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Contrary to what the Bible says…

Isn’t that exactly what many Christians think I am saying with that title?  That I do not believe the Bible?  You can bet it is.  As an Old Earth Creationist who believes that life has been on earth for billions of years, that dinosaurs were killed 65 million years ago, and that mankind was fearfully and wonderfully made, in part through their descent from animals, I have to accept that many of my Christian brothers and sisters believe that I have rejected the Bible and its clear teachings on sin and death.

AiG’s main thrust is NOT ‘young Earth’ as such; our emphasis is on Biblical authority. Believing in a relatively ‘young Earth’ (i.e., only a few thousands of years old, which we accept) is a consequence of accepting the authority of the Word of God as an infallible revelation from our omniscient Creator. — Ken Ham

Mr. Ham then goes on to describe how most people would read the Genesis account as a description of a 6-day creation, if not for their knowledge (brainwashing?) of science.  I count myself among those apparently unfortunate souls.

One of the examples of the Bible’s authority is its teachings on death.  If I may paraphrase, the idea is that through one man (Adam), death entered the world; through one Man (Jesus), death was conquered.  That’s it, and you know what? I believe it!  But, here’s the thing… I believe the Bible is referring to spiritual death, not physical.

Think about this.  If someone dies unsaved, where do they go?  They go to Heaven.  “Heaven?” you ask. Yes, but not to dwell… to be judged, and God will find them imperfect, and without an advocate.  They will then be sentenced to an eternity in Hell.  One might call this an eternal death, to contrast the eternal life that the repentent receive in Christ Jesus.  Did you notice something though?  The physical death of the unrepentent will be conquered… they will transcend it.  However, they will suffer for their sin with eternal separation from God… that is the death that we will not have to suffer, for when we die, we will not be separated from God ever again.

When Adam sinned, he suffered from a separation from God.  He was banished from the garden.  He had to farm the land.  He could no longer walk with God in the sense that he did before his fall.  God told Adam that on the day he ate of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, Adam would surely die… yet he did not physically die.  On the other hand, his body did begin to decay but that merely leads to death; it is not death per se.  His real death was separation from God, and that happened on the day he ate the fruit, just as God foretold.

The thing that gets me about Christians like Ken Ham is that they do not seem to think that someone like me can believe what the Bible says and still have the views that we do… yet clearly I believe what the bible says or else my argument for what death Adam suffered would not have been based on the Bible.

“But you only believe that because you needed some way to justify your belief in an old earth.”  It would seem that way, but who can know the thoughts of a man but the spirit of the man within him? (1 Cor. 2:11) And I will tell you that I saw this picture of death in scripture long before I believed the earth was old… I just never made the argument because I trusted the Church to tell me what things in scripture mean, and figured that I must be wrong.  However, now that I have studied enough science to accept an old earth and enough Creation Science to reject a young earth, the science has confirmed for me what I beleived scripture was saying all along… the death that entered the world was a spiritual death, manifesting itself as separation from God.

“But what about physical death?  Didn’t God visit death upon people for their sin?”  He sure did, and continues to through this day.  However, not all death is punishment, and not all death is wrong.  In Why is there death and suffering?, Ken Ham points out that the first recorded physical death was God killing an animal to make clothes for Adam and Eve.  Why wasn’t that death wrong?  Isn’t that funny?  Of course, one could argue, and correctly so, that such a death would not have been necessary had Adam and Eve not sinned.  So, can’t you say this physical death is a consequence of sin?  I suppose so, but it was not a necessary consequence.  God could have snapped up an animal skin without ever killing one… but He didn’t.  In fact, He killed the animal to cover up Adam’s nakedness.  The first recorded death was therefore to cover up sin; it was an expression of holiness and not sin, for only holiness can cover sin.  Therefore, physical death, while often a response to sin, is not sin itself, lest Christ’s own death be in vein.

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