Re: [asa] various questions(Cosmic Fall?)

> Re Romans 8:19-22, Bimson concludes that it seems certain that Paul has
> something more (and perhaps something other) in mind than Gen.3:17-19.

Interesting posts on this topic.

I have been thinking that Paul has Gen.3:16 in mind, as well.  He says that the universe is travailing in bringing forth the sons of God.  He paints the picture that the cosmos is giving birth, and like a woman in labor it undergoes a short-lived but intense suffering to accomplish that task.  The upshot of this is that, like Eve, the cosmos would have felt labor pains even if there hadn't been a Fall (see Gen.3:16), but because of the Fall its birth pains have been increased.  Seeing Adam and his children fail to mature into God's glorious representatives, the Earth is subjected to their sinfulness and must wait for redemption to be accomplished before at last the sons of God are revealed.  So this breaks the existence of evil in this world into the same two categories that Paul has used:  its birth pains, and its subjection to vanity.  We can see that the birth pains pre-existed the Fall and are not inherently evil (because giving birth is a good thing!), whereas the subjection to vanity is the result of the Fall.  YECism blurs these categories and assumes they are both the result of the Fall. 

Phil

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Received on Sun Jun 3 09:32:09 2007