The Christadelphian, January 1892, Robert Roberts

“Sentence of Death Physically Operative”

J. H.—It does not seem to us possible to be more explicit on the subject of the effect of Adam’s transgression than we have aimed to be for years past. If we have failed to convey our meaning in the definitions and arguments already employed, we cannot hope to succeed by the use of any others. Those who deny that any physical change was produced in Adam’s sentence of death, forget the physical power of the curse of God. Its power was seen in the effect produced on Gehazi by Elisha’s simple sentence (2 Kings 5:27). It was seen in the thorn and thistle-yielding tendency of the ground after the curse pronounced (Gen. 3:17–18). It was seen in the land of Israel under the law, in blight and sterility, and pest and physical derangements of various kinds (Deut. 28:18–22). And it is seen in our corruptible and mortal state which we inherit from Adam, in whom it came by sin (Rom. 5:12; 2 Cor. 1:9). Before transgression, he was “very good” in nature, for so the record declares. After transgression, he was no longer in the very good state, but in the evil state ensuing on sentence of death. We do not care to give much prominence to these abstractions, because of the tendency of the disputations that arise concerning them, to draw men away from the true objects of the gospel in the cultivation of that peace, love, faith, and hope, which are the fruits of the Spirit unto life eternal.