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Systematic Theology The Historical Adam #1

The Truth Pulpit / Don Green
The Truth Network Radio
September 4, 2024 8:00 am

Systematic Theology The Historical Adam #1

The Truth Pulpit / Don Green

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September 4, 2024 8:00 am

2295 - https://www.thetruthpulpit.com"Foundations in the Book of Genesis" by Andrew A. Snellinghttps://ttwpress.comThe opening chapters of Genesis must be understood by recognizing the Lord Jesus Christ as our Creator (John 1:1-3) who displayed His power in His miracles and always spoke the truth. He quoted from those chapters as literal history. Thus, we can read the Genesis text as teaching literal days of creation of our earth and universe only thousands of years ago based on the genealogies, and that God created in a specific order that refutes the secular evolutionary "story" of life's origins. The flood was global, covering all the mountains everywhere under the whole heavens, destroying and reshaping the earth so that all land-dwelling animals and men perished, except for those on the ark. These early chapters of Genesis are also the foundation for so many vital doctrines, not least being the origin of sin and death that necessitated the sacrificial death of the promised Savior, the gospel itself. Yet the apostle Peter warned that in the last days scoffers would deny the evidence of the creation of the earth and its cataclysmic destruction by the flood, thus scoffing at our Lord's promised Second Coming.Click the icon below to listen.

         

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Welcome to the Truth Pulpit with Don Green, founding pastor of Truth Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. Hello, I'm Bill Wright. Thanks for joining us as we continue teaching God's people God's Word.

Don begins a new message today, so without further delay, let's join him right now in the Truth Pulpit. Last, we talked about the origin of man, and tonight I want to build on that by 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, and 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 begin, 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 6 and 7, 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 to 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 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 7 with me again of chapter 2, the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground. He formed him of pre-existing elements. He used pre-existing elements to form him, not a pre-existing primate. We made that point last week, but also worth noting is this, is that man obtained 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 him 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 an evolutionary reading by any fair reading of the text, and by any hermeneutic that takes the Scriptures on the basis of what they actually say, and not reading into them from other outside presuppositions.

We're all on the same page on that, I believe. But 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 as 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. And so Adam and Eve are just symbols of something else, rather than being two literal people, man and woman, they're 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 progenitors of the entire human race, 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 and our message creation.

If you didn't hear that or you want to review that, you can find that message in multiple places. But here's our point for this evening. Scripture, and let me just back up because this is the foundation of our church. It's a foundation of my life and everything that I do and everything that I've lived for for the past 35 years. Scripture is preeminent. The Bible prevails over all. The Bible is that to which we give our allegiance, from which we understand truth. It is sovereign over us as God's Word. It informs us as to what things really are and what the truth really is, and that has consequences. And that means that what we do here at Truth Community Church is we do our level-headed 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 that it was never intended to say. We want to let the Bible speak for itself, and then we're going to respond to that, we're going to believe that, we're going to defend that, we're 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 and because those are our presuppositions, our approach when it comes to the issue of who is Adam and what does Scripture say about him, we just want to see what Scripture says about the historicity of Adam, and let Scripture defend itself, and let the consequences for modern philosophies and modern thought fall where they may.

That is incidental to us. The preeminent issue is what does 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.

And what I want you to see tonight 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, as 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." And I'm going to try to unfold for you why that is true as we look at some different areas of Scripture teaching in the next hour or so.

First of all, we want to look at this from three different perspectives. We 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 we're going to look at Genesis and the genealogies as one subsection here, or one section I should say. The teaching of Jesus, secondly, and the teaching of the apostles. So we're going to go back to the beginning and then we're just going to kind of follow Scripture through and see how Scripture treats Adam, and see how Jesus treated Adam, and how the apostles treated Adam.

And then we'll draw some conclusions from that. So first of all here for our first point here this evening, 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 1. Now the man had relations with his wife Eve and she conceived and gave birth to Cain and she said, I have gotten a man child 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 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 Enosh. 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 1. 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 is 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 a 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 descendants 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 as 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 does your principle of interpretation kick in so that you actually start to accept the men as they are described? Do you accept Seth, who's described as a son of Adam? Do you kick in at Noah? Do you accept Abraham? Do you accept Samuel?

Do you accept David? When do you start and by what principle do you 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.

And 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 just said is that there is quickly a domino effect. Once you flick over Adam as being unhistorical, then the dominoes start to fall elsewhere. And where do you step in?

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 1 Chronicles if you would. The nice thing about Chronicles is it's, even though you're not that familiar with the book itself, it's a very big thick book with 1 and 2 Chronicles so you can find it rather easily. 1 Chronicles chapter 1.

Chronicles has long series of genealogies. And where does it start? It starts with Adam. 1 Chronicles chapter 1 verse 1. Adam, Seth, Enosh.

And then going on through the other descendants as they followed in time. Adam is not separated out as a symbol. He's 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 yet another place of Scripture in the Old Testament there in 1 Chronicles chapter 1. Now, someone might say, but, well, I don't know what to think about the Old Testament. I know what the Germans said about the Old Testament a long time ago. But I'm a New Testament man.

I want to be a New Testament and 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 genealogy is starting with Jesus and working its way back rather than in 1 Chronicles where it started with Adam and worked its way forward in time. Well, just to pick up with the names that we're 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 Terah, the son of Nahor, the son of Sirach, the son of Rah Williams, the son of Peleg, the son of Heber, the son of Sheilah, the son of Canaan, the son of Arphaxad, the son of Shem, the son of Noah, the son of Lamech, the son of Methuselah, the son of Enoch, the son of Jared, the son of Mahalaleel, the son of Canaan, the son of Enosh, 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 Hockema, 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, end quote. 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've 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've 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, as 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 are 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 so much more than simply saying I will follow his moral teachings as if Jesus were only a good human example for us. No, 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. Well what can we glean about Adam then from the lips of our master? Turn to Matthew chapter 19. Matthew chapter 19 and as you're turning there you can also put your finger in Mark chapter 10. Matthew chapter 19 verse 3.

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 4. 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 6 where Mark gives a parallel account. Jesus said in Mark chapter 10 verse 6, 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. So in these passages Jesus quotes from Genesis chapter 1 and Genesis chapter 2 to answer questions in his day about divorce. And he appeals back to the original text. He appeals back to the beginning in Genesis. And he appeals to those opening chapters of Genesis in order to settle the discussion.

In order to give a context and say here is God's direction in the situation. Let's go all the way back to Genesis 1 and 2. Remember about Adam and Eve and we see the pattern that God established for marriage going forward from the beginning. Beloved, Jesus's appeal to those opening chapters of Genesis would have no force and no meaning for the situation of his own day if Adam and Eve were simply allegories or symbols of something else. The reason that his argument settled the matter before the Pharisees was because he was referring to something that was a historical fact true in time and space and he alluded to people who really existed and set a pattern for humanity going forward.

That's why what he said answered their question about divorce. Now his words therefore assume the actual existence of a human pair who set a standard for those who come later in the institution of marriage. Now critics who somehow still are allowed to carry the label evangelical, critics even in the evangelical camp might say that Jesus was simply accommodating the belief of his day. The sense of this argument is is that Jesus knew it wasn't real but he accommodated those who were around him because they believed it was real and therefore he spoke as adopting their beliefs even though he knew it wasn't true.

And so for the sake of identifying with the philosophies of our day these evangelical critics make the Lord a purveyor of deception. And let me ask you a question, as you read the Gospels do you find Jesus as one who is afraid to confront the error of his day? Is he reticent? Is he awkward?

Is he retiring? Does he defer in the face of error? Does he defer in the face of lies? Matthew 23 woe to you Pharisees you whitewashed tombs. Jesus wasn't afraid at all of confronting the error of his day. This is nonsense to speak in such manners and to make the Lord a participant and of one who perpetuates deception rather than exposing it. The reason Jesus alluded to Adam and Eve to settle the argument was because they were real, he knew them to be real, and he knew that the testimony of Scripture settled the argument that was in front of him. And so Jesus affirmed by his teaching the reality of Adam and Eve just as Genesis presented them. He quotes Genesis without qualification without alteration. And so as we start to say what are what are we to believe in our day about these issues we go to Genesis and say this is pretty clear. We go to the genealogies we say this is really clear. We go to what Jesus said we say this is really clear.

And then as we go on we start to realize that that the rest of the New Testament builds theology of salvation on the reality of Adam as the head of the human race. That's Don Green here on The Truth Pulpit and here's Don again with some closing thoughts. Well friend thank you for joining us today on The Truth Pulpit and I just want to let you know of a companion resource that is available to add to this series. The book is titled Foundations in the Book of Genesis a Geologist's Perspective. It's by Dr. Andrew Snelling and you can find that book at our website thetruthpulpit.com.

Again the book is Foundations in the Book of Genesis a Geologist's Perspective available on our website thetruthpulpit.com. I highly commend it to you. Thank you for being with us. Join us next time as we continue teaching God's people God's Word right here on The Truth Pulpit. That's Don Green founding pastor of Truth Community Church in Cincinnati Ohio. Thank you so much for listening to The Truth Pulpit. Join us next time for more as we continue teaching God's people God's Word.
Whisper: medium.en / 2024-09-04 05:17:04 / 2024-09-04 05:27:33 / 10

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