A No-literal-Adam, Evolutionary Christmas “Gospel” Message

I realize that heading is a mouthful! But how my heart ached when I read the Christmas message from a secular newspaper in the UK written by an academic who influences the church to believe in evolution and reject a literal Genesis. You need to read how this person presents the “gospel.” I put the word “gospel” in quotes because the message this man proclaims is not the true gospel the Bible teaches us. It is really an “anti-gospel.”

Just before our major creation conference in Malaysia, Dr. Denis Alexander had been in the same area, giving lectures to convince the churches there to believe in evolution and reject Genesis. According to some of our research, Dr. Denis Alexander is the director of the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion, St. Edmund’s College, Cambridge, where he is a fellow—he writes, lectures, and broadcasts widely in the field of science and religion. Since 1992, he has been editor of the journal Science & Christian Belief, and he currently serves on the National Committee of Christians in Science and as a member of the International Society for Science and Religion. He also writes for the BioLogos organization (founded by Francis Collins largely to try to convince the church to accept Darwinian evolution).

Dr. Alexander is an ardent believer in evolution and rejects a literal Adam. So here are his own words from this article as he explains the “gospel.”

Given the fact of human evolution, here is a good question for Christmas: if we last shared a common ancestor with the chimps about 5-6 million years ago, and humans have been gradually emerging through a series of hominid intermediates ever since, then why did Jesus die? . . .

The first mention of Adam in the Bible is clearly referring to humankind (Genesis 1:26-27) and the definite article in front of Adam in chapters 2 and 3 – "the man" – suggests a representative man, because in Hebrew the definite article is not used for personal names, with Eve being the representative woman.

The Genesis narrative tells the story of humankind going their way rather than God's way. On the day that Adam and Eve sin, they do not drop dead but proceed to have a big family, albeit now alienated from friendship with God, causing spiritual death. Nowhere does the Bible teach that physical death originates with the sin of Adam, nor that sin is inherited from Adam, as Augustine maintained. But the New Testament does teach that humankind stays true to type – all people sin by their own free will – and Christ dies for the sins of all. Christ is the second Adam who opens up the way back to friendship with God through his sacrifice for sin on the cross. The result is the "at-one-ment" that the first Adam – Everyman – is unable to accomplish by his own efforts.

Evolution's gift is a complex brain that endows humanity with free will, enabling personal moral responsibilities towards our neighbour and towards God. We are not puppets. God's gift at Christmas is forgiveness and new life through Christ for those who realise how far we've fallen from using that free will responsibly.

There are numerous articles on the AiG website that deal with this compromised teaching of people like Denis Alexander. You can certainly do searches on our website to find articles covering the various topics referred to in this article. However, I thought it would be good to just quote some Scriptures, let you be “Bereans,” and see if what a fallible human, who accepts the secular religion of evolution and millions of years, writes lines up with God’s Word. There are many other Scriptures I could quote, but the passages below are just a few. Just try to reconcile Denis Alexander’s interpretation of Adam (as “Everyman”—“representative man”) and his interpretation of Eve (as “representative woman”) with the following Scriptures:

Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned. (Romans 5:12)

And so it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. (1 Corinthians 15:45)

Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men also, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints.” (Jude 1:14)

For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression. (1 Timothy 2:13–14)

So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him. And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. . . . And Adam said: “This is now bone of my bones And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man.” (Genesis 2:20–21, 23)

And Adam called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. Also for Adam and his wife the LORD God made tunics of skin, and clothed them. (Genesis 3:20–21)

Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, and said, “I have acquired a man from the LORD.” (Genesis 4:1)

And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and named him Seth, “For God has appointed another seed for me instead of Abel, whom Cain killed.” (Genesis 4:25)

And Adam lived one hundred and thirty years, and begot a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth. After he begot Seth, the days of Adam were eight hundred years; and he had sons and daughters. So all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years; and he died. (Genesis 5:3–5)

The son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God. (Luke 3:38)

Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come. (Romans 5:14)

For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. (1 Corinthians 15:22)

You can read the entire article at this link.

Yes, I believe his message is an “anti-gospel” message!

We have enough of a problem with the secular world editing out the message of Christ, let alone someone who is seen to supposedly represent the church write a message like this for the world! The battle before us as a ministry is a battle with those academics/leaders in the church who are blatantly compromising God’s Word with the secular religion of the day.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken