Were it not for The Fall, would Adam & Eve have lived forever? This was one of a number of discussions we had tonight to start our series "Eternal Questions" in which we will discuss the soul, the intermediate state, hell & heaven. Over the next few days I'll pose some questions on this blog and provide some options to pick from. Feel free to comment:
Option 1... NO Death is part of life. Even without the Fall, Adam & Eve would have passed away eventually to make room for their progeny. They lived on, in a sense, through their children. It's possible, also, that their disembodied spirits would have lived on Option 2a... MAYBE Their immortality was based on the condition of eating, just once, from the Tree of Life. But they never got to it! Option 2b... MAYBE Their immortality was based on the condition of eating, habitually, from the Tree of Life. But they were banned from doing so! Option 3... YES Eternal life is built into man. Without The Fall, they would have lived forever whether they had eaten from the Tree of Life or not. But since The Fall, death has been the rule.
Which view is closest to yours?
6 comments:
I choose 2b...
Or not 2b...
That is the question
Katie says 2b
I tend to go with 3 for simplicity sake but I do like 2b. What about animals, were they eternal as well?
That's a hard question. I don't think 1 at all, but I waffle between 2a, 2b, and 3.
Option 3.
I'll be the unpopular one and go with option 1. Death as used in the passage spoke of so many things (sin, pain, seperation from God) that I don't think that we can be sure that Adam and Eve would have been immortal.
Also- death is associated with sin now, so we can't have any concept of death in any other context. What was set up in God's origional creation could have involved death in a context we can't imagine or understand. That dosn't mean it wasn't there however.
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