The idea that animal death didn’t occur until after Adam’s fall was rejected by most theologians, prior to the reformation, including Augustine and Aquinas. But what about people death? Is everyone now destined for suffering and death as a result of the sin of Adam? The suffering of Job is presented to us as God’s arrangement, to which God doesn’t have to answer for. God doesn’t blame it on Job’s “inherited sin”. It wasn’t even Job’s personal sin that caused his suffering. Job’s uprightness initiated it. Job’s miserable comforters are in fact denounced by God for placing the cause of suffering on Job’s sin. Maybe they should have blamed it on Adam’s sin.

But the fact that it isn’t Job’s or Adam’s sin that caused Job to be tested makes it even more bothersome to us. God asks Job if he was there at creation as if the wisdom contained in the original creation would explain it. God’s creation lesson to Job even includes carnivores, without excuse for their behavior. But if there was no suffering in the original creation then how would Job be able to understand his own suffering by being there?

Some of us are looking forward to a ‘restored’ earth where nobody suffers because nobody sins or is allowed to sin. Yet it is actually Job’s uprightness that is the catalyst for his suffering. And it is God Himself who appears to instigate it. Is it even feasible to grow up in a world void of suffering, where someone else always keeps you in line and makes sure you don’t suffer? That wasn’t even the case for the angels in heaven, let alone Job. Is God a bad parent?

Have you ever met someone who was overly protected? Someone who wasn’t allowed to suffer at all or make any mistakes while growing up? Did you like them? Were they spoiled or unable to act or maybe they were nervous or afraid of everything? Or maybe they broke free from their overbearing parents in radical ways.

When Jesus was asked by His disciples why a man was born blind, they propose the blame be put on either the blind man or his parents, just like Job’s miserable comforters would have done. But how does a blind newborn sin? Jesus’ answer to this question of suffering is that neither this man nor his parents’ sin caused his blindness. His blindness was so the works of God could be made manifest in his life. That’s more satisfying to me than the answer God gave to Job. God seems to say to Job that the Creator knows what He’s doing with His creation and Job doesn’t and Job doesn’t need to.

The highest work of God is the development of true humanity, as stated at the beginning of humanity. Humans are created to be above the animals and even the angels. Angels and animals aren’t immune from suffering either. The person who treats others and even his animals well is considered to be more human. Human is in God’s image.

The first century Pharisees claimed to be the true humanity in the land. Jesus disagreed with them. Jesus says their very claim to see is what caused their sin to remain on them. They were trusting in the fallen vision of Adam rather than God’s Word. They twisted God’s word for their own ‘benefit’. They ruled like Satan; the accuser of the brethren. They did not turn to the true light of the world when He arrived. Like politicians, they hid behind hypocrisy. Remember when Adam and Eve accused everybody but themselves for their unfaithful wokeness?

The ones entrusted with the word of God rejected the true light of the world. If they were blind to God’s word that informed them of Him they would not be guilty. Therefore like Adam they were not deceived. They knowingly chose to ignore God’s word. Like Job’s accusers, the incriminating Pharisees were also denounced by God. The Pharisees not only accuse the blind man of being completely birthed into sins, they even accused Jesus of sin. Aware of their own nakedness, they try to cover themselves in fake righteousness. They covered themselves in God’s word in a dark way.

If the people at large (pictured symbolically as the animal world) were created lower than Adam, then maybe the animals are still as they were intended to be. As they were from the beginning. Which is why Adam couldn’t find a suitable wife after naming them. Adam’s assignment was to humanize the animals, but not by marrying them. Even though Adam and Eve themselves were intended to grow more godlike after their betrothal and marriage. I mean who really stays together without growing in the grace of God?

Real animals did not inherit Adam’s fall and then suddenly start eating each other did they? It was always dangerous and ungodly outside the garden domain. Adam was called to tame wild animals from the beginning, before the fall. Physical creation is full of metaphors for spiritual creation. We can’t actually see the spiritual creation with our animal eyes. God breathed into the nose of Adam’s animal body in order to introduce a better image in him. “Let us make humanity in our image.” What would we analogously contrast God’s image to without the original animal creations?

God brought immature Adam into the Garden to work with Him. Adam was privileged to grow up and learn his Father’s occupation. That is a higher arrangement than the animal world had. Isn’t God’s guidance a positive factor on our behavior? Doesn’t it lift us up? The presence of God lives within His chosen people today in a more personal way than Adam had in the garden. Yet we still suffer as a part of growing up. Suffering seems to be integrated in God’s original creation. It doesn’t have to be guilt inducing. We still warn our children so they can avoid as much suffering as possible. But even self discipline is a form of suffering toward a goal. Most of us don’t feel guilty for self discipline. We painstakingly discipline our own children to act more human so they can enjoy a good life even as we ourselves keep growing in the process. The image of God in people continues to develop over time.

When the psalmist praises God in Psalm 104, he includes predation in his soliloquy on God’s creation. Adam is called to tame these metaphorical animals for a reason. It’s not because they fell after Adam fell. Adam was called out and commissioned to tame them before he fell. It is because they were originally created with a lower order of behavior than the human realm. Humanity alone was assigned to bear and share the image of God. Humanity is privileged to join God in His preeminent work.

Psalms 104:20-28

CLV ²⁰ You impose darkness, and it becomes night; All the life of the wildwood move about in it, ²¹ The sheltered lions roaring for prey And seeking their food from El. ²² When the sun is radiant again, they gather away, And they recline in their habitations.” ²³ Then humanity goes forth to its deeds And to its service until evening. ²⁴ How numerous are Your works, O Yahweh! You have made all of them in wisdom; The earth is filled with Your achievements:” ²⁵ This sea, great and wide on all hands; The creeper is there, and it is numberless, Animals, both small and great;” ²⁶ The sea monsters are going there, The dragon that You have formed to gambol in it.” ²⁷ All of them look forward to You To supply their food in its season; ²⁸ You supply it to them; they pick it up. You open Your hand; they are well satisfied.

When some of David’s own people turn against him he compares them to carnivorous animals while he is the bird of prey.

Psalms 124

ECB ¹A Song of Degrees by David. Unless Yah Veh had been for us I beseech, O Yisra El, say, ² Unless Yah Veh had been for us, when humanity rose against us; ³ then they had swallowed us alive when they kindled their wrath against us: ⁴ the waters had overflowed us; the wadi had passed over our soul; ⁵ the overflowing waters had passed over our soul. ⁶ Blessed – Yah Veh, who gave us not as a prey to their teeth: ⁷ our soul escaped as a bird from the snare of the ensnarers; the snare broke and we escaped. ⁸ Our help is in the name of Yah Veh, who worked the heavens and earth.

Jacob writing to the 12 tribes in the dispersion gave an answer for suffering that Job would have loved to hear. It is for the purpose of further developing the image of God. Jacob writes to old covenant people who were in transition to the new covenant crown of life. It is as if God’s people can’t grow up without it. If suffering is unnecessary then God could be pictured as a cruel or sadistic being. Paul was given a thorn in the flesh just to maintain his humility while on earth. It was God’s abundant revelation to Paul that threatened to puff him up even as he carried out the highest calling.

Maintenance of Paul’s demeanor required some sort of suffering even as an adult. Paul pleaded three times to remove this thorn in the flesh from his life. This God-appointed suffering actually protected Paul’s walk with God and man. He eventually learned to appreciate it’s necessity. Just as God allowed and even prompted Satan to torment Job, God allowed and even assigned a messenger of Satan to torment Paul, for God’s own good purpose, which included Paul’s best interest.

Many proposals are made to identify this “thorn in the flesh”. It could have been the old covenant hold-outs who tormented Paul. We know that the unbelieving Jews did persecute Paul. Jesus said they were the sons of Satan. And those who were not born from above by the Holy Spirit were said to be still in the flesh. Those stubborn Hebrew thorns in the flesh persecuted the born again Hebrews. Like a curse. They are the ones who placed a crown of thorns on the head of their messiah as He bore the curse of the fall. Which was the thorny land outside the garden of obedience. So why did obedient Paul have a thorn in the flesh if it wasn’t preemptive medicine? Paul was not cursed. He was blessed by the perfect Father, to be more like the true image of His new covenant firstborn Son.

God’s people did inherit Adam’s cursed place outside the garden. Nobody was alowwed back in because of Adam. Adam’s curse was in relocation to a less blessed land. In the garden, in obedience with God, Adam’s work was blessed. Adam disobeyed and fell under the promise of the law. The law promised death for disobedience. Jesus came as grace upon grace to remove the curse of the law for His people and promise better things, to work all things together for their good, to grant life to God’s people by taking Adam’s place. But Paul was not immune to suffering. Paul’s eternal inheritance was kept incorruptible in heaven.

2 Corinthians 12:7-10

LITV ⁷ And by surpassing revelations, that I not be made haughty, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan, that he might buffet me, that I not be made haughty. ⁸ Beyond this I entreated the Lord three times, that it depart from me. ⁹ And He said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness. Therefore, I will rather gladly boast in my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may overshadow me. ¹⁰ Because of this, I am pleased in weaknesses, in insults, in dire needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for the sake of Christ. For when I may be weak, then I am powerful.

James 1

YLT¹ James, of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ a servant, to the Twelve Tribes who are in the dispersion: Hail! ² All joy count it, my brethren, when ye may fall into temptations manifold; ³ knowing that the proof of your faith doth work endurance, ⁴ and let the endurance have a perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire—in nothing lacking; ⁵ and if any of you do lack wisdom, let him ask from God, who is giving to all liberally, and not reproaching, and it shall be given to him; ⁶ and let him ask in faith, nothing doubting, for he who is doubting hath been like a wave of the sea, driven by wind and tossed, ⁷ for let not that man suppose that he shall receive anything from the Lord— ⁸ a two-souled man (human) is unstable in all his ways. ⁹ And let the brother who is low rejoice in his exaltation, ¹⁰ and the rich in his becoming low, because as a flower of grass he shall pass away; ¹¹ for the sun did rise with the burning heat, and did wither the grass, and the flower of it fell, and the grace of its appearance did perish, so also the rich in his way shall fade away! ¹² Happy the man (human) who doth endure temptation, because, becoming approved, he shall receive the crown of the life, which the Lord did promise to those loving Him. 

By the way, the 12 tribes in diaspora were fulfilling Adam’s original commission, which was to tame the animals in pre-evangelism. Adam was given that great commission before he fell. After Adam fell he was thrust out into the world with some futility added to his work. If work was totally futile who would even try? The Hebrews were also put into a forced missionary mode after they were kicked out of the land for disobedience. We call it the diaspora. The post-pentecost result is that God’s people are now scattered all over the planet, teaching people of all nations the blessed ways of Yahweh. God’s humanity was never aborted. It was made spiritual by the only spiritually begotten Son of Yahweh. From newborn to adult, God never aborts His children. At what point after being born from above am I safe from being aborted by God if not the conception of my spiritual life?

James 3:7

YLT ⁷ For every nature, both of beasts and of fowls, both of creeping things and things of the sea, is subdued, and hath been subdued, by the human nature,

Human nature is in contrast to animal nature. Animal-like nature is the nature of people without God. Adam was supposed to act in God’s name or in His image. It was the human nature that the family of God was assigned to implement in the world. People naturally act like the family they are born into. Adam had to put on animal skin for protection from the world at large, since outside the garden was the domain of the animals.

The great tribulation of the first century church was a time of suffering like no other. Eschaton Adam suffered individually like no other while on the cross, but the first century church suffered as the body of Christ like no other time in history too. Never again will the old covenant hold outs have their status quo threatened by the Hebrew believers. As the spiritual city of God was being prepared for the bride, the bride was being prepared for the groom. It was the spiritual resurrection of the people of God, i.e., the resurrection of the corporate body; called the body of Christ or the church. The Holy Spirit that betrothed the nation on Pentecost married the nation in AD 70. The transition of covenants is over. The spiritual family of Yahweh is complete.

If you die as a newborn member of the family of God, you aren’t kicked out of the heavenly city. Jesus went to prepare it for His people. Spiritually growing up in heaven itself is a new covenant option not previously considered. We don’t die and go to Hades today to suffer until we are purged of missing the mark. That’s not how we treat newborns or adults. Newborns are given grace and nurturing by the family they are born into. They don’t even understand the purpose of suffering. They just scream. They have to be slowly introduced to the family image with care and wisdom. At first all we do is meet their every need without question. Why can’t that happen with newborn Christians who die early? Maybe we never stop growing up spiritually no matter how long or how well we lived on Earth. We will always want to be more like God. At what point of spiritual maturity are we fit to join the family in heaven? What’s a family for anyway?

Psalms 148

ECB ¹ Halalu Yah! Halal Yah Veh from the heavens; halal him in the heights; ² halal him, all his angels; halal him, all his hosts; ³ halal him, sun and moon; halal him, all you stars of light; ⁴ halal him, you heavens of the heavens and you waters above the heavens: ⁵ Halal the name of Yah Veh; for he misvahed and they were created. ⁶ He stands them eternally and eternally; he gave a statute; they pass not over. ⁷Halal Yah Veh from the earth you monsters and all abysses; ⁸ fire and hail; snow and smoke; stormy wind working his word; ⁹ mountains and all hills; fruitful trees and all cedars; ¹⁰ live beings and all animals; creepers and birds of wing; ¹¹ sovereigns of the earth and all nations; governors and all judges of the earth; ¹² both youths and maidens; aged and lads! ¹³ Halal the name of Yah Veh; for his name alone is lofted; his majesty is above the earth and the heavens: ¹⁴ he exalts the horn of his people – the halal of all his mercied; of the sons of Yisra El – a people near him. Halalu Yah!

The Septuagint version of Psalms 8 is quoted in Hebrews 2:7 which makes it clear that the gods refers to the angels.

Psalms 8:3-9

³ When I consider thy heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have ordained; ⁴ What is mortal, that you art mindful of him? and the son of (Adam) human, that you visit him? ⁵ For you have made him a little lower than the gods, and have crowned him with glory and honor. ⁶ You made him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; you have put all things under his feet: ⁷ All sheep and oxen, yes, and the beasts of the field; ⁸ The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatever passes through the paths of the seas. ⁹Yahweh our Lord, how noble is your name in all the land!

The eschaton Adam came to give eternal life to humanity. Original Adam relinquished his God assigned goal of bringing eternal life to humanity. He missed his 1000-year life-target. He wasn’t allowed live to the age, lest he live to the age spiritually dead. Adam died at 930 years of age and was given life to the age of 1000 in the year of our Lord AD 70.

Genesis 3:22-23

YLT ²² And Jehovah God saith, `Lo, the man was as one of Us, as to the knowledge of good and evil; and now, lest he send forth his hand, and have taken also of the tree of life, and eaten, and lived to the age,’ — ²³ Jehovah God sendeth him forth from the garden of Eden to serve the ground from which he hath been taken;

John 3:10-20

CLV ¹⁰ Jesus answered and said to him, “You are a teacher of Israel, and these things you do not know? ¹¹ Verily, verily, I am saying to you that of that which we have perceived are we speaking, and to that which we have seen are we testifying, and our testimony you are not getting.” ¹² If I told you of the terrestrial and you are not believing, how shall you be believing if I should be telling you of the celestial? ¹³ And no one has ascended into heaven except He Who descends out of heaven, the Son of Mankind Who is in heaven.” ¹⁴ And, according as Moses exalts the serpent in the wilderness, thus must the Son of Mankind be exalted, ¹⁵ that everyone believing on Him should not be perishing, but may be having life eonian (to the age).” ¹⁶ For thus God loves the world, so that He gives His only-begotten Son, that everyone who is believing in Him should not be perishing, but may be having life eonian (to the age).” ¹⁷ For God does not dispatch His Son into the world that He should be judging the world, but that the world may be saved through Him.” ¹⁸ He who is believing in Him is not being judged; yet he who is not believing has been judged already, for he has not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God.” ¹⁹ Now this is the judging: that the light has come into the world, and men love the darkness rather than the light, for their acts were wicked.” ²⁰ For everyone who is committing bad things is hating the light and is not coming to the light, lest his acts may be exposed.”

We don’t ascend to heaven like Jesus did. He meets us in the air and takes us there.

The antitypical tree of life became available through the messiah at the end of the old covenant age. He came into the world so the Hebrew believers would not perish. “As in Adam all would have died dead to the age”. I think that means, Adam was given potential to bring eternal life to humanity and lost it. Nobody succeeded where Adam failed. Just as Israel was given potential not to die as a nation and lost it. But the eschaton Adam didn’t fail to secure an eternal human soul. He laid down His old covenant soul to save His people.

Because of eschaton Adam, believing Jews would not perish with their old covenant world that was about to be consummated in spiritual death. They left the age they were in and transitioned into the never ending new covenant age that was about to be. Believers completed the millennium alive with Christ Yeshua. The old covenant however perished with their millennial Jubilee because the old covenant remained spiritually dead with Adam as there representative head. AD 70 was their second expulsion from the land, thus it was their second 40 year resurrection which brought them new life before that evil generation ended in the second death. They were re-generated for 40 years before entering the promised land by the faith of Yeshua.

The old covenant was temporarily resurrected in the flesh so the Word made flesh could permanently rescue them. He rescued them from there impending destruction in spiritual death, not their biological death. Pentecost initiated the one and only spiritual resurrection of Israel. New covenant spiritual life doesn’t die. God doesn’t vacate the new covenant temple. That would be spiritual death for His church. God’s people will each vacate their animal body spiritually alive. That means they don’t go to the place of the dead ones to await resurrection. That was a gracious holding place until the spiritual resurrection.

Revelation 20:6

ECB ⁶
THE FIFTH BEATITUDE 
Blessed and holy whoever has part in the first resurrection; over these the second death has no authority: but they become priests of Elohim and of Messiah and reign with him a thousand years.

Nobody dies twice anymore. Those in Adam and Israel who rejected the millennial consummation went to second death. The dead ones in Hades were already biologically and spiritually dead but the judgement to permanence was on hold. Those who weren’t God’s chosen people went to permanent death as fulfilled in Adam rather than their millennial Jubilee as fulfilled in Yeshua.

Adam lived with the Holy Spirit in the garden and Israel lived with the Holy Spirit in the land. They were both able to lose that privilege. They were able to die biologically and spiritually. The impending millennium made that spiritual death permanent, for those not in the spiritual resurrection; the one and only spiritual resurrection. It didn’t fail to resurrect the body of Adam in Christ. It gave spiritual life to the dead body. It didn’t give biological life to the nation on Pentecost. We don’t need our animal body in heaven. We get a heavenly body, per 1 Corinthians 15, not an animal body. The body planted was the seed that died in the ground. The heavenly body is something new, springing to life out of the seed of the dead body. The old body always dies.

1 Corinthians 15:25-26

²⁵ For He must be reigning until He should be placing all His enemies under His feet. ²⁶ The last enemy is being abolished: the death.

1 Corinthians 15:40

CLV ⁴⁰ There are bodies celestial as well as bodies terrestrial. But a different glory, indeed, is that of the celestial, yet a different that of the terrestrial,

Pentecost is pictured as the betrothal that initiated the resurrection of the nation. It was made possible by the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. The marriage of Christ to His bride is the consummation of the resurrection. It is the last of the seven festivals of Israel. People are born again into the resurrected family of God now. They are nor born into an ongoing resurrection. That was the first century when the old covenant body was being resurrected into the new covenant body. Covenant death was defeated. You won’t get kicked out of the new covenant family of Yahweh.