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Book Review of God: A Human History (Random House Large Print)

God: A Human History (Random House Large Print)
broucek avatar reviewed on + 48 more book reviews


The author wrote about that which he has no knowledge. I only want to address 2 of Mr. Aslan's arguments.
1. That Adam and Eve did not die after eating the fruit of the tree, because, well, they did not die in the physical sense.
Death, as far as the Bible is concerned, never means cessation of living. Death always means "permanent separation", either from "the land of the living", or from God Himself, who is the source of life. Once a human is conceived, they never "die" in the sense of ceasing to exist.

And Scriptures mentions three types of deaths:
a) Physical death. This is what most people mean when they speak of death. But even this does not mean cessation of existence, but merely separation from those living on earth. The "dead" person transitions into another world, and continues to live, forever. This death happens to everyone, including godly people.
b) Spiritual death. This is a state of being out of touch with God the Creator. People in this state of death cannot perceive or understand sipiritual things. To them, God and His claims are a work of fiction. They do everything to avoid being in the presence of God, either out of fear, hate, or shame, or all of the above. This was the death that Adam and his wife experienced, and that explains why they hid themselves in the garden when they heard God's voice as He visited them. Most people on earth are spiritually dead, though they are physically alive, just like Adam and his wife Eve were.
c) Eternal death. This is permanent separation from God, and occurs to all those who experience physical death while in a state of spiritual death.
No one alive is eternally dead. As long as we are alive, we can receive eternal life by turning from sin and accepting God's offer.

2. That Adam and Eve were not created in God's image, because, after they sinned, God said "Now the man has become like one of us".
Here's the full verse:

"And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:..." Gen 3:22 (KJV).

Only Mr. Aslan would interprete this passage to mean what he said it meant.