A plain reading of this says that there was no death or dying before this point. It didn't exist.
"And the Lord God said, 'Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever.' Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the Garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So He drove out the man: and He placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life."
If God had not removed man from the garden, he would have eaten of the Tree of Life and lived. A plain reading of this entire scripture, in context, is that;
- Adam Ate
- God Cursed
- God removed the means for physical eternal life.
Before this there was no sickness and disease, no death, physically or spiritually.
Jesus became sin for us. He took all of our sins on himself and accepted the due punishment. Was that punishment limited to separation from God (spiritual death)? No. Christ was physically beaten and killed. That was the penalty for sin- physical pain and death as well as separation from God.
Since Christ accepted our punishment we know we will have a future without pain, illness, and death, as well as without separation from God. Christ reversed- ended- The Curse.
To go backwards, the Bible clearly states that there will be no more illness, pain, death, or separation from God in heaven, thus implying that pain and death are part of the same curse as separation from God.
Why will they not be in heaven? Because Christ paid the price of the curse in full. Because physical life is always linked with spiritual life in the ending, we can conclude they were linked in the beginning.
There was no death before Adam fell.
Then there was physical and spiritual death.
Christ paid the price to end both.
We are heirs to both physical and spiritual life.
If there was no death before Adam then we know any theories or philosophies that speak of creatures living and dying before Adam are false. It doesn't matter how good they sound, they are wrong. Period.
