You seem to be quite an expert on the Bible. As I am just learning the Bible can you answer a few question's for me?
Q: Was there death and suffering before Adam and Eve sinned?
And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Genesis 2:16–17)
God gave the command in Genesis 2:16–17 that sin would be punishable by death. This is significant when we look at the big picture of death. If death in any form was around prior to God’s declaration in Genesis 1:31 that everything was “very good,” then death would be very good too—hence not a punishment at all.
Q: Did the people "who preexisted Adam and Eve" ever sin or die?
I find that the Bible tells us very clearly that there was no death before sin. In fact, there are no Bible verses indicating there was death prior to sin. Help me with this.
Q: Could it be that the only reason some people try to insert death before sin is to fit man’s ideas of “millions of years” of death from a uniformitarian view of the fossil record into the Bible?
Q: Doesn't death and suffering before sin make a mockery of God’s statement that everything was very good in Genesis 1:31?
Death, animals eating other animals, thorns, cancer, tumors, and so on are not very good, and, yet, these are found in fossil layers supposedly millions of years old. Again, help me to understand this.
Q: Should all of us take a warning from Psalm 118:8 very seriously when we look to fallable, sinful men for answers?
"It is better to trust in God, than to trust in man."
I am looking forward to learning what someone that "after years of studying this subject" has to say so that I may better understand the Bible and God's word.
God bless you.