The Purpose of the Tree of Life

== The Question ==
What is the purpose of the Tree of Life?
I come across this point enough in my discussions on Genesis and Christian apologetics, but not with who many might think. Typically, those opposed to a literal understanding of Genesis will already agree with me on this one point. This question is universally directed at those who believe in a literal interpretation of Genesis, a young universe, and a literal 6-day creation.
== Popular Reasoning ==
Most, not all, but most who believe in a literal 6-day creation will argue that there was no physical death before Adam sinned, that physical death was a consequence of sin. Death is framed as an evil thing, or at least negatively along with disease, natural disasters, crime, and a host of other bad things that were truly a direct or indirect result of Adam's sin. These things did not exist before Adam sinned, and since death is a bad thing death did not exist either.
I believe the situation is a bit more complex than this.
== My Reasoning ==
First, let me say that in one sense, I do believe that Adam's personal physical death and indirectly the personal, physical death of all who followed was a consequence of Adam's sin. Just not the way everyone else sees it. To others, the very ability to die physically was not part of Creation and was something that was inserted into the design after Adam's sin, because of Adam's sin. People will point out that we did not eat meat in the garden, that it is likely a good inference that even animals did not eat each other before Adam's sin.
I have to disagree.
=== The Tree of Life ===
I have other objections which I will address in a separate section. My main objection relates to the Tree of Life. 
There are ten total references to the concept of a Tree of Life in scripture. They are broken into three groups: Genesis, Proverbs, and Revelation.
# Revelation is a book of symbols, and the Tree of Life mentioned here is no different. Of course, understanding the Tree in Genesis gives us some insight into understanding how it is used in Revelation, but that is a different article.
# Proverbs uses the phrase metaphorically in 3:18; 11:30; 13:12; and 15:4. I will leave it to the reader at this point to understand the meaning as it is used here, but it is beyond the scope of our discussion in this article.
# Genesis is a literal reference and therefore the anchor to all other references found in scripture. Remember, metaphors must have literal anchors for their intended meaning to work. Without the anchor in reality to build on, a metaphor can quite literally mean anything the reader wishes it to mean. Again, realize that this argument is being made to those who already understand Genesis literally and so that argument doesn't need to be made. It is a foundation on which we can build the rest of this argument on.
The two passages in Genesis are given below:
Genesis 2:9 - And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
Genesis 3:22-24 - And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:
Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.
So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.
So God plants this Tree which will allow man to "eat and live forever" in the Garden of Eden. Then, when man sins, God kicks man out of the Garden and cuts off access to this Tree. Here are some logical premises that must be considered.
# Eating of the tree was not a one-shot deal. If eating of the Tree of Life only one time (one bite) was sufficient to give man immortal life, then God ran the risk of man eating of that Tree then sinning and still being under the effects of that Tree. It must be concluded that eating of the Tree continually provided for perpetual life so long as you kept eating of it.
# If man could not physically die before he sinned, then partaking of the Tree of Life did nothing since he already could not die. The Tree was pointless before sin.
# If man could not access the Tree after he sinned, then it effectively did nothing since man could not access it. Again, the Tree was pointless after sin.
# However, if man could die physically but had access to the Tree of Life before sin, then death was staved off indefinitely so long as Adam and Eve kept eating of that Tree (and presumably whoever else ate of the Tree that came after them).
# If man could die physically, then cutting off access to the Tree of Life as a consequence of his sin was meaningful because then he no longer had perpetual life thanks to the Tree. Furthermore, the consequence was even greater than Adam and Eve's personal loss since their sin denied access to all humans that came after them. And so physical death passed to all men.
The Tree of Life only makes sense if physical death was possible before Adam's sin.
=== Other Objections I Have ===
Adam Needed to Understand the Consequences of Sin
The next objection that I would raise is that if there was no concept of death of any kind, how could Adam and Eve have understood the consequences for their sin? God tells them they will die if they eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, but what does that even mean to them if they don't know what death is?
I submit that they were aware of physical death because it was part of the design, because they could potentially die physically if they didn't keep eating of the Tree of Life, because other life (animals, plants, etc.) around them did die physically. It's the only way the consequence of their action would be meaningful to them and thus proper motivation as a negative consequence to abstain from the Tree of Knowledge.
==== Entropy ====
Entropy is the wearing down of all things in the universe. It is an inescapable, but necessary process. In living systems, it is what eventually leads to death. In other words, the universe is slowly, inexorably dying and has been since God first spoke matter and energy into existence. Living systems also must be subject to entropy, else their energy consumption (Genesis 1:29-30), processing, and waste expulsion would not take place. Entropy is a fact of the universe (2 John 2:17), a part of it's design. Death is an inevitable result of entropy for living systems.
Furthermore, entropy of the Universe meant that the Universe will eventually end if allowed to progress naturally. This means that man's ultimate destiny isn't this temporal existence, but an eternal one outside of space and time. Physical death is just a transition to that eternal state and isn't necessarily bad. It just is. Only sin has made physical death have dire consequences as once a person dies physically, they are no longer free to make moral choices in favor of God. Their eternal destination is set.
==== Hebrews 9:27 ====
And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:
This verse cannot be talking about spiritual death because that means God is at fault for our sin and subsequent spiritual separation from Him (spiritual death). If God appointed it, He did it, not us. Thus, this passage must be talking about physical death.
If physical death is "appointed" that means it was set in order as a natural part of Creation. God designed us to eventually die. This phrase cannot mean anything else in this context.
==== Seasons ====
Part of God's design of the kosmos, particularly of the Earth, is the concept of seasons (Gen. 1:14; Psa 74:17). Autumn is a season where, due to the Earth's tilt away from the sun, plant life dies as Winter approaches. Then, Winter, much lays dead and dormant and then Spring represents rebirth and new life. Without the physical death that comes after the harvest, the processes that lead to fertilization and rebirth in the spring could not happen.
==== Plant Life ====
Whatever other things may be said about the differences between humans, animals, and plants, that plants are alive is without question. That they were given as food to animals and humans meant they had to die in order that the animals and humans could have life (Gen. 1:29-30) just as animals were later given as food and had to die that man could have life after the Flood (Genesis 9:3).
== Conclusion ==
It is my conclusion therefore that physical death was part of God's design. It was necessary for natural processes to move forward. It was necessary to feed other living things. It was necessary to demonstrate the consequences of sin to Adam and Eve. It was even necessary to eventually end man's temporal existence in a natural fashion so that man could transition into eternity without this mortal coil (1 Cor. 15:53-54; 2 Cor. 5).
In Truth and Love,
Ernie