Paul Taylor looks at the issues

Paul Taylor
Paul Taylor

Do you believe that Adam was a real historical person? The reason why I ask is that Jesus believed he was. In Jesus' teaching on marriage, found in Matthew 19:3-9, Jesus based his doctrine on both of the first two chapters of Genesis being historically true. Jesus' teaching illustrates that He believed the following:

  • That Adam and Eve were actual historical characters

  • That Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 are not different accounts of creation, but the same

  • That Adam and Eve were there at "the beginning"

If the world were millions of years old, and had existed long before people evolved, then Jesus' words are not correct. We must then conclude either that Jesus did not know, which makes Him less than God, or that Jesus lied. Neither of these options describes the Jesus who is revealed in the Bible; the One who is goodness personified and the second person of the Trinity.

Christians who wish to compromise their beliefs with evolutionary worldviews have told me that Adam's death was either figurative or spiritual, but not physical. Yet this position is contradicted by New Testament teaching. The Apostle Paul wrote:

For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. (1 Corinthians 15:21-22)

The whole of 1 Corinthians 15 is a discourse on resurrection, and how our own hope of resurrection depends on a belief in the resurrection of Jesus. Yet Paul shows that Jesus' resurrection is the ultimate response to the death brought into the world by Adam's sin. If Adam's death had been merely spiritual, then surely Jesus need only have had a spiritual death and resurrection. If Adam's death had been figurative, then a figurative death and resurrection of Jesus would be possible. There are those who believe in a merely spiritual or figurative interpretation of Jesus' resurrection. Christians who accept the Resurrection of Jesus as a real historical event but who cannot accept the reality of an actual Adam who died for a real sin, seem to be less consistent. Personally, I believe both the Resurrection and Creation.

For those who are not Christians, it needs to be seen that a scientific position based on the Bible is entirely self-consistent. These comments do not conclusively prove Genesis to be true, but show that the evidence can be interpreted reasonably in a way that assumes the truth of Genesis. The historicity of Adam points up the importance of a belief in Jesus.

The atheist Professor Richard Dawkins understands this point. He ridicules Christians who believe in a figurative Adam.

"Jesus had himself been tortured and executed for a symbolic sin by a non-existent individual. Nobody not brought up in the faith could reach any verdict other than barking mad!"

For the same reasons of logic, I accept what the Bible says about creation as true. My understanding of the Gospel of Jesus requires that faith. I also happen to believe that Jesus will come again, bringing a New Heaven and Earth, and I don't believe that New Heaven and Earth will require millions of years to evolve.


Dawkins, R., The Root of all Evil?: The Virus of Faith, broadcast on Channel 4 TV, January 16th 2006 CR

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.