The Inscrutable Question: The Creation’s “Slavery to Corruption,” Rom 8:21; Ten Propositions That This Corruption Is Divinely Imposed Entropy
	1.	The sufferings of the present period of time involve the corruption and decay of both the human body and the universe between the fall of Adam and the Second Advent of Christ.
	2.	The question arises: What form does this corruption and decay take?  We get very definite guidance from the Greek word found in:
Romans 8:21 -	Therefore the material universe itself shall be set free from slavery to corruption [ fqor£ phthora ] into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
	3.	The Greek lexicons and dictionaries give us valuable information on this word:
Vine, W. E.  An Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words.  (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1984), 235:
PHTHORA (fqor£ ), being brought into an inferior or worse condition.  It is used physically of the condition of creation, Rom. 8:21.
Arndt, William F. and F. Wilber Gingrich.  A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament.  2d ed.  (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1979), 858:
fqor£, ruin, destruction, dissolution, deterioration, corruption.
1. In the world of nature … coming into being and passing away.
Liddell, Henry G. and Robert Scott.  A Greek-English Lexicon.  9th ed.  (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992), 1930:
fqor£, destruction, ruin, especially by some general visitation.  B. passing out of existence, ceasing to be.  3. loss by deterioration.
Friedrick, Gerhard (ed.).  Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, trans. Geoffrey W. Bromiley.  Vol. 9.  (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1974), 93-105 passim:
In Philosophical Usage.  Greek philosophy continually sought to understand [ fqor£ ], corruption and decay in antithesis to [ g…nomai ], original creation.  The question is that of what abides [the earth] in contrast to that which changes [things that are on the earth].  They have a fixed span which undergoes alteration.  The concept of [corruption and decadence] is always defined by what abides and is immutable in the cosmos [the eternal].  The main concern of older Greek philosophy is to know this abiding element in the changing and perishing forms of nature.
Philo. fqor£ is something whose cause does not lie in God, the eternal is not subject to corruptibility
Corruptible-Incorruptible. fqor£ in Romans 8:21 is the “corruptibility” which must pass away as flesh and blood must also pass away.
1 Corinthians 15:50 -	Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable [ fqor£ phthora: corrupted and decayed ] inherit the imperishable [ ¢fqars…a aphtharsia: incorrupt and eternal ].
4.	These definitions along with our context in Romans 8:19-22 bring us to several conclusions:
1)	The earth was once in a status quo of perfection described in Scripture as the garden of Eden.
2)	This perfection was transformed into an ongoing process of corruption and decay at the point of Adam’s original sin.
3)	This new process will be the universe’s status quo until the Second Advent of Jesus Christ.
4)	At the Second Advent all believers of every dispensation will be in the status quo of ultimate sanctification, i.e., a body of incorruption with eternal life.
5)	This will enable the Lord to return the earth to its pristine perfection last enjoyed by our original parents in the garden of Eden.
5.	At this point I am going to submit several propositions in answer to the question, “What form does this corruption and decay take?”  These propositions are my conclusions reached from research into about 15 different sources.  You are free to take them or leave them as well as offer objective descent.  However, once I state my propositions I will then seek to clarify them logically based on the biblical documentation we have already done.
1)	Since our Lord is perfect, He is not the Creator of anything imperfect, corruptible, or decadent.
2)	Therefore, we conclude that the original creation as well as the restored earth following the Luciferian Rebellion was perfect, incorrupt, and free of decay.
3)	The fact that our original parents had perfect life in perfect bodies indicates that the system in place in Eden was designed to maintain its perfect environment indefinitely.
4)	The tree of life was available to maintain their physical perfection for as long as they remained in status quo perfection in their spiritual lives.
5)	By the same token, as long as spiritual perfection was maintained by Adam and Ishah, natural perfection was maintained in the universe.
6)	However, as soon as spiritual perfection was lost due to original sin it resulted in the fall of our original parents as well as the fall of their environment.
7)	Adam and Ishah entered into as status quo of spiritual death manifest by the corruption of the sinful nature and the decay of the aging process of the body leading to physical death.
8)	Simultaneously the perfect environment entered into a status quo of natural death manifest by its involuntary slavery to corruption and involvement in ongoing decay.
9)	Romans 8:21 instructs us that the universe is in tÁj doule…aj tÁj fqor©j tes douleias tes phthoras: “the slavery of corruption and decay.”
10)	I submit for your consideration that this “slavery of corruption and decay” currently encountered by the universe is the result of a curse imposed by the original Physicist, Jesus Christ, in the form of the second law of thermodynamics which is manifest by the principle of entropy.  Definitions are important:
Morris, Henry M.  Scientific Creationism.  2d ed. (El Cajon: Master Books, 1985), 25:
The Second Law of Thermodynamics (Law of Energy Decay) states that every system left to its own devices always tends to move from order to disorder, its energy tending to be transformed into lower levels of availability, finally reaching the state of complete randomness and unavailability for further work.
The tendency to move from order to disorder and the tendency of energy to move to lower levels of availability is the principle of entropy, defined by:
Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary, s.v. “entropy”:
The measure of the unavailable energy in a closed thermodynamic system; a measure of disorder of a closed thermodynamic system; the degradation of the matter and energy in the universe to an ultimate state of inert uniformity; the steady degradation or disorganization of a system.
11)	The documentation of my 10 propositions is assisted by:
Yeager, Randolph O.  The Renaissance New Testament.  Vol.11.  (Gretna: Pelican Publishing Co., 1983), 543-44.
1.	The first law of thermodynamics tells us that everything that exists in space and time is energy and everything that happens is energy conversion.  Energy can be converted from one form into another, but can neither be created nor destroyed.
2.	Energy takes on two forms: potential, called matter, and kinetic, called energy.
3.	Entropy is the principle that matter, which is potential energy, can perform work only by becoming kinetic energy.
4.	For example, oil as matter is potential energy as it sits in the fuel tank of your car.  But when it is burned in the engine it is converted into heat whose kinetic energy produces the work that moves the automobile forward.
5.	Oil is produced over an extremely long period of time.  Plant and animal life disintegrates under pressure to form peat, lignite, and finally, coal.  A bucket of coal is matter that was once the energy which caused an animal or plant to live.
6.	What was previously kinetic energy has over time been converted into matter: the potential energy of coal.
7.	When we burn coal we get kinetic energy that boils the water that produces the steam that runs the dynamo that creates the electricity that runs our homes.
8.	The process that turns plant and animal matter into oil and coal requires thousands of years while it takes only a few hours to burn up a tank of gasoline or a few minutes to burn up a ton of coal.
9.	Thus we have entropy.  Matter moves from potential to kinetic until all available energy is equally distributed at which time all motion will cease and universal death will result.
10.	Thus the Enviro Mentals are right.  There is indeed a limited amount of natural resources on Planet Earth and left to our own devices at some point out in the future that supply will be exhausted.
11.	But it is not left to our own devices.  The entropy problem is a limited one.  It began at the fall of Adam and will end at the Second Advent.