristics He
wants) "that never existed" but will
exist in the future.
Created Very Good for
a Purpose
To support a young-earth view, a commonly
cited verse is Genesis 1:31, "And God saw all that
he had made, and it was very good. (NIV)" When this is combined
with a young-earth interpretation (which is not in the Biblical text) that "very
good" means "no death," it seems to support a young-earth view.
But it seems more probable that "very
good" means "very good for achieving
God's goals for the creation, especially for humans." When
Paul says that "in all things God works for the
good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose"
in Romans 8:28, "good" does not mean
"no death, mourning, crying, or pain" because these do occur for
those who love God. Instead, "good" means "good
for achieving God's goals for us, in this life and the next life."
Three Results of Human
Sin
In Genesis 2:17, God says "you
must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil."
In Genesis
3:6, tempted by a creature who already had fallen into sin and rebellion,
Eve and Adam ate from this tree of knowledge, choosing to make moral decisions
for themselves, independent from God, instead of trusting and obeying God.
Their sinful disobedience had
three results:
The immediate intrinsic result of disobedience was a loss of their innocence
and their intimate relationship with God, so in Genesis
3:7-13 we see spiritual death. Then two judicial results were decreed by God, in Gen
3:14-24. The judicial penalty for sin begins with a decrease
in quality of life (Gen 3:14-19,23) for humans. And the ultimate penalty
(Gen 3:22,24) allows physical death for humans after God removes the life-protecting tree of life: God says, "The
man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not
be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and
eat,
and live forever." The second sentence clearly explains the
purpose of the action: to prevent disobedient sinners from living
forever, God removed "the
tree of life."
I think this tree symbolizes the
supernatural full protective
power that continually was being provided by God. When
the supernatural full protection was removed by God due to
their sin, Adam and Eve began to perish, with natural processes gradually
(during the "yom" of Genesis 2:17 that usually is translated as "day" but,
as in Genesis 1, can also indicate a longer period of time) leading to their
eventual death. But even though Genesis 3:22 is a key to understanding
God's plan of salvation, it is often ignored by Christians who think the earth
is young, and also by some who think the earth is old.
A Brief History of Sin
and Salvation
Let's look at our problem (sin and
death) and God's solution (for converting sin and death into salvation
and life).
SIN and DEATH: The fall into sin (in Genesis
3) produced three results, one intrinsic and two judicial: a decrease
in relationship with God, a decrease
in quality of life, and a loss of everlasting life. Through God's grace
and power, the initial gift of life (with relationship, quality, and immortality)
was offered to Adam, but was lost by his sinful disobedience.
SALVATION and LIFE: Later,
this gift of life (with relationship, quality, and immortality) was won back
for us by
our savior. Jesus Christ accepted the penalty of death that each of us
earns by our sinful disobedience, and (by living in sinless obedience
to the Father)
Jesus earned the right to make His own Eternal Life available, as a gift of
grace, to all humans who will accept: "The wages
of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our
Lord."
(Romans 6:23) The everlasting life taken from us temporarily in Genesis
is given back to us permanently in Revelation: "To
him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which
is in the paradise of God. ... Blessed are those who wash their robes, that
they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates
into
the city." (Revelation 2:7, 22:14) At that time, after our resurrection in heaven, God's goal
of "no sin and no death" will be permanently actualized.
The "tree
of [everlasting] life" was (and will be) a supernatural gift from
God. God
gave the tree of life to humans (in Gen 2:9), temporarily removed it (Gen 3:22)
due to the disobedient sin of humans, and will give it back to humans (Rev
2:7,
22:1-2,14) through the salvation that Jesus earned for humans and offers to
us (John 3:16, Romans 6:23).
Three Histories of Death
In a page about Two
Histories of Death, Ken Ham says "the battle
between Creation and evolution, between young-Earth and old-Earth views, is
a battle between two totally different histories
of death," which are summarized in his two diagrams:
His diagrams show only the histories
proposed by young-earth Christianity (#1)
and old-earth
atheism (#2). Even though old-earth
Christianity agrees with #1 that "man's
sin brought [human] death" and "death
is a temporary part of history" and "death
will be done away with" in a "future"
with "no death", Ham claims that all
old-earth views, including those of old-earth Christians, are described
by #2. Is
this claim accurate?
No, it isn't accurate, because there are three basic
histories of death, not two. The sections above —
Animal Death before Human Sin, Miraculous Protective Power, from Bondage to
Freedom, Created Very Good for a Purpose, Three Results of Human Sin, A Brief
History of Sin and Salvation — explain why the essential beliefs of Christianity
are the same whether the earth is young or old. You can see this in
the three histories, which are shown below in terms of the divine
protection during four stages of history (in the billions of years before
Eden, and in Eden, current history, and Heaven):
|
||||||||||||||||||||
Notice that the two Christian views are almost identical; they differ only in the first stage of history, the billions of years before Eden that "did not happen" in a young-earth view. By contrast, notice the major differences in the two old-earth views, Christian and atheist; they agree only that animal deaths occurred during the billions of years before Eden.
Questionable Criticisms
I agree with much of what Ken Ham & Jonathan Sarfati
say when they answer
an
important
question
— Why
is there death and suffering? —
but I disagree when they criticize old-earth Christianity by claiming it
is theologically inconsistent:
"As soon as Christians
allow for death, suffering and disease before Adam's sin (which they automatically
must if they believe in millions of years), then they've raised a serious question
about their Gospel message. [1] What, then, has sin done to the world?
According to Christian teaching, death is the penalty for sin (Romans 6:23)
— and this fact is the foundation of the Gospel! [2] Moreover, how
can all things be 'restored' to a state with no death, pain or tears in the
future (Revelation 21:4) if there never was a time free of death and suffering? [3] The whole message of the Gospel falls apart if you have this view
of history. [4] It also would mean that God is to blame for death."
{ I've added the claim-markers, [1] [2] [3] [4]. }
Here are four comments about these
claims:
1. Yes, I agree that "death
is the penalty for sin" because in a Christian worldview (either
young-earth or old-earth) our current experiencing of human death is due to
God's decision (Genesis
3:22) to remove some of His protective power because a human "must
not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and
eat, and live forever." This death penalty is explained in the introductory 5-minute summary.
2. As explained earlier, "God
has enough imagination and power to create a wonderful paradise... 'that never
existed' but will exist in the future." And as an old-earth
Christian, I believe in God's "full protective power" that prevented
human death and suffering in Eden, and "FULL protective power" that
in heaven will prevent human death and suffering and will also (by contrast
with Eden) prevent our fall into sin.
3. For all Christians, whether
we think the earth is young or old, the essential Gospel is the same: We
acknowledge the realities of personal sin and human death, and thus our need
for a savior; we
believe that Jesus (through His sinless life, substitutionary atonement on
the cross,
and victory over death in resurrection) is our Savior; and we accept
the gift of grace (John
3:16 and Romans
6:20-23) offered by God. The "whole
message of the Gospel" does not "fall
apart" with "this view of history" because the full gospel of Jesus — including His deity, virgin birth, teachings
and miracles, sinless obedience to the Father in life, substitutionary
atonement in death, victorious resurrection, ascension into heaven, and
second coming — is fully compatible with a young earth or old earth.
4. In either Christian
view, young earth or old earth, the current cause of human death — which
occurs because, in a judicial response to human sin, God decided to temporarily
remove some
of His protective power (Genesis 3:22) and allow human death — is the
same. And in both views, eventually God will restore His full protective
power in Heaven, and there will be no sin, suffering, or death.
APPENDIX Death
in Nature Were
all animals vegetarians? Apparent
Age (as a byproduct of time-efficient
creation) |