Dear Bro. Eli,
I know that brevity is important to you. I am trying to choose the most apt words to express this question of mine. Please bear with me.
Was there a promise of everlasting life in heaven to Adam had he not committed sin? Since Adam knew that he was going to die, was he expecting to be resurrected to join his Maker, our God, in the heavens when he wasn’t committing his erroneous act yet?
When God created man, was it already part of His plan to resurrect man and change his physical body in His time so that man could live forever with Him in His Heaven?
These questions pop up unintentionally in my mind when I heard you preached about Adam having known that he’d die. I really thought before that hadn’t Adam committed sin, he could have lived forever on the earth. That belief has been changed when I heard the words of God through you. Glory be to God.
Our love and regards to you and your fellows.
A Friend Christian
Dear A friend Christian,
Reality and the Bible make up the truth that we have to discern. God’s word in the Bible is truth.
(John 17:17) “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.”
Reality is truth, but divided into two: Physical or ‘seen’ reality and spiritual or ‘unseen’ reality.
(Romans 1:19-20) “Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath showed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse…”
There are angels, spirits, demons, and a host of other spiritual beings that exist in reality.
(Ephesians 6:12) “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”
(Revelations 16:14) “For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.”
(Hebrews 1:14, 7) “Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?”
“And of the angels he saith, Who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire.”
There are physicists who do not believe in the existence of spiritual beings but, their unbelief does not make this reality a fiction.
You may have heard the term, “the spirit of the glass” and “hypnotism.” The glass moves and conveys a message by an unseen force, proving that there is a supernatural power that moves it. Hypnotism works among, people especially among those who do not believe in the Gospel, and a person can be hypnotized by someone many miles away. In fact, hypnosis is being utilized in clinics around the world to treat or calm hysterical patients. These acts are prohibited by the Bible.
(Deuteronomy 18:10-12) “There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee.”
God condemns these demonic practices.
God is a spirit, and He knows that flesh and physical things have their limit. Science has understood the wearing away of physical things through the process of oxidation.
Oxidation is the interaction between oxygen molecules and all the different substances they may contact, from metal to living tissue. Sometimes oxidation is not such a bad thing, as in the formation of super-durable anodized aluminum. Other times oxidation can be destructive, such as the rusting of an automobile or the spoiling of fresh fruit.
God knew, when He created the body of Adam, that it can not exist for eternity.
(1 Corinthians 15:39, 50) “All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds.”
“Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.”
God taught Adam the fact that there is eternal life. He will die the day he eats of the forbidden fruit.
(Genesis 2:17) “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
God is a spirit (John 4:23-24) and speaks of spiritual things. When He said that on the day Adam eat of the fruit he will surely die, He did not speak of the physical body of Adam. Evidently, Adam lived for nine hundred thirty years.
(Genesis 5:4-5) “And the days of Adam after he had begotten Seth were eight hundred years: and he begot sons and daughters: And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died.”
While the flesh or the body of Adam lived, his real being had died in the presence of God.
(1 Timothy 5:6) “But she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth.”
God speaks of those physically dead, but living in His sight, and those that live physically, but are dead in His sight.
(Matthew 22:32) “I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.”
Of course, God is the best one to know who lives and who are dead because He sees the spiritual and physical side of reality.
(Ephesians 2:1, 5) “And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sin.”
“Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, by (grace ye are saved)”
Physical reality suggests that everything physical known to man has its limits of existence. Science knows this for a fact.
Oxygen gives life to the flesh of man, but would you believe that the word of God gives life also?
(John 6:63) “It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life”
(Matthew 4:4) “But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God”
Think about it and you will know why Adam died long before his flesh did.
Thank you and God Bless.