Life on earth before God cursed it
In order for the Christian to accept evolution as credible, it must be consistent with life on earth before God cursed it. A typical definition of evolution is as follows, “Life on Earth originated and then evolved from a universal common ancestor approximately 3.7 billion years ago. Repeated speciation and the divergence of life can be inferred from shared sets of biochemical and morphological traits…” (Wikipedia). The divergence of life spoken of by Darwin is through a process of death, as species grow better and better through the prior mentioned process.
God Made Different Kinds of Animals… Good
“God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.” (Genesis 1:25)
Some have suggested that when God created the animals he created them to devour one another as if God created death as part of His original design for a good earth. God created the good earth by wisdom, “The LORD by wisdom founded the earth; by understanding He established the heavens.” (Proverbs 3:19) Furthermore, the wisdom of God from above is first, “… pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy.” (James 3:17) When God created the world, He did so with wisdom, which is peaceable and gentle, there was therefore no death or savage killing. Further proof that God created the earth without making animals food for each other is in (Genesis 1:29-31),
“Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground–everything that has the breath of life in it–I give every green plant for food. And it was so. God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning–the sixth day.” (Emphasis added)
The Bible is very clear when it says, “and to all beasts …all the birds …all the creatures …I give every green plant for food.” God does not say He gave other animals for food in the day they were created because that would not have been good, wise, peaceable, and gentle. There was no death before the fall; therefore, plants that do not die in a biblical sense were given to man and all the creatures for food.
A Cursed Earth is not Good
“To Adam he said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat of it,’ "Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you and you will eat the plants of the field. 19 By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return." Genesis 3:17-19
It is vitally important as good interpreters of the Bible that we rightfully discern life on earth before the fall of man, and the subsequent consequences that were a direct result of his willful disobedience to God. Before Adam sinned he lived in unbroken fellowship with God, which means he lived in unbroken fellowship with his wife as a result. On the other hand how crazy does it sound to say, the world that God created had Adam in sweet fellowship with God, he loved his wife unselfishly, and all the animals around him were brutally killing each other? The truth is according to the bible, “God looked on all that He created and He saw that it was good.” Before man sinned all things were in perfect harmony with one another and that without exception. One sin changed all that harmony, it provoked God’s wrath, and brought devastation upon all things in the universe. God hates sin that much!
Evolution distorts my previous statements about harmony because it blurs the lines between life before and after man sinned. Evolution distorts the truth about how much God hates sin by removing the consequences of sin on the cursed earth. If death already existed before the fall then the most obvious consequence of sin is removed, which is death. Sin resulted in death, which is the separation of God’s creature who sins from the presence of His holy goodness and pleasure. In hell the only part of God His creatures will experience will be His just wrath.
Sin causes death and death separates. Sin and death separated the creator from the creature because God’s holiness was offended, it separated husband from wife in the garden by blame shifting, brother from brother (Cain and Abel) through jealousy, the righteous from the unrighteous Noah and family from the rest of the world, nations from nation as one race built a tower to overthrow God, the chosen people Israel from the surrounding peoples, and the soul and body are separated at death. Man is separated from God because the spirit within him is dead do to sin.
“When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.” (Colossians 2:13-14)
In evolution death is a vital part of change to species, and we are to believe that it is the way God created the world. If the fall of man into sin did not bring about death and death was always a part of God’s original design, then why should anyone believe that Christ reversed the effects of the fall through His death on the cross as a substitution for the sins of men, and his subsequent resurrection from the dead?
Before man sinned and God cursed the earth man did not have to labor by the sweat of his brow, but after the fall the quest for food changed, and after the worldwide flood it changed drastically. Before sin and the curse women could have given birth with no trouble at all, but afterward they would be brought to the very point of death in childbearing. Birthing children is a constant reminder of man’s rebellious heart toward his creator and the consequences that rebellion brings. Before sin and the curse the ground brought forth all manner of food for man without any toil on his part at all; the earth was inhabitable without fear of death, disease, sickness, illness, and there were no weeds, plant killing bugs, or any manner of diversity on earth, whatsoever. Sin changed all that and man’s life was put in jeopardy because of God’s curse, which resulted in an earth that became savage and life threatening.
HOW EVOLUTION DISTORTS THE GOSPEL
In evolution death is present before the fall, so that, death is not understood as a result of a cursed earth due to sin. Biblically, death is an undeniable Gospel truth, “For the wages of sin is death…” which we understand to mean that men die because they sin. Likewise, the remedy God supplied for sin and its consequence (death) is Christ who died to remove the curse and replace it with a blessing. The Creation/Evolution debate is not peripheral as far as the Gospel is concerned, it is essential to all Gospel truth. The order of events at creation is crucial to our understanding Gospel truth, and to distort that order is to distort the Gospel.
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