Why Christians Should Reject Millions of Years of Death
Genesis 1:31 tells us God proclaimed His finished creation “very good.” Whatever “very good” means to you, God is utterly holy, loving, and just, so His standard of “very good” surpasses even our own. So, it would go against His nature and character to label “very good” a world that includes disease, disaster, illness, suffering, death, and extinction. Yet evolution is predicated upon millions of years of animal and human ancestry suffering, disease, and death before Adam and Eve.
How can we resolve this with Scripture? Here’s a closer examination of the biblical evidence surrounding the origin of death.
The Bible clearly states that death is a consequence of human sin. “But from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day you eat from it you will surely die.” (Genesis 2:17)
Death did not occur before Adam sinned; it is a penalty for or a consequence of sin.
“For the wages of sin is death…” (Romans 6:23)
Death did not occur before Adam sinned; it is a penalty for or a consequence of sin.
Evolution depends on millions of years of ruthless survival-of-the-fittest competition, yet Scripture presents death as an unnatural intrusion resulting from human sin. Paul calls it the last enemy to be destroyed.
If death existed before Adam and Eve sinned, then it is not punishment for human sin. Furthermore, if God called such a world filled with death, disease, and suffering “very good,” then God would not be good.
However, the Bible consistently links death to the first sin, emphasizing that death is the consequence of Adam’s sin.
“Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.” (Romans 5:12)
Some argue that while humans may not have died before Adam sinned, animals and pre-human races struggled, suffered, and died. While there is no direct statement that animals did not die before Adam sinned, multiple factors suggest there was no animal death in God’s creation before Adam’s sin:
1) Humans were not to eat animals, indicating that there was no animal death before sin (Genesis 1:29).
2) Animals did not prey upon nor eat one another (Genesis 1:30).
3) Everything in creation was morally and qualitatively “very good” (Genesis 1:31), and animal suffering and death are not “very good.”
4) The bible explicitly states suffering and death were introduced into creation only after Adam sinned (Romans 5:12, 19, 6:23).
Vividly, the first death in history occurred when God slaughtered an innocent animal and provided Adam and Eve with animal skins to cover up their own sin and shame. Thus, even then, death as a merciful act of God was the result of man’s sin.
The first death in history occurred when God slaughtered an innocent animal and provided Adam and Eve with animal skins to cover up their own sin and shame. Thus, even then, death as a merciful act of God was the result of man’s sin.
Furthermore, Peter in Acts 3:21, speaks of a “time of restoration” when Jesus restores the world to its pre-fall state before it groaned under sin and the curse. John in Revelation speaks of restoration as an eternal future without death, suffering, or pain, which are foreign to God’s original creation, ruined by a historic first sin, not an original condition involving suffering.
So, while some try to reconcile millions of years of life, struggle, and death before Adam and Eve sinned, this would mean God called a world full of violence, suffering, illness, death, and extinction “very good.” It ignores the source of death (sin, not God) and the curse for sin, all of which Jesus Christ gave His life to rescue us from. Yet if death is unrelated to sin, then even the Gospel is not such good news and there remains no glorious pre-fall state to be restored to in the future.
On the contrary, God’s creation was originally awesome.
Death is an enemy.
Disease, struggle, and suffering are intrusions and consequences of sin.
Jesus is the last Adam, the perfect Adam.
Sin, death, and the curse came through the first Adam, and righteousness, joy, and life came through Jesus Christ our Lord.
We look forward to the day when Jesus makes all things new, and we dwell forever with our good Creator, free from sin and its wages of death.