If we take God at His Word, we must say that a straightforward reading of Genesis makes it obvious that there was no death or bloodshed of animals before Adam was created. In fact, there was no death or bloodshed of man or animals until after Adam sinned.
From Genesis to Revelation, interpreting Scripture with Scripture, it is plain to see that this was so. Consider:
1. "And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so." (Genesis 1:29,30).
ADAM AND EVE AND ALL THE ANIMALS WERE INSTRUCTED TO EAT ONLY-PLANTS AND FRUITS BEFORE THE FALL
(There is a theological distinction between plants and animals. Plants are not 'alive' in the sense that animals are. Plants were given for food for the animals).
2. "Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them" (Genesis 3:21).
EVIDENTLY GOD SLEW ANIMALS—HE SHED BLOOD—-HE GAVE A COVERING BECAUSE OF ADAM AND EVE'S SIN
3. "Without shedding of blood (there) is no remission (of sin)" (Hebrews 9:22).
GOD REQUIRES THE SHEDDING OF BLOOD FOR THE REMISSION OF SIN. IT WAS BECAUSE OF SIN THAT DEATH WAS TO OCCUR.
4. "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned" (Romans 5:12-see also vs. 13-21).
THE WHOLE OF CREATION SUFFERS BECAUSE OF SIN. THE PRESENT WORLD IS A GROANING ONE BECAUSE OF ADAM'S FALL.
5. "For we know tht the whole creation groaneth and travailth in pain together until now" (Romans 8:22, in context of vs. 18-25).
THE WHOLE OF CREATION SUFFERS BECAUSE OF SIN. THE PRESENT WORLD IS A GROANING ONE BECAUSE OF ADAM'S FALL.
6. "For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.... The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death" (I Corinthians 15:21,22,26).
CHRIST’S PHYSICAL DEATH AND RESURRECTION PAID THE PENALTY FOR OUR SIN IN ADAM SO THAT PHYSICAL DEATH CAN NOW BE DESTROYED.
7. "Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things. . . " (Acts 3:21).
ALL THINGS WILL ONE DAY BE RESTORED—THEY WILL BE PUT BACK TO WHAT THEY WERE BEFORE THE FALL WHEN THERE WAS NO DEATH, NO SUFFEERING, AND NO DISEASE, AND THE ANIMALS AND MAN WERE VEGETARIAN.
8. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away"(Revelation 21:4).
THE CREATION'S PURPOSE WILL FINALLY BE REALIZED
Isn't it hard to imagine what the new heavens and earth will be like? We live in a cursed world—a world that is groaning all around us every moment of the day. We live in a world of death and suffering, of disease, of disaster, of violence and crime—a world that to many is frightening.
However, if we take God at His Word in Genesis, we understand that the world is this way because the first man, Adam, rebelled against God, and God had to judge this world. Nonetheless, in His righteous judgment of death, He provided a means by which man and the whole creation can be redeemed. God, who is just and holy, required a blood sacrifice because of sin. In His judgment, because of sin, He provided a way for a perfect blood sacrifice to atone for our sins—for we all have sinned.
Death and bloodshed before Adam sinned makes nonsense of the whole basis of the atonement. It would mean that death was not the penalty for sin, (since it existed for millions of years before sin), and therefore death could not be used to atone for sin. This would destroy the reason why Christ died and the meaning of the resurrection. It would destroy any teaching about a future state, which would be a restoration. If death and suffering have been here since the beginning, then Paul's promise of a future state in which this groaning" ceases to be, also would be meaningless.
Sadly, many Christians have been led to believe that one can accept evolutionary ideas and add these to the Bible. If a person accepts basic evolutionary theory, and/or the belief that layers of fossil-containing rock are millions of years old, then one has allowed death, suffering, disease, and violence before sin.
What has all this to do with Adam and ants? Many times I have been confronted by a pastor or theologian who has said, in a mocking way, "There had to be death before sin. Are you saying that Adam would never have stepped on an ant? What you say cannot be true." This sort of objection is used at many colleges to lead students to believe that the literal Biblical teachings about creation cannot be accepted. The way I would answer this objection is summarized, as follows:
1. We live in a fallen world. As Paul says, it is a world groaning because of sin. We do not know what a perfect world is like—we have never experienced one. We were all born sinners in a sinful world. How can we therefore use our experiences in this fallen world to understand what the world was like before sin? How can evolutionists know that the present is the key to the past"?
Because we have been taught to think this way, many Christians base their theology on their feelings and their experiences in the present, rather than on God's revelation Actually, it is revelation that is the key to the past—a written revelation from One who has always been there, who tells us what the world was like, what happened to it and why, and what will happen in the future. Dare we call God a liar, just because we don't yet know how to correlate our present experiences with His perfect creation of the past?
2. When the Israelites wandered in the desert for forty years, their clothes and shoes did not wear out and their feet did not swell. What happened to the Israelites is totally opposite to what we normally observe today.
I believe this gives us just a little glimpse of what God can do. Could not the infinite God so design and sustain the creation so that there was no death and no wearing out before sin, just as His Word states? Is this not what is going to happen in the future, when there will be no death and no wearing out—just like it was originally? Must we not admit the possibility of situations in the perfect creation, which are so far beyond our experience that they are also beyond our imagination?
There could be many other points to ponder in regard to this matter. The main point is that death, bloodshed, and suffering of living creatures were not possible before the fall. It was a perfect world, sustained totally by the infinite Creator. To use objections such as Adam stepping on an ant, is to use our fallen, fallible brains and our finite experience in the fallen groaning world as a judge on the infallible never-changing Word of the almighty, holy, infinite Creator God. It is most often just such a trite argument, which justifies compromise with evolutionary ideas.
