<<When Adam and Eve sin, they are put out of the Garden -- where they have
walked and talked and enjoyed fellowship with God. It seems to me you can
as easily conclude that the state of being put out of God's presence and
out of His fellowship may be the death that is being warned of in Gen 2:17.
And this interpretation very effectively sets the scene for the appearance
of the second Adam in the New Testament.>>
I think this is correct. Nothing rules out animal death before Adam, IMO.
But the real question for TEs is how Adam, and especially Eve, were formed.
out, man became a living being, not that a living being became man.
Also, Scripture says none of the animals was found to be a suitable helper for
Adam, and only then did God create Eve out of a MALE (Adam)--which is not what
would have happened under the animal pre-cursor view.
Jim