Retroactive death!
What’s wrong with that?
by Calvin Smith
Published: 30 June 2011(GMT+10)
iStockphoto
Christian comedian Tim Hawkins discusses a skit where he describes his mom spanking
him for something he didn’t do. Wondering why she doesn’t seem
remorseful after discovering he wasn’t at fault she says “That’s
for something you’ll do later!” He quips; “You mean I have a spank
account?”
Although many parents might relate to this amusing situation, this form of punishment
is what some long-age compromisers have suggested as an answer to the powerful ‘no death
before sin’ argument that biblical creationists have used for years.
Millions of years required
Since all compromise positions
regarding Genesis (Gap
Theory, Progressive Creation,
Theistic Evolution, etc.) require a time-frame of millions of years (Ma
= mega-annum), long-agers have to believe that the fossil record (a record of death,
suffering and disease) must have occurred before Adam sinned. (Almost no-one
argues for Ma after Adam because of the
chronogenealogies listed in Genesis.) In the standard ‘deep time’
view, mankind came near the end of this time, so hundreds of millions of years of
death occurred before people supposedly appeared. However, this view that death
came before people makes it impossible to take verses like Romans 5:12 (“ … as through one man sin entered
into the world, and death through sin … ”) as plainly written, because
death—even human death—
preceded the biblical date of the creation of the first man and his sin by millions
of years.
Exodus 20:11 (‘ …
in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in
them is … ’) dispels the long age paradigm conclusively, but …
compromisers have attempted a variety of theological gymnastics over the years to
overcome the obvious problems …
Furthermore, as humans were the appointed rulers of creation (Genesis 1:28), the Fall affected all those under mankind’s
dominion. Thus the whole creation is groaning because God subjected it to futility,
as Romans 8
shows. One consequence is that the original vegetarian diet of all animals,
taught in verses like Genesis 1:29–30 (“ …
to everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for
food … ”), was changed. Obviously if all creatures
were only eating plants before the creation was cursed then biblically,
fossils showing carnivorous activity, including tooth marks on bone and coprolites
(fossil feces) containing bones of other creatures, must have occurred after
the Fall of man. (The great Flood recorded in Genesis 6–9 makes sense of the evidence; see also
Feeding carnivores on the Ark). (Also see
The carnivorous nature and suffering of animals).
Exodus 20:11 (“ …
in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in
them is … ”) dispels the long age paradigm conclusively, but since
long-agers typically defer to ‘science’ over scripture, compromisers
have attempted a variety of theological gymnastics over the years to overcome the
obvious problems the Ma paradigm creates.
Retroactive death
To counteract what many long-agers have admitted is the clearest exegesis (most
plain and obvious understanding) of the Genesis text, a new concept developed by
Christian philosophy professor and
Intelligent Design leader
Bill Dembski proposes that God ‘spanked’ mankind by cursing
the cosmos before Adam sinned. He did this because He knew the Fall would
happen, and so extended the effects of the Curse backwards, before it actually occurred.
(In effect man arrives on the scene ‘pre-punished’ for what he would
later do!) In his book “The
End of Christianity” Dembski argues that Mankind’s Fall into
sin not only marred the creation after Adam but was also ‘retroactive’.
(Dembski admits that the clearest exegesis supports the young-age position, but
explicitly says that he rejects it because of ‘science’).
The rationale behind this stems from the concept that Jesus’ sacrifice on
the cross was retroactive. The Bible clearly states (speaking of Jesus) that “
… there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven
given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12) So there was no different way of being saved
in the Old Testament; salvation has always come by grace, through faith in the one
true God, on the basis of Christ’s atoning death and bodily resurrection.
The argument is then that if God saved people retroactively before the event of
Jesus’ crucifixion to pay for sin (in effect ‘saving’ people before
the ‘cause’ of salvation occurred), perhaps God could have cursed the
world prior to Adam sinning (causing bad things to be in effect before the cause
of bad things happened). But is this concept justified?
Before (not after) the foundations of the world
According to Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of Law, ‘retroactive’
means: “extending in scope or effect to a prior time or to conditions that
existed or originated in the past.”1
Most people are familiar with the concept of a retroactive pay rise. It means you
are given a lump sum payment calculated on the difference between your former and
current pay extending back to a certain point in time, in addition to the pay increase
from now on.
In effect, it is a method of choosing how much of a bonus a person will get and
does not actually change the rate of pay you received before you got your
pay raise. Note that it is an effect of a decision made by someone after
the time the bonus is based upon has passed, or after the ‘fact’.
And unfortunately, we are aware of immoral governments imposing retroactive (or
ex post facto) laws. They are expressly verboten by the constitutions
of many free countries, since they punish people for committing acts that violated
a future law that they had no way of knowing at the time. God doesn’t do that,
hence Cain and Abraham did not sin when they married sisters/half-sisters, despite
the Levitical prohibition God imposed many years later (see
Who was Cain’s Wife?).
The Bible speaks of God’s work of salvation being done from before the beginning
of creation, not afterwards.
A quick look at the related scriptures (something Ma proponents sometimes appear
to neglect) reveal several passages in the Bible that actually show that God acted
in the completely opposite way. The Bible speaks of God’s work of
salvation being done from before the beginning of creation, not afterwards.
For example Hebrews 4:3, in discussing salvation rest, says, “
… his works were finished from the foundation of the world.”
As Matthew 25:34 reminds us, at the eternal judgment those
that are saved will, “ … inherit the kingdom prepared for you from
the foundation of the world.” Why? Because “ … he chose us in
him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless
before him.” (Ephesians 1:4) This is forward looking, not retroactively
backward looking.
So to me, I was saved at 27 years of age. But Jesus saved me before the foundation
of the world according to God’s word. The things God will do (in the future
from our perspective) He has already done. We are in time that
God created, but the Lord is not, as He is in eternity and is the
Creator of Time. I am not one whose name “ … has not been written
before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain.”
(Revelation 13:8) My name was in the Lamb’s Book of
Life from before the foundation of the world.
So according to God’s word, salvation occurred from the beginning and extended
into the future, not ‘retroactively’ into the past. (For further discussion
of these passages, see
The Book of Life predated creation from The Incarnation: Why did God become Man?)
The bride of Christ
Why then did Jesus have to be born, die and rise again at a specific time in history?
What then was the significance of that event? Perhaps a look into the relationship
of God’s church to Himself will help explain. God’s word often talks
about the bride of Christ, His chosen people in relationship to Him in a metaphorical
sense in the framework of marriage.
In context, Jewish marriages were often arranged and betrothal was considered being
lawfully married already. This is why in Matthew 1:19 we read:
“Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law,
and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce
her quietly.”
(Joseph was going to show Mary a great act of mercy by divorcing her [even though
there had not been an official wedding ceremony] as even though he thought she had
been unfaithful, he did not wish her stoned as an adulteress.)
The betrothed weren’t permitted to have sex (the most intimate and personal
aspect of the relationship) before the ceremony but were otherwise committed to
each other completely. That physical act was the consummation of a promise as the
two became “one flesh” (cf. Genesis 2:4, cited by Christ in Matthew 19:4–5 as the words of the Creator).
In the same way, the church (the Bride of Christ) was betrothed before the foundations
of the world. The physical ‘ceremony’, if you will, that consummated
this was the events of Jesus’ death and resurrection (which will be followed
by the wedding feast—the “marriage supper of the Lamb” referred
to in Revelation 19:9).
Because of what God has done/is doing/will do, Christians now experience a close
relationship with God and have the constant indwelling of the Holy Spirit. It is
true that Jesus came once to put away sin, however this was the fulfillment of a
contract already in place. It’s not like people weren’t saved
before, and then became saved after Jesus came!
So the concept of a ‘retroactive Fall’ (an event extending punishments
backward), is unbiblical and is totally different from the pre-ordained salvation
explained in Scripture.2
Like all compromise opinions, it is simply an attempt from the minds of men to blend
man’s illusory deep time
into the Bible.
Related articles
Further reading
References
- Dictionary.com, "retro active," in Merriam-Webster’s
Dictionary of Law; http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/retro active. Accessed:
December 13, 2010. Return to text.
- Note that Christians hold different views on the concept of
how preordained salvation is accomplished. As a non-denominational ministry CMI
does not take an official stand on this. All Christians agree however that God knows
who will be saved at the great judgment. Return to text.
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