Only 1 in 4 Mainline Pastors Believe in Adam and Eve

And that’s not hyperbole—according to recent data from the National Survey of Religious Leaders, only 25% of such pastors “say they’re certain that Adam and Eve were real people” (by comparison, the study notes “80% of Evangelical pastors and 89% of black Protestant clergy affirm this belief with certainty”). Only 1 in 4 believe in a literal Adam and Eve! That’s certainly a contrast to the Bible’s view on the first couple:

He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?” (Matthew 19:4–5)

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. (Romans 5:12)

For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. (1 Corinthians 15:21–22)

But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. (2 Corinthians 11:3)

Yes, the New Testament certainly treats Adam and Eve as literal, historical people.

And yes, a literal Adam is essential to the gospel. Without a first Adam who really did sin against God and bring physical death into the world, why do we need the last Adam, Jesus, to die a physical death in our place? Denying a literal Adam denies Scripture, undermines the gospel, and puts fallible man as the authority over God and his clear Word.

Denying a literal Adam denies Scripture, undermines the gospel, and puts fallible man as the authority over God and his clear Word.

But that’s not the only lamentable finding from this study. They also found, regarding these mainline Protestant pastors:

• Only 45% expressed certainty in their belief about hell.
• A few more, 47%, definitely believe in miraculous healing.
• A quarter, 26%, believe in God but have doubts.
• Only 32% “strongly believed in trying to convert others to their faith.”
• And 70% view the Bible as “inspired but not historically accurate in all parts, with some sections reflecting the cultural norms of the time and therefore no longer applicable today.”

What a dismal view of God and his Word from so many so-called pastors! But this isn’t surprising, given the liberal trajectory of the mainline denominations. They abandoned the authority of God’s Word long ago, and that compromise just leads to more compromise (and more doubt!).

What’s the antidote to this slippery slide into unbelief? A firm conviction regarding the authority of God’s Word . . . from the very first verse!

Get More Answers on Answers News

This item was discussed Monday on Answers News with cohosts Avery Foley, Patricia Engler, and Dr. Marisa Tillery. Answers News is our weekly news program filmed live before a studio audience here at the Creation Museum, broadcast on our Answers in Genesis YouTube channel, and posted to Answers TV. We also covered the following topics:

• Fossil dung reveals butterfly scales.
• New soft tissue structure in dinosaurs discovered.
• Another study confirms that puberty blockers cause harm.
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Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,
Ken

This item was written with the assistance of AiG’s research team.