Quote Originally Posted by disciple View Post
Hi TD,

Thanks for your input. I see no reason not to interpert the creation account as literal and as I said in my OP if we don't, then we also have to dismiss what Luke,
Paul and Jesus said pertaining to Adam and creation. Placing long ages of time between "the beginning" and the creation of Adam presents the problem of having to redefine the “very good” of Genesis 1:31 because God would have to place Adam, as a very late arrival, in a world that was not "very good" at all. Adam would have been walking on the graveyard of literally billions and billions of dead creatures, including the dinosaurs, over which he had never exercised dominion. God would have placed him in a world that would be the domain of a fallen and wicked being, Satan. This is contrary to the clear teaching of Scripture.
Most gap theory advocates claim that the original creation of Genesis 1:1 existed for millions of years but that God in His Word leaves us no clear evidence about its existence. This means that we know nothing about the order of the events of that creation; nothing about its features; and nothing about its history, which would have cons***uted over 99.9% of the earth’s history, since the time from Genesis 1:2 to present day is chronologically calculated to only about 6,000 years. It is then left up to the evolutionists to fill these gaps in our knowledge. It seems more reasonable to trust that a powerful, soverign God would give us a correct account of His creation than to trust in the theories of men no matter how brillant they appear to be.
You presume again that the entire earth is Eden, but not true. Eden was located in Eastern Turkey, and the garden had distinct boundaries. When they sinned, they were cast out into the larger world where the thorns and thistles already were. We also cannot presume that "good" means pristine, since the Heb. term can also mean "it fits His purpose well", which I believe is true to the context. A good read is "The End of Christianity: Finding a Good God in an Evil World" by William Dembski, in which he points out that God could have created the universe with decay from the beginning, in anticipation of sin coming in with Adam and Eve, such that the effect of sin is retroactive to the beginning of creation, just as Christ's redeeming sacrifice was retroactive to the beginning. So then, Adam and Eve did not experience the curse of the ground until they were cast out of the garden where God kept them separated from it.

In regard to dominion, Adam had it only in Eden. He was given a command to multiply and fill the earth, a command that God knew Adam would never fulfill. It was when they were cast out of the garden that the environment went from pristine to corrupt. Furthermore, when Rom. 5 says that death came through Adam, it is talking about spiritual death. Physical death of animals and plants already existed.

TD