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Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Arminians on Adam

I wonder what is meant by “Adam and Eve were historical figures?” What does “historical” mean in that statement? I assume Davis means they were two real people who lived in our time and space. However, “historical” can also mean “factually verifiable” as if archeology could, in principle, at least, find their skeletons buried somewhere. That begins to raise interesting questions such as their ages when created. How old was Adam’s DNA when God created it? Did Adam have a navel? Etc. Go ahead, laugh, but insisting on a literal interpretation of Genesis 1 through 3 raises these and a host of other questions. Inquiring minds will want to know. Sure, it’s possible to simply say “We don’t inquire that far.” But people like Barth, who called Genesis 1 through 3 “saga” would say that too and mean “Let’s not inquire into whether Adam and Eve were a literal first couple in a literal garden, etc.” In other words, it’s not myth, but neither is it (i.e., Genesis 1 through 3) history in any ordinary sense. To insist that Christians must believe in a literal human couple named Adam and Eve from which the whole human race is descended raises a host of problems and issues that are best avoided by taking Barth’s route.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/rogereolson/2012/03/part-4-of-response-to-the-gospel-as-center-chapter-4-creation/

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