6. Fox in the Hen House! – Enns Rejects Adam #2

Fox cub standing over its prey

Continuing the Fox in the Hen House! series of blog posts exposing heresy about Genesis …

Is a Bible scholar trustworthy who proclaims, “Adam is a myth!”?

Such false teachers lead people astray concerning Genesis and concerning New Testament teaching based on Genesis, even to the point of subverting the Gospel.

The heretics include respected scholars claiming to be evangelicals. They question the truth of Scripture and undermine the doctrines of the divine inspiration and inerrancy of the Bible.

This series of reports focuses primarily on scholars associated with the BioLogos Foundation. BioLogos is committed to the marriage of scientism and Christianity through persuading Christians to accept evolutionism and billions of years for the age of the earth by arguing that Genesis 1-11 is mythical or metaphorical.

This sixth post of the series continues the analysis of the work of the BioLogos Senior Fellow of Biblical Studies Dr. Peter Enns on Genesis. I began this analysis in the preceding blog post. Enns is a former tenured professor of Old Testament at Westminster Theological Seminary who was removed for his heretical beliefs (more to come on the reasons in a future blog post). He is writing a Bible curriculum for children that is being marketed to homeschoolers. A subsequent blog post in this series covers Enns’ Bible curriculum in more detail.

Dr. Peter Enns

Enns’ Teachings
Peter Enns’ teaching is fraught with unorthodox, even heretical, positions. To read Enns’ views for yourself, click Peter Enns Articles for links to many articles by Enns on the BioLogos site.

In particular, Enns does not believe Genesis provides a historically factual account of origins. Enns says,

“When it comes to the science/faith discussion, the presence of the cosmic battle motif in the Old Testament should send us a strong signal: don’t expect the Old Testament to inform, let alone guide the scientific investigation of origins. If we approach the Old Testament expecting from it a “literal,” “historical,” “accurate” account of creation, we will (1) misrepresent reality in the name of faith, and (2) miss the theology that the biblical authors were so intent on putting there.”
(See “Yahweh, Creation, and the Cosmic Battle” by Peter Enns from Feb 2, 2010.)

Specifically, Enns does not believe in Adam. He thinks Adam is a metaphor for the nation of Israel. He says,

“I suggested that the Adam story could be viewed symbolically as a story of Israel’s beginnings, not as the story of humanity from ground zero.”
(See “Paul’s Adam” from March 9, 2010)

Enns’ repeated reference to the record of Adam in Genesis as “the Adam story” carries the connotation that it’s just a story as opposed to a factual historical account. This terminology subtly introduces doubt about God’s Word.

Elsewhere Enns announces his unbiblical thesis with the title of a paper: “Adam is Israel.” He says,

“Adam is the beginning of Israel, not humanity. … Maybe Israel’s history happened first, and the Adam story was written to reflect that history. In other words, the Adam story is really an Israel story placed in primeval time. It is not a story of human origins but of Israel’s origins.” (See “Adam is Israel” from March 2, 2010)

Enns admits that the plain words of Genesis teach a real historical Adam created, not by an evolutionary process, but by the direct act of God about 6,000 years ago. For Enns says,

“The biblical depiction of human origins, if taken literally, presents Adam as the very first human being ever created. He was not the product of an evolutionary process, but a special creation of God a few thousand years before Jesus—roughly speaking, about 6000 years ago. Every single human being that has ever lived can trace his/her genetic history to that one person.”
(See “Paul’s Adam” from March 9, 2010)

However for Enns, this is a major difficulty due to what he has accepted from secular scientists who do not base their interpretations of evidence on the Word of God. Enns says (immediately after the preceding statements),

“This is a problem because it is at odds with everything else we know about the past from the natural sciences and cultural remains.”
(See “Paul’s Adam” from March 9, 2010)

Enns’ purpose is to legitimize evolutionism. He says,

“If the Adam story is not about absolute human origins, then the conflict between the Bible and evolution cannot be found there.” (See “Adam is Israel” from March 2, 2010)

Conclusion
Clearly Peter Enns does not accept the plain literal truth of the Genesis record. He does not believe in a specific individual named Adam who lived on this earth about 6,000 years ago. He does not believe in Adam’s specific act of disobedience in eating the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. He does not believe in a single human pair (Adam and Eve) from whom all humans descended.

Instead of interpreting the scientific data in light of the truth revealed by Yahweh in Genesis, Enns perverts the Genesis record to fit an interpretation of the data that is currently popular among scientists, namely evolutionism and billions of years. Enns exalts a particular interpretation of data above the clear message of the Bible. He says he can’t believe the Bible because scientists think something different.

My analysis of Enns’ teaching will continue in the next blog post with a look at one of his video lectures.

Soli Deo Gloria.

Read the prequels in this Fox in the Hen House! series of blog posts exposing
heresy about Genesis:
1. Fox in the Hen House! – BioLogos Promotes Heresy
2. Fox in the Hen House! – BioLogos Rejects Inerrancy
3. Fox in the Hen House! – Colleges Compromise on Genesis
4. Fox in the Hen House! – BioLogos Founder Rejects Adam
5. Fox in the Hen House! – Enns Rejects Adam

Read the sequel:
7. Fox in the Hen House! – Enns Rejects Adam #3 (with video)

©William T. Pelletier, Ph.D.
“contending earnestly for the faith” (Jude 1:3)
Wednesday June 1, 2011 A.D.

Read my May 2011 newspaper column:
When the Sun Stood Still.

Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. (Genesis 2:7)