Part 3—The Second of the 7 C’s of History: Corruption

Why Is There Death and Suffering?

Christianity is not based on myth or interesting stories—it is based on real history.

Most people in our churches don’t understand that the Bible truly is a historical narrative from the very first verse (especially when they’re considering Genesis 1–11). Christianity is not based on myth or interesting stories—it is based on real history. There was a real Adam, to whom we are all related. There was a real garden of Eden and fall, which is why we are all sinners. And there was a real curse, which is why there is death and suffering.

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned. (Romans 5:12)

For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. (Romans 8:22–23)

So, it is imperative that Christians be able to defend and proclaim the second of our 7 C’s of History—Corruption—as it gives the correct answer to the biggest philosophical argument Bible skeptics try to use against the notion of a God of love. This argument usually comes in some form of the question, “If there is a loving Creator God, why did he create a world so full of death and suffering?”

What atheists are ultimately attacking is the character of God. They point to death and suffering as moral evils, claiming that it is inconsistent for a loving God to imbed that into his creation as a fundamental component. This is evidenced by a quote from atheistic entertainer Stephen Fry.

Why should I respect a capricious, mean-minded, stupid God who creates a world which is so full of injustice and pain?... Atheism is not just about not believing there is a God, but on the assumption that if there is one, what kind of God is he? It’s perfectly apparent that he is monstrous, utterly monstrous and deserves no respect whatsoever.1

Death: A Friend?

However, from an atheistic, evolutionary point of view, death and suffering are in the world simply because it’s natural. They believe we live in a universe which is predicated on death as a means of new and more advanced forms of life having evolved over millions of years. As famous atheistic evolutionist Carl Sagan once said,

The secrets of evolution are time and death. Time for the slow accumulation of favorable mutations, and death to make room for new species.2

So, if one were to imagine that the God who created the universe used evolution to bring it about, one could see the atheist would have a point. If Jesus was sent to pay the penalty for sin, and the “wages of sin is death” (physically and spiritually), it would not make sense for God to have used death and suffering to create prior to Adam having sinned.

However, the Bible is clear there was no death in the beginning. Genesis 1:29–30 says the world God created was so good that even the animals were vegetarian, meaning there was no carnivorous activity and violence originally.

Death: An Enemy

In contrast to the implications of the evolutionary story, biblically, death is an enemy. It is an intrusion into our cosmos, as it wasn’t here in the beginning. God created a fantastic world that was very good, but Adam’s willing disobedience to God resulted in punishment for his sin, which affected the entire cosmos as the Bible’s history reveals.

And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. (Genesis 1:31)

And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Genesis 2:16–17)

And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” (Genesis 3:17–19)

The last enemy to be destroyed is death. (1 Corinthians 15:26)

Goodness Without God?

It is ironic that Bible skeptics so commonly use death and suffering as a reason to reject the God of the Bible as somehow being immoral, when in their own worldview, there is no way to account for morality in any objective sense.

If everyone has the right to decide what is morally right or wrong for themselves, who gets to decide what moral law should be adhered to by others in society? Without an absolute, transcendent moral law given by an absolute, sovereign Creator God, how can any mere human say that their morality should be adhered to over another person’s ideals?

Brought to its logical conclusion, it’s absurd for anyone who accepts the story of evolution to think of death as being an enemy. Whether through sinful human actions, animal attacks, or natural disasters, if we are nothing more than a collection of stardust brought about after billions of years of evolution, why attach any value to those lives?3

In fact, the consistent atheist could even rejoice that with the death of those less fit to survive, nature has leveled the playing field and eliminated competition for resources.4 As a matter of fact, there are many in academia and popular culture today who argue that the idea of culling of the world’s human population is morally good and beneficial.

Of course, the average rational human doesn’t hold this viewpoint, and most people have and show compassion for others’ suffering. However, “if evolution requires death in order to operate, why should humans suffer feelings of loss when others die?”5

Evolutionists attempt to explain how such feelings evolved to promote our survival through social cohesion, but ultimately, this story fails to address the underlying issue—evolution doesn’t care.6

In an evolutionary worldview, feelings evolved like everything else to provide some sort of survival advantage. And if the only reason an atheist can cite for categorizing something as tragic, wrong, or evil is simply their feelings, that means it’s all just part of a naturalistic experience. Perhaps those feelings’ time has passed, and they are simply evolutionary leftovers—no longer needed.

God Defines Goodness

The fact is, without an absolute, unchanging, moral law given to us by an absolute, unchanging sovereign Creator God, there can be no such thing as good or evil, just “things that happen.” So how can someone declare that the existence of evil proves God doesn’t exist, if evil itself doesn’t exist if God doesn’t?

If the story of evolution is true, and we prevent deaths from happening, aren’t we hindering the engine of the naturalistic universe Carl Sagan referred to? Death, to the naturalist, cannot have moral value. It is what it is, because there’s no afterlife, no judgment, and no intrinsic value in anything whatsoever (after all, matter and energy are all there is—whatever form they take).

As much as some atheists often attempt to blunt the harsh conclusions their naturalistic worldview leads to in order to salvage some kind of appeal to morality (despite not having a solid basis for it), consistent atheists, such as P. Z. Myers, just put their cards on the table and admit them.

First, there is no moral law: the universe is a nasty, heartless place where most things wouldn’t mind killing you if you let them. No one is compelled to be nice; you or anyone could go on a murder spree, and all that is stopping you is your self-interest....7

However, the “self-interest” he’s mentioning here is largely because of the laws against violence upheld in most civilized countries, which are ultimately based on the biblical idea that humans have an intrinsic value because we are created in the image of God.

Back to Genesis

The history of mankind is clearly recorded in Scripture. The Bible says, as a test of his loyalty to God and his word, God gave Adam one negative command—that he should not eat from the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil—and told him up front that death would be the consequence should he do so.8

“Unfortunately, Adam chose to exercise his free will in clear rebellion against God. As a result, God cursed the earth, and suffering and death entered the world. Because Adam was the head of the human race, his sin nature was passed on to all his descendants.” As Romans 5:12 says, “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.”9

And it was because of this event that “mankind is now separated from God, not just able to die physically, but spiritually dead as well.”10 This is why judgment falls on all men, because “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

Creation Is Key

If Adam wasn’t a real historical figure, then who is our ancestor?

Once again, we see how the details of the creation account do matter and are in fact, essential to a biblical defense of the gospel. If Adam wasn’t a real historical figure, then who is our ancestor? How do we know we are sinners? If Adam’s fall was not a real event in history, then what is sin?

The Bible’s true history makes it clear not only why sin and death are in the world, but most importantly, why we need our Savior Jesus Christ! Christians who profess that the history in Genesis need not be taken literally are being naive about its importance to the message of the gospel.

However, because Genesis 1–11 is the literal seedbed of all Christian doctrines, the historical account of creation is critical to explaining even more! For example, if Adam and Eve weren’t created as Genesis records, then the doctrine of marriage is meaningless. And if the days of creation aren’t ordinary days, then there’s no basis for the seven-day week, and God’s Word doesn’t have to mean what the language clearly states.

If the earth is millions of years old and death, disease, and bloodshed existed before sin, the gospel is undermined. Christians must understand the Bible clearly states there was a literal tree, garden, serpent, temptation, fruit, and Adam. That man Adam literally rebelled, and because of it, sin entered the world—and it had consequences.

For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. (1 Corinthians 15:21–22)

Defending Biblical History

Christians need to be able to defend that there had to be a literal fall—that this explains the origin of death and suffering. This is the only thing that explains a seemingly contradictory world full of great beauty and yet ugliness at the same time.

The fall has to be a literal event in history, or sin cannot be defined. So, in order for Christians to be logically consistent, they must believe in this account as literal history in order for the gospel to make sense.

This stands in stark contrast to what the world teaches, which basically is that there was no such event (the fall) in history. It instead teaches the concept of uniformitarianism (the present is the key to the past), which is the belief that things have largely gone on the same as they have for billions of years—full of death and suffering from the very beginning.

Ultimately, naturalists deny the one key event that unlocks the entire mystery surrounding the idea of millions of years relating to the rocks and fossils we find worldwide. And that is the third C we will be exploring in our next article discussing the 7 C’s of History: Catastrophe!