Did Adam and Eve Really Exist?

Crisis Magazine ^ | November 24, 2014 | DENNIS BONNETTE

[boatbums]

Should we just toss out every OTHER part of the Bible?

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Not exactly, Paul taught the members of the church how to act if they were going to be an example to the flock. But how long do they have to sing to the quire? Admittedly there are many preachers who are preaching to the world ( As in this Gospel shall be preached to all the world ) But there are also many singing to the quire.

Not exactly??? What does that mean? Paul's epistles taught Holy Spirit-revealed truth and mysteries that had not yet been given before Jesus' death, burial and resurrection. These truths were what established some of the most essential doctrines that make up the rule of the Christian faith. Does preaching to the choir mean that ALL of Scripture isn't part of studying the word?

We read the story of Philip being miraculously directed to the side of an Ethiopian eunuch who was reading the book of Isaiah on his way back to his country. God used Philip to expound upon the passage to show it was speaking of Jesus, the Messiah, and to preach the gospel:

Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Go south to the road—the desert road—that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of the Kandake (which means “queen of the Ethiopians”). This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the Book of Isaiah the prophet. The Spirit told Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.” Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked. “How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. This is the passage of Scripture the eunuch was reading:


“He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth. In his humiliation he was deprived of justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth.”

The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?” Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus. As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water. What can stand in the way of my being baptized?” And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him. When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him again, but went on his way rejoicing. Philip, however, appeared at Azotus and traveled about, preaching the gospel in all the towns until he reached Caesarea. (Acts 8:26-40)

This passage shows us how God uses the writings of Moses and the Prophets to speak to those who are diligently seeking to know the truth. That there are over 300 prophecies about Jesus - many quite specific - and to see how he has fulfilled them, is one of the best witnessing tools evangelists have to prove Jesus is who he claimed to be and the gospel is true. What Paul wrote - and his divinely-inspired writings make up the bulk of the New Testament - will always be relevant to Christians as well as seekers of the truth. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation to all those who believe.

[editor-surveyor]

Catholics are the unbelievers most of the time.

[terycarl]

And you believe that Mary is in Heaven right now; helping Jesus out. O... K...

how are you so certain that she is not.......O...K...

[boatbums]

I wonder where peter got the idea that a day with God was as a thousand years and a thousand years as a day? Could he have gotten it from the creation story in Genesis?

Nope. Peter "got it" from Psalm 90:4, "Because a thousand years in your eyes is like a day that is finished when it is passed and like a watch of the night." Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary says:

A thousand years are nothing to God's eternity: between a minute and a million of years there is some proportion; between time and eternity there is none. All the events of a thousand years, whether past or to come, are more present to the Eternal Mind, than what was done in the last hour is to us. And in the resurrection, the body and soul shall both return and be united again. Time passes unobserved by us, as with men asleep; and when it is past, it is as nothing. It is a short and quickly-passing life, as the waters of a flood. Man does but flourish as the grass, which, when the winter of old age comes, will wither; but he may be mown down by disease or disaster.

In eternity, there is no such thing as time. Time has no relation to God; it does not exist for him. So, for God - and for us, as well, in heaven, one day is no different than a thousand years, a hundred thousand years or a million years. But, when God DOES speak of a day in earth time and specifically says "evening and morning", then He IS talking about a literal, 24-hour day - like in Genesis.

[boatbums]

You mean like "Hath God said?" Then you have the demonic other extreme, in which someone will take something literal which was obviously (in the light of the rest of Scripture) figurative as denoting spiritual (as the "lamb" of God in Jn. 1, Lord referring to the temple in Jn 2, "born" in Jn. 3, "water" and "meat" in Jn. 4, and flesh and blood in Jn. 6, etc.)

Yep, I mean exactly like that! When Peter talked about Paul's writings as "Scripture", he also talked about how they contained some things that were hard to understand to those who were unlearned and unstable and that these people would distort the truths God revealed to their own destruction. So, we should be on guard and not be carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from our own steadfastness (2 Peter 3:16,17). Peter reminded believers that, "that you should remember the words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior spoken by your apostles." (2 Peter 3:2). We don't have excuses for not taking God at His word or for letting people trick us and He has promised to illuminate the truth to us through the Holy Spirit.

[boatbums]

“... it was not the first time Moses and the LORD Jesus Christ had met to talk.”

There’s an interesting theory that the “Angel of the Lord” who appears at various times throughout the OT was the pre-incarnation Christ. The main evidence is that while other angels take pains to warn men not to offer them veneration, this angel alone accepted it, which would make sense if he really was the Son.

There is a theological term for that, "Theophany":

Manifestation of God that is tangible to the human senses. In its most restrictive sense, it is a visible appearance of God in the Old Testament period often, but not always, in human form. Some would also include in this term Christophanies (preincarnate appearances of Christ) and angelophanies (appearances of angels). In the latter category are found the appearances of the angel of the Lord, which some have taken to be Christophanies, reasoning that since the angel of the Lord speaks for God in the first person ( Gen 16:10 ) and the human addressed often attributes the experience to God directly ( Gen 16:13 ), the angel must therefore be the Lord or the preincarnate Christ. Yet, though the angel is clearly identified with the Lord, he is distinguished from him (he is called "angel, " meaning "messenger" similar patterns of identification and distinction can be seen in Genesis Genesis 19:1 Genesis 19:21 ; Genesis 31:11 Genesis 31:13 ; Exodus 3:2 Exodus 3:4 ; Judges 2:1-5 ; Judges 6:11-12 Judges 6:14 ; Judges 13:3 Judges 13:6 Judges 13:8-11 Judges 13:13 Judges 13:15-17 Judges 13:20-23 ; Zech 3:1-6 ; 12:8 ). In the ancient oriental world, a king's messenger spoke in the name of the king. Any insult rendered him was interpreted as an insult to the king himself (cf. Hanun's treatment of David's embassy, 2 Sam 10:1-4 ; 1 Chron 19:2-6 ). There seems, therefore, no necessity to posit a theophany for the angel of the Lord. In Joshua 5:13-6:5, the conquest narrative is interrupted by the abrupt appearance of a being who calls himself the "commander of the army of the Lord" (5:14). To interpret this event as an encounter with God or with the preincarnate Christ forces the text. Angels were sent on missions of this kind ( Judges 6:11 ; 13:3 ), and some were identified as captains over heavenly armies ( Daniel 10:5 Daniel 10:20 ; 12:1 ). While there are no indisputable Christophanies in the Old Testament, every theophany wherein God takes on human form foreshadows the incarnation, both in matters of grace and judgment.

Following are a number of what may be considered classic theophanies. The Lord appears to Abraham on his arrival in the land, wherein God promised the land to Abraham and his descendants ( Gen 12:7-9 ); God reaffirmed his promises of land and progeny when Abraham was ninety-nine years old ( Gen 17:1 ), and on the Plains of Mamre on his way to destroy Sodom ( Gen 18:1 ).

God appeared to Jacob in his dream at Bethel ( Gen 28:11-19 ). It is also clear that in the events at the Jabbok ford, Jacob somehow received a revelation through an encounter with God, although neither a strict reading of the text ( Gen 32:22-32 ) nor its later interpretation by Hosea ( 12:3-4 ) demand a theophany.

God appeared to Moses alone on the mountain ( Exod 19:20 ; 33:18-34:8 ). God also appeared to Moses, with Aaron and his sons and the seventy elders ( Exod 24:9-11 ) and in the transfer of leadership to Joshua ( Deut 31:15 ).

While he suffered, Job had complained that he sought an audience with God ( 31:35 ). At the conclusion of the book the Lord appears in a thunderstorm to deliver two discourses, designed to grant Job's request for a hearing and arguably to supply at least one of the meanings for Job's affliction: God is sovereign.

In a looser sense, God's promise of the land to Abraham ( Gen 15 ), as well as his commission that Abraham sacrifice Isaac ( Gen 22 ), could be considered theophanies. Frequently the term, "glory of the Lord, " reflects a theophany, as in Exodus 24:16-18; the "pillar of cloud" has a similar function in Exodus 33:9. The Spirit of God or the Spirit of the Lord must be considered theophanous, particularly when it comes upon men, transforming them ( 1 Sam 10:6 ) and equipping them for divine service ( 1 Sam 16:13 ). The Lord appears to people in visions ( Gen 15:1 ; 46:2 ; Job 33:15 ; Psalm 89:19 ; Dan 2:19 ; Acts 9:10 ; 18:9 ) and in dreams ( Gen 20:3 ; 31:24 ; 1 Kings 3:5 ; Matt 2:13 ) to reveal his plans for them or to unveil mysteries for the future.

The Lord appears in theophanies both to bless and to judge. A frequent introduction for theophanies may be seen in the words, "The Lord came down." Examples may be found in Genesis 11:5, Exodus 34:5, Number 11:25, and Numbers 12:5. Although the most common verb for the manifestation of the glory of the Lord is "appeared" ( Lev 9:23 ; Num 14:10 ; Numbers 16:19 Numbers 16:42 ; 20:6 ), God's glory also "settled" on Mount Sinai ( Exod 24:16 ). (http://www.biblestudytools.com/dictionaries/bakers-evangelical-dictionary/theophany.html)

[terycarl]

The purpose of the layout of chapter 1 was clearly to establish that the days were real 24 hour days, and to establish the six days of labor

there was noone else there to be affected by the length of the day....only God was there, and we all know that to God a day is like.................whatever period of time you care to insert.

[Elsie]

We’re all fallen, whether we descended from Seth or descended from Cain.

The Cain side were in the image of GOD.

The Seth side were in Adam's image.

[Elsie]

I am sure you have her and her sons attention much better than I do.

Oh?

[Elsie]

“God is not a divine being with a magic wand” the pope.

So true.

Now BEADS are quite another matter...

[Elsie]

Noah was perfect in his generations.

Whatever THAT is supposed to mean.

Just how 'perfect' was he?

"Be ye therefore perfect..."

[Elsie]

God may have had other vehicles for other peoples.

Like comets?

[Elsie]

I vaguely remember some old ads for it; yes.

[Elsie]

Where did you get your decoder ring?

[allendale]

Its interesting that your “rebuttals” do not disagree with the essence of Genesis. However you seem enraged that someone may accept its essence but not its literality. Well if you are truly a tolerant person, you should recognize that people have the God given ability to think and ponder everything. You should also be humble enough to consider that you may be wrong in your approach and your intransience leads good people away from God.

[Elsie]

how are you so certain that she is not.......O...K...

1. There is NO evidence for it.
2. There is no need for her to be.

[redleghunter]

Whew Rex Harrison is going wayyyy back. But a true classically trained actor. Not many left these days.

[redleghunter]

LOL guess not.

[ravenwolf]

I vaguely remember some old ads for it; yes.

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You know why they had to call it what they did don`t you?

[ravenwolf]

Nope. Peter “got it” from Psalm 90:4,

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Ok, thanks.