PaulSacramento wrote:
I think that the statement of "when you eat of this, on this day you will die" leads us to the understanding that Adam's MORTAL life began at that moment.
Of course Nowhere is this explicitly stated.
Let me provide some additional Scriptural support for a statement I made earlier in this thread.. I think Adam's mortal life actually began before he was placed in the Garden.
And I believe that Scriptural support for this statement can be found in Paul's famous resurrection chapter, 1 Corinthians 15.
Let me quote the relevant passage (NRSV).
42 So it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable. 43 It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. 44 It is sown a physical body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a physical body, there is also a spiritual body. 45 Thus it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 46 But it is not the spiritual that is first, but the physical, and then the spiritual. 47 The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is[j] from heaven. 48 As was the man of dust, so are those who are of the dust; and as is the man of heaven, so are those who are of heaven. 49 Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we will[k] also bear the image of the man of heaven.
In this passage Paul is contrasting our current mortal bodies with the future immortal bodies that believers will receive at the Resurrection. The key verses to our discussion here are verses 45-48.
Notice how Paul describes Adam. In 1 Corinthians 15 Adam's original state is not an example of immortality it is an example of mortality. And what is relevant to this discussion are the concepts that Paul uses to describe Adam's mortality.
- Adam has a physical body.
- Adam was "from the earth, a man of dust"
Paul then draws the correlation from Adam's dusty/earthy mortal body to our dusty/earthy mortal bodies when he points out that
"we have borne the image of the man of dust"
In this passage our mortality is directly related to our being "men of dust". And in that we bear the image of Adam who was also a "man of dust".
When we look back at Genesis 2:7-8 we see that Adam was formed from dust, just like all of mankind is formed from dust (ie physically mortal),
before he was placed in the Garden.
So when we look at what Paul says about Adam in 1 Corinthians 15, we do not get a picture of a man who was physically immortal before he was placed in the Garden. Rather we get the picture of a man who like us was 'formed from dust' (Psalm 103:14) and who Paul uses as an example of a perishable mortal body.
Which brings us back full circle to the Garden of Eden
What was the purpose of the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden?
To extend the life of people who were "formed from dust" (ie physically mortal).
In Christ