Does Romans 5:12 Allow for Millions of Years in Genesis?

Before we get to that, I’ll give you a little backstory. I recently put out a video responding to a short clip of apologist Dr. Frank Turek answering a question regarding Genesis and the age of the earth to students at a university. He believes in an old earth, adding millions of years into Genesis. You can see my original video here:

After that video, Frank Turek responded with a video, and as part of that video, he claimed that Romans 5:12 only says that death came to mankind because of sin, not that animal death came into this world because of sin. Does the argument hold up?

Here’s Romans 5:12:

Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned.

Now we’ve long used Romans 5:12 as an example of the New Testament confirming the historicity of Genesis: Paul is referring to Adam as a historical person whose choice to sin brought death to “all men.” But we don’t use this verse in regard to animal death because it is specially about man. Unsurprisingly, we start in Genesis to discuss the topic of death related to animals and man.

Genesis 1:31 tells us,

And God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good.

God’s original creation was very good—it was perfect.

God’s original creation was very good—it was perfect. There was no death, suffering, or disease, and this would have included the animals that we’re explicitly told were created vegetarian (Genesis 1:30). When Adam sinned, all of creation, which was under his dominion, was cursed (see Genesis 3), and now all of creation is groaning (as Romans 8 clearly teaches, it’s not just human death that came because of sin. It was the curse on all of creation!). In the fossil record, there is evidence of animals eating other animals and diseases like cancer evident in bones of various creatures.

No, there could not have been animal death or disease before sin. Scripture is clear!

Dr. Terry Mortenson and I recently responded to Frank Turek, breaking down his arguments and showing why this really is a vital issue of biblical authority. I strongly encourage you to watch it and share it with others who, like Frank Turek, may be tempted to compromise on the clear teaching of Genesis:

Yes, God’s Word is clear, and it—not fallible man—must be our authority in all areas.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,
Ken

This item was written with the assistance of AiG’s research team.