Easter and Eden

A Factual, Not Futile, Faith

“The Apostle Paul (who saw the risen Christ) states it is important that Jesus truly did rise again”2 in his first letter to the Corinthians, and by extension, through divinely inspired Scripture, to all of Christendom when he said,

And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. (1 Corinthians 15:14–17)

The Apostle Paul, of course, met the risen Christ, the One he had formerly persecuted. So it’s understandable that after he’d repented of his sin and trusted in Christ as his Savior, he would boldly proclaim his faith in the truth of the events that our celebration of Easter represents. But if you are a Christian, why do you believe? Is it because you’ve looked upon Jesus face to face? Although some claim to have, I would bet the vast majority of Christians would say, “No, it’s because I have faith.” And Jesus praised those who exercise such faith in John 20:29 when He said,

Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.

The Hall of Faith

Chapter 11 in the book of Hebrews is often called the “Hall of Faith,” as it describes men and women of the past who trusted God and took him at his Word, without having seen beforehand what they were told would come. And faith is defined here this way:

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the people of old received their commendation. (Hebrews 11:1–2)

It’s important to note that although many spiritual truths to be taken by faith are mentioned here, there are several historical truths that directly pertain to what we call the “natural world” as well. For example, the physical universe!

By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible. (Hebrews 11:3)

Note also, the account of Noah’s ark and the world-shattering deluge, Noah’s flood, presented as history:

By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.

It shouldn’t surprise us that Jesus commended those who believed all aspects of Holy Scripture, as he often rebuked the skeptics of his day (especially the religious leaders) with phrases like “Have you not read . . . ?” and “It is written . . . ”. For Jesus, Scripture was the final authority in all areas, not just spiritual things. He even challenged Nicodemus as to the interconnectivity between the physical and spiritual truths of the Bible when He said,

If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? (John 3:12)

Sadly, today many in the church seem to claim a higher authority than God’s Word when it comes to the “earthly things” recorded in Scripture, to the great detriment to the church, the authority of God’s Word, and the gospel message. How? By adopting a secular view of earth history, by adding millions of years and/or evolution to the Bible, and by denying the historicity of Genesis 1–11: the creation of male and female from the beginning of creation (as Jesus quotes in Mark 10:6) while often allegorizing Adam and Eve as symbolic. Many have used the secular interpretations of so-called science to reinterpret the plain reading of God’s Word.

And how does this affect the gospel, the very purpose we celebrate Easter? Well, Scripture says the wages of sin is death. But under any type of long-age interpretation, God used billions of years of death, disease, and suffering to create and called it “very good,” all prior to the first man, Adam, sinning. And the whole purpose of Christ’s sacrifice was to restore what was lost when Adam sinned at the fall. In addition, if God is someday going to restore this broken world to the way it was in the beginning, but that beginning was full of death and suffering, what exactly is Jesus’ purpose?

As the Bible skeptic and Darwin historian Peter Bowler said,

If Christians accepted that humanity was the product of evolution— even assuming the process could be seen as an expression of the Creator’s will—then the whole idea of Original Sin would have to be reinterpreted. Far from falling from an original state of grace in the Garden of Eden, we have risen gradually from our animal origins. And if there was no Sin from which we needed salvation, what was the purpose of Christ’s agony on the cross? 3

“Just as ‘science’ cannot prove that Jesus rose from the dead, it also cannot prove that God created everything in six days. In fact, ‘science’ can’t prove any event from history, because it is limited in dealings about the past. Historical events are known to be true because of reliable eyewitness accounts. Similarly, there are reliable eyewitness accounts that Jesus’ tomb was empty after three days, and that He later appeared to as many as 500 people at once (1 Corinthians 15:6).”4

But “most importantly, we know the Resurrection is true because God . . . tells us in His Word. . . . Just as we accept that Christ rose bodily from the dead because of the clear Words of Scripture, we also accept that God created”5 the world just as described in Genesis and is confirmed in the New Testament. Conversely, if we tell the world we don’t believe God created as Genesis states, then why should we be surprised at their lack of trust in the gospel when “we insist on believing the Words in Scripture concerning Christ’s bodily resurrection?”6

The Psalmist wrote, “Thy word is true from the beginning” (Psalm 119:160).

“As we contemplate the real meaning of ‘Easter’ at this time of year, let us also remember [its Edenic reference point and remember] how important it is to take God at His Word”7 from the very first verse.