Monkey Trials - Day 5. Paul and the Theology of Redemption
So far the Defense has focused on what the biblical text says about the creation of Adam and Eve. However, the primary purpose of Scripture is to relate God's plan for the redemption of mankind from creation to consummation. How does one find Jesus Christ and eternal life? The NT presents the gospel story, and God's primary prophet for telling that story is the Apostle Paul.
Defense: I call the Apostle Paul to the witness stand.
Sir, you know that we are conducting this trial because certain scoffers regard the direct and special creation of Adam as fantasy and have crept into the Bible-believing Church, just like the prophets and our Lord warned us (2 Pet 3:3). These scoffers say that Adam was not the specially created first man; that he had parents -- hominid creatures which were at one time more like chimpanzees than human beings. And likely, there were thousands of these creatures who roamed the earth, and eventually evolved into mankind. Some even say they were given the Spirit of God before Adam arrives. Others say Adam evolved from these creatures and that God selected one of them to be Adam and gave him His Spirit. Supposedly, we all evolved from these creatures -- you, me, Moses, even Jesus! I want you to help us get to the bottom of this based on what the Bible says.
Defense: You have been called the greatest theologian of the NT by most all the Church throughout the centuries. Why is that Sir?
Paul: For whatever reason the Lord had, He chose me to carry His name to the whole world (Acts 9:15). I was personally engaged by the Lord Jesus Himself on a road to Damascus (Acts 9:1-19), to proclaim the gospel to Kings as well as everyday people (Acts 24-26). God set me apart before I was born to reveal His Son to the world, and to preach the gospel to everyone (Gal 1:15,16; 2:2, 7-9). He commissioned me to be both a minister and teacher of the Scriptures (Eph 3:7-10; Rms 15:16; 1 Tim 2:7).
Defense: Your Honor, I think it is fair to say that we have testifying before us an expert of the highest order regarding the content and theology of the Bible -- the New Testament, as well as its basis in the Law of Moses. Paul, as you know was considered "faultless as a Jew;" a "Pharisee of Pharisees;" a Hebrew of Hebrews" (Phil 3:4-6). After his conversion he went on to author most of the letters of the NT. I have submitted these letters into evidence. They form the basis of the development of Christian theology.
Defense: Sir, I have put before you as Exhibit A your first letter to the Corinthians, chapter 15, verses 45-49. I would like you to testify as to the meaning of what you wrote here, and what the Church subsequently believed you were teaching.
45Thus it is written, "The first man Adam became a living being"; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 46But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. 47The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. 48As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. 49Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.
Paul: I begin with Moses' testimony of what he wrote in Gen 2:7 -- that God directly created the first man Adam from dust and made him a living human being. He gave Adam (and subsequently all of humanity) "natural and perishable bodies." I compare those bodies to the eternal "spiritual and imperishable" bodies which believers receive at the time of their resurrection (which is assured because Christ was resurrected first).
In this text, Christ is understood to be the "last Adam." I explained that a couple sentences earlier (1Cor 15:20-22), "For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. " There is the "first man" Adam, and a "last man" Jesus. There are no other "men" before Adam.
Moses said clearly that God created the very first man (Adam) directly from dust -- not from some pre-existent being. By that creation Adam received his human "perishable body." But Christ, the second Person of the Trinity and our second Adam, is a man from heaven. Christ has given us eternal life in "imperishable bodies." This fact is the basis of our identification with Christ. We must get this foundational doctrine absolutely right, otherwise there is no eternal life in Christ.
Defense: I now put before you Exhibit B from your letter to the Romans, chapter 5 verse 12. Please explain to us what you meant by this passage and how the Church subsequently interpreted it.
12Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men.
Paul: Animals, including hominids, don't sin. Man is the only morally responsible earthly creature that God made, and as such is held responsible for his actions. The biblical theology of redemption is to understand the nature and outworking of this accountability. You know the story: Adam sinned; spiritual and natural death resulted for all mankind. God's justice demanded satisfaction and He sent Christ to die for mankind's sins, offering us the free gift of salvation. For all who choose to accept it, there is eternal life with Christ in an imperishable body.
The starting point for this chain of events is Adam's sin. Adam is the first human being, specially created in the image of God as a free moral agent. This is where the Christian theology of Fall and Redemption begins. You do not want to get this wrong or confused. There are no other moral agents (creatures) involved. Roman 5:12 is very explicit. The theology of redemption starts here! To get this doctrine wrong puts one in great jeopardy of getting on the wrong path for salvation. That's not a risk I want to see anyone take.
There were no human beings or sin before Adam. Eve became the mother of all human beings, just as the Scriptures say:
"Adam was formed first, then Eve" (1 Tim 2:13). "Eve was the mother of all the living" (Gen 3:20). "Man was not made from woman, but woman from man" (1 Cor 11:8).
There were no colonies, tribes, families of hominids (half animal, half man) that wandered the earth and evolved into humans; or hominids who were "made spiritual" by God to become human. Adam was created first and then Eve. They had sexual relations and began populating the earth (Gen 4:1).
There was no sin before Adam. This lone man brought sin into the world and it permeated all of humanity for the future generations. Not until the Man Christ is born and takes away the sin of the world (Jn 1:29) is there full redemption. I make it very clear that there was one man -- Adam -- who was responsible for taking all subsequent humanity into sin. And there was one Man -- Jesus Christ -- who redeemed all subsequent mankind. "The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven" (1 Cor 15:47).
It is clear that there was no prior race of human beings and no sin prior to the "one man" Adam. And I make that case parallel to the case for redemption which came through the "one man" Jesus Christ. Read Romans 5:12-21 for yourself to see how often and emphatically I make this point.
Defense: Thank you, Sir. You may step down for now. I will be calling you back to continue to defend the Church against theistic evolutionist scoffers and the distortions they have introduced. In some cases they even preach a gospel contrary to what you received directly from the Holy Spirit. That is an anathema (Gal 1:6-12)!
The Bible-believing theistic evolutionist has a real personal challenge at this point. When there's a hard conflict like this one does he eventually come down on the side of the Bible, or does he line up with the entrenched scientific establishment? Science by its very nature is tentative, but the Bible is infallible. Only so much compromise can be rung out of differing interpretations. In this case, the scientific establishment must deem Paul "a man of his times" who hadn't yet been informed of scientific progress. But science has so often proven itself mistaken; the Bible never has. If he puts himself at the mercy of the claims of science then how is he going to believe the rest of Paul's writings -- or any of the biblical writers for that matter? What's at stake for the individual is getting on a path to a different gospel (Gal 1:6). What's at stake for the Church is losing its doctrine of Biblical Inerrancy (2 Tim 3:16-17). Both are terrible outcomes, so one must ask oneself, "Is it worth it?"
but surely you see some difference in degree of impact?)
Glad to hear you retain your passion.
