Articles
“A Different World”
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth… And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.
Genesis 1:1, 31
Amber is the fossilized resin of conifer trees. Sap runs from the tree trapping insects and plants then hardens over time, preserving whatever is inside, a process popularized by Steven Spielberg’s landmark 1993 film Jurassic Park. Sometimes tiny pockets of air also get trapped in the amber. When the gases within these microscopic air bubbles are analyzed, scientists find that the Earth’s atmosphere was quite different when the air bubbles were originally trapped. In fact, the atmosphere contained about 35% oxygen compared with our 21% today. This oxygen-rich atmosphere means that the simple act of breathing in the ancient world have would been exciting! Studies indicate that increased oxygen and higher air pressure (like that reproduced in a hyperbaric chamber) can reduce infection, heal certain diseases, decrease stress and even enhance stamina.
There is also evidence to suggest that the Earth was much warmer long ago and, if the air was rich with oxygen, the atmosphere would have been much more dense. All this would make it possible for large creatures to fly, such as pterosaurs like the Quetzalcoatlus which had a 50 foot wingspan and weighed over 500 pounds.
The late Dr. Kei Mori of Keio University in Tokyo experimented raising plants in nutrient-rich soil under special light using a mirror system which sent light through fiberoptic cables that filtered out infrared and ultraviolet radiation. This means the light the plants received was pure sunlight. His tomato plant grew 16 feet tall and produced over 900 tomatoes! The plant was then moved to a larger area with scaffolding to support it. The plant grew to over 30 feet tall, covered an area of over 900 ft² and yielded over 13,000 tomatoes over six months, a Guinness world record. They were a kind of cherry tomato but Mori’s were the size of baseballs. Could this environment of filtered sunlight, enhanced carbon dioxide, and nutrient-rich soil mirror the conditions of the early Earth? If so, why is our world so different and what accounts for the change?
There are many possible naturalistic explanations for these changes which science continues to answer. But we can also offer a theological reason which accounts for them: in a word, sin. When God created the world, it was “very good.” Humans were made to live forever in fellowship with God and in proximity to the “tree of life.” But the introduction of sin into creation caused death and decay to “reign” until the coming of Christ (Gen. 3:15; Rom. 5:12ff). Not only were humans exiled from Eden and the tree of life, creation itself suffered as a result of human sin (Gen. 3:17-19). Paul says it was “subjected to futility in hope” and is now “in bondage to corruption… groaning” in pain until it is set free (Rom. 8:19-22).
Sin brought suffering, disease and death into creation. Even after sin entered the world, humans lived much longer lives in comparison to today (see Gen. 5). Perhaps the reason for this longevity and robust health was due to factors such as lower radiation levels, increased air pressure, richer carbon dioxide, more nutrient-rich soil and a generally cleaner world. Noah’s flood would also have vastly changed the biosphere, making it difficult for many species to adapt to the new postdiluvian environment. But the further we got from the beginning, the more the effects of sin compounded until the human lifespan decreased, eventually leveling off to about “seventy, or if by reason of strength eighty” years, as Moses wrote (Psa. 90:10).
I realize some of this is speculative but the gospel is certain: Jesus came to grant us access to the tree of life. His death redeems us from the curse of sin and his resurrection secures our hope of eternal life. In him, we look forward to an even better world to come (Heb. 11:16; 2 Pet. 3:13), a perfect world in which there is no sin and we can live with God forever in perfect bodies (1 Cor. 15:42ff).
