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FEED MY SHEEP- Chapter 1, Death Comes to the World
AUTHOR: Camping, Harold
PUBLISHED ON: May 7, 2003
DOC SOURCE: CCN
PUBLISHED IN: Bible Studies

                          FEED MY SHEEP
                        by Harold Camping

A Scriptural view
Of the Christian’s responsibility
To the world around him.

Copyright 1972
Family Stations, Inc.
290 Hegenberger Road
Oakland, California  94621

                        TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 1    DEATH COMES TO THE WORLD
              May There Have Been Animal Death in Eden?
              Does the Bible Prohibit the Idea of Pre-Fall
              Animal Death?
              Man and Animals Destroyed
              The First Judgment
              Herbivorous Animals in Eden
              Herbivorous Animals in Eternity

CHAPTER 2    ADAM FAILS AS KING
              Fill the Earth
              Till and Keep the Garden
              Dominion Over the Creatures
              Adam is to Subdue the Earth
              When Did Satan Fall?
              Creation Cursed
              Creation Redeemed
              Christ Shall Have Dominion

CHAPTER 3    MAN’S TASK
              God’s Victory Timetable
              Why Does God Delay?
              The Cross and Satan
              Sinless Man
              Sinless Man Falls
              Man, The Slave of Satan
              God’s Man, the Believer
              Does the Believer Exercise Judgment?
              The Believer’s Task
              He Must Reign Over His Body
              He is a Prophet
              He is a Priest

CHAPTER 4    FEED MY SHEEP
              Abel Keeps Sheep
              Cain – A Type of Modern Man
              Ecology:  A Desperate Question
              Population Control
              Man and Animals on the Same Level
              Abel – A Type of the Believer
              The Wisdom of the World Versus
                the Foolishness of Preaching
              Man’s Rebellion Against God is Escalating

                          INTRODUCTION

    Any  true  believer  worth  his  salt must be deeply concerned about his
responsibility in relationship to the world in  which he is  living.  He must 
realize that his  salvation resulted from an act  of completely undeserved
love by  his Savior.  Because he has become  a  citizen  of  Christ’s 
Kingdom,  he should want to make certain  that he is  living in obedience  to
this King.  He should know that Jesus saved him for Christ’s glory.  But he
should also know  that to  live as  a saved  believer to  the glory  of Christ
involves obligations to the world in which he presently exists.

    As mankind becomes more bewildered, and as sin multiplies, the believer 
is even  more pressed  to make  certain he is faithfully discharging his  duty
to  God, in  relationship to  Him, all other truth, phenomena, and reality
will pass away.

    But can he  know precisely what his mandates with reference to the world
actually  are?  Can these  be articulated in  such plain fashion  that he will 
have precise guidance  in such common place areas  of  his  life  as  choosing 
his vocation, and spending his money?

    In general, we could probably say that two answers are offered to the
question of the believer’s task in the world.  The first is that  he is first 
of all a  witness of the  Gospel of Christ, and this  is  to  be  the 
motivating  philosophy  undergirding  every decision.  As  a  first 
responsibility,  he  is not to be at all concerned  about the other  spheres
of life  such as governmental, scientific,  business, etc.  As long  as he 
is witnessing, he is within the will of God.

    The second is that which is held by many, and  which indicates that while
we are witnesses, we do have dominion over this  earth.  We are to bring  it
into subjection in the name  of Christ.  Thus, we are to become scientists,
statesmen, philosophers, and building contractors that  we might  assist in 
building a  better world in which to offer  the Gospel.  We are  to rule over
every  aspect of this creation as God’s vice-gerund.

    Which  answer  is  the  more  Biblical?  Or  is there another answer?  We
must go to the Bible to find our solution.  Only it is trustworthy and
authoritative.

    This  is  an  important  question.  Upon its answer hangs the whole
philosophy of  the education of  our Christian youth.  Upon its  answer 
depends  the  nature  of  each Christian’s livlihood.  Indeed, to its answer
the whole cause of Christ in the world today relates.

    In this  paper we shall  attempt to find  the Biblical answer.  In  order 
to  find  this  we  must begin at the beginning–in the Garden of  Eden.  For
it is  there that man is  first shown to us.  We shall  examine him in  his
world of  long ago, and  in so doing shall discover our responsibility to
today’s world. 

    As we  search for these answers we shall also get a fresh look at  the 
entrance  of  sin  into  the  world.  We  shall not only determine  the
timetable of  Lucifer’s fall into  sin but also the certainity of his
destruction.

                            CHAPTER 1

                    Death Comes to the World

    Any attempt to discover the task of the believer in the  world today must
begin with Genesis I.  For it was in this first chapter of  the  Bible  that 
God  gave  the  initial decisive information regarding the role of man in the
world.

    But  when  we  look  at  the  language  of  Genesis I, we  are confronted 
by  a  contradiction  in  statements  that  seems  to frustrate us at the
very outset in  our attempt to develop a clear understanding regarding the
question we are examining.  In Genesis 1:28  God  said  after  He  had 
created  our  first  parents, “Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the earth
and subdue it; and have dominion over the  fish of the sea  and over the birds 
of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.”

    To be  fruitful, to multiply,  to fill the  earth, and to have dominion 
over its  creatures is  language that  poses no apparent difficulties.  The
Bible appears to teach  that the earth together with its creatures was 
created good and beautiful.  There  was no  sin, and no  curse of sin.  Man
was placed  here as the  crown of God’s  creation to serve as God’s  vice-
gerund, as the Lord of His creation.  Logically, he would exercixe dominion or
rule  over the lesser creatures.

    But there is  included in these verses the phrase “subdue it.”  A
contemplation of this phrase produces a whole host of questions.  If  this
world  was created  good and  perfect, what  was there to subdue?  One subdues
something that is an antagonist or that is in rebellion.  Maybe the  world,
before  the fall  of Adam into sin, wasn’t as perfect as  we always thought. 
And isn’t it a fact that God  placed Adam and Eve in  a garden?  Doesn’t  this
suggest that the world  outside the  garden was  wild and  in need of
subduing?  Moreover,  didn’t the angel  Lucifer, and his  fellow angels rebel
against  God  at  some  earlier  date?  Couldn’t they already have
contaminated the earth  in some fashion  so as to  necessitate the command to
Adam to subdue the earth?

    These are not  idle questions.  For  some reason, as  we shall see  in
later  chapters of  this study,  the command to subdue the earth  and  have 
dominion  over  its creatures was never repeated again  in  the  Bible.  It 
is  imperative,  therefore,  that  we ascertain whether theses commands 
related only to man  before his fall into  sin, or whether  they relate to 
all mankind throughout history.

    An understanding of the  Biblical  statement  “subdue  it” is, therefore, 
exceedingly  crucial  if  we  are  to  understand  the believer’s task today. 
If there was indeed  rebellion in creation before the  fall of man  into sin,
then  God’s command to  Adam to subdue the  earth would apply  in a similar 
fashion to man today.  But if the  earth was good, without any  rebellious
elements which we commonly associate with the curse of sin, then there must be
an altogether  different explanation for “subdue  it” than that which appears
at first  glance; and man  today would, therefore,  have a somewhat  different 
responsibility  toward  the  world  and  its creatures than Adam did before
he fell into sin.

    We should  therefore, examine  the world  that existed  before man’s
disobedience in the Garden of Eden to discover if there  was anything there 
that looks like that which would result from sin’s curse on the earth.

    A most obvious  place to begin in our search is to examine the question 
of  death  in  the  world  before  the fall of man.  God decreed  to Adam that
in  the day that he  disobeyed God, he would surely  die  (Gen.  2:17). 
Death,  then–at  least  death  for  mankind–was an immediate  and terrible
result of  sin.  And since we  read  in  Genesis  1:30  that  the  animals 
apparently  were herbivorous–“I  have given  every green  plant for food”–
whereas today  and during known  history many animals  are carnivorous, we
suspect  that  the  curse  of  sin  (death)  could have applied to animals as
well as man.

    A  study of the question of  the timing of death’s coming into the world, 
therefore, should be made.  If  death did occur in the animal world before
man’s sin, we could readily believe there were other  rebellious elements  in
the  world at  that time.  We Would then see the reasonableness of  the
command to Adam to  subdue the earth.  On the  other hand,  if we  could know 
that there was no death in the animal world before the fall of man, we would
suspect that an altogether different solution must be found to the command
“subdue it.”  This solution  would also  have much  to say  about man’s task
today.

May There Have Been Animal Death In Eden?

    Let  us first  ask if  the Scriptures  in any way suggest that there may
have been  animal death before the fall?  In a number of places  the Bible
speaks of animals  and birds using other animals as food.  But none of these
statements relates in any sense to the pre-fall  era.  The  only  verse 
that  could  possibly  be  of significance is  that of Psalm  104:21, “The
young  lions roar for their prey, seeking their food from God.”

    Some believe that this verse, which is speaking of carnivorous animals, 
is  set  in  the  context  of  a  Psalm dealing with the creation  of the
world.  If  this is so, we  have already found an answer to  the question of 
animal death before  the fall of Adam.  But  is  this  so?  Let  us look  at
this Psalm more carefully to determine  if  this  verse  is  pre-fall  or 
post-fall  in  its application.

    It is true that verses within this Psalm speak of the  initial creation. 
Verse  two–“who  has  stretched  out the heavens as a tent,” verse five,
“thou  didst set the earth on its foundations,” verse nineteen–“thou hast
made the moon to mark the seasons,” all surely are speaking of  creation.  But
these themes do  not assure us that the entire Psalm  speaks of creation. 
They are often used in  other places in the Holy Canon to speak of creation
but within a  non-creation  context.  (cf.  Isa.  48:13.)  Moreover, several
verses  of  Psalm  104  definitely  do  not  have reference to the creation. 
Verses 6 to  9 speak of  the waters standing above the mountains,  followed 
by  the  raising  of  the  mountains and the sinking  of the valleys.  The
promise  is then enunciated that the waters  “might  not  again  cover  the 
earth.”  The word `again’ indicates that something different than  the
separation of the dry land from the  seas as detailed  in the creation 
account is being considered.  For  Genesis 6 to 9  tells us of the  covering
of all the earth with water, and that event occurred long after creation. 
These verses in  Psalm 104:6-9 are,  therefore, none other  than a description 
of  the  flood  of  Noah’s  day.  The mountains were covered at  that time 
(Gen 7:19)  and God  faithfully promised He would never again destroy all
flesh with a flood (Gen. 9:8-17).

    Other  verses of this Psalm  also describe things unrelated to the
creation  program.  Verse  26 speaks  of ships,  a much  later phenomenon than
Genesis 1:3.  And verses 27 to 30  indicated that death comes  to all who
look to God for food.  But “these all” who look  to  the  Lord  must  include 
the  fish, the animals and man himself who  are the subject of the preceding
verses.  Since man’s death  was without question a  result of  Adam’s sin, we
know that these verses  must be  referring to  conditions after  the fall of
Adam.  Finally, Genesis 1:30 clearly states that plants were given to man  and
animals  for food.  Psalm 104:21  does not conform to this condition and,
therefore, must relate to conditions after sin entered the world.

    We see,  therefore, that  Psalm 104:21  must be  speaking of a situation
prevailing during  the lifetime of the  Psalmist.  Since this appears  to be
the only Biblical passage which might possibly relate to animal death before
the fall, we conclude that the Bible offers no  information that would suggest 
there was death amongst animals before the fall.

Does The Bible Prohibit The Idea of Pre-Fall Animal Death?

    Let us now approach the Bible from another viewpoint.  Does it suggest in
any way  that there could not have been death among the animals  before  the 
fall?  This  question  must  be  answered affirmatively as we shall see.

    When we  look at death we are surprised  to see the close link between 
animals  and  man.  We  know,  of  course,  that  man is altogether 
different from animals  in that man  is created in the image of  God with a 
soul that lives  beyond the grave.  He dies when the soul leaves the body. 
But we can also properly say  that he  dies when  the breath  of life,  which
is  also called spirit, leaves his  body.  In this  the animal is  like man. 
By  the same token, in this context, we can not speak of plants dying,
inasmuch as they do not  have the breath of life.  In  fact, the Bible very
particularly indicates that the created  function of plants was to serve as
food (Gen. l:29,30).

    In Psalm  104:27-29 we  have an  example of  this relationship between man
and animals.  There we read “these all…are dismayed; when thou takest away 
their breath they die.”  The phrase “these all” includes man and animals as
the context of  this Psalm shows.  Death is the  lot of all men and all
creatures who have the breath of  life.  This same truth is  given in
Ecclesiastes 3:19-21 where we read,  “For the  fate of  the sons  of men  and
the fate of the beasts is the same; as one  dies so dies the other.  They all
have the same breath…who knows  whether the spirit of man goes upward and 
the  spirit  of  the  beast  goes  down  to  the  earth.”  Interestingly
the  word “spirit”  or “breath”  is the  Hebrew word `ruach’ whether used of
man or of animals.

    Since this identification  of man with  animals, by virtue  of the fact
that each has the breath of life,  extends throughout the Bible, we can expect
it  to be true at the time of Adam’s sin.  It begins to  appear that  when
death  came to  man it  also came  to animals.  The  spiritual  aspects  of 
this death (eternal death) apply only to man.  The physical aspects (removal
of breath) would apply to man and animals.

Man and Animals Destroyed

    When we look at the major judgments of God we discover in even more 
striking  fashion  the  parallel  relationship  that  exists between  man and 
animals in  the area  of death.  These judgments show that the weal or woe of
animals is directly  parallel to that of men.  The first judgment after Adam
was that that of  the flood of  Noah’s  day.  Of  this  judgment  we  read, 
“And  all  flesh died…birds,  cattle, beasts  and all  swarming
creatures,… and every man;  everything on the  dry land in  whose nostrils
was the breath of life  died,” (Gen.7:21-22).  A  second judgment is  that
upon  Sodom and Gomorrah;  “the Lord rained  on Sodom and Gomorrah
brimstone…and  he  overthrew  those  cities…and  all  the inhabitants 
of the  cities, and  what grew  on the ground,” (Gen. 19:24,25).  A third
judgment is that upon the Egyptians; “the Lord smote all the first-born in the
land of Egypt, from the first-born of Pharaoh  who sat on his throne to the
first-born of the captive who  was in  the dungeon,  and all  the first-born
of the cattle,” (Ex. 12:29).

    Another judgment is that upon the inhabitants of Canaan,  with the 
destruction  of  Jericho  serving  as a prototype; “Then they utterly
destroyed all in the  city, both men and women,  young and old, oxen, sheep,
and asses, with the edge of the  sword,” (Joshua 6:21).  This  was in strict
accord with  the commandment of God as recorded in the  fifth book of the
Pentateuch;  “But in the cities of  these  peoples  that  the  Lord  your  God 
gives you  for  an inheritance,  you shall save alive  nothing that breathes,
but you shall utterly destroy them”(Deut. 20″16).

    Amazingly in all of these accounts, animals are destroyed with man,  even
though  it is  man who  was the  cause of the judgment, rather than  the
animals.  This would  explain the statement found in  the last  verse of 
Jonah where  we read,  “should I  not pity Nineveh…in which there are…much 
cattle.”  The weal or  woe of the cattle would be in direct relationship to
that of the Ninevites.

The First Judgment

    But  one  other  judgment  must  be  considered.  That is the initial 
judgment,  a  judgment  so  severe  that  its shock waves continue through all
of  time and on into eternity.  Adam and Eve sinned.  God’s judgment was 
immediate and quite fatal.  They were condemned  to  death.  In  Genesis  3, 
where we read of this sad event, the animals  are not specifically  mentioned
as sharing  in this judgment.  But  we have seen that all  of the other
judgments upon man  were shared  by the  animals.  Therefore,  since God  is
consistent and orderly in His dealings with His creation, we would expect that
animals would also suffer death in parallel fashion to man.

    The  Bible nowhere intimates  this is not  the case.  In fact, Romans 8:20
indicates the creation  was “subjected to futility not of its own  will.” 
Animals were a part of  creation so they, too, must be  included with that
which was  brought into the bondage of decay.  Genesis 3:17  states that the
ground was cursed and Romans 8 surely  indicates that  this is  to be 
understood as  the whole creation  including  animals.  Hosea  4:3  further 
shows us this bondage as  including animals; “Therefore, the land mourns and
all who dwell in it languish, and also the beasts of the field and the birds
of  the air.”  We must  conclude, then,  that animals  were subjected to
death in like fashion with man, because of man’s sin.

Herbivorous Animals In Eden

    This concept is  further strengthened when we note that in the Garden  of
Eden the  animals were herbivorous:  “I have given you every plant…for
food, and to every beast of the earth…, I have given every green plant for
food”  (Gen. 1:29,30).  Note the close relationship between animals and man. 
We do not know when animals became carnivorous, but undoubtedly the  results
of the curse upon creation brought about this  condition.  We do know that 
God must have  killed animals when  He brought skins  to cover Adam and Eve
(Gen.3:21).  We know Abel killed  a lamb and his offering was very acceptable
to  God.  But  these events  were after  the fall.  To clarify  this post-
fall relationship, God told Noah in Gensis 9:3, “every moving  thing shall be 
food for you.”  Following the fall, the plan of  God was that animals  were to
be killed.  Before the fall, the  herbivorous nature  of animals  accorded
perfectly with the concept of the absence of death amongst animals.

Herbivorous Animals in Eternity

    If we look for a moment now at the weal of  man, we shall find additional
evidence  that shows how animals are  related to man in God’s plan.  In 
Genesis 9:8-17 we read that  God convenanted with man and with every living
creature with the breath of life that He would never again destroy the  world
with a flood.  And  in Exodus ll:7 we  read that the animals of the Israelites
were to be spared God’s judgment of the tenth plague.  No wonder Christ spoke
of the Father’s concern of a sparrow.

    This concern  of God  for animals  and all  creatures with the breath of
life is pictured for us all the way into eternity.  When judgment  day  comes, 
all  animals  will  be  destroyed  with the unsaved, even as  they were
destroyed  in Sodom and  Jericho.  But even  as animals were  saved with Noah 
out of the flood judgment, and with the Israelites out of the tenth plague
judgment, so, too, out of the final  judgment God gives us  word pictures of
weal  or blessings for animals along with man.  In Hosea 2:18,19  we  read, “I
will  make  for you a  covenant on that day  with the beasts of the
field…and I will make you lie down in safety.”  The  picture is one  of
peace  and security  with no  fear of  death.  An  even stronger statement is
that of Isaiah 11:6-9, “the wolf shall dwell with the  lamb…and the  weaned
child  shall put  his hand on the adder’s den.”  That these conditions prevail
in the new heaven and earth is assured us by the testimony of Isaiah 65:17-25. 
There we read, “the wolf and lamb  shall feed together, the lion  shall eat
straw  like  an  ox”  (Isa.  65:25).  The question at hand is not whether 
there literally  will be  animals in  the new  heaven and earth.  Rather  the 
truth  imparted  in  these  passages  is the revelation  of the completion of
the predetermined program of God.  The  creation  that  was  “subjected  to 
futility, not of its own will…will  be set free from its  bondage of decay
and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Rom. 8:20,21).

    For mankind this  glorious liberty means  that death has  been destroyed
and all decay has ceased.  Since the rest of creation is to obtain glorious
liberty like man, death and decay must likewise be removed from  all of
creation  including animals.  This  is the new earth.  The covenant made with
all living creatures in Hosea 2 will be fulfilled.  Death will have been
destroyed (I Cor. 15:26).  The evidence of the fulfillment of that promise
includes the  word picture  of  Isaiah  65  that  shows  that  the  animals
are again herbivorous.  God,  therefore, relates the  picutre of herbivorous
animals to the  concept of the absence of  death.  The herbivorous animals  in 
Eden  should  then  give  the same concept, i.e., the absence of death.

    Moreover, since  the promise of the removal  of death from man as well as
animals must be understood as being included within the language of the
`glorious liberty’ into which the creation will be restored, death amongst
animals must be a result of the curse into which  the  creation  was 
subjected  by Adam’s sin.  The pre-fall animals, therefore,  did not  die
since  there was  no curse  upon creation at this time.

    The language of Genesis 1:31  supports this whole idea of Eden being 
without death amongst animals.  There  we read that God saw all that He had
made  and it was “very good.”  This  had reference to man without the ravages
of  decay and death.  But it also  had reference to animals since they are a
part of creation.  Since man with the breath of life was without death and was
“very good,” the animals which likewise have the breath of life must also have
been without death in order to receive God’s commendation “very good.”

    We, thus, see that  the Bible gives much evidence  that points to  the
absence of  death amongst animals  before the fall.  This, incidentally, 
means  that  the  fossil  record is that of animals which have died  after
Adam’s sin  and explusion from  the garden.  Thus, the General Theory  of
Evolution or the idea  of a so-called “theistic  evolution” must  be rejected 
as idle speculation.  For these evolutionary  theories require  long periods 
of time during which lower creatures  lived and died while  gradually evolving
to the highest being, man.

Continued in FEED2.TXT

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