In the earlier part of this century it seems to have been considered all
right for evangelicals to believe in the death of animals before the fall
of Adam. For example, C. I. Scofield in the notes to his widely used
reference Bible endorses the gap theory, in which the animals of the
original creation were destroyed by the fall of Satan.
Gordon Brown
Department of Mathematics
University of Colorado
Boulder, CO 80309-0395
On Tue, 24 Aug 1999, Bill Hamilton wrote:
> At 01:03 PM 8/24/99 -0700, Arthur V. Chadwick wrote:
> >Interesting quotation from geologist Edward Hitchcock in 1840 (Elementary
> >Geology):
> >
> >"The general interpretation of the Bible has been that until the fall of
> >man, death did not exist in the world even among the inferior animals. For
> >the Bible asserts that by man came death (1 Cor. 15:21) and by one man sin
> >entered the world and death by sin (Rom 5:12). But geology teaches us that
> >myriads of animals lived and died before the creation of man."
> >
> >
> Hi Arthur
>
> I pointed this out earlier, but it's probably worth repeating. This is an
> incomplete quotation of Romans 5:12. The passage goes on to say, "and so
> death came to all _men_, because all sinned".
>
> It specifically ties the death that came through Adam's sin to the death of
> humans. Furthermore, sin is accounted to men, not to animals.
>
> Does this prove there was animal death before the fall? No. It simply
> means that if Romans 5:12 doesn't exclude it.
> Bill Hamilton
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> William E. Hamilton, Jr., Ph.D.
> Staff Research Engineer
> Electrical and Controls Integration MC 480-106-390
> GM R&D Center
> 30500 Mound Road
> Warren, MI
> hamilton@predator.cs.gmr.com / whamilto@mich.com (home)
>