Yes, Adam and Eve were real people.

I realize that non-Christians don’t hold to the truth that Adam and Eve were real people.  It is part of their job description as non-believers.  But I’m mystified that many of those claiming the name of Christ would deny this.  (OK, I’m not that mystified, because those not believing that are either false teachers or “saved and confused.”).

The list below has all the verses mentioning Adam by name.  None even hint that he is allegorical.  And there are also passages like Mark 10:7-9 that refer to Adam and Eve, just not by name.  (“Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife,and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh.  What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”)

Key theological concepts like original sin make no sense if Adam and Eve weren’t real. (And to save keystrokes for the skeptics, yes, I know you think it doesn’t make sense either way.  I’m addressing this to professing believers.)

Also, as Kevin DeYoung points out in his commentary on 1 Chronicles, think about what it meant to the first readers (and readers for thousands of years after that):

Are we really to think that any Jew reading 1 Chronicles (or any Christian up until very recently for that matter) would have read the genealogies as anything other than true historical truth? The Chronicler’s whole aim is to recount history. And everything in the Israelite worldview underlines the importance of God’s dealing in real time and space. Nothing suggests that 1 Chronicles is mixing in some fantastic über-man with blood and guts real men.

That kind of genealogy wouldn’t begin to make sense, not to the Jews and not to us. It’d be like starting your family tree with the Jolly Green Giant and Paul Bunyan. It’d be like writing a biography that begins with Anakin Skywalker and his son Luke and then goes on to his son Hugh Hodge and his son Charles and his son Archibald Alexander. Not very convincing.

And not very encouraging for a bunch of exiles trying to figure out who they really are.

Here’s a PleaseConvinceMe.com Podcast about Adam and Eve.

Genesis 2:20 ESV
The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him.

Genesis 3:17 ESV
And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;Genesis 3:21 ESV
And the LORD God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.Genesis 4:1 ESV
[Cain and Abel] Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten a man with the help of the LORD.”

Genesis 4:25 ESV
And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and called his name Seth, for she said, “God has appointed for me another offspring instead of Abel, for Cain killed him.”Genesis 5:1 ESV
[Adam's Descendants to Noah] This is the book of the generations of Adam. When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God.Genesis 5:3 ESV
When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth.Genesis 5:4 ESV
The days of Adam after he fathered Seth were 800 years; and he had other sons and daughters.Genesis 5:5 ESV
Thus all the days that Adam lived were 930 years, and he died.Joshua 3:16 ESV
the waters coming down from above stood and rose up in a heap very far away, at Adam, the city that is beside Zarethan, and those flowing down toward the Sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, were completely cut off. And the people passed over opposite Jericho.

1 Chronicles 1:1 ESV
[From Adam to Abraham] Adam, Seth, Enosh;

Hosea 6:7 ESV
But like Adam they transgressed the covenant; there they dealt faithlessly with me.

Luke 3:38 ESV
the son of Enos, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.

Romans 5:12 ESV
[Death in Adam, Life in Christ] Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned–

Romans 5:14 ESV
Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.

1 Corinthians 15:22 ESV
For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.

1 Corinthians 15:45 ESV
Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”;the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.

1 Timothy 2:13 ESV
For Adam was formed first, then Eve;

1 Timothy 2:14 ESV
and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.

Jude 1:14 ESV
It was also about these that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones,

Yet another passage that theological Liberals ignore or don’t understand

I often point out how false teachers abuse scripture to advance their religion-disguised-as-politics agenda.  Jim “the Gospel is all about wealth redistribution“ Wallis likes to point out how there are over 2,000 verses about money in the Bible.  That may be true, but it doesn’t mean he understands them.  False teachers like him and Chuck “Jesus is not the only way” Currie think that Jesus taught to ask “Caesar” (i.e., the government) to borrow from others to give away in the name of the oh-so-generous false teachers.

Here’s another verse they ignore or don’t understand, courtesy of  The Servility of the Religious Left « runlevel five(pointer).

The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is the slave of the lender. Proverbs 22:7 English Standard Version

Chuck Currie and the United Church of Christ want to make a lot more slaves. In fact, if they have their way,  the entire nation will become further enslaved to foreign lenders, by insisting that we continue to raise the debt ceiling. Moreover, in response to calls for increased fiscal responsibility, they are demanding an increase in taxes.

The problem is, Currie is not alone in his views. He is joined by a host of other advocates for fiscal irresponsibility that reaches the level of forced servitude for the American people. Such deluded individuals consider spending beyond our means as a nation a good thing. Even elected officials such as Pete Stark go so far to say that the bigger our national debt, the wealthier we are.

Currie should know better. What is truly alarming is his willingness to sacrifice future generations, including his two children, on the altar of the idol of Entitlements and the long-discredited Social Gospel.

Indeed, people who can’t vote or haven’t been born yet will be saddled with the debt that these false teachers advocated in the name of Christ.  Just as God points out in Proverbs, they will be slaves to their lenders.  But at least the borrowers Solomon had in mind were directly responsible for their actions.  No one borrowed in their name and without their approval.

Worse yet, the false teachers’ use of the borrowings is nearly always counterproductive.  It is lose-lose with these guys.

Christians being unequally yoked with non-believers = bad idea

Christians not even knowing they shouldn’t be yoked with non-believers and/or being proud of being unequally yoked = really bad idea.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) and people like United Church of Christ (UCC) spokesman Chuck “Jesus is not the only way” Currie think it is a great idea for Muslims and Christians to meet in Geneva to build a common future.

“Christians and Muslims have a joint responsibility to contribute the very best of their theological, spiritual, and ethical resources for the common good of humanity”, stated the organizers.

The group expects the consultation to “develop concrete ways of building a common future, in order to achieve more compassionate and just societies, based on equality, co-citizenship and mutual respect”.

(I wonder if they will convince the Muslims to stop the honor killings, persecution of those who leave the faith, etc.?)

Do they have any Bible verses to back up their views?  Do none of them know their Bibles?  Or do they not care what it says?

2 Corinthians 6:14–15 (ESV) Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever?

When the Bible teaches not to be unequally yoked it isn’t just about not marrying non-Christians (though that obviously applies).  It means we shouldn’t pretend that we serve the same God and shouldn’t partner with them on spiritual matters.

Chuck even trots out his old sermon where he preached on John 14:6 and concluded that Jesus is not the only way to salvation.  In addition to not understanding that simple verse, Chuck’s seminary forgot to tell him about the other 100+ passages that teach the same thing — as well as the countless commands in the Old Testament not to worship other Gods.

The truth of the matter is that we all can learn from the different ways we understand the Almighty

Let’s try an example.  One way Christianity views the Almighty is that Jesus is God and that He died on the cross and rose again.  One way Islam views the “Almighty” is that Jesus is not God and did not die on the cross.  The Koran is quite explicit:

And for claiming that they killed the Messiah, Jesus, son of Mary, the messenger of GOD. In fact, they never killed him, they never crucified him – they were made to think that they did. All factions who are disputing in this matter are full of doubt concerning this issue. They possess no knowledge; they only conjecture. For certain, they never killed him. Instead, GOD raised him to Him; GOD is Almighty, Most Wise. Koran, Sura 4:157-158

So how do religious pluralists reconcile those views?

We have a name for people who hold Chuck’s views: Non-Christians.  Let’s just say that Christianity may not be their forte.

Of course, that doesn’t mean we can’t be friends or interact with non-believers.  We wouldn’t get very far sharing the Gospel if that was the case.

Run, don’t walk, from the WCC, the UCC and any other group who thinks Jesus wants us to partner with non-Christians to serve him and especially those who can’t support the simple claim that Jesus is the only way to salvation.