Death Before Sin? It's Biblical.

One of the central tenants of Young Earth Creationism is the belief that there was no animal death before the fall of Adam and Eve. Additionally, its taught that animal death is bad and the result of evil entering the world. Scripture reveals problems with this view.


God Involved With Animal Death

Job 38:39 "Do you hunt the prey for the lioness and satisfy the hunger of the lions [40] when they crouch in their dens or lie in wait in a thicket? [41] Who provides food for the raven when its young cry out to God and wander about for lack of food?

Job 39:29 From there he seeks out his food; his eyes detect it from afar. [30] His young ones feast on blood, and where the slain are, there is he."

Psalms 104:20 You bring darkness, it becomes night, and all the beasts of the forest prowl. [21] The lions roar for their prey and seek their food from God. [22] The sun rises, and they steal away; they return and lie down in their dens.

Psalms 104:29 When you hide your face, they are terrified; when you take away their breath, they die and return to the dust. [30] When you send your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the earth.

[emphasis added]

The above verses plainly show God is involved with Animal Death. Since God is Holy, and cannot participate in evil of any kind--it clearly rules out any connection between animal death and evil. Since God is involved, we must conclude that animal death is part of his divine plan.


Psalm 104 Is Pre-Fall, but Animals Die.

Psalms 104:29 When you hide your face, they are terrified; when you take away their breath, they die and return to the dust. [30] When you send your Spirit, they are created^*, and you renew the face of the earth.

[emphasis added]
^* The word "created" is the same Hebrew verb bara used in Genesis 1 when God originally created animals. It implies brand new creation.

The the "creation Psalm", Psalm 104, we see God not only taking away the breath of animals (that die), but then also re-creating them. This means that this verse is describing a time before the fall since God stopped creating animals after Adam and Eve. This shows the young earth claim that animal death is caused by the fall, is FALSE.


Creation in decay from the beginning

Romans 8:20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope [21] that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. [22] We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.

Jeremiah 33:25 This is what the LORD says: `If I have not established my covenant with day and night and the fixed laws of heaven and earth

[emphasis added]

Young earth teachings imply that the laws of physics changed at the fall to allow animals to then be carnivorous. However, this interpretation is false, since the Bible tells us that creation has been in decay from the beginning and implies the physical laws are fixed.


Death came to "all men", not animals

Romans 5:12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned--

John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

[emphasis added]

Young earth teachings often use Romans 5:12 to support that death came to the world--including animals--by the fall. However, a careful reading of the verse shows that "the world" implies humanity, since death came "to all men". Other scripture such as John 3:16 also confirms that "the world" means humanity, since Christ certainly didn't die for animals.