Post by hume on Jan 29, 2007 21:15:20 GMT -8
Originally posted 4/22/06:
I was thinking about the intriguing fact we glean from Genesis 3:22 (see also 2:9), namely, that Adam and Eve don't appear to have been created intrinsically immortal. Apparently, their 'protection' from death came from a source outside themselves- God's provision in the Tree of Life.
This means that upon the Fall of Man, nothing changed in their biology. The real change was their environment. Separation from the Tree of Life would kill them.
This thinking can be extended to support the idea that there was indeed death before the Fall. If mankind was not created immortal, but had to rely on a special provision, it seems much more likely that the same was true of all the other animals, for whom there was no special "garden of eden" provision.
This insight might also fit better with God using 'common ancestry' with animals in his creation of man, over and against creation completely from scratch.
I was thinking about the intriguing fact we glean from Genesis 3:22 (see also 2:9), namely, that Adam and Eve don't appear to have been created intrinsically immortal. Apparently, their 'protection' from death came from a source outside themselves- God's provision in the Tree of Life.
This means that upon the Fall of Man, nothing changed in their biology. The real change was their environment. Separation from the Tree of Life would kill them.
This thinking can be extended to support the idea that there was indeed death before the Fall. If mankind was not created immortal, but had to rely on a special provision, it seems much more likely that the same was true of all the other animals, for whom there was no special "garden of eden" provision.
This insight might also fit better with God using 'common ancestry' with animals in his creation of man, over and against creation completely from scratch.
