Adam and Eve and the meek

[RockAndHoops]

Hi all,

I was walking to school today and got approached by two people who wanted to offer me a Bible and cards and stuff and they asked me a question that I didn’t answer well.

If Adam and Eve had not sinned, would they have physically died? In other words, were they destined for heaven or earth? The people quoted that the meek will inherit the earth, and thus the meek would not be destined for heaven (if I understand them properly).

This leads to the second question then: what does “the meek shall inherit the earth” mean? When I asked them what earth (a misstep on my part) they said the Bible only mentioned one earth (which I later recalled is false because Revelation speaks of the new heaven and the new earth). They also referenced Proverbs which talks about the meek and the wicked and who is supposedly going where (or at least that’s what they allege).

I would have loved to have chatted with them more and fleshed stuff out, but I honestly did have a meeting to go to in ten minutes and it was just about a 10-15 minute walk from my apartment to school. But I realized after this encounter that I failed my first real apologetics test and I had better start getting focused on this.

Any help would be great. Thanks!

 

[Fidelis]

Let me tackle the first question.

Theologians (including Thomas Aquinas) say that death, properly speaking, was not an original part of God’s plan for Man (“the wages of sin is death” Rom 6:23). Men and women are material, and thus subject to decay, but God gave our first parents extra gifts to keep them from growing old and sick.

So Man was created and placed in the garden. Paradise was not the same place as heaven, which is what God created us for. Man was placed in the Garden and given everything he needed as part of a test–a test, as we know, he failed to pass.

It’s unclear how Adam and Eve, had they passed the test, would have been translated to heaven by God without dying. Perhaps they would have been put into a deep sleep like Adam was when Eve was created. We just don’t know, but God coud have done it any way he wanted.

For more info, see this article:

rosary-center.org/ll57n1.htm