God and Nature 2025 #2
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By John B. Carpenter
In previous essays in this magazine, I have debunked the young-earth creationist (YEC) claim that Genesis 1 teaches that the earth is young (1), and their argument that the “inter-textual commentary” (other Biblical passages addressing creation) upholds YEC (2).
Young-earth creationists also make a theological argument for their conviction that the Bible teaches the earth is from 6,000 to 10,000 years old. The premise of this theological argument is that all death is a result of the sin of Adam. Thus, young-earth creationists say, no death was possible before the Fall. The conclusion is that the earth must be young because millions of years of life on earth would have inevitably involved death. But does the Bible, indeed, teach that?
In previous essays in this magazine, I have debunked the young-earth creationist (YEC) claim that Genesis 1 teaches that the earth is young (1), and their argument that the “inter-textual commentary” (other Biblical passages addressing creation) upholds YEC (2).
Young-earth creationists also make a theological argument for their conviction that the Bible teaches the earth is from 6,000 to 10,000 years old. The premise of this theological argument is that all death is a result of the sin of Adam. Thus, young-earth creationists say, no death was possible before the Fall. The conclusion is that the earth must be young because millions of years of life on earth would have inevitably involved death. But does the Bible, indeed, teach that?
If there was no death before the Fall, why did Adam and Eve need a “tree of life” to gain immortality? |
Romans 5:12 says, “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.” Similarly, 1 Corinthians 15:21 says, “For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead.” Hence, young-earth creationists like John MacArthur conclude, “Scripture teaches that there was no such thing as death prior to Adam’s fall” (3). Ken Ham illustrates their reasoning: “There could not have been billions of dead things in the fossil record… supposedly millions of years before Adam sinned” (4). But neither MacArthur nor Ham demonstrate any exegesis to support their conclusions, and many orthodox Christians who believe that the Bible teaches that death came upon humanity as a result of sin question whether death came upon other living organisms for the same reason.
Exegesis
Do these two scriptures mean that there was no death of any kind before the Fall, or only that death for human beings came as a result of the Fall? YEC assumes the former. They assume that “the world” (κόσμος, cosmos) is equivalent to the planet—yet κόσμος can refer to “worldly affairs; the inhabitants of the world.” So, in Romans 5:12, Paul specifies that the death that came “through sin” “spread to all men.” That is, people died because of sin. Paul is saying death came into “the world” of human beings, not necessarily the planet as a whole, including fauna and flora.
In 1 Corinthians 15:12, there is a parallelism between the death Adam brought and the resurrection life Christ brings. Surely the recipient of both is the same: human beings. If one is going to say that all biological death came because of Adam’s sin, then consistency demands that because of Christ, there will be a resurrection for animals as well. YEC, of course, does not claim this. Most importantly, in both scriptures, humanity is clearly the main focus. As John Lennox concludes, Paul “does not say that death passed upon all living things. That is, what Scripture actually says is that human death is a consequence of sin” (5).
Young-earth creationists also often claim that God’s appraisal of the creation as being “very good” (Genesis 1:31) implies there was no death. But would an ancient Hebrew see animal death as not potentially good? Ingrid Faro argues effectively that the herders and farmers who were the original audience of the Bible would not have considered animal death as necessarily evil (6). Their experience of animal death—the bleating of the slaughtered sheep or goat—often meant they were eating well that night. They would have understood the danger of over-grazing: that if animals continued to reproduce but never die (as in the ideal, pre-Fall world YEC proposes), eventually they would exceed space and food.
Plant Life?
Despite YEC claims that they are taking scripture at face value and not making it say less than it actually does, they must define “life” and “death” as excluding flora. The permission to eat “every green plant” given before the Fall (Genesis 1:30) is interpreted not to involve death because, according to YEC arguments, plants are not truly living. Their reasoning proceeds from the assumption that death (of all kinds) is inherently equated with sin. Eating plants before the Fall could not have killed them (since there was no sin or death yet), therefore plants are not truly alive.
For example, the Creation Museum’s X account declared a few months ago that “Plants have never been alive like animals and people are” (7). Jim Stambaugh, writing for Answers in Genesis, claims, “The Bible never ascribes to plants the attributes of a ‘living’ thing. Since they are not ‘living,’ they could not die when consumed” (8). Henry M. Morris III, former CEO of the Institute for Creation Research, claims, first, that Leviticus 17:11 (“For the life of the flesh is in the blood”) defines life as requiring blood. “Blood is the life source of all living things,” he writes (9). That’s a strained over-interpretation of the text, and defining life was not the purpose of that statement.
Morris also argues that the non-living status of plants is demonstrated by God rejecting Cain’s offering “because plants were not living creatures that could function as temporary sacrifices.” But Genesis 4:3-5 never says that God rejected Cain’s sacrifice because he gave a grain offering. The grain offering was a legitimate type of offering, called for and regulated by the later laws of the Torah (Leviticus 2:1-16; 6:14-18; 7:9-10; 10:12-13). Finally, Morris, after noting that God “specifically designed plants as food (Genesis 1:29),” claims he “drew a strong distinction between food and the ‘life’ of everything else (Genesis 1:30).” That “distinction” only exists in the assumption, read into the text, that since plants are eaten, and thus killed, then they cannot be living. This is both circular reasoning—claiming plants cannot be living because they die before the Fall, thus proving that no truly living thing died before the Fall—and eisegesis (imposing one’s own ideas on the text). Genesis 1:30 does not make that “distinction.” It merely says that plants were eaten. Indeed, it does not necessarily exclude meat eating. In Genesis 1:30 (“… I have given every green plant for food”), the word “only” does not appear, nor is there a prohibition of other foods. An invitation to eat all vegetables is not a prohibition from eating meat.
YEC therefore depends on defining biological life as excluding flora. Doug Kennard, while acknowledging “a contemporary biological definition of life,” claims that “the Hebrew concept of life excludes plants as nonliving structure at the climax of the form of Creation (Genesis 1:11–12;…). Plants are never said to be alive in biblical Hebrew…” (10). In fact, Genesis 1:11-12 suggests that plants are, indeed, living things by using terms for them identical to those used of animals. Plants are described as reproducing “according to their kinds,” on day three, in exactly the same way as the sea creatures and birds do in 1:21, and as the livestock, creeping things, and beasts do in 1:24-25. That both plants and animals are said to reproduce “after their kinds” suggests that plants were understood to be living.
Further, the Hebrew word for “alive, living” (chay, חי) is, in fact, used for vegetation (thorns) in Psalm 58:9 (translated as “green” in ESV), being the same word as used for cattle in Gen. 1:24 and of Adam in Gen. 2:8. Contrary to Morris’ claim that, “No place in Scripture attributes chay to plants,” Psalm 58:9 does, indeed, seem to use chay for plants (though in an obscure and difficult to translate sentence) (11). Ezekiel 31:14 apparently speaks of trees dying. (“All this is in order that... no trees that drink water may reach up to them in height. For they are all given over to death ….”) Further, the Bible repeatedly (e.g. Psalms 37:2, 129:6, Isaiah 40:6-8) compares the death of human beings to the withering of plants (12). The YEC claim that the Bible does not describe flora as living is false.
Genesis 2-3
It is of course the Genesis narrative itself that throws the most light on whether there was death before the Fall. In Genesis 2-3, Adam and Eve are first warned that “in the day that you eat of [the tree of the knowledge of good and evil] you shall surely die” (2:17). Does not the warning imply some knowledge of what they were being threatened with? Then, after the Fall, God says, “Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever…” (Gen 3:22). Death comes on Adam and Eve when they are expelled from the garden so that they will not be able to access the “tree of life” and gain immortality from it. The implication, as covenant theology holds, is that immortality was not inherent with the original creation of humanity but was to be earned by obedience to God’s command (“the covenant of works”). If our first parents succeeded in fulfilling the covenant of works, they would then be allowed free access to the tree of life and so live forever (13). Louis Berkhof stated, “When the Lord says, ‘for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die,’ his statement clearly implies that, if Adam refrains from eating, he will not die, but will be raised above the possibility of death.” Genesis 3:22 implies that Adam and Eve had not yet eaten of the “tree of life” and so were not yet immortal.
The existence of the “tree of life” suggests that even humanity, pre-Fall, was not immortal but only had the potential to become so if they succeeded in keeping the covenant of works. If there was no death before the Fall, why did Adam and Eve need a “tree of life” to gain immortality? The purpose of the “tree of life” was so that they would “live forever.” They were to be granted immortality as a reward. Genesis indeed shows we were not created to die, that human death is a tragic consequence of sin. But YEC advocates have not shown that the Bible must be interpreted to say that there was no death, of any kind, before the Fall.
Conclusion
We can commend young-earth creationists for their exaltation of scripture. But the effect of YEC, in arguing that the truth of scripture depends on categorizing plants as non-living, results in reasonable people thinking faith in the Bible leads to absurdities. The fact that the YEC interpretation of scripture depends on a scientifically absurd claim ought to be enough to move young-earth creationists to go back to the Bible to check if they understood it correctly. When they do, they’ll see that their exegesis was as bad as their science.
References
1. https://godandnature.asa3.org/carpenter-when-was-day-one.html
2. https://godandnature.asa3.org/carpenter-creationism-inter-textual.html
3. John MacArthur, The Battle for the Beginning (W Publishing Group: Nashville, TN, 2001), 153.
4. Six Days (Green Forest, AR: Master Books, 2013), 54.
5. John Lennox, Seven Days that Divide the Word (Zondervan: Grand Rapid, MI, 2001), 78, original emphasis.
6. Ingrid Faro, “The Question of Evil and Animal Death Before the Fall,” Trinity Journal 36 (2015): 193-213.
7. https://x.com/CreationMuseum/status/1842142689317285898 (posted Oct 4, 2024; retrieved Feb 16, 2025).
8. Jim Stambaugh, “‘Life’ According to the Bible, and the Scientific Evidence,” Journal of Creation 6, no 2 (August 1992: 98-121).
9. Henry M. Morris III, H. “It’s Alive!”, Acts & Facts. 41 (8, 2012): 4-5.
10. Doug Kennard, “Hebrew Metaphysic: Life, Holy, Clean, Righteousness, and Sacrifice,” Answers Research Journal (2008): (169–195), 169.
11. Morris, “It’s Alive!”, Acts & Facts.
12. Rich Deem, “Plants Don't Die According to Young Earth Creationists,” 2013.
13. Systematic Theology (Carlisle, PA: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1998 reprint), 216.
Bible quotes are from the English Standard Version.
John B. Carpenter (@CovenantReform2), Ph.D., is pastor of Covenant Reformed Baptist Church and the author of Seven Pillars of a Biblical Church (Wipf & Stock, 2022) and the Covenant Caswell substack.
Exegesis
Do these two scriptures mean that there was no death of any kind before the Fall, or only that death for human beings came as a result of the Fall? YEC assumes the former. They assume that “the world” (κόσμος, cosmos) is equivalent to the planet—yet κόσμος can refer to “worldly affairs; the inhabitants of the world.” So, in Romans 5:12, Paul specifies that the death that came “through sin” “spread to all men.” That is, people died because of sin. Paul is saying death came into “the world” of human beings, not necessarily the planet as a whole, including fauna and flora.
In 1 Corinthians 15:12, there is a parallelism between the death Adam brought and the resurrection life Christ brings. Surely the recipient of both is the same: human beings. If one is going to say that all biological death came because of Adam’s sin, then consistency demands that because of Christ, there will be a resurrection for animals as well. YEC, of course, does not claim this. Most importantly, in both scriptures, humanity is clearly the main focus. As John Lennox concludes, Paul “does not say that death passed upon all living things. That is, what Scripture actually says is that human death is a consequence of sin” (5).
Young-earth creationists also often claim that God’s appraisal of the creation as being “very good” (Genesis 1:31) implies there was no death. But would an ancient Hebrew see animal death as not potentially good? Ingrid Faro argues effectively that the herders and farmers who were the original audience of the Bible would not have considered animal death as necessarily evil (6). Their experience of animal death—the bleating of the slaughtered sheep or goat—often meant they were eating well that night. They would have understood the danger of over-grazing: that if animals continued to reproduce but never die (as in the ideal, pre-Fall world YEC proposes), eventually they would exceed space and food.
Plant Life?
Despite YEC claims that they are taking scripture at face value and not making it say less than it actually does, they must define “life” and “death” as excluding flora. The permission to eat “every green plant” given before the Fall (Genesis 1:30) is interpreted not to involve death because, according to YEC arguments, plants are not truly living. Their reasoning proceeds from the assumption that death (of all kinds) is inherently equated with sin. Eating plants before the Fall could not have killed them (since there was no sin or death yet), therefore plants are not truly alive.
For example, the Creation Museum’s X account declared a few months ago that “Plants have never been alive like animals and people are” (7). Jim Stambaugh, writing for Answers in Genesis, claims, “The Bible never ascribes to plants the attributes of a ‘living’ thing. Since they are not ‘living,’ they could not die when consumed” (8). Henry M. Morris III, former CEO of the Institute for Creation Research, claims, first, that Leviticus 17:11 (“For the life of the flesh is in the blood”) defines life as requiring blood. “Blood is the life source of all living things,” he writes (9). That’s a strained over-interpretation of the text, and defining life was not the purpose of that statement.
Morris also argues that the non-living status of plants is demonstrated by God rejecting Cain’s offering “because plants were not living creatures that could function as temporary sacrifices.” But Genesis 4:3-5 never says that God rejected Cain’s sacrifice because he gave a grain offering. The grain offering was a legitimate type of offering, called for and regulated by the later laws of the Torah (Leviticus 2:1-16; 6:14-18; 7:9-10; 10:12-13). Finally, Morris, after noting that God “specifically designed plants as food (Genesis 1:29),” claims he “drew a strong distinction between food and the ‘life’ of everything else (Genesis 1:30).” That “distinction” only exists in the assumption, read into the text, that since plants are eaten, and thus killed, then they cannot be living. This is both circular reasoning—claiming plants cannot be living because they die before the Fall, thus proving that no truly living thing died before the Fall—and eisegesis (imposing one’s own ideas on the text). Genesis 1:30 does not make that “distinction.” It merely says that plants were eaten. Indeed, it does not necessarily exclude meat eating. In Genesis 1:30 (“… I have given every green plant for food”), the word “only” does not appear, nor is there a prohibition of other foods. An invitation to eat all vegetables is not a prohibition from eating meat.
YEC therefore depends on defining biological life as excluding flora. Doug Kennard, while acknowledging “a contemporary biological definition of life,” claims that “the Hebrew concept of life excludes plants as nonliving structure at the climax of the form of Creation (Genesis 1:11–12;…). Plants are never said to be alive in biblical Hebrew…” (10). In fact, Genesis 1:11-12 suggests that plants are, indeed, living things by using terms for them identical to those used of animals. Plants are described as reproducing “according to their kinds,” on day three, in exactly the same way as the sea creatures and birds do in 1:21, and as the livestock, creeping things, and beasts do in 1:24-25. That both plants and animals are said to reproduce “after their kinds” suggests that plants were understood to be living.
Further, the Hebrew word for “alive, living” (chay, חי) is, in fact, used for vegetation (thorns) in Psalm 58:9 (translated as “green” in ESV), being the same word as used for cattle in Gen. 1:24 and of Adam in Gen. 2:8. Contrary to Morris’ claim that, “No place in Scripture attributes chay to plants,” Psalm 58:9 does, indeed, seem to use chay for plants (though in an obscure and difficult to translate sentence) (11). Ezekiel 31:14 apparently speaks of trees dying. (“All this is in order that... no trees that drink water may reach up to them in height. For they are all given over to death ….”) Further, the Bible repeatedly (e.g. Psalms 37:2, 129:6, Isaiah 40:6-8) compares the death of human beings to the withering of plants (12). The YEC claim that the Bible does not describe flora as living is false.
Genesis 2-3
It is of course the Genesis narrative itself that throws the most light on whether there was death before the Fall. In Genesis 2-3, Adam and Eve are first warned that “in the day that you eat of [the tree of the knowledge of good and evil] you shall surely die” (2:17). Does not the warning imply some knowledge of what they were being threatened with? Then, after the Fall, God says, “Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever…” (Gen 3:22). Death comes on Adam and Eve when they are expelled from the garden so that they will not be able to access the “tree of life” and gain immortality from it. The implication, as covenant theology holds, is that immortality was not inherent with the original creation of humanity but was to be earned by obedience to God’s command (“the covenant of works”). If our first parents succeeded in fulfilling the covenant of works, they would then be allowed free access to the tree of life and so live forever (13). Louis Berkhof stated, “When the Lord says, ‘for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die,’ his statement clearly implies that, if Adam refrains from eating, he will not die, but will be raised above the possibility of death.” Genesis 3:22 implies that Adam and Eve had not yet eaten of the “tree of life” and so were not yet immortal.
The existence of the “tree of life” suggests that even humanity, pre-Fall, was not immortal but only had the potential to become so if they succeeded in keeping the covenant of works. If there was no death before the Fall, why did Adam and Eve need a “tree of life” to gain immortality? The purpose of the “tree of life” was so that they would “live forever.” They were to be granted immortality as a reward. Genesis indeed shows we were not created to die, that human death is a tragic consequence of sin. But YEC advocates have not shown that the Bible must be interpreted to say that there was no death, of any kind, before the Fall.
Conclusion
We can commend young-earth creationists for their exaltation of scripture. But the effect of YEC, in arguing that the truth of scripture depends on categorizing plants as non-living, results in reasonable people thinking faith in the Bible leads to absurdities. The fact that the YEC interpretation of scripture depends on a scientifically absurd claim ought to be enough to move young-earth creationists to go back to the Bible to check if they understood it correctly. When they do, they’ll see that their exegesis was as bad as their science.
References
1. https://godandnature.asa3.org/carpenter-when-was-day-one.html
2. https://godandnature.asa3.org/carpenter-creationism-inter-textual.html
3. John MacArthur, The Battle for the Beginning (W Publishing Group: Nashville, TN, 2001), 153.
4. Six Days (Green Forest, AR: Master Books, 2013), 54.
5. John Lennox, Seven Days that Divide the Word (Zondervan: Grand Rapid, MI, 2001), 78, original emphasis.
6. Ingrid Faro, “The Question of Evil and Animal Death Before the Fall,” Trinity Journal 36 (2015): 193-213.
7. https://x.com/CreationMuseum/status/1842142689317285898 (posted Oct 4, 2024; retrieved Feb 16, 2025).
8. Jim Stambaugh, “‘Life’ According to the Bible, and the Scientific Evidence,” Journal of Creation 6, no 2 (August 1992: 98-121).
9. Henry M. Morris III, H. “It’s Alive!”, Acts & Facts. 41 (8, 2012): 4-5.
10. Doug Kennard, “Hebrew Metaphysic: Life, Holy, Clean, Righteousness, and Sacrifice,” Answers Research Journal (2008): (169–195), 169.
11. Morris, “It’s Alive!”, Acts & Facts.
12. Rich Deem, “Plants Don't Die According to Young Earth Creationists,” 2013.
13. Systematic Theology (Carlisle, PA: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1998 reprint), 216.
Bible quotes are from the English Standard Version.
John B. Carpenter (@CovenantReform2), Ph.D., is pastor of Covenant Reformed Baptist Church and the author of Seven Pillars of a Biblical Church (Wipf & Stock, 2022) and the Covenant Caswell substack.