Original Paradise (Part II)

Or did the perfect, all-knowing, all-powerful God of love create an imperfect Creation? The Bible certainly suggests that God's creations were fully developed, fully equipped, fully functional, free from disease or suffering. (CAT-17)
It can be concluded that God created man as a grown man - and Eve was formed from a biopsy from Adam's side and was created fully formed as an adult woman. It's probably safe to also assume that when God introduced a new creature that he created the "chicken and not the egg." However to extrapolate to all of creation and to suppose that all trees, plants, earth formations, solar system, etc. were all formed fully developed and equipped is to read something into the text. Free from disease or suffering? Where does the Bible say this? This is reading into the text an interpretation based on a base assumption. It is not gleaning an interpretation from the text.

God judged it all as "very good" (Genesis 1:31) Yes we agree - but note it God did not call it perfect. Perfection is yet to come in the new creation at the end of the age.

In contrast, PC claims that God created a world filled with frequent death, physical and emotional suffering, cruelties, extinctions, catastrophes, and so on, for millions of years.
Animal suffering and death as we will see in an upcoming post is not the same as human death. The death of insects and bacterial life can be distinguished from higher forms of life and especially human life. Cruelty? No, animals are not cruel - that is a product of sin - to arbitrarily cause pain without purpose. Extinctions? Catastrophes? The point is none of these diminish the glory of God in his creation. These things do not malign a perfect creation. (Note animal suffering and death will be covered in depth in an upcoming blog.)

According to PC, when wolves eat lambs and when bears kill baby sea lions, this is exactly the way things were meant to be by God. EXACTLY - and when the bear kills for food - it brings glory to God in that the bear is acting according to its nature. This is simply an appeal to emotion and is only trying to "poison the well"

Is this what we should be teaching our children? Truth is truth. If this is truth, then we should teach it.

If so, why has God never revealed this? God reveals himself in His word and in nature. We can use both of these revelations to arrive at our conclusions (this is left for chapter two - Dual Revelation)

And why does God refer to a blessed time in the future when the wolf will lie down with the lamb? The PC answer is that this will be a unique event never seen before. The end of carnivorous activity is a future perfection. That is a perfect creation - we will not have Eden restored, but will be upgraded to Heaven on earth.

Genesis provides a brief but tantalizing description of the wondrous paradise our Creator lovingly designed. Yes it was wondrous, but it was not perfect like heaven will be.

It was far unlike the pain-filled, sin-worn world of degeneration that we experience.
ABSOLUTELY - Before Adam sinned, things were different. While we say that animal death was experienced before the fall, it does not follow that PC believes that there was no impact of Adam's sin on creation. We can only look at the world through dim glasses - through the experience of sin. We look forward to a new heaven and new earth.

There is no biblical reason to believe that the pre-Fall world suffered catastrophes, diseases, parasites, plagues, degenerative mutations, damage of skin and eyes due to the sun's ultraviolet radiation, animals preying on man or animals, etc. Earth began as a paradise, not a world of travail. There is likewise no biblical reason to believe that everything was perfect as heaven will be. This is only (yet again) emotionally charged language trying to poison the well of our thinking so that we wont even think about the possibility of the contrary. We affirm that creation was perfect for the plan God intended, but we do not force our human based judgement of what we think good and very good means in interpreting Genesis.