Adam—Real Man, Myth, or Legend?

Presentation

Randy Guliuzza: We’re going to start here with Adam as it says man, myth or legend on all of those things. And the subtitle is what is at stake? What is at stake? A lot is at stake, boy, just a tremendous amount is at stake here. But they’re completely denying this biblical account, and they say Collins and his colleagues dismiss those three views in favor of theistic evolution. The views that they are dismissing, of course, would be our view that Adam was a real historical person, directly created by God, and Eve was also directly created by God, who became the first couple.

Anyway, they dismissed those in favor of theistic evolution, which affirms that the biblical God was the creator of all earthly organisms, humanity included, and used as His method the standard evolutionary scenario of gradual natural selection among genetic mutations across eons, pausing just for a moment. That is a major, major compromise, because the standard evolutionary scenario is built to be anti-theistic because it is anti-design. It’s built that way. Random mutations are to take away all evidence of purposefulness, and natural selection is to be a substitute agent which can do naturally what only God can do. So the standard evolutionary scenario can never, ever be married with a theistic view because it was built to be anti-theistic, so that just doesn’t even fit logically to try to do something like this.

They go on to say how this is good, a nonrandom internet survey of teachers and evangelical seminaries in 2009 showed that 46%, now remember this is 2011, it’s gotten worse since then, 46% accept that concept. So is it any reason as to why we have so many pastors today who won’t even touch this issue? Why we have so many prominent evangelical scholars who are buying into the science of evolution?

So, what is that science? What is making them doubt the Bible to begin with?

Part 2

Tim Moore: Dr. Guliuzza draws a sharp contrast between science, the process for gaining understanding through careful observation, experimentation and analysis, and scientism, the religion of science.

Nathan Jones: There are some who believe that only what can be measured is real and meaningful. But how can we measure love, or loyalty, or sorrow, or remorse? No, human emotions alone prove that there are realities that cannot be measured or even explained by mere materialism.

Tim Moore: Randy described the major genetic evidence cited by evolutionists who have convinced some evangelical Christians to embrace evolution.

Presentation

Randy Guliuzza: So the major evidence is one- high similarity between genetic content, two- junk DNA, and three- the vast separation of time between humans and our ancestors. It gets supported by other groups which claim to be evangelical in their thrust, including this group right here BioLogos, which is, I would say it’s a competitor to ICR, not an ally. It claims to be a Christian organization, but it is directly competing with our message. And it is highly, highly influential. And their message is this, that the church must come to accept evolution.

Part 3

Tim Moore: The church must come to accept evolution? I suppose just as the Trojans had to accept the wooden horse left at the gate to their city by the Greek army. No. Sometimes what appears innocuous can bring swift and total destruction.

Nathan Jones: And such has been the case with evolution. Its unprovable claims have caused many to reject the testimony of God regarding creation. Paul described the outcome of professing to be wise while exchanging the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man, and of birds and four footed animals and crawling creatures. Those who embrace such lies become fools.

Tim Moore: To paraphrase Groucho Marx, when it comes to evolutionary science, who are you going to believe, our creator God or your lying eyes?

Presentation

Randy Guliuzza: So what’s going to give? Are you going to question the evidence, see if it really is overwhelmingly in favor of evolution? Or are you going to adjust your Bible? Well, for many of these, the Bible always comes out in second place in a head to head competition with science, always comes out that way. When evolutionists want to ask for a peace treaty between their view of science and the biblical account, their peace treaty is always an unconditional surrender on the part of the biblical teaching.

And that’s exactly what Peter Enns says in his book, The Evolution of Adam. Quote, “The Human Genome Project completed in 2003, has shown beyond any reasonable scientific doubt that humans and primates share common ancestry.” Of course, that’s going back to his view that we’re 99% genetically identical to chimps. My goal, in this book, is to focus solely on how the Bible fits into all of this.”

In other words, if evolution is true, what do I do with my Bible? Of course, he is honest enough to realize there is a major conflict between the normal reading of Scripture and what they are claiming to be true scientifically. Well, I can tell you what he’s going to do with his Bible, he’s going to rewrite his Bible, or he’s going to do like William Lane Craig did, and that is call it mytho history, mytho history parts that are being fantastic.

Well, if you have to rewrite the Bible, does the Holy Spirit know what He’s doing? Was the Holy Spirit lying when He inspired these people? Was God lying to us when He wrote the Scriptures? Well, according to this gentleman, the answer is no. “The Lord accommodated the Bible.” Oh, how did He accommodate the Bible? “The Holy Spirit used the biology of the day as an incidental vessel to reveal inerrant spiritual truths in Genesis 1.” So basically, what he’s saying is, Genesis 1 is nothing but a myth. It’s nothing but an allegory. What he is really saying is it is not, and this is the take home point, it is not real history.

At the beginning of the talk between all of this, I ask what is at stake? What is it stake over something like a real historical Adam? Well, you know who knows what’s at stake? The atheists know what is at stake. And some of these are what is at stake, basic, important, fundamental biblical doctrines. And this is the first one that I always focus on, you think I’m going to talk about inerrancy, or maybe inspiration, or maybe the resurrection, or maybe the virgin birth, or maybe some of these doctrines which we think are the fundamental foundational doctrines of the faith. Well, I don’t focus on that because theistic evolutionists and the evolutionists themselves don’t focus on that. I focus on this one, biblical clarity, the fancy name is perspicuity, and that doctrine is very important. It says that God clearly communicated what He wanted to say, and how He wanted to say it, in such a way that the average person reading the Bible can understand it for themselves. In other words, the meaning is clear, you give words their normal meaning in their normal context, and the meaning is clear.

Part 4

Tim Moore: In April 2024, Professor Daniel Dennett died. Touted as one of the Four Horsemen of New Atheism, Dennett was an evangelist of atheism, denying the existence of God with a passion and insisting on a materialist explanation for every facet of human emotion and free will.

Nathan Jones: Dennett famously described evolution as a universal acid, because he understood that Darwin’s radical idea would erode everything man previously believed about God and His creation. And like the blob from outer space, anyone who allowed evolutionary ideas to infiltrate their thinking would eventually be consumed altogether. The corrosive quality of acid can be beneficial when properly used, but it is destructive in the most tragic sense if it corrodes and destroys that which is good and true.

Tim Moore: As Randy just stated, atheists get it. They realize their ideology, their atheistic theology, cannot be mated with any claim to Christian faith. Sadly, many Christians do not realize the inevitable destination the evolutionary road leads to. Even if an individual manages to hold to a semblance of faith in their own heart, their advocacy for evolution will lead others away from the true and living God with everlasting ramifications.

Nathan Jones: Let’s let Dr. Guliuzza offer a biblical perspective on this raging debate.

Presentation

Randy Guliuzza: Now, this is a very, very important doctrine and not only deals with the fact that you can read and understand your Bible, not only does it confirm the Bible where it says in Deuteronomy 32, after Moses gave the law that you don’t have to go across the oceans and bring someone in to interpret the Bible for you. Not only is it confirmed in Acts 17, where it said the Bereans were searching the Scriptures as Paul was teaching it to them. The Bereans were checking out the Apostle Paul to see if what he said was so. It confirms all of these things, but it is also an important doctrine in terms of biblical authority, which means this, that there should be nothing between you and your Bible. You don’t have to take a holy man and insert them between you and your Bible to tell you what the Bible says. Nor do you have to take a science guy, such as Stephen Hawking and insert him between the Bible and you for him to tell you what the Bible says.

Biblical clarity was a Reformation issue which said, you don’t need any of those people to stand between you and the Bible; the Bible in and of itself is your authority. So this biblical doctrine that the Holy Spirit, when He has come, will lead you into all truth, is really important, is really important.

Number two, biblical inerrancy, of course, everybody recognizes that if the words don’t mean what they mean, and they can mean something completely different than the rational question, maybe God was lying to us, is true. And if God is lying, then the Bible really isn’t inerrant. It really isn’t error free.

And then, of course, in all of these other areas, who was man? What is man? How is man different than animals? That’s what anthropology is. The Bible teaches a lot about humans.

Christology. Who was Christ? Christ supposedly was a man. What was His work? What was He supposed to do?

And soteriology is the study of salvation. How does that work fit together? The Bible says that Adam was real. The real biblical Adam is a real person who is described in Genesis 2, given by name, in Genesis 1 in terms of creation. He was a real person in Genesis 3 when he and Eve fell into sin. Genesis 5 when it mentions his genealogy and these are the generations of Adam. And by the way, it says, Adam died. Adam died just as the Lord said he would. He’s a real historical person.

In the book of Job, when Job mentions him, he’s a real historical person. And in the book of Luke, when the very genealogy of the Lord Jesus Christ traces all the way back to who? Adam. Adam. He is a real important person. In the book of Romans, in the book of Galatians, and also in 1 Corinthians 15, as it relates to salvation, which I will discuss at length in my second talk today. In fact, Adam is even mentioned in 1 Timothy in terms of church polity. So, the real Adam is mentioned in all of these sections of Scripture as a real historical person.

And even though Adam isn’t mentioned by name by the Lord Jesus Christ, when someone came up to Him and they ask Him, “Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife?” The Lord Jesus said to them, “Have you not read?” “Have you not read that from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female.” Quoting from Genesis 1, and then from Genesis 2 He says, “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” Quoting directly from Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Because the Bible teaches that a real man brought real sin and real death to everybody who was needing redemption.

The Bible teaches that the first Adam was the representative head of everybody who was in the loins of Adam, which includes all of us today. In fact, it includes everybody who has ever lived on this planet. The Bible teaches that there was a second Adam, who was the representative head of all who are in Christ, all who are in Christ. And on top of that, the Bible teaches that there was the first Adam who was the one who gave life and we were all in him in the sense that God gave life to Adam and we all progressed from Adam. The Bible teaches that there was a last Adam who is a life-giving spirit. So, the historical reality of Adam is fundamentally and vitally important to so many of this Christian doctrine.

Does the evidence really speak for itself? Is it really as clear as these people are wanting us to believe? Well the answer is no. The evidence doesn’t speak for itself because evidence doesn’t speak at all. Evidence is evidence, experts speak for the evidence. Experts speak for the evidence. So the question is who are these experts? I’ll give you some characteristics of these experts.

Characteristic number one, they’re predominantly atheists, predominantly atheists. In fact, they’re completely out of touch with the typical percentage of people who believe in God. I have a study that was done maybe 20 years ago, and at that time, 90% of the US population believed that there was a God, only 10% were atheistic. But if you did a poll of prominent scientific scholars at major universities today, only 10% believed in God and 90% were atheistic. 180 degrees out from the typical society.

Number two, their basic biological premises are also intrinsically atheistic. And as I mentioned, evolutionary theory itself was specifically crafted to be anti-design and to be atheistic. And you’ll be able to read about that if you sign up for Acts and Facts in the back, because I have an issue coming out in May, which is going to explain how that happens in great, great detail. But the Lord’s view of these people who deny reality right in front of them is quoted in Psalm 14:1, “It’s the fool that has said in his heart.” Romans 1 says they’re fools. And 1 Corinthians 1 says, they’re fools. That is a good word. It doesn’t say that they’re dumb. It doesn’t say they’re stupid. It just says they’re foolish. They’re foolish because of this.

Number three, they are often wrong scientifically, wrong scientifically. So let’s look specifically at some of their claims. But what about that junk DNA? Well, Francis Collins was using it as evolution in his book The Language of God in 2006, where he says “Darwin’s theory predicts,” oh, this is a prediction? “that mutations that do not affect function, namely those located in junk DNA, will accumulate steadily over time. That is exactly what is observed if, as some might argue these genomes were created by individual acts of creation, why would this particular feature be there?”

Well, that would be a good question if it was true. Why would God create DNA that has a bunch of junk in it? That wouldn’t make any sense. So he’s saying evolutionary theory predicts that you’ll find it there because it’s just going to build up over time because it’s not killing the creatures before they can reproduce, therefore, it accumulates in your genome. Well, that’s what he was saying in 2006, but in his revised book in 2010, which he should have known even in 2006 when he wrote his first book, he said, “Discoveries over the past decade,” little known to most of the public, “have completely overturned much of what used to be taught in high school biology. If you thought the DNA molecule comprised thousands of genes but far more junk DNA, think again.” You know why he’s saying that? Because we are finding function after function for sections of DNA which was labeled junk, but we now know is absolutely essential for organisms to live.

So, the two main evidences which led these Christians to compromise and to want to rewrite their Bible the similarity and junk DNA are completely, completely wrong. But these theistic evolutionists are completely undeterred.

So, point number four on who are these experts? Not only the atheistic, not only is the science atheistic, not only are they wrong predominantly about their atheism, about their science, but they’re very, very evangelical about their atheism. Now, this is an interesting quote by a man who is an evolutionist. In fact, he’s a theistic evolutionist. He claims to be a Christian. And this is how he proposes that theistic evolution make its way into the churches. He says this, “As long as the secularists,” he’s talking about the atheistic evolutionists, “insist on prosecuting the war,” the war against two, the war against biblical Christians, “unilaterally in this way, they will not prevail.” In other words, he’s saying secularists cannot just barge into your church with their atheistic message and hope to win you over. He says, the hope to win you over is this, “the only hope for a successful outcome lies with a coalition, the secularists must ally themselves, indeed yield leadership to, theistic evolutionists who understand the creationists religious culture, speak their religious language, and can engage them on their own home turf.” You get a feeling for what he’s suggesting here? He’s suggesting they come in like what? Wolves in sheep’s clothing. They come in like wolves in sheep’s clothing.

Well, what should we do? What should we do when there are wolves in sheep’s clothing coming in? Well, I searched around and this is the verse that I think the Lord led me to, 1 Corinthians 16:13. It’s a great verse. In fact, it’s a wonderful verse. And, you know, it’s speaking to the men in the audience, the men in the audience. And it’s basically holding up a scenario like this, men, what would you do if someone broke into your house threatening your wife, threatening your children? What would you do? What would you do, men, if someone breaks into your church threatening your church and your doctrine? And this is what it is, I wrote out the Greek at the top and the English translation underneath it. He’s saying this, “Be alert, stand firm in the faith,” and then this great phrase, “act like men.” Act like men. That means take them on. Act like men. Be strong. Wow. If your pastor won’t do it, you should do it. If these people are going to come in like sheep’s clothing into your church, speaking your language, bring you under there, you need to act like men and take them on.

Closing

Tim Moore: Stand firm. Act like men. Take them on. How do you do that? By staying grounded in the Word and educating yourself about falsehoods acting like an acid within the world and the church. ICR’s Acts and Facts magazine offers scientific proof of God’s testimony about creation and is available at icr.com. Our own Lamplighter magazine provides insights from God’s prophetic Word, encouraging strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow. It is free at our website or in a print edition for $25 a year.

Nathan Jones: Because we can only share a portion of this conference presentations on our weekly Christ in Prophecy television program, many of you will merely have your appetite whet and are eager to dive deeper. So if you’d like to receive a copy of the two DVD set containing all four presentations and the questions and answer session from the Everlasting to Everlasting Conference, just call the number on the screen, and for only $15, we’ll be glad to send you a copy.

Tim Moore: The advocates of evolution seldom admit that their great scheme will always be nothing more than a theory. Neither a materialistic origin of life or macro evolution have ever been proven or observed because no man was present in the beginning. But we know One who was.

Next week, I’ll speak to the evidentiary value of eyewitness accounts regarding both creation and the end times as described in Revelation. Today, we affirm our belief in God’s account of the beginning and His description of Adam as our original forebear. More importantly, we rejoice that we can know the one Paul called the second or last Adam, the man from Heaven who gives us spiritual life in Christ Jesus.

Nathan Jones: We’ll be back next week with another episode of Christ in Prophecy. Until then, in the name of Him who lives from everlasting to everlasting. God bless.

End of Program