The distinction between Eden and the world before the fall was simply a matter of proximity to God, but now that Adam had sinned, the Garden of Eden became the holy place into which man could not enter, Eden became the holy land, and the rest of the world became the defiled land. The point is not that a new substance had been infused into the world to make it evil. Evil is not a substance. Evil is having a wrong covenantal relationship with God. After the fall, the world under Adam became covenantally separated from God and cursed with Adam.
Death is an ever-present and inescapable reality in the fallen world because of the curse.
The world, in other words, was defined by the curse on man after the fall. Only in the grace of God was there hope for salvation. The Covenant 1. God remained Lord over the world, but Adam could not approach Him as before. Man could no longer have intimate fellowship with Him as he did in the Garden.