Why do so many people have doubts regarding the Adam and Eve Story in the Bible?

In my experience the situation has come about because of two reasons. One reason is the widespread belief in the theory of evolution as an alternative explanation for creation. The second reason is the prevailing ignorance of the Bible and its history. This ignorance is largely due to the failure of the religious clergy, who have basically abandoned their flocks to atheism and the evolution theory.

These clergymen themselves have doubts regarding the Bible's authenticity. I personally had an experience during the 1950's that well illustrates this point. I was discussing the Bible with the Governor General of South Africa at that time. He told me that he was very good friends with the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Archbishop had told him that one should study the Bible like one eats fish. One must spit out the bones. I was shocked, because the Archbishop of Canterbury was the head of the church of England. Imagine, if the head of a church had that attitude then what chance did the members of that church have of ever learning the truth about the Bible.

The Clergy and Evolution

A further investigation of the subject indicates that many of the clergymen of those early days of the 20th century started out as God-fearing Bible believers, but they were exposed to a form of scholarship at their respective seminaries known as the "Higher Criticism." The proponents of this school of biblical criticism, because of their belief in the evolution theory, believed that religion simply evolved from what they called animism, (the primitive worship of the forces of nature) then to polytheism (the worship of many Gods) and then to monotheism (the highest form of worship, the worship of one God). These evolutionists assumed that the Bible is merely a record of man's evolutionary development. Although teachers of religions God did not enter their equation. They accepted the evolution theory as fact and because of the anti-Bible bias in their teaching, destroyed the faith of their students. Thus many sincere men that at one time had faith in the Bible, had their faith destroyed at these seminaries. After all one is supposed to believe what the teacher teaches. As all this occurred during the early part of the 20th century, today many of those men, now clergymen are of little use in building faith in the Bible. They are being looked up to, as representing Christianity, God and the Bible, but do not whole-heartedly believe in the Bible preferring to believe that man's religion today is just part of his evolutionary development. Thus the Adam and Eve Story becomes a quaint mythological story, and the Bible merely a reflection of what men in ancient times believed. That is why these men meddle in politics, looking for materialist solutions to human problems. they further introduced confusion into the equation because of merely using selected scripture texts to support their own traditional church teachings instead of allowing the Bible to explain itself.

Science and Creation

As I have stated in some of my other articles on this site the first question that should be considered in regard to a religious discussion is the question of whether one believes in God or not. The answer is fundamentally very simple to answer. That the universe and ourselves exist is not open to question, but the question is were they always here or did they have a beginning. Evolutionist are still trying to find alternative theories to counter the scientific evidence available which shows that the universe did have a beginning. The most recent alternative theory was "the oscillating universe theory. However this theory has been disproved by more recent evidence that the expansion of the universe is speeding up and not slowing down as the theory requires.

Now once you have a creator you cannot put limitations on his creative powers. The wisdom, power and creative ability to create a universe is so great that our creator could not be human or suffer from human limitations. Our Creator must lay outside creation and because matter only came into existence at creation, he must exist in a form higher than matter. That is why we refer to God as a spirit being. Questions like "who created God" are irrelevant because logic shows that nothing can arise from nothing and so the original cause of creation had always to be there, That question is only asked to create doubt in God's existence, and so once we have established that the creation had a beginning, and that God's existence is established, the question becomes irrelevant.

Adam and Eve & Population Increase

With regard to the Adam and Eve story, one has only to consider the rate of population growth to see that this not only supports the idea of one perfect human pair at the beginning but it also becomes a problem for the evolutionist.

If we consider the time available for population growth, Bible time allows for a little over 6000 years whereas the evolution time scale allows for millions of years. Which do you think is the most reasonable in the light of facts.

In 1975 according to the Bible's count of time approximately, six thousand years have passed counting from man's creation.

At present in 2008 the world population is just under seven billion.

In 1975 the population was about three and a half billion.

The population reached about one billion by 1830 C.E. .

Now if the population rose from one billion to minus seven billion in a little over 170 years, and yet, the first billion was only reached after 5830 years (in bible time) then the rate of growth is escalating today. Bear in mind that this was in spite of the occurrence of wars and epidemics, which might have slowed the growth somewhat. This is quite a reasonable figure, yet 5830 years is a long time to reach one billion compared to the latest increases.

How does this fit in with evolutionary reasoning? It has been scientifically ascertained from archaeology that humans have been capable of writing and producing a civilization for at least 6000 years. This indicates that according to the evolution theory man has evolved very little during the past 6000 years. With mankind evolving so slowly it becomes apparent that the first true men could have arrived many thousands or perhaps a million years earlier. Which period of time is the most reasonable to arrive at the first billion? The 5830 years, which already appears to be a very slow population increase, or the many more thousands or even millions of years provided by the evolution theory.? Also remember that evolution claims that man's speech arose from grunts and growls and gradually evolved into more complex languages. The presence of the many ancient complex languages like ancient Hebrew and others also indicates that according to evolution theory, intelligent humans should have developed much simpler languages a long time earlier and therefore the evidence is clear that if evolution was true then the population growth would have been so great that we would probably have populated the entire solar system by now.

The present population therefore favors the biblical count of time which would make it reasonable for the Adam and Eve story to be the more logical beginning for population growth. Obviously one has to have two matched humans, male and female to start population growth.

Adam and Eve and DNA

What would be the chances of a blind mindless force like natural selection evolving two humans completely different in emotional and physical makeup and yet matched genetically so well as to be able to reproduce? Humans cannot reproduce with apes. The genetic code in the DNA does not allow it, The genetic match must be perfect. That is why the Bible's statement in Genesis is a scientific fact. Creatures only produce after their kind. Dogs only reproduce with dogs. Humans can only reproduce with humans. That is why it is logical to understand that the genetic factors in humans show that we are all related to one another no matter what racial characteristics are in evidence. Evolutionists only theorize that the "kind: barrier" can be overcome, however it has never ever been observed to actually occur. Therefore we may ask which is the more scientific explanation, the Bible's observation regarding the reproduction being limited to "kinds" or the evolution theory of unlimited reproduction that is necessary for evolution to be true? I would venture that the Bible is more scientific. In fact the evolutionist version is purely religious, being an article of faith without proof whereas the Bible provides statements of scientific truth,

By going back into the past we logically come to a time when the human race came from a single human pair. However some persons question how all human kind with all the different races could have originated from one human pair, but this is perfectly in harmony with science. The racial characteristics are merely caused by the fact, that as people moved to different areas of the earth the gene pool shrank and certain characteristics were emphasized.

What was Adam?

Genesis records that God created Adam from the earth. The problem with the religious teaching regarding this is the definition of man that the religions have ascribed to man. Nearly all professed Christian religions teach that man is composed of an immortal soul that cannot die and a fleshly body that is subject to death. However this is not a Bible teaching. Genesis 2:7 says that the man "became a soul" and not that a soul was put into him. Logically if a person becomes a doctor then he is a doctor and so if a man becomes a soul then he is a soul. By examining an Analytical Concordance like Young's we find that the word immortal only appears in the Bible four times and is never used with regard to the Hebrew and Greek words for soul.

By contrast when God judged Adam for his sin God explained what Adam was. He said "for dust you are and to dust you will return." (Gen. 3:19). The Bible hope for the future of man is a resurrection or recreation of the individual rather than survival of an immortal soul. Such an achievement would be child's play for the God who created this universe. Furthermore, the findings of medical science agree with the Bible's definition of man. Scientists have never found any entity that survives the body. Religions regard the soul as the real you, capable of thought and capable of influencing the living. However the thinking ability does not exist apart from the body and this is shown by the fact that if persons suffer brain damage it affects their thinking ability.

Were Adam and Eve real people? Evidently, the writer of Luke's Gospel believed that Adam was real because when tracing Jesus ancestry at Luke Chapter 3 he tracers it right back to Adam (Luke 3:38 ) the son of Enos, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.

The Jews at that time recorded very accurate records of their ancestry in their temple archives because their priests were selected from the tribe of Levi and the royal line was traced through Judah and David. Therefore when we read that Luke traced all things with accuracy (Luke 1:1-3) we can be certain that he was able to consult those records. As it was important for Jesus to have come from the line of David, both Mary and Joseph, his parents had to fulfill this requirement. Any Jew at any time in their history could check the manuscripts with the records at the temple and so confirm that the genealogies were correct, this also provides circumstantial evidence of the Bible's truthfulness and accuracy. Furthermore any Jew living at the time when Jesus was on earth would have been able to check the ancestry of Jesus for himself. As the three and a half years of Jesus' ministry, and the first three and a half years of the apostle's ministry after Pentecost was only to the Jews, we can be sure that the vast increase of Jewish converts confirm that the genealogy of Jesus was correct. It was only after the year 70 CE with the destruction of their temple and their genealogical records, that Jews today cannot trace their ancestry.

Once we deny Adam's existence then we might ask who was Seth's father? Furthermore Jesus himself obviously believed that Adam and Eve were real people because in his discussion on divorce he used their reality as a factual example. (Mark 10:6-12) . . .However, from [the] beginning of creation ‘He made them male and female. 7 On this account a man will leave his father and mother, 8 and the two will be one flesh’; so that they are no longer two, but one flesh. 9 Therefore what God yoked together let no man put apart." 10 When again in the house the disciples began to question him concerning this. 11 And he said to them: "Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her, 12 and if ever a woman, after divorcing her husband, marries another, she commits adultery."

I seriously question a person's claim to being a Christian, if he doubts that Adam and Eve were real people, because the founder of Christianity accepted it and could trace his lineage back to Adam. Of course many clergymen do doubt Adam and Eve's existence so one wonders what kind of Christians they are.

Were Adam and Eve Married?

With regard to the question of whether Adam and Eve parented the whole human race, the scripture tells us at Gen 3:20 that Adam called his wife's name Eve because she was to "become the mother of all living"

Gen, 2:22-24 and Gen. 3:19 also answer the question of who married Adam and Eve. When God created the woman, Gen, 2;22-24 says that God brought the woman to the man. Then it says that man showed his joy by composing a poem in which he showed that he understood that the woman was of his flesh and bone and named her woman which means a man with a womb. He also referred to her as his wife and at Gen 3:19 said that he called his wife's name Eve. This means that God's bringing the woman to the man constituted the marriage ceremony at that time.

How about the first humans marrying their own relatives? From a scientific perspective this is also scientifically correct. Science has discovered that the genes in the DNA get damaged periodically by cosmic rays and other radiation collisions. This has resulted in the deterioration of the genetic code causing individuals to have a predisposition to certain disease. Logically if we go back in time we find less and less damage done to the DNA until we should arrive at a time when the first humans had very little damage to their DNA. At this stage there would have been no danger for humans to marry close relatives.

About Marrying Relatives

Some persons are under the impression that Adam and Eve had only two sons Cain and Abel, and so the question arises as to who they married. However once again this demonstrates the failure of the religious clergy who have not taught their flocks the truth. Gen. 4:25 says that Eve also bore Seth. At Genesis 6:3,4 the Bible states that Adam had "sons and daughters" and that Seth was born when Adam was 130 years old. Adam is further reported as living to 930 years old. Some have problems with the vast ages that the Bible supplies, but again it is scientifically perfectly reasonable. If our genes have been damaged physically so that today we are mere shadows of what we used to be it is quite reasonable to comprehend that the damaged genes are also responsible for the short lengths of our lives. In fact there are experiments being conducted today because some scientist think that they have discovered which genes control the lifespans of an individual. Of course there are also other factors which bear on this.

At Leviticus 18:7-18 God showed that with the introduction of his law to the nation of Israel through Moses, close relatives were not to marry each other. So God provided the first basic safeguard against genetic degeneration. Remember that the microscope had not been invented nor was there any scientific knowledge of genetics at that time yet God gave the Israelites a law that protected them from genetic degeneration. In this way the Israelites were protected from an increase of inherited diseases. Another example of Divine guidance as the Israelites had no way of knowing this fact without God's help.

Adam's Rib

Why did God fashion the woman from one of Adam's ribs? This was important to God's purpose. It meant that all other humans basically came from Adam. God made Eve from Adam's rib and the rest of the human race came from Adam and Eve's body through the normal process of procreation. So the act of forming the woman from Adam's rib fulfilled two functions. The first was that Adams and Eve's DNA were basically the same. Secondly, God introduced the principle of headship to man. Adam was created first, then the woman came to be out of the man and was formed to be his helper. or helpmate. Adams conduct could therefore affect all the members of the human race, which it did. If Adam had remained faithful he could have passed on perfection to his offspring. God withdrew his protection from Adam and so he began to succumb to the 2nd law of thermodynamics As he was now dying albeit being a slow process, we could only inherit the same dying process in our bodies. As he sinned before any of his children were born we all inherited imperfection and death from him. By Adam sinning he squandered our life rights and condemned us to this sorry condition that has been aggravated by thousands of years of falling away from perfection. If God in his mercy wanted to legally return those lost rights to us, so that we could have the same opportunity to live forever, Justice demanded a price of equal value to Adam. This was the ransom provision. How could God provide such a price without creating a new man and so conceding that the human race was a failure.? God accomplished this by selecting a faithful spirit son who was willing to perform this service for his father by coming to earth and providing the sacrificial offering. To accomplish this the son would have to be human. God performed a miracle by transferring the son's life pattern into the womb of a faithful Jewish virgin. As a perfect human son with God for his father Jesus now possessed the same rights that Adam had had when perfect. This included the right to have a perfect human family. His death as a faithful son balanced the scales of justice. After being resurrected to heaven he also now possessed the right to a perfect human family. The ransom provided Adam's children with the opportunity to be judged in perfection.

Once one accepts that God exists and has created the universe, it should be a simple matter to understand that before God created the universe he had already created other creatures in the same form as himself which is spirit. As the details concerning the rebellion that broke out in the universe has been discussed in other articles on this site, I will not go into details. Apparently one of these spirit creatures developed a bad spirit (attitude), rebelled and tried to use Adam and Eve's creation to challenge God's authority. God's way of handling the matter was to give the rebel a full opportunity to prove his case. His failure would then prove God true and vindicate God's universal sovereignty. Unfortunately we humans have been made the center of the issue by this rebel whom God labeled Satan, which means "Adversary" or opposer.

Without the Bible we would never have understood why mankind suffers today, however God fully intends rectifying the matter once certain issues have been settled. Unfortunately Satan has introduced false ideas to get humans to disobey God just as he did to Adam and Eve.. It is necessary for us all to get accurate knowledge so as to combat these deceptions. I strongly suggest that one reads the two articles on my site entitled "The Origin of Religion" and "the Scientific Accuracy of Genesis" which are a logical followup to this subject. If you wish to contact me, i can be contacted by e-mail at info@facethefacts.co.za.

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