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Subjects for Debate: Adam and Eve's Coats of Skin

Discussion in 'General Baptist Discussions' started by InTheLight, Jan 17, 2011.

  1. InTheLight

    InTheLight Well-Known Member
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    The coats of skin that Adam and Eve wore after the Fall--How were they made?

    Gen 3:21 Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.
     
  2. Amy.G

    Amy.G New Member

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    He had to kill an animal. Some think it was a lamb. Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins. Adam and Eve tried to "cover" their sin by their own effort. God covered their sin with the death of an innocent. It is the picture of Christ giving His life and His blood so that we may be forgiven of sin. The difference is that Christ's blood doesn't cover sin, it washes it away!
     
  3. kyredneck

    kyredneck Well-Known Member
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    Animals had to die to make them.

    ......apart from shedding of blood there is no remission. Heb 9:22

    Pink calls it the first gospel sermon in the Bible.
     
  4. kyredneck

    kyredneck Well-Known Member
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    Drat. Amy, you beat me to the draw.
     
  5. InTheLight

    InTheLight Well-Known Member
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    Yes, this is the traditional explanation. Actually, the Bible doesn't say anything about an animal dying or bloodshed in Genesis 3. "The LORD God made coats"... Sounds a lot like:

    Gen 1:7 And God made the firmament,

    16 And God made two great lights....he made the stars also.

    25 And God made the beast of the earth after his kind



    This is kind of like my question about Sodom and Gomorrah in another thread. The prevailing opinion was that God supernaturally caused brimstone to form in the skies over Sodom and Gomorrah. He simply made the brimstone out of His creative power.

    In the case of the animal skins for Adam and Eve, why didn't God simply create the skins out of nothing? He had just gone through the creation process making everything out of nothing. "The LORD made coats"

    The traditional answer is that there needed to be bloodshed for the remission of sins. But think about it--God needed to make a sacrifice to Himself? That doesn't sound correct and doesn't fit the Old Testament pattern of sacrifices and offerings. Furthermore, think about the actual logistics of God killing an animal and making clothing. Exactly how was this accomplished? Lastly, if we agree that God killed an animal for a blood sacrifice, was this the first animal in creation to die?
     
  6. glfredrick

    glfredrick New Member

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    Many would suggest exactly that -- the animals who died to provided a "covering" (propitiation) were the first to die. This is a well known type of Christ in the OT. The implication is very clear. to get skins off of animals, one must take their life.

    God instituted the sacrificial system, and whether or not we find it "distasteful" or "unnecessary" is beside the point. He did it, and He did it to point to the ONE Perfect Lamb of God who would be our ultimate and final sacrifice, Jesus Christ.

    The actual logistics? Who knows. We are not told. But presumably, if God could speak the skins into existence He would also be capable of killing two animals and skinning them.

    Why are you struggling with this whole concept? Just wondering?

    Are you of a mind that God is too "bloody" and that He should have been able to figure out a better way? If so, know that blood is required -- ours -- but God is merciful and gracious to shed His own in our place. What an act of love He had toward us while we were yet dead in sin!
     
  7. InTheLight

    InTheLight Well-Known Member
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    I'm not struggling with it. The fact is the Bible doesn't say that God killed an animal to make the coats. I don't see the point of God making a sacrifice to Himself. It seems within the realm of possibility that God simply created the coats out of nothingness, just like He did the entire universe.

    The text doesn't say that A&E knew about the animal sacrifice. There is no foreshadowing to Christ like there is in Gen 3:15. Later on, Cain seems oblivious to the need to bring a blood sacrifice to God. I would think if this was a picture of Christ that it would have been spelled out more explicitly.

    No, no, that's not it at all. I'm simply pointing out that a plain reading of the text does not say anything about a blood sacrifice. I doubt Old Testament saints would interpret that passage as God having killed an animal for the coats. Only now, looking back on it are we able to infer that it could have happened that way.
     
  8. freeatlast

    freeatlast New Member

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    Could your explanation be possible, yes, but one has to ignore some exegetical practices and go with personal wants instead of biblical text. First the word create and formed in the Gen account come from two different Hebrew words. In the case of creation making everything out of nothing or new. The one where He made the coats means to form. In other words in this case to take something that is and form it into something else. The text says He used skins and made a coat. He did not create the skins and then make coats out of them. That would be absurd. If He were going to create the coats then he would not need to take skins, just make coates. He took skins(plural) and made coats, not just a skin. It took more then just one and the Hebrew word is the word used for the hide of animals and even men sometimes. The best explanation is that the Lord took actual animals and skinned them (killed them, sacrificed them) and formed or fashioned coats to cover the two first sinners which also is a picture of Christ covering us by his sacrifice.
     
    #8 freeatlast, Jan 18, 2011
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 18, 2011
  9. Amy.G

    Amy.G New Member

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    Something else to consider is how did Adam know about sacrifice except that God taught it to him? When Cain and Able brought their sacrifices before the Lord, Cain's was rejected. Was this because his sacrifice was not the taking of an innocent life (blood)? How did Able know what kind of sacrifice would please the Lord? I believe they learned it from Adam and he learned it from the Lord.
     
  10. Robert Snow

    Robert Snow New Member

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    I believe God killed a sheep in order to show to Adam and Eve a little of the consequences that their rebellion brought about. It also presents to them a foreshadowing of Jesus' death on the cross when the Lamb of God would die to make atonement for their actions.
     
  11. modmax

    modmax New Member

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    We see the need for a sacrifice as pointed out but the animal sacrifces in themselves never satisfied God. The rest of scripture makes clear that atonement was different than remission. Hear the word of the LORD,
    You rulers of Sodom;
    Give ear to the law of our God,
    You people of Gomorrah:
    11 "To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to Me?"
    Says the LORD.
    "I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams
    And the fat of fed cattle.
    I do not delight in the blood of bulls,
    Or of lambs or goats.
    12 "When you come to appear before Me,
    Who has required this from your hand,
    To trample My courts?
    13 Bring no more futile sacrifices;
    Incense is an abomination to Me.
    The New Moons, the Sabbaths, and the calling of assemblies—
    I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting.
    14 Your New Moons and your appointed feasts
    My soul hates;
    They are a trouble to Me,
    I am weary of bearing them.
    15 When you spread out your hands,
    I will hide My eyes from you;
    Even though you make many prayers,
    I will not hear.
    Your hands are full of blood.
    16 "Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean;
    Put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes.
    Cease to do evil,
    17 Learn to do good;
    Seek justice,
    Rebuke the oppressor;
    Defend the fatherless,
    Plead for the widow.
    18 "Come now, and let us reason together,"
    Says the LORD,
    "Though your sins are like scarlet,
    They shall be as white as snow;
    Though they are red like crimson,
    They shall be as wool.
    19 If you are willing and obedient,
    You shall eat the good of the land;
    20 But if you refuse and rebel,
    You shall be devoured by the sword";
    For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.

    We see the Lord seeking repentance not sacrifice. David said in psalm 51 Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God,
    The God of my salvation,
    And my tongue shall sing aloud of Your righteousness.
    15 O Lord, open my lips,
    And my mouth shall show forth Your praise.
    16 For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it;
    You do not delight in burnt offering.
    17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit,
    A broken and a contrite heart—
    These, O God, You will not despise.
    we see the heart acceptable to God here. Hebrews tells us the old was a model of the new and remember Jesus told of Lazarus and the rich man were still in the grave. The two groups were seperated by an unpassable gulf . Abrahams bosom a place of comfort andthe other a place of torment. When Jesus gave the acceptable sacrifice the remission of sin was accomplished ; He descended into hell and led captivity free! The skins in the garden ponit to the cross. Remission of sins is superior than a covering as God says the sins are as if they never existed. Isaiah was right white as snow.
     
  12. Baptist Believer

    Baptist Believer Well-Known Member
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    Over the years, I have heard one or two people speculate that the "coats of skin" were actually their fallen bodies (similar to animal bodies) that are distinct from the type of body we will have in the resurrection (physical and tangible, yet able to walk through walls and not undergoing corruption). They say that the resurrection body is essentially the type of body that Adam and Eve originally had.

    That kind of thinking is far to speculative for me to take very seriously, but it is something to consider.
     
  13. Robert Snow

    Robert Snow New Member

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    Interesting! I've never heard anything like this before, but it does give pause for thought.
     
  14. kyredneck

    kyredneck Well-Known Member
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    I believe the skins typify the imputed righteousness of Christ to the redeemed.

    Again, Pink articulates it well:

    http://www.pbministries.org/books/pink/Gleanings_Genesis/genesis_05.htm
    Gleanings In Genesis, Chapter 5. The Fall (Continued):

    “Everything recorded in Genesis 3 has far more than a local significance. God’s attitude and action there were typical and characteristic. It was not Adam who sought God, but God that sought Adam. And this has been the order ever since. "There is none that seeketh after God" (Rom. 3:11). It was God who sought out and called Abram while yet an idolater. It was God who sought Jacob at Bethel when he was fleeing from the consequences of his wrong doing. It was God who sought out Moses while a fugitive in Midian. It was Christ who sought out the apostles whilst they were engaged in fishing, so that He could say, "Ye have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you." It was Christ who, in His ineffable love, came to seek and to save that which was lost. It is the Shepherd who seeks the sheep, and not the sheep that seek the Shepherd. How true it is that "We love Him because He first loved us." O, that we might appreciate more deeply the marvelous condescension of Deity in stooping so low as to care for and seek out such poor worms of the dust.......”

    “......"Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them" (Gen. 3:21). In order to adequately explain and expound this verse many pages might well be written, but perforce, we must content ourselves with a few lines. This verse gives us a typical picture of a sinner’s salvation. It was the first Gospel sermon, preached by God Himself, not in words but in symbol and action. It was a setting forth of the way by which a sinful creature could return unto and approach his holy Creator. It was the initial declaration of the fundamental fact that "without shedding of blood is no remission." It was a blessed illustration of substitution—the innocent dying in the stead of the guilty....”

    “.....How beautiful and perfect is the type! It was the Lord God who furnished the skins, made them into coats and clothed our first parents. They did nothing. God did it all. They were entirely passive. ...... And so it is with every sinner. "For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God" (Eph. 2:8). Well may we sing, "I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness" (Isa. 61:10).”
     
    #14 kyredneck, Jan 18, 2011
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 18, 2011
  15. Amy.G

    Amy.G New Member

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    So....what were their bodies like when they covered themselves with leaves?
     
  16. freeatlast

    freeatlast New Member

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    There is no reason to believe that Adam and Eve had created bodies that are anything like resurrection bodies. They were flesh and blood and flesh and blood cannot enter the kingdom.
     
  17. Baptist Believer

    Baptist Believer Well-Known Member
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    No telling...

    As I mentioned before, it's way too speculative for me.

    I think it's an interesting idea, but there's no reason to accept the idea based on the evidence we have.
     
  18. Baptist Believer

    Baptist Believer Well-Known Member
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    Following your line of reasoning, Adam and Eve were not part of God's Kingdom when they were created...

    I find that impossible to believe.
     
  19. freeatlast

    freeatlast New Member

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    I suppose that if one took the phrase "kingdom of God" to extremes one could include satan as being in God's kingdom as everything belongs to God. Even hell is subject to the Lord. However to keep it in perspective the kingdom of God for all practical purposes is heaven. Adam was never in heaven and I do not believe that he could enter in with his created body. His body was created for earth, not heaven. The fact that Adam was created without sin does not mean that being sinless is the only prerequisite to entering heaven. it is one, but not the only one. We also need to have bodies as the Lord and not flesh and blood bodies as Adam had and according to the Lord no flesh and blood can enter.
     
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