Was Adam Real?

There's a movement gaining momentum throughout the church today, even in conservative evangelical circles, that promotes the concept that Adam represented mankind, and was not a literal, single, individual, person.

This idea comes about primarily to accomodate the advocates' belief in theistic evolution (that God is the creator of all life and biological evolution is simply a natural process within the creation).  Let's look at evidence from the Old and New testaments, to see if this thinking is compatible with the Biblical story of creation, and the theme of the Bible, that God will save His people.


Old Testament

1. Genesis chapters 1-4 are written as prose or historical narrative and Adam is presented as a real person in a real place and time. 
   Genesis chapters 1-11 contain 64 geographical terms, 88 personal names, 48 generic names, and at least 21 identifiable cultural items, such as wood, metals, buildings, musical instruments, etc.

2.  Dates for events in Adam's life:  He begat a son in his own image at the age of 130 years named Seth, and lived 800 more years after that and died at the age of 930 years (these are specific numbers).

3. Genesis is seamless history without an obvious transition from non-historical to historical (Abraham, Jacob, etc).  The phrase, "These are the generations of" includes Adam along with Noah, Abraham, etc.

4. All biblical geneologies trace the human race back to one man-Adam.  The geneology of the first chapter of 1 Chronicles presents Adam with numerous other undisputed historic individual people.  There are gaps, but there is no hint that some parts of it are historical and others are not.


New Testament

1. In Matthew 19:3-9, Jesus answered a question on divorce by referring to God's institution of marriage with Adam and Eve (Genesis 2:21-25).  His point would have no point if neither ever existed.

2.  Luke, a historian, wanted to show that Jesus was the savior of Jews and Gentiles.  Christ's geneology (Luke 2:23-38) can be traced back to the first man, and father of all humanity-Adam.  It would  undermine Luke's argument to be using a mythical figure to make a theological point.

3. Paul refers to Adam in Acts 17:26, when he says "God made from one man every nation of mankind," so we should trust one another, as made in God's image, and obey Him.  A few verses later, v.31, Paul preaches the resurrection of Christ. 
   If Paul begins his presentation of the gospel with a myth why should he be believed when he presents the resurrection in the same sermon?
  To teach that one (creation of man) is a myth and other (resurrection of Jesus) is true, is illogical and arbitrary.

4. In Romans 5:12-21, Paul parallels Adam's representative role with Christ's.  One acted for many.  He underlines the historicity of Adam by speaking of a period when death reigned, as being from Adam to Moses.  "Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned- - for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law (Romans 5:12-13)."How could sin spread to all men if Adam is generalized humanity?
  Adam is described as a "type" of one to come (Christ).  "Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.  But the free gift is not like the trespass.  For if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many (Romans 5:14-15)."
  In the Bible, a "type" is always an historical person, action or event appointed by God to be a foreshadowing, a pointer, to the fulfillment, yet to come in Christ.  It is a redemptive history.  A type is not merely an allegory, but an historical reality.

John MacArthur illustrates the importance of Jesus' redemption of His people, because of the sin that Adam committed.  He writes, "Adam passed to all his descendants the inherent sinful nature he possessed because of his first disobedience.  When Adam sinned, all mankind sinned in his loins.
Because all humanity existed in the loins of Adam, and have through procreation inherited his falleness and depravity, it can be said that all sinned in him."  Thus the need for Jesus to come as Savior.

Al Mohler explains, " This is Paul's way of telling the story of the Bible and the meaning of the Gospel.  If Adam was not a historical figure, and thus if there was no Fall into sin, and all humanity did not thus sin in Adam, then Paul's telling of the Gospel is wrong.  Furthermore, Paul was simply mistaken to believe that Adam had been a real human being."

5. Paul contrasts Adam and Christ in 1 Corinthians 15:20-22, 44-49.  While the death of Adam causes the death of his descendants, the resurrection of Christ causes the resurrection of His people.  If Adam is mythical, perhaps Jesus is too.

Al Mohler writes, "The denial of a Adam and Eve as the first human pair severes the link between Adam and Christ which is so crucial to the gospel.  If we do not know how the story of the Gospel begins, then we do not know what that story means.  Make no mistake:  a false start to the story produces a false grasp of the Gospel."
Mohler continues, "Adam acts, speaks, marries, reproduces, dies, and is listed in the geneolgy of Jesus."

The Bible makes clear that sin entered the world through one man, Adam, and redemption comes through one man, Jesus! 

Jesus was real and so was Adam!

             Sources:  Reformation Theology
                              John MacArthur
                              Al Mohler
                              The Bible