I preached this sermon for the Bawcomville church of Christ on August 31, 2008.

This lesson was delivered in two parts (and two modes) for the Danville church of Christ on Sunday 4/13/08. The first part of the lesson was discussed in our Bible class period and the second part, "A Good Man That Needed The Gospel," was presented in our worship service. You can download the slides here.

This is part of the "What We Believe" series of lessons. These lessons ask the question, "is what I believe in harmony with what the Bible teaches?" If what we believe is out of step with God's word then we must repent of what we believe to be in obedience to God according to His word. What we believe must be just what the Bible teaches, anything else is false doctrine.

This  is a clip for our Sunday morning adult class, where we are studying answers to common issues that come up when studying with others. In this class we were discussing the denominational doctrine of once-saved-always-saved, or perseverance of the saints from Calvin's TULIP.

If you would like to study on this, or any other, issue with us please don't hesitate to contact us.

Imagine a world where the animal kingdom was completely under the control of mankind. Where, instead of technology, men knew how to use the vastly diverse creations of God for the various purposes to which each creature was individually best suited. Where, instead of being forced into submission like today's domesticated animals, every living creature instinctively knew its subjection to man and how to best fulfill its created purpose to serve man. Isn't that exactly what the Bible says it was like after the creation?

In Genesis 1:26 it says that man was to have dominion over every other living thing. In verse 28 the first people, Adam and Eve, were commanded to exercise this dominion over the creation that God had made for them. In Adam's naming of the animals, in Genesis 2:19, there is a clear implication of close interaction between man and beast. What must this close interaction have been like? There is no way for us to truly understand! For that matter, we can't even really understand the abilities of those original animals or man. I have often wondered if we would even be recognized as the same species as antediluvian man if the two were stood side-by-side. I know that we would probably look similar but how would we compare as far as physical and mental abilities? Their minds and bodies were new and pristine; ours are 6,000 years old and degraded. Would they consider us mentally handicapped?

One of the accusations that skeptics like to make about the Bible and the belief that God created everything perfect is that of DAS (defense/attack structures). Defense/attack structures refers to physical and/or instinctual characteristics found in nature with the sole apparent purpose of attacking or defending from attack. The argument goes something like this, "If God created everything to be good and said, "it is very good," then why do we see animals with characteristics to cause pain and death?" Did God create cats, for example, to have sharp claws and teeth to disembowel their prey and then call it "very good." Did God create flesh eating bacteria to devour and kill in such a gruesome way and then say it was "very good"?

When children ask why bees sting, why dogs bite, why snakes strike, is it appropriate to answer, "that's the way God made them"? I think not! The appropriate answer would be that God created them with those abilities for other purposes that we don't understand today because we have lost our dominion over them due to sin. It is because we live in a world tainted by sin that creatures with features that seem to be designed to kill, maim and hurt are not instead using those same features in a way beneficial to and under the control of man. We may not understand what those original functions were but we know they weren't for the purpose of tearing flesh, for example. We know this because the Bible says that, before sin entered the world, all of the animals were vegetarians. In Genesis 1:29, 30 God said, "Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed, to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to everything that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so." From this verse it is clear that no beast of the earth or bird or creeping thing was using its features that today appear to be for defense/attack for that purpose. They were all, as was man, vegetarian.

So what about the apparent design of DAS? We know the following facts from the Bible:

1. Man was to have dominion over every other created thing (Gen. 1:26-28; Ps. 8:3-8).
2. That dominion was lost due to sin (Hebrews 2:8, 9).
   In this text the Hebrews writer is contrasting rebellious man to the perfectly obedient man, Jesus. Jesus shows us what we were created to be. We cannot look inside ourselves to figure it out, we must look to Him. In the context it is the dominion we were created to have over the creation that is specifically mentioned as an example of how we are not what we were intended to be. Only Jesus lived without sin. So, where we do not see what God created us to be, we do see Jesus and can see in Him what we were supposed to be. Clearly, we lost some things we were created to have because of sin. Among those things, according to this context, is the dominion we were intended to have over the creation.
3. Sin caused a change in the relationship between man and beast (Gen. 3:14).
   This altered relationship to the natural world was not the only change that took place but it is the most relevant to our discussion here. Notice, in Genesis 3:14 that the serpent is told that he was cursed "above all cattle, and above every beast of the field." The indication is that the entrance of sin into the world brought a curse upon the whole animal kingdom and most severely and directly upon the serpent. Some commentators hold that the word mikaal ("above all") means "from" or "separated," thus, the text would be saying that the serpent would be set apart from all other cattle and beasts of the field as a result of the curse. However, I find no justification for such an interpretation in the Hebrew or in the overall context of the Bible. Doesn't Romans 8:22 clearly indicate that the "whole creation" suffers as a result of sin? The suffering of the animal kingdom resulting from sin could be the very fact that sin caused us to loose our dominion over them. Rather than being guided in the uses for which they were created they have been left to themselves. Just like anything that is not put to its proper use, they have become other than they were intended to be. Notice also, in Genesis 9:2, when God gives Noah similar instructions to those given to Adam, rather than telling him to have dominion over the rest of creation he says that the animal kingdom would have a fear and dread of man. There service to man from this point would be in the form of food. It is here that we see the first instance of man being told to eat animals. From this point the relationship between man and beast would be that of predator to prey. Clearly, things had changed between man and beast!

With these points clearly indicated in Scripture, we are able to draw some logical conclusions about the apparent DAS in animals. First, what may appear to us today to be defense/attack structures in nature were not intended for that purpose when they were created. We may have trouble determining what original function was served by these characteristics but we do know that, whatever it was, it was to be of service to man not a hazard. Second, because animals were created to be of service to man (man was to have dominion over them) but that relationship was changed by sin, animals have adapted other uses for those characteristics that were not necessary before sin entered the world. And, third, we need to be careful about looking at the present world; with the death, disease, pain and suffering; and saying, "That's just the way God made it." The present world is not the way God made it, it is the way sin has made it. When God created all things it was "very good." The apparent DAS in nature is evidence of sin's corruption of God's original intent.