Old Earth and death Vs New Earth and Adam's death because of sin?
Belief in an old earth creates enormous theological problems for Christians. There is an obvious tension with a straightforward reading of Genesis, as well as the problem of animal death and suffering before Adam’s sin. Nevertheless, Christians who advocate an old earth might argue that these difficulties, though serious, are tolerable as long as one affirms that human death, at least, began with Adam ( Romans 5:12-21 ). This is because logically Christ’s death on the cross can only pay for our sins if human death really is the penalty for sin. And since a just God would not impose the penalty for sin before a sin had actually been committed, human death could not have occurred before Adam’s fall. This may seem obvious since one would naturally conclude this from Genesis, but it is a logical necessity for the Christian faith to be true. Thus, human death as the penalty for sin is a nonnegotiable Christian doctrine. If human death did not originate with Adam, then the gospel itself