Was Adam a real man? Part 3.

by Rick Brentlinger
(Pace, FL, USA)

Yes, Adam was a real man, the first human, from whom all other humans are descended. The Bible in context, is clear about that fact.

"Thy word is true from the beginning:
and every one of thy righteous
judgments endureth for ever."
Psalm 119:160
If you're a christian who does not believe the Bible is true from the beginning, then you've got a serious spiritual problem. Rejecting the Biblical witness about Adam as a real man and embracing theistic evolution or Darwinian evolution negatively impacts every foundational doctrine of Christianity.

The gospel writers and Jesus viewed the book of Genesis as real history which actually happened. In the Bible, Satan is the only one who questions the Genesis account of creation, Genesis 3:1.

What evolution-affirming christians view as myth, what they claim could not possibly be true history IS viewed in the New Testament as true history. Those who reject the Biblical account of Creation are at odds with the univocal witness of the New Testament about Adam. Even James Barr, not noted for being conservative or fundamentalist, wrote:

As "the scientific approach came to have more and more assent from fundamentalists themselves, they shifted their interpretation of the Bible passages from literal to non-literal in order to save... the inerrancy of the Bible... the only natural exegesis is a literal one, in the sense that this is what the author meant."
-James Barr, Fundamentalism, Philadelphia, Westminster, 1977, p. 42.

The creation of Adam and Eve as real people, the first human beings on earth, the fall of Adam and a universal deluge known as Noah's flood, are accepted as historical fact by Jesus and the human authors of the Bible. Many professing Christians, giving no thought to the consequences of their opinion, have decided that Adam was:

1. myth
   
   
2. legend
   
   
3. saga
   
   
4. poetry
   
   
5. metaphor
   
   
6. heroic tale
   
   
7. literary invention
   
   
8. parabolic tale
   
   
9. spiritual tale
   
   
10. supra-historical (not occurring in time and space)
    
    
11. an example of figurative language
    
    
12. a literary device not intended to convey literal truth.

Unbelief makes strange bedfellows. What atheists and many modern christians have in common is their vehement rejection of Genesis 1-3 as a fact-based historical account of creation. According to atheists and many professing christians, Adam and Eve were definitely not real historical people. That viewpoint raises interesting questions for Christians.

If Adam was
not a real man

1. How could the mythical sin of two mythical people in a mythical garden lead to the literal and very real spiritual death of every human being on earth? There are only a few possible answers.
   
   a. Adam was the first man, a special creation of God from whom every other human being descended.
   
   b. Those who reject Adam as a real man must reject the Biblical truth that everyone born on earth is spiritually dead; as in Adam all die," 1 Corinthians 15:22, and you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins," Ephesians 2:1.
   
   c. Those who reject Adam as a real man must make up their own story of how everyone is born spiritually dead since the Bible attributes that fact to their common descent from Adam.
   
   d. Those who reject Adam as a real man must reject the Biblical truth that every human being is born alive physically but spiritually dead, needing to be born again, John 3:3-7. If they reject that Biblical truth, the entire Bible becomes meaningless.
   
   
   
   
   
2. How could a Genesis mythology result in the very real historical suffering and death of Jesus our Messiah? If Adam never lived, then Adam never sinned. If Adam never sinned, then Adam's original sin was never inherited by his descendants and no one is born a sinner due to Adam's sin.
   
   
3. If the fall of mankind in Adam is a myth, why did Jesus die? How did modern humans become sinners if we are descended from 10,000 evolving hominids, ala Francis Collins and his BioLogos cohorts?
   
   Professing christians who keep coming up with new reasons to reject Bible truth soon find themselves suffering sun-stroke out in left field without a ball cap. The death of Christ serves no purpose if mankind is not descended from Adam and fallen in Adam, a real man, as the Bible teaches.

Theistic evolutionists
reject Bible truth

Theistic evolutionists (the majority of professing christians these days), believe that original sin is a myth, not historical fact. They have no scriptural basis for their (un)belief and must accept their false belief by faith (sola fide), while denying the truthfulness of the Genesis account.

It makes more sense to believe the Bible, that a real Adam, created by a real God in real time committed a real sin in a real garden, resulting in real death. The reality of death caused by Adam's original sin required a real death on a real cross by a real Saviour to pay the real penalty for our real sins.




Christians who do not believe that Genesis is true history assert that "the Adam myth" intends only to teach us a general truth, that we are sinners. They view sin as a natural part of the human condition, as normal as having blond hair or being right-handed. In plainer words, they have an unscriptural view of original sin.

"“Ethically we are morally rebellious because of the ethical violation of Adam in disobeying God. Ontologically we receive the consequences for Adam’s disobedience and our sinful nature which are condemnation and death. Theologically this cashes out as “original sin,” though the total depravity variation is not completely necessary.

We can hold a lighter view of depravity, i.e. semi-Augustinian or even semi-Pelagian, and still hold to the orthodox view of original sin. We cannot deny original sin however, and still be orthodox. That doesn’t make sense with Paul and that’s simply not Christian.”
-Jeremy Bouma

In other words, some professing christians view sin as part of the evolutionary process. For Bible rejecting christians, there was never a time when God created Adam in innocence and sinless perfection as our original ancestor. For Bible rejecting christians, there was never a time when human beings were sinless. For Bible rejecting christians, there was never a time when Adam rebelled against God and fell from his perfect state of innocence.

The problem with that modern evolutionary view is that it is never taught in the Bible. In fact, the Bible teaches the opposite of the modern evolutionary view. Rejecting the Biblical witness that Adam and Eve were real people, created in innocence, who sinned and fell from God's grace, destroys a rational understanding of the rest of the Bible.

A spiritual battle
for Bible truth

We are in a spiritual battle for the truth of the Bible. Many christians have rejected the Bible without ever studying the issues. That is a rather ignorant way to approach scripture. Others have rejected the truth claims of the Bible (while professing to be christian) because a professor somewhere told them it's not true. That is also an ignorant way to treat scripture.

Many modern christians reject the truth of the Bible and encourage others to reject Biblical truth. They have been brainwashed to believe the evolutionary lie, much as cult members are brainwashed. It's time christians stopped drinking the evolutionary kool aid.

"Information is the fuel we use to keep our minds working properly. Deny a person the information he requires to make sound judgements, and he will be incapable of making sound judgments." -Steve Hassan, Combating Cult Mind Control

"There are only two cures for rejecting the truth claims of the Bible: the first is repentance and getting right with God. The second is judgment." -Rick Brentlinger

FREE pdf
Where did Cain get his wife?

Was Adam a real man? Part 1.

Was Adam a real man? Part 2.

Was Adam a real man? Part 4

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Expulsion from the Garden of Eden, 1828,
oil on canvas, Thomas Cole, 1801-1848
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
This painting is in the public domain.