ADAM & EVE (R. Albert Mohler Jr.): Clarifying what is at stake
Recent evangelical discussion concerning Adam and Eve has served at least one good purpose -- it has helped to clarify what is theologically at stake in the debate. The recent report by National Public Radio alerted the larger secular culture to the debate, but the debate is hardly new.
What is new, however, is the candid admission on the part of some that the denial of a historical Adam requires a new understanding of the Bible's basic story -- and thus of the Gospel as well.
By the way, those who try to deny that Genesis requires the affirmation of a historic Adam as a real and singular human individual (arguing, for example, that the Hebrew word translated "Adam" means only "the man") must face the fact that the Genesis narrative clearly presents Adam as a singular individual who acts, speaks, marries, reproduces and is listed even in the genealogy of Jesus. Hebrew vocabulary offers no escape...