Theology Thursday: When Did Adam Sin?

Listen to Bob's verse-by-verse study of Genesis chapters 3 - 5!* In the 2011 Fall issue of Creation magazine: in the article, Why Bible History Matters, Dr. Jonathan Sarfati makes three observations about how long after their creation on Day 6 until Adam and Eve sinned.

1. Adam and Eve did not conceive any children prior to the Fall
2. Eve would likely have become pregnant during her first menstrual cycle
3. Lucifer also would have rebelled in the short time between Creation and the Fall

Recognizing that Adam and Eve fell prior to conceiving their first child is the primary realization for chronicling the earliest days in human history. These notes present additional biblical and biological observations that may further narrow the timing of the fall of Adam and Lucifer. Scripturally, Dr. Sarfati is on solid ground concluding that Satan fell in that short time period. For as traditionally understood, the passage interpreted as Satan's fall in Ezekiel 28 says about Lucifer that, "You were in Eden, the garden of God." And in Isaiah 14, the parallel passage about the perfect and wise Lucifer, “you have said in your heart: ‘I will ascend into heaven… I will ascend above the heights of the clouds…"

Lucifer was "fallen from heaven," not geographically, for He was on the earth in the Garden of Eden coveting to rise above the clouds and ascend of his own will into heaven. So he fell not from heaven, but from God's kingdom of heaven, which initially encompassed everything created. For Lucifer was, "perfect… from the day you were created, till iniquity was found in you." And prior to his temptation of Eve, he was not cursed to be lower than the animals, and prior to Eve's fall he was not at enmity with Eve nor with her future descendants. For God said, "Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all cattle… And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed."

Coveting both the obedience of man, and the millions of offspring represented by the ova in Eve's ovaries (and all of their posterity), Lucifer tempted Adam and Eve before their first conception. And while so quick a fall by Man, and by an archangel, and by his followers, seems difficult to understand, surely that difficulty would increase, not decrease, the longer these beings had lived in fellowship with God.

But when might Eve have become pregnant? With a significant range among healthy women, the normal human menstrual cycle is about 28 days (four 7-day weeks) and ovulation occurs, while varying a few days either way among women, averaging near the middle of the cycle. During that time, the hypothalamus triggers a vital and irreducibly complex process beginning with instruction to the pituitary gland to release gonadotropic hormones, which the blood stream carries to the ovaries, which in turn use hormonal chemical signals to prepare the endometrium of the womb. (Of course, hormones are chemical signals WITHIN an organism, whereas pheromones are chemical signals BETWEEN organisms; and so endocrinologist Dr. Joel Brind of Baruch College in New York City argues that the first cry of the baby to mom that he is hungry is the chemical signal detected by Early Pregnancy Tests, which is not a hormone, but a pheromone signal to another organism, that is, from one person to another, from child, to mom.)

We reliably infer from both secular and sacred history that Adam and Eve had no sinless offspring. For if they had, there would have been war not only in heaven, and between man and God, but also between fallen and unfallen mankind, something that has not occurred. Thus, Eve did not conceive a child prior to Adam's sin.

While a woman's ovum is viable for about one day after being released, a man's sperm can live in vivo, even today after millennia of degeneration, in the woman's fallopian tubes for up to one week. By subtracting that week from the approximate middle of Eve's cycle, it appears that Adam may have rebelled within seven days of his creation. Since Adam and Eve were created on day six, the Fall may have occurred on the calendar date one week later which would have been the 13th day of creation.

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Today's Resource: This study, Genesis, The Fall, teaches Christians how to discern the character of the living God as contrasted to the view of God's attributes as promoted by popular myth. Consider also subscribing to Bob's Bible studies! Enjoy any of Bob's studies, made available by book title or by topic, or you can subscribe or give online or by calling 1-800-8Enyart (303-463-7789).