Adam was the mediatorial Prophet, Priest and King over all creation, with his beautiful wife beside him, helping him.
God could have cast Adam into Hell when he sinned, but in His mercy and grace He permitted Him to live. It was appropriate that the whole creation which Adam ruled over as king, brought God's Word to bear on as prophet, and represented unto God as priest, and which was made for Man, should be spoiled because of Man's sin - even to remind Man of what he has done, and what he now was.
I believe the death of animals followed both logically, and, as far as I'm aware, chronologically.
The suffering of animals is short and sweet. As far as I'm aware there is no afterlife for them - though I believe R.C. Sproul disagrees.
It is a mystery, in strict justice, why sinless, non-moral, sentient creatures should suffer because of Man's sin. It another reminder of the awfulness of sin; the "innocent" often suffer because of the sins of the guilty.
God is judge of all and will always do what is right. The God that cursed the whole of Creation, including sentient creation, also said that the righteous man is concerned about the life of his beast, and inscripturated passages of Scripture that speak about His interest and care for all His creatures.
As with any subject all of the Scriptural data must be pondered.
-----Added 11/17/2009 at 07:04:24 EST-----
Do you think that God will allow animals to live again or are they just dead forever? I haven't seen anything in the bible that is definitive on this.
I believe Romans 8 answers gives a hint...
"Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God".
I also imagine the New Heavens and the New Earth would be amiss if God removed animals who were part of the original creation.
This is a good point. And many Reformed scholars believe, as far as I'm aware correctly, that the New Heavens and the New Earth, will be a renovated and renewed Old Heavens and Old Earth, just as the matter of our Old Bodies will be turned into New Bodies.
And when we think of the New Heavens and New Earth, we sometimes forget that animals and plants were a part of this Old Earth.
When I say that the Earth will be renovated and renewed, the Bible teaches that it will be made incorruptible, that is incapable of corruption, and that our bodies will be glorified, that is appropriate for reflecting God's glory in a new way.
The pattern of renovation is
(a) The souls of believers at regeneration and then at perfection and glorification at death.
(b) The bodies of believers at the Resurrection
(c) The Earth and Cosmos after the Resurrection and Last judgment.
-----Added 11/17/2009 at 07:22:52 EST-----
Quote from For His Glory
Side note: Before the fall there was no death. That makes for a lot of vegetarians. I wonder if there is enough seaweed and algae to feed all the fish of the sea?
If there was no sentient death before the Fall - or no sentient and plant death - we do not know what provision God was going to make for the fish, etc.
It was always God's plan that Man would Fall of his own accord and the period before the Fall may have been relatively short.
-----Added 11/17/2009 at 07:41:09 EST-----
I believe there is no such thing as inherent mortality in any creature. All creatures are finite.
God alone is inherently immortal. Eternal Life was a gift to mankind that man would achieve if he remained obedient. Sin is apostasy from God and reveals what he is apart from God: finite dust.
Animals, however, never received this gift.
I believe all men were created with immortal souls and made in God's image.
Animals were not made with immortal souls (?), but souls that die with them, and were not made in God's image - see Ecclesiastes.
The idea of death in Scripture involves separation rather than annihilation.
When Man sinned all sorts of separation entered:-
(a) Spiritual death - separation of God from Man and vice versa, leading to eternal death, eternal separation from God's favour.
(b) Physical death - separation of soul from body.
(c) Separation of Adam from Eve and man from man, leading to violence, murder and war.
(d) Separation of Man from himself. The faculties of the soul and the conscience at war, leading to unhappiness, psychological problems and sometimes suicide.
(e) Separation of the creation from Man, leading to disease, physical death, and ecological troubles.
I don't know if it was Francis Schaeffer who first pointed all these things out from Genesis 3 ?
Just an observation
It would be a very small bonus.
