Adam in the New Testament
Winter 2022
When poor, benighted Charles Darwin wrote Origin of the Species, he was literally bringing into modern currency the beliefs of ancient Greek pagans like Thales. Prior to the Greeks, the Sumerians had recorded their beliefs in biological evolution achieved over vast periods of time. However, the world greeted the publication of Darwin’s work in 1859 as though it were presenting novel ideas. Darwin was merely expressing fallen man’s age-old autonomy and his basic rejection of the living triune Jehovah.
Unbelieving scholars within the professing church quickly jumped on Darwin’s bandwagon of evolutionary hysteria, synthesizing evolution with spurious species of Christianity. In these evolutionary ideas, many found the escape hatch through which they could leave the binding nature of biblical orthodoxy. This was particularly the case in the German universities. Those institutions were considered by leaders of various Christian denominations to be the epitome of scholarship. Therefore, young men from the West were sent to those schools to obtain their doctorates. Sadly, even the godly young B.B. Warfield was tainted by the heterodoxy into which he was plunged under Schleiermacher and his colleagues. Because of the acceptance of these evolutionary myths into the professing church, widespread apostasy became apparent to sincere believers.
The fallout from the nineteenth century compromise with falsehood continues to afflict the church today. Increasing numbers of professing Christians are rejecting the literal creation account of Genesis. Dr. Peter Enns, former professor at Westminster Seminary (Philadelphia), and his work at BioLogos Foundation advocate persuasively for theistic evolution. Both Enns and BioLogos downplay the substitutionary atonement accomplished by Jesus Christ. In place of the Savior’s cross work, just like the nineteenth century liberals, they emphasize Christ’s example to be followed as “the ideal man.” They hope by following Jesus that they can gain something hardly equivalent to biblical salvation. Not believing the biblical data on Adam and inherited sin from him (Romans 5:12), sin is no longer viewed as rebellion against God. Augustinianism and Reformation theology’s unfolding of the curse and ruin of sin have been abandoned. Instead, sin is simply described as the harmful and manipulative things that people do to each other and to themselves. Man misses the “mark,” but nothing is said about what constitutes or determines the “mark” except being distanced from the human ideal that Jesus models. Enns goes so far as to justify sexual promiscuity by actually calling it “an effort to perpetuate one’s gene pool to ensure the survival of the fittest.”
Today in the history of Christ’s church, another man is speaking falsely against the biblical and historical Adam. Dr. N.T. Wright prefers to postulate a race of sub-human apes that he along with agnostics refers to as “hominids.”
Thankfully, about 45 years ago, Dutch theologian Dr. J.P. Versteeg saw the looming danger of the war on Adam, on Christ, on Paul, and the gospel. Dr. Versteeg could see that faith in the myth of biological evolution would logically deny the existence of Adam and Eve, and eventually permeate professing reformed churches. In 1978, he published his concise book Adam in the New Testament. In this work of only 67 pages, Dr. Versteeg skillfully expounds Romans 5, 1 Corinthians 15, and three other New Testament passages, demonstrating the truth of Adam’s historicity. Romans 5 clearly identifies Adam as the first man whose action has severely impacted the whole human family. 1 Corinthians 15:45 explicitly declares, “The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.” Only thoroughly sound, historical theology maintaining the real Adam can preserve sanity and morality in the professing church.
Versteeg’s book is right up to date and uncovers the cause of the present insanity. Bible truth is being compromised with evolutionary mythology. With such a destroyed foundation, is it any wonder that people ask, “What gender am I?” Belief in evolution is totally incompatible with believing the Bible, and the denial of the historical Adam is directly rejecting the truth of the eternally inspired Word of God and common sense.
This book is available for only $5 at Reformation Heritage.
Rev. Myron Mooney | Minister of Trinity FPC, Trinity, AL