| 
Q:
How can death be a “battle” about history?
A
: We live in a world
of death. Animals die; people die. Death, suffering, bloodshed,
violence, and disease pervade the world. How did all this happen?
And why do we have a world so full of life and yet totally permeated
by death?
|
| |
If you take the book
of Genesis as literal history, then death is an intrusion into
this world. The Bible describes it as an “enemy.” |
The
first man, Adam, rebelled against God. As a result, the once-perfect
world suffered corruption. The Apostle Paul says the whole cosmos
groans because of sin. But the Bible also reveals that, one
day, death will be thrown into the lake of fire—there will be
a new heavens and a new earth, restored to the way it was before
sin.
But
if you believe in billions of years for the age of the earth
and universe, then you also must accept that the fossil layers,
full of dead things, were formed over millions of years before
man. Thus, this history, based on man's beliefs, teaches that
death, disease, violence, and bloodshed were around for millions
of years before man was created—millions of years before the
Fall.
What
a stark contrast. The heart of the age-of-the-earth controversy
is a “battle” between two histories of death. But think about
it: only the Bible's account concerning death gives us hope.
For
more information, see Two
histories of death .
|
Church
News