Systematic Theology: The Historical Adam #1

Scripture presents Adam and Eve as historical people.

The first and only parents of the human race. What I want you to see is that it is devastating to reject that Adam and factor fairytale. Sadly, even some so-called evangelicals believe are merely symbols rather than real historical person. But today on the truth. Pulpit pastor Don Greene will show us why good systematic theology renders their position unsupportable. It's more from our current series you can trust. Genesis Don what's in store for us the next couple of days my friend were going to consider the matter of the historical Adam. That may sound like a somewhat esoteric subject, but it's actually very important to understand because the foundations of the gospel and all of Scripture ultimately trace their way back to God's creation of the first man Adam what you'll find if you stay with us today is that Genesis, Jesus and the apostles all speak with one voice will find why this is so important as we study God's word today on the truthful okay.and Fred have your Bible open and ready as we join Don Greene now in the truthful, and I do want to introduce you to an an issue that you may not be familiar with talking about the issue of the historical Adam. The historical Adam when we talked about the origin of man.

Last time we made an assumption that we didn't bother to articulate at the time we made the assumption that Adam was a real historical person in a plain reading of Genesis that is unaffected by other philosophies treats Adam as a real person to any fair reading of the situation. Look at Genesis chapter 1 verses 26 and 27 as we began as we turn to the text now Genesis chapter 1 verses 26 and 27 says that God said, let us make man in our image, according to our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. God created man in his own image in the image of God he created him male and female he created them. Then over in chapter 2 verses six and seven it says that a mist used to rise from the earth and water the whole surface of the ground. 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. And then over in verse 20 the man gave names to all the cattle and the birds of the sky and to every beast of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him. As you read this, it's obvious that Scripture is treating Adam as a literal man and something that I would add to what I said last week is the.

The impossibility of maintaining an evolutionary approach to the start of the human race. In light of the clear teaching of the text of Genesis.

Look at verse seven with me again of chapter 2 the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground he formed him of pre-existing element to use pre-existing elements to form him not a pre-existing primate. We made that point last week but also worth noting is this is the man obtain his life. Not as receiving it from a prior primate ancestor, but he received life for the first time when God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and so his life was given to them by the input of God by the out breathing of God into his form and that is what gave him life and it is not possible to square that with a an evolutionary reading by any fair reading of the text by any hermeneutics that that takes the Scriptures on the basis of what they actually say and not reading into them from other outside presuppositions were all on the same page on that I believe that many teach that you cannot take Genesis at face value. Quoting from one book on this subject. Some believe that God created the universe, but instituted evolution is the means to form the human race. They see Adam and Eve as symbols for humanity as a whole, not a single pair, from whom all mankind originates.

So Adam and Eve are just symbols of something else rather than being too literal people. Man and woman there symbols of something else. It's a literary technique that is used to communicate some other kind of truth. Others say that Adam and Eve were historical people, but not the first humans they would say that Adam and Eve were not the parents of all mankind. So they were just some among others, rather than being the their progenitors of the entire human race.

They the ones from whom we all are descended. Now those views are seeking to harmonize Scripture with evolution and a belief that the universe is millions or billions of years old and we address the age of the universe and the issues of creation earlier in this series on systematic theology. Our message creation. If you didn't hear that, or you want to review that you can find that message in multiple places and let me let me just backup because this is this is this is the foundation of our church. The foundation of of my life. Scripture is preeminent. The Bible prevails. Overall the Bible is that to which we give our allegiance from which we understand truth is it is sovereign over us is God's word. It it it informs us as to what things really are and what the truth really is and that has consequences and that means of what we do here at truth community church is we do our levelheaded best to let Scripture speak for itself.

To say what the Bible says, rather than trying to make the Bible say something that it does not say or something but it was never intended to say we want to let the Bible speak for itself and then were going to respond to that were going to believe that we were going to defend that were going to proclaim that because it's God's word and we love the God of the Bible because the God of the Bible is our Lord Jesus Christ who redeemed us from sin when he gave his life on the cross and paid the debt of our great sin against him and so because those things are true because those are presuppositions are approach when it comes to the issue of who is Adam and what the Scriptures say about them. We just want to see what Scripture says about the historicity of Adam and let Scripture defend itself and led the consequences for modern philosophies in modern thought fall where they may. That is incidental to us. The preeminent issue is what the Scripture teach now with that said, with that framework established and I feel a lot better after having said that Scripture presents Adam and Eve as historical people. The first and only parents of the human race. What I want you to see is that it is devastating to reject that it is not too much to say that if you throw out Adam as a real historical person as the first man is the head of the human race you are throwing out all of biblical salvation in the process. If you follow your logic all the way through. One writer said this, the rejection of the Genesis story as a myth tends to the rejection of the gospel of salvation. One of the chief cornerstones of the Christian doctrine is removed.

If the historical reality of Adam and Eve is abandoned." I'm going to try to unfold for you why that is true.

As we look at some different areas of Scripture teaching. First of all we want to look at this from three different perspectives want to look at the teaching of Genesis and the genealogies of Scripture. Secondly, the teaching of Jesus.

And thirdly, the teaching of the apostles.

So going to look at Genesis and the genealogies as one subsection here one section I should say the teaching of Jesus. Secondly, and the teaching of the apostles to go back to the beginning and then were just going to find a follow Scripture through and see how Scripture treats out of and see how Jesus treated Adam and how the apostles treated Adam and then will draw some conclusions from that. So first of all here for first point, the teaching of Genesis and the genealogies the teaching of Genesis and the genealogies Adam is presented as a real man having real relations with a real wife with real human consequences. That's about as real as you can get. Look at Genesis chapter 4 with me. Genesis chapter 4 beginning in verse one. Now the man had relations with his wife Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain and she said I have gotten a manchild with the help of the Lord again.

She gave birth to his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of flocks, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. This is not describing Adam as some symbol or as a representation of something else. It's showing Adam as a real man married having relations with his wife and having the natural outcome of relations being babies and children coming out of the union together and it repeats it at the end of verse of chapter 4 and verse 25. When you see this again.

Genesis chapter 4 verse 25. Adam had relations with his wife again and she gave birth to a son and named him Seth for she said God has appointed me another offspring in place of Abel, for Cain killed him and then it goes on and speaks of Seth to Seth, to him also a son was born and he called his name he not then men began to call upon the name of the Lord. This is describing a natural outworking of a man and woman relationship as if we were talking about our own families and when we had our kids and that kind of thing. Adam was a man with children. He was a man with a lifespan that is time and space history that Scripture is describing and it goes on here in Genesis and Adam is listed as the head of a record of generations in Genesis. Look at chapter 5, verse one.

This is the book of the generations of Adam in the day when God created man, he made him in the likeness of God he created them male and female, and he blessed them and named them man in the day when they were created when Adam had lived 130 years he became the father of a son in his own likeness, according to his image, and named him Seth. Then the days of Adam after he became the father of Seth were 800 years and he had other sons and daughters so all the days that Adam lived were 930 years and he died. So Adam was created.

He has a wife. They have relations. They have multiple sons and daughters.

He lives for a period of time and he dies. This is the description of the historical man in time and space and so Adam is presented as a real man with the other men of Scripture and Genesis goes on naturally and starts to talk about the other descendents of Adam and goes on describing men in the same terms and so here's the question that we have for those who deny the historicity of Adam who deny Adam is the head of the human race as he is described here in Genesis. Here's the question that I want the answer to to men like that to women like that if you reject Adam and say that he is just a symbol of something else and not the real man that he appears to be described as in Scripture. I want to know this. When is your principle of interpretation kick in so that you actually start to accept the men as they are described. Do you accept Seth is described as a son of Adam, you kick in at Nola you accept Abraham, you accept Samuel do accept David when do you start and by what principle bees distinguish the ones that you accept as real versus Adam whom you reject. It's obvious that there's an arbitrary choice of interpretation that is being made to accommodate other presuppositions and philosophies rather than simply accepting Scripture on face value for what it says we need to identify that and call it what it is because if you think about it this way when it comes to the genealogies. What you start to see very quickly just on what I based just said is that there is quickly a domino effect. Once you flick over Adam as being on historical then the dominoes start to fall elsewhere. And where do you step in wind where do you intervene to stop the falling dominoes in the genealogies now that's the genealogies and the testimony of Genesis look at the long neglected book of first Chronicles. If you would. The nice thing about Chronicles is its even though you're not that familiar with the book itself. It's a very big thick book with first and second Chronicles so you can find it rather easily. First Chronicles chapter 1 Chronicles has long series of genealogies and where does it start.

It starts with Adam first Chronicles chapter 1 verse one Adam, Seth Binoche and then going on through the other descendents as they followed in time. Adam is not separated out as a symbol is not separated out as an allegory or a figure of something else. He is presented as the head of the human race in the inspired word of God in an in yet another place of Scripture in the Old Testament there in first Chronicles chapter 1 now someone might say, but well I don't know what to think about the Old Testament I know what the German said about the Old Testament a long time ago bonbon the New Testament man, I, I, I, I want to be a New Testament and that's what that's what drives my thinking. I'm not so concerned about the Old Testament.

Okay, let's take you on your terms we could say and invite you to turn to Luke chapter 3, Luke chapter 3 let's just start to kind of prove our point. Let's start in verse 34. Here in Luke chapter 3 the genealogies starting with Jesus and working its way back rather than in first Chronicles where it started with Adam and worked its way forward in time. Well, just to pick up with the names were familiar with from the whole book of Genesis in verse 34, the son of Jacob. He's continuing to work backward, the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham, the son of Tara, the son of Ney horror, the son of sera, the son of Ray Q son of Pelé, the son of Heber, the son of Shayla, the son of Canaan, the son of our fax said the son of Shem, the son of Noah, the son of Lamech, the son of Methuselah, son of V-neck, the son of Jared, the son of monohull allele son of Canaan, the son of Binoche, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God, where do you look at that and find a basis upon which to treat Adam as as someone different than those who are clearly in the in a in a direct genealogical line related to one another by generation, Anthony Ho, the respected reformed theologian says this speaking of these genealogies and the import of them. This clearly places Adam at the beginning of a list of historical persons and indicates that Adam came into existence not through natural generation, but by the creative act of God" Adam is in the context of other historical persons, and thus should be treated that way and the testimony of Scripture about his origin as a direct creation of God should be accepted on its own terms. If if we are going to let Scripture be the norm by which we interpret everything else. And for those of us that believe the Bible and in the context of our church. That's not open for discussion here. You cannot reject Adam and take Scripture at face value and as we said, those who do so. Those who reject Adam they do so by bringing prior assumptions of an old universe to the text rather than letting the text speak for itself. So that's the teaching of Genesis and the genealogies.

Let's consider the teaching of Jesus, the teaching of Jesus. As we said in other places at other times it's just very very critical for our spiritual well-being to remember what it is that we believe as Christians we believe that Jesus Christ is the eternal son of God, the second member of the second member of the Godhead we call him Lord we call him Master. We call him teacher and rightly we do for thus he is, but as our master as our teacher.

He instructs us and we instinctively believe what he says we have a duty to believe what he says if we call him Lord and master and teacher.

It is ours to take what he says and to take the words from his lips as our law as our truth is that above which there is no higher authority for those who confess Jesus Christ as Lord. Then what he says is absolutely determinative. It settles the matter.

He cannot lie to us. He would not lie to us because he is truth himself. He is the way the truth and the life. No one comes to the father but through him where lies come from her from the devil but not from Christ. It is impossible for God to lie, Jesus Christ is God and therefore whatever he says is true and our response as believers in Christ is that we submit to him in every area, including his teaching. You see beloved to be a follower of Christ is is so much more than simply saying I'll I will follow his moral teachings, and as if Jesus were only a good human example for us know he's the Lord of our souls. He owns us by right of creation, and by right of redemption for those of us that are in Christ. He owns us. We belong to him.

We are his slaves, his servants, he is our master, and so we submit to him in every area and it's not simply that he gives us some moral precepts. He tells us how to think about the world he has disclosed to us in his word and in his and in his teaching. He has disclosed to us the origin of the human race. The purpose of the human race, and where the human race is ultimately going.

He defines our worldview for us. He defines for us how we are to think, not simply what we are to do his. His Lordship is is expansive, it is vast. It is overall because he himself is overall what can we glean about Adam. Then from the lips of our master turn to Matthew chapter 19 Matthew chapter 19 and is returning there.

You can also put your finger in Mark chapter 10 Matthew chapter 19 verse three. Some Pharisees came to Jesus testing him and asking, is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason at all. And Jesus answers within the answers the problem of his day. In verse four he answered and said, have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female quoting from Genesis chapter 1 and said, for this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and the two shall become one flesh. A direct reference to Adam and Eve as the narrative was described in Genesis chapter 2 verse 24 turn to Mark chapter 10 Mark chapter 10 verse six, where Mark gives a parallel account. Jesus said in Mark chapter 10 verse six. From the beginning of creation God made them male and female. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and the two shall become one flesh. So they are no longer two but one flesh.

What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate. The genealogies of Genesis and the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ leave no doubt about Adam's historicity pastor Don Graham will add the teachings of the apostles.

Next time on the truth pulpit as he presents more of our series, you can trust Genesis so planned out to be with us. Meanwhile, we invite you to visit our website. The truth pulpit.com. There you can download free podcasts or find out how to receive free CD copies of done series and if you want to go even more in depth. You'll also find the link follow Don's pulpit. That'll take you to Don's full-length weekly sermons not subject to the time editing we need for radio broadcasts. If you're in the Cincinnati area, check out the service times for truth Community Church. Also on our website and plan a visit. We'd love to welcome you now for Don green I built right inviting you back next time for morning from the