Strengthen your faith in God's word

"But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." vs. "And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died."

How could Adam live to be 930 years old when God said that he would die the same day that he ate of the forbidden tree?

Adam did die the same day that he ate of the forbidden tree. He just didn't die physically, but rather spiritually. Once he ate of the fruit, he became just like us when we are born, which is spiritually dead:

"That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I say unto thee, Ye must be born again." John 3:6-7

Just as Jesus is not referring to physical birth in John 3, God was not referring to physical death in Genesis 2. Therefore, Adam died spiritually the day that he ate of the forbidden tree and as a result, every person born after him is born in Adam's image (Gen. 5:3) with a dead Spirit that needs to be born again.

For more info about spiritual death, see Eph. 2:1-5 and 1 Cor 15:35-49.

It is also interesting to note 2 Peter 8 “But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day."

While this verse can be taken to only attribute to the timelessness of God, further examination can yield more insights.

To answer the question directly, Adam died spiritually rather quickly or maybe even instantaneously - being bound for hell and not being able to live eternally with God. Corresponding with 2 Peter 8 in the other sense, Adam died physically within that 1000 years. In fact, no man has lived over a thousand years, the longest being Methuselah, who lived 969 years (Genesis 5:27)

Further insights, using this principle of 1000 as a day and a day as 1000, we see that the timeline of the earth corresponds to it: 4000 years from creation to Christ, 2000 to the soon coming great tribulation of revelation, and then the 1000 year millenial reign on earth, and then to eternity. A total of 7000 years of earth, a thousand years as one day.

Also note, just as God created the world in 6 days and rested on the 7th, the Millenial reign will be a rest, where lions lie with sheep, there is no sickness, and the presence of God and new Jerusalem will be present.

Just as life with blood was not created until the 5th day, there is not actual eternal, saved life until Christ comes after 4000 years on the "5th day". Until then, all those who kept the sacrifices and ten commandments got as far as Abraham's bosom down in hell, until Christ went down and then the righteous who died before Christ's death including Lazarus were then able to have true saved life, like Christians do.

This is a classic case of not understanding language. God didn't say that when Adam ate that fruit that he would die that day. Instead God said just the way it would be from the condition that Adam was born with - immortality would be changed to mortality. God meant just what He said that if or when Adam decided to go ahead and eat that that day would begin Adam's mortal life.

Believe that God knows how to speak and it'll take you a long way in understanding the Bible and even in how to speak properly so that others might understand you. We could certainly use a whole lot more of that when speech has become more like grunts and groans than have any certain meaning.