If Adam and Eve hadn't sinned, introducing death into creation, wouldn't the world have gotten overpopulated?

I turn to the question of the entrance of death. Mr. N. examines the present condition of man's body, which scripture declares and every one knows to be mortal; and states, that as it is constituted it must be so, and hence argues that it must have been so in a state which he knows nothing about. And that is called logic! Is it impossible that it should have been in another state? Of course, as it is, it is mortal. But could not God have sustained it? All things subsist by Him. An animal that lives a century or two, or an insect that closes its life with the evening of its birthday, are all constituted so by Him with whom are the issues of life. Could He not have ever sustained the life of him whom He had made in His own image? A heathen, Callimachus, will tell him, that in Him we live, and move, and have our being. Mr. N. will tell us that the earth could not have held them. Who told him they would have stayed there? All this is mere gratuitous supposition.

118 Mr. N. suggests physiological difficulties as to the peopling of the earth. (Phases, p. 110.)

Some physiologists have thought, on physiological principles, that the earth must have been probably more populous at the time of the deluge than now; but to such mere probable calculations it is really useless to have anything to say. The population of the earth increases so much more rapidly under some circumstances than under others (so amazingly faster, too, in proportion to the space over which the population has to spread), or, on the other hand, diminishes from oppression or misery; that assertions, made off-hand as to possible numbers, really prove nothing else than the disposition of the objector. Mr. N. — who has not confidence in scripture, because he will not believe it to be God's word, and who has great confidence in these surmises, because he is sure they are man's — considers the latter, of course, certain, the former of no authority, and talks of demonstrations; though as to demonstration, for instance, of the antediluvian population, it is a mere absurdity to talk of it. Does he suppose he has any demonstration that there has been no deluge, the testimony to which, and even to the Mosaic account of which, is everywhere, and the proofs of which, according to the authority of such men as Cuvier, are everywhere also? All this shews simply the will to make objections, and the hardihood of objectors.

Then again one can understand how favourable the lengthened span of life in those days was to carrying out God's word in blessing the first pair, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over fish of the sea, and over bird of the heavens, and over every living thing that moves upon the earth. Thus not only is the fact unquestionable for all that respect revelation, but the wisdom, not to say necessity, of that exceptional condition, is pretty apparent.

The fact is, so far from the truth are those who judge solely from present experience, that man was naturally made at the outset to live. Death was sin's wages, not then a physiological necessity. God had provided the means for prolonging his life if obedient; but deprived him of that means peremptorily when fallen. For what greater misery, or moral anomaly, than an everlasting life of sin? Death therefore is in no way a debt of nature but of sin; and here we read its knell for each even of those who stood aloof from the evil way of Cain, the ancestors not of Israel only but in due time of the Messiah. Of Adam, so of Seth, Kenai], Mahalaleel, Jared, it was alike said "he died." Now that man is a sinner, it is the one event that happens to all in the seen world; in the unseen there will be another still more solemn. "For it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this judgment" (Heb. 9:27).

But I hear an objector saying, If people are not going to die, how will you get them fed; the population of the earth will overstep the possibility of its supplying food for its inhabitants?

He objects to the long lives of the patriarchs (Phases, p. 110); but he does not say why. Nor is there any reason why a man should not be constituted to live nine hundred as well as seventy years. It is a question of the sovereign power of God, on which mere reasoning is absurd. The longevity of the patriarchs would have rendered the peopling of the earth easier, as well as the communication of true knowledge more secure. But Mr. N. does not even state the difficulty with any accuracy; for the earth must have been peopled from two persons (or, at any rate, from six since the flood) according to the Mosaic account. After that, five hundred years, four hundred, and so on; and on the division of the earth in Peleg's days two hundred years were the allotted term of man's life, and, ere long, "three-score years and ten." But if we take the flood as the point of departure, the universal tradition, mythology, and worship of men confirm the account of Moses, and of the existence even of the three sons of Noah.

We are certainly in a position to calculate with greater exactitude the area of the earth’s surface. We are told it consists roughly of about 50,000,000 square miles. This reduced to square yards would be 154,880,000,000,000 square yards, that is a matter of 15 figures. If the human race be doubled each century for 60 centuries our calculations show that there would at the end of that time be only one square yard available for over 10,000 people.

It may be urged that the population of the earth has been greatly diminished by earthquakes, floods, fire, plagues, diseases, wars, bad seasons, producing lack of food, resulting in the death of millions by famines; and further that the effect at modern civilisation is to reduce the birth rate. On the other hand however, we know how civilised countries reduce the death rate by better sanitation, increased knowledge of hygiene and the laws of living, better medical knowledge and surgical skill and the like. Still there can be no doubt that on the whole the death rate must have been much higher in the past centuries, and the rate of increase therefore lower.

The population of the United Kingdom in 1801 was over 16 millions; in 1901 it was 41 millions, or considerably more than double. Take that as a rough kind of standard, and assume that the human race as a whole doubles itself every century. Begin with 2 in the first century, and double—4, 8, 16, 32, and so on, for sixty centuries, that is for 6,000 years. We know of course that the first nine patriarchs, as recorded in Genesis 5, became parents at the average age of 117 years. Noah’s great age (500) before he begat children was, no doubt, arranged by God in view of the flood, so that there should not be five or six generations in the ark at the same time, but only two, viz., Noah and his wife, his three sons and their wives. However that does not vitiate our calculation, as we shall see.

What then is the result of doubling the population each century for 6,000 years? We arrive at a colossal number represented by 1 with eighteen figures after it. If we calculate for 100 centuries, that is for 10,000 years, we should get a number represented by 1 with thirty figures after it. So we pass from 19 figures to 31 figures—a tremendous jump.

Notwithstanding all He foresaw of rebellion and bloodshed, God repeats in Gen. 9:7 His word to men, "Be fruitful and multiply; swarm in the earth and multiply in it." This they have assuredly done.

God's prolonging man's life at that time acted instead of writing the word; we see God's wisdom in it so. At the flood we get life shortened by half; and by half again, when the earth was divided and portioned out to the people. It would not do, in the way the world is now, for men to live 900 years.

Diminution of half the duration of life, connected with the regular settling of the earth; not the spreading of the various stocks and branching off of families.