That is not accurate Amy.
The whole basis of the gospel are the two representative men.
Bro Iconoclast,
I see that you believe we are born "spiritually dead" from birth, correct? Let's take a look at the Word of God and see what It has to say about this:
First off, lets look at this scripture here:
Genesis 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and
man became a living soul.
According to this verse right here, man became a living soul. The body that God made from the dust, was lifeless until He breathed into it, and only then, it "came alive". The "breath" here, is the soul of man which comes from God.
Now lets look at His instructions given to Adam and Eve while they were in the Garden:
Genesis 2:15 And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.
16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:
17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it:
for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
Again, God tells Adam that if he eats of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, he WILL DIE!!
18 And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.
19 And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.
20 And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.
21 And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;
22 And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
23 And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.
24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.
25
And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.
They were naked before the Lord and they were not ashamed. Why? Because they hadn't sinned yet, and therefore their eyes were blinded to sin. Sin is what seperates us from God. Just like a baby when it runs throught the house naked when you try to change their diaper. They don't realize they are naked.
Genesis 3:1 Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:
3
But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
This right here shows that Eve herself knew the command that God had given them while they lived in the Garden.
Genesis 3:6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and
a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
7
And the eyes of them both were opened, and
they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.
Here shows that we Eve "desired" the fruit(sin), she ate of it, and in turn, gave it unto Adam, and he, too, ate of it. It was after this they realized they were "naked" and covered their nakedness up.
Genesis 3:9 And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?
10 And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid,
because I was naked; and I hid myself.
11 And he said,
Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?
God came there, but He never mentioned to Adam that He knew what had happend. Adam's guilt came from his own mouth, and then God asked him,"Who told you you was"? Man will hang themselves everytime, given enough to do it.
Genesis 3:22 And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now,
lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:
23 Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.
24
So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims,
and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.
The flaming sword is a "type and shadow" of the Gospel: Hebrews 4:12, Rev. 1:16.
So you see Bro. Iconoclast, "death" as you believe it isn't correct. If God told them "ye shall surely die", when they ate of the fruit, then He lied to them. He drove them out of the Garden(seperation from God because of sin), but they were still alive "physically". They died "spiritually", because their eyes were opened and they understood their nakedness. However, they didn't know they were naked until they ate of that tree. Before the fall, they were "blind to sin", but after the fall, they were "blinded by sin". Two major differences there. Please don't let this post come off "snotty", "snippy", etc. I just wanted to show everyone what really took place(or at least this is how I believe it happened) in the fall of man.
i am I am's!!
Willis