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Could the Garden Have Sustained an Unfallen Humanity Forever?

Aaron

Member
Site Supporter
If each couple had only 2 children, and no one died they would reach over a thousand billion individuals in only 55 generations, about 1200 years.
That's if each couple had only 2 children. What if there were an average of 4 or 5 per couple, which would be more likely...
The human population would reach over a thousand billion in less than 21 generations, approximately 480 years.
 

Paleouss

Member
...Let alone the Earth?

With no death, the earth would have been fully populated long before the days of Noah. What then?
Greetings again Aaron. Grace and peace be with you.

To the question, could the earth have sustained an unfallen humanity? I can make a distinction here and break this up into a couple questions.

1. Is the earth large enough to sustain all the future people that came from Adam if in fact the earth was the final destination for mankind according to God's plan?

2. According to God's actual first intent of creation for THIS world. Could earth sustained all the future people that would come from Adam, if none had sinned?

To the question #1, I say... no. Unless we we were capable of colonizing other planets.

To the question #2, I say... yes. As I said in another post, I believe the scripture tells us that the first intent of creation was/is...

#1. God the Father’s decree to create for God the Son and that God the Son be the purposeful end of creation, that which all creation culminates toward and to.

So that would mean that Adam, before his fall, was already progressing toward his intended end, which was the purpose of creation (God the Son). Creation wasn't just setting around waiting for the fall and to be corrupted so then it could get on with the business of progressing toward its intended end. Therefore, if Adam would have never sinned then he would have progressed toward his end and reached his end (which is God the Son). Thus starting in glory (small 'g') and progressing toward and to eventual Glory (big 'G') in God the Son.

This reaching Glory, it would seem, would then constitute Adam being taken to a new heaven and new earth. For the first earth was created in glory and the second was to be in Glory.

Any other formulation in which one postulates that Adam wouldn't have reached his final intended end if he remained pure would be logically suggesting that either God had two plans. The first is what he wanted and the second after it didn't work out. And/Or, that God was thwarted in his first plan and then needed to devise another.

I think God's plan would have been accomplished whether there was sin in this world or not in this world. The plan being the first intent of creation.


Keep seeking God's truth as if it were hidden treasure.
 

Alan Dale Gross

Active Member
Yeah, Dispensational Premillennialism has spawned a number superstitious notions.
Starting with there being no Earthly Reign of a thousand years mentioned in Revelation 20:4, nor anywhere else IN THE WORLD,
except among 'a number of superstitious notions', fabricated in the Eschatological Laboratories, EXCLUSIVELY WITHIN THE MINDS OF MEN.
 

Reformed

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
It's moot for the likes of you and me, but not for those who say the earth was made for that purpose.
Questions that will never be answered this side of glory. We might as well ask why God created a world in which man would sin? Romans 9:20 is an apt reply.
 

Aaron

Member
Site Supporter
Questions that will never be answered this side of glory. We might as well ask why God created a world in which man would sin? Romans 9:20 is an apt reply.
This isn't a question of 'why.' It's a question about the earth, a finite and material thing that exists in time and space, and something comprehensible to the mind of man and that can be understood by him, and something over which man has dominion.

One could ask, what would happen to life on earth if the earth were closer to the sun? And those who study such things could tell you. What if the earth had no moon? What if the earth were larger or smaller, had no oceans, etc.

So the question, what would happen to life on earth if what many assert to be God's original plan for mankind wasn't thwarted and had come to pass, is a reasonable question and a good tool to evaluate the soundness of that mindset. (As if the premise that God's plans could be thwarted wasn't enough to invalidate the assertion.) We're looking at creation like, as some have said, "the second Bible," (Rom. 1:20)

The earth is not unlimited. We know that there is a limit to the population that the earth can sustain. Were there no death, we know that very soon after Creation, the human and animal populations would reach their maximum limits, and life on earth would soon begin to starve...unless...

1. The commandment to multiply was revoked, and relations become forbidden (let's not get into the birth control debate here) and marriage prohibited, meaning the gifts and calling of God are revocable after all.

Or, 2. New worlds were opened up, meaning God wasn't really finished with all His work, like He said He was (Genesis 2:1-2).

Either way, God becomes a liar.

These things show the earth was never intended to be man's eternal abode. God had another plan, and that was to provide the stage on which Christ would do His work of Redemption.
 
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