Mark

Susannah,

Why did God give ‘authority’ to the human pair over animals in the sinless world? To quote you “for what need was there of such a rule in the garden when the two were innocent of evil?”

Maybe you can answer your own question? Maybe the animals were ‘evil’ when the humans were innocent and that’s why they needed authority?

All biases aside, authority existed BEFORE the fall and sin! As NN has clearly pointed out, authority is not the sin, it’s the abuse of it that is the sin. I can’t see how you can argue that ‘rule’ is a consequence of sin, when clearly it was given before the fall.

Thoughts??? My guess is your focus narrows down on ‘humans’ only and you missed this point that God had given authority pre-fall in the sinless, perfect world. Do you believe that authority is intrinsically tied into sin?