9. Fox in the Hen House! – Ramifications of Rejecting Adam

Posted by: BibleScienceGuy | June 25, 2011

9. Fox in the Hen House! – Ramifications of Rejecting Adam

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

The preceding 4 blog posts (#5, #6, #7, #8) documented the rejection of Adam and a historical Genesis by the BioLogos Senior Fellow of Biblical Studies Dr. Peter Enns.

Other posts in the series document this rejection for other BioLogos leaders. The BioLogos Foundation 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.

What are the ramifications of disbelief in a historical Adam? This ninth post of the series examines the consequences of “mythologizing” Adam and Genesis.

Ramifications of Rejecting Adam
Unbelief in a real Adam is a foundational error that has many negative consequences.

First, it undermines belief in the plain truth and inerrancy of Scripture because Moses, Jesus, Luke, and Paul certainly believed in and based teaching on a first man Adam.

Second, if Adam was not real, then neither was Jesus. For Luke traces the genealogy of Jesus back to Adam. If Adam was a myth, then so also must his son Seth have been a myth. If Seth was a myth, then so must his son Enosh have been a myth, and so on all the way down to Jesus. But Jesus is firmly attested historically, and therefore all his ancestors all the way back to the first one must have existed. A real person cannot descend from a mythical ancestor. The Bible teaches the first ancestor was Adam (Luke 3:23-38; Genesis 2:7-8, 15-23; 3:20; Matthew 19:4; 1 Chronicles 1:1; 1 Corinthians 15:45; 1 Timothy 2:13; Jude 1:14).

Third, unbelief in Adam dynamites the Gospel. For if Adam did not literally exist, then he did not fall into sin taking all his descendants with him, and hence men are not sinners, and hence man does not need a Savior. If there was not a first Adam (who according to Scripture became a life-giving soul), then there cannot be a second or last Adam (Christ to become a life-giving spirit), because 1 comes before 2. Destruction of a foundation destroys the superstructure built on the foundation. So also it is written, “The first MAN, Adam, BECAME A LIVING SOUL.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural; then the spiritual. The first man is from the earth, earthy; the second man is from heaven. (1 Corinthians 15:45-47)

Fourth, life in Christ is negated. Paul parallels death through Adam with life in Christ: For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive. (1 Corinthians 15:22) “So also” is like an “equals sign =”. If we do not die in Adam (which we didn’t if Adam is mythical), then we are not made alive by Christ.

Fifth, it directly impacts belief in Jesus. Jesus ties believing His words to believing what Moses wrote: “For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote of Me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?” (John 5:46-47)

These are all serious negative consequences of unbelief in a real Adam. Heretical teaching like this and its logical repercussions should not be endorsed or permitted in the Church. Enns and his BioLogos colleagues are false teachers who undermine the truth of Scripture.

Christians should reject such “de-Adamizing” teaching because it contradicts multiple Scriptures and undermines the central message of the Bible.

Soli Deo Gloria.

©William T. Pelletier, Ph.D.
“contending earnestly for the faith” (Jude 1:3)
Saturday June 25, 2011 A.D.

Read my June 2011 newspaper column:
Earthquakes, Tsunamis, Volcanoes, & Noah’s Flood.

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)