Did Adam Only Die a Spiritual Death?

Though plants are not alive in the same way animals and people are, an apple plucked or fallen from a tree—despite our ability to polish it up—once removed from its source of vitality and nourishment, will begin to decay and decompose and eventually turn to dust given enough time. So, what is the significance to this in regard to our first forefather—Adam?

No Death Before Sin

For well over a century now, since the introduction and popularization of long ages and the story of evolution into the church, biblical creationists have been making the point to fellow believers that the idea of deep time is simply not compatible with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Why?

Because Jesus (the last Adam) came to remedy what the first Adam had introduced into the creation—namely, sin and death, as specified in Romans 5:12.

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.

So, clearly, it was the first Adam that brought death into the world. Even many Bibles have the header “Death in Adam, Life in Christ” as a title for this and the immediately following verses.

And although some attempt to argue that this only pertained to humans and not animals, Genesis 1:29–30 make it clear that animals were herbivorous in the beginning, as death and bloodshed are not “very good,” plus Romans 8:20–22 testifies of a groaning (dying and decaying) creation.

In 1 Corinthians 15:26, the Bible even describes death as the last adversary to eventually be overcome:

The last enemy to be destroyed is death.

Obviously, if death is an enemy, and God’s creation was pronounced very good at the end of God’s creative activity, there was no death before Adam fell.

Where to Put “Millions of Years”?

Which is why the challenge for believers in deep time is the fact that the only place one could attempt to place “millions of years” of earth history is in the six days of creation—which would mean the sedimentary rock layers (the main supposed proof of long ages) all over the earth would have been laid down during that time.

However, embedded within the rocks is a record of death (fossils), some of which are human beings supposedly 195,000 years old.1 Which is why some long-agers, in an attempt to skirt the obvious contradiction of having death before sin, have declared that the death that Adam introduced was not physical in nature but simply a spiritual death.

And therefore, the death, suffering, disease, and carnage we see in the fossil record were all somehow part of the original good creation, and Adam only died spiritually when he disobeyed God.

And to justify this biblically, they point to the fact that many Bibles state that God told Adam he would “surely die” should he eat the fruit from of the tree of knowledge—and yet he didn’t—so it must have been a spiritual death that occurred when he fell.

Context Is King

However, words are always defined within their context.

However, words are always defined within their context. Historically, most Christian theologians have understood that when the Bible says, for example, “the wages of sin is death” (in Romans 6:23), the word “death” used there actually carries a dual meaning: both physical and spiritual death.

This whole comprehension of death has its roots (as do all Christian doctrines—directly or indirectly) in the creation account where God warned Adam:

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 2:17; emphasis mine)

The Hebrew for “surely die” here is, literally, “die-die” (muwth-muwth) with two different verb tenses (dying and die), which can be translated as “surely die” or “dying you shall die.”2 The Hebrew phrase translated in English is:

“Tree knowledge good evil eat day eat die (dying) die.”3

Types of Translation

To understand this better, we need to know that Bible translators typically use two main ways to translate a text: formal equivalence (meaning “word for word”) and dynamic equivalence (more like “thought for thought”).

Now, if Genesis 2:17 was translated word for word, it would be “dying die” or “die die,” which would be difficult for English readers to understand (as repetition of a word doesn’t typically change the emphasis or meaning in English). And this is why most translations rightly use more dynamic equivalence and say “surely die.”4

So, if God had meant Adam and Eve were to physically die right then, the text should have simply used muwth (which means “dead, died, or die”) only once, and not “beginning to die” or “surely die” (as is used in the Hebrew).5 So, let’s look at these two meanings of death a little more closely.

1. Physical Death

   Scripture is very clear regarding the meaning of physical death (physical degeneration to the point of no life function, followed by decomposition). For example, in listing some of the consequences of Adam’s rebellion, the Lord references Adam’s final corporal destiny.

   Till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” (Genesis 3:19)

   Obviously, this is referring to the fact that Adam’s body would eventually stop functioning and decompose. However, note that this is followed by God discussing the possibility of Adam “living forever”:

   Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever. (Genesis 3:22)

   This obviously cannot refer to this tree somehow enabling Adam to live forever “spiritually” because, at this point, he is in a fallen sinful state in need of salvation (being made alive in Christ). It’s only because of Jesus’ coming sacrifice that atonement would be made possible, and the tree of life couldn’t possibly provide that, or else Christ’s sacrifice wouldn’t have been needed.

   It’s apparent that God expelled our original parents from the garden of Eden so they wouldn’t eat of this tree of life and enter a most hideous state, that of becoming the “living dead”: forever physically alive and yet spiritually dead, separated from God.

2. Spiritual Death

   Now, the idiomatic use of the word “dead” as it relates to spiritual deadness (separation from God) is seen throughout Scripture, for example:

   And you were dead in the trespasses and sins. (Ephesians 2:1)

   And Jesus refers to it (although using different terms) as the necessity for a man to be “born again” in John 3:3–7.

   And we see how conversion to Christ changes the unregenerate from being spiritually dead to being spiritually alive:

   When we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved. (Ephesians 2:5)

   And:

   For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. (1 Corinthians 15:22)

The True Understanding of Death

So, upon eating of the fruit they’d been warned not to, Adam and Eve immediately died spiritually (separated from God), while their bodies began to die physically and would eventually return to dust (Genesis 3:19).

In short, the fall resulted in immediate spiritual death and a later physical death.

And upon accepting Christ as your Savior, you become spiritually alive immediately with the blessed hope of a future permanent physical life after you pass away.

In short, the fall resulted in immediate spiritual death and a later physical death. Accepting Christ provides an immediate spiritual life and a later physical life.

Gospel Relevance

This understanding of death (both physical and spiritual) is directly relevant to the death and resurrection of Christ and the gospel message. Notice how the apostle Paul discusses this while explaining the gospel to believers.

Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. . . .

Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.

We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.

But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 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 15:1–4, 12–22)

Notice the linking of the gospel Paul preached to the reality of Jesus’ resurrection from a physical death—and where that state of death came from in the first place: “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.” This reiterates the sentiment of Romans 5:12: death came by one man, Adam, but Christ’s sacrifice brings life.

No Death of Any Kind Before Sin

Ultimately, arguments attempting to spiritualize the sin and death Adam released into the world as his due punishment are directly linked to belief in secular explanations of “earthly things” like rocks and fossils and other dating methods.

This is quite apparent when you realize that the vast majority of church fathers, Reformers, Christian pastors, and laypersons throughout history—prior to the rise of old-earth ideas—did not see such compartmentalization between physical and spiritual death.

And Jesus warned of the importance of correctly understanding physical things in our world to spiritual truth when he spoke to Nicodemus:

If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? (John 3:12)

By rejecting the biblical account of Noah’s flood as a real, global event (and as the better explanation of how the majority of these rocks and fossils occurred after sin and death entered into the world), Christians who’ve accepted the world’s explanation of earth history have to concede the fossils entombed in rock were supposedly laid down before Adam sinned.

However, even if one were to argue (against the plain reading of God’s Word as shown) that it was only animals dying before the fall, what kind of “very good” world must it have been? We find records of cancer and a myriad of other diseases in the fossil record. We find evidence of animals having ripped each other to shreds. Even in a fallen world, we understand that is not very good.

And the blessed hope of believers is that one day we will live in a world where physical and spiritual death won’t even be a possibility, even better than the “very good” world God initially created.

The Biblical View of Death’s Origin

Biblically, death’s origin (both spiritually and physically) is unquestionable: it came into the world as a just punishment because of Adam’s sin. And the blessed hope of believers is that one day we will live in a world where physical and spiritual death won’t even be a possibility, even better than the “very good” world God initially created.

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. (Revelation 21:4)