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Abstract
Table of Contents
Introduction
Chapter 1
Part I
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Part II
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
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Two Men Called Adam
PREFACE
The object of
this book, in the words of the author, is "to underscore
in every way possible the fact that man is not embodied by accident
but by design, and to show that his body is as essential
an element of his very being as his spirit is".
For this creation/evolution
controversy about man's origin is not simply about method. We
are not being told just why an evolutionary origin is
so fatal to the Christian Faith. While the great American evangelical
theologians at the turn of the twentieth century did perceive
the danger, yet they did not fully preceive the fatal challenge
to the Plan of Redemption — as the historical review in chapter
one outlines.
There is no point considering how
man came to be, until we know what man is, what his constitution
is, what embodiment — incarnation — means for human beings.
Thus Section 1, "Embodiment:
and the Incarnation", we examine this unique body
from several points of view. It is examined physiologically as
to its capabilites as an instrument for the spirit (chapters
2 and 3). From the theological data, we note the demands redemption
places upon this body, and therefore what design specifications
will be required (chapters 4 and 5). These design specifications
will be examined from the biological data and confirmed in the
laboratory (chapters 6—9). From historical records the performance
record of this design model, this special creation, is assessed
and two results are found: the First Adam who did not perform
as intended by his Creator, and the Second Adam who did (chapters
10—12). Disappointment and hope.
But in Section 2, "Embodiment:
and Redemption", we see how the tragedy of the First Adam
will be turned into triumph by the Second Adam, or how Unfallen
Man undid what Fallen man did. The Lord Jesus Christ, as he lived
among us, proved Himself to be indeed a Second Adam, restoring
to our view Man as God intended him to be. He therefore became
an acceptable substitute for the First Adam and for all "in
Adam" (chapter 13). Although this Second Adam did not need
to die (for He never once sinned), yet he chose to die,
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vicariously, willingly,
by an act of will. Thus by His substitutionary and vicarious
sacrifice of both body and spirit, fallen mortal men may be redeemed
from sin and its penalty (chapters 14 and 15). By the resurrection
of his own body, the redemption of both our body and spirit becomes
effective, restoring us to true Manhood, forever more (chapters
16 and 17)!
Such, then, was the potential of
the body of Jesus Christ, the Last Adam; and such, then,
must have been the body of the First Adam who almost but
not quite destroyed that potential forever by eating the forbidden
fruit. But because of the vicarious and substitutionary sacrifice
of the Second Adam, all "in Adam" will be re-embodied.
All "in Christ" are assured of re-embodiment in a body
like His glorious body, sharing its incredible potential and
it will no longer be a barrier to the spirit but be a perfect
vehicle for its expression.
And so it is that God's intended
creation is not thwarted after all — but only because He
designed the human body in such a way that the Second Adam could
redeem the First Adam and his descendants. The relationship between
these two men is crucial: the human body was created specifically
and particularly, and this fact cannot be surrendered if the
Plan of Redemption is to be effective.
So how are we to meet this
challenge from evolution that still faces us today? Custance
concludes:
While I greatly admire
those who have so ably defended creation against evolution, I
cannot help but feel that to do this by deliberately divorcing
the issue from Christian Faith is to treat the case as though
it were merely a matter of "scientific evidence". It
would seem to be humanly wise, but I fear it is really a spiritual
surrender to secularism.
The issue has to be fought on our
grounds, not theirs. If it is won on their grounds and the teaching
of creation is ever allowed, it will be a victory of the intellect
but will have lost its spiritual significance entirely. The theory
of creation can never be presented faithfully as an alternative
to evolution by divorcing it from its spiritual implications.
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3 PROPOSITIONS
An established fact is as
sacred as a revealed truth.
Nothing quite equals the ignorance
of the average Scientist about Theology
except perhaps the ignorance of most
theologians about matters of Science.
"Theology was once known as the Queen
of the Sciences.
If Science as the 'Servant of Humanity' is to be sure of its
direction, the Queen needs to be either reinstated or re-
placed....THE THRONE IS AT PRESENT VACANT."
A.
V. Hill, Presidential Address
before
the British Association in 1954.
Why is it that the theologians are just
as unwilling to incorporate the data of science into their theology
as the scientists are of incorporating the data of theology into
their science? These data in both cases ultimately rest upon
foundations of a similar nature, namely, on the logical extension
of the implications of premises which have been accepted by faith.
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INTRODUCTION
In the present
creation/evolution controversy the basic issue is the origin
and nature of Adam.
Was he only a little removed from the
apes but with the benefit of a soul, appearing on the scene millions
of years ago? Or was he a creature of God's making coming directly
into being by a divine act, placed in a Garden of Eden only a
few thousand years ago?
And what of Eve? Was she a kind of prehistoric
"Lucy" three million years old, or was she formed out
of a historical Adam by a unique act of divine surgery as recorded
in Genesis so matter-of-factly?
What has been overlooked in all
this controversy, and what complicates it immensely, is the fact
that in the Bible we have not merely one man called Adam to account
for, but two (1 Corinthians 15:45). And these two men,
the Adam of Eden and the Adam of Bethlehem, stand in direct apposition
to one another, each being a prototype and a representative of
the other and of true Man. Whatever we can say with certainty
about the Last Adam must be assumed for the First Adam as originally
formed — whether by creation or by evolution.
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Examination of the implications of the biblical data
(and this data is far more revealing than is generally recognized)
shows that the creation of Adam and Eve exactly as Scripture
sets it forth, is the only view that really makes sense of the
relationship between these two Adams and of the biblical Plan
of Redemption. Evolution makes a shambles of the Plan of Redemption
as the Church of God has understood it and preached it for almost
2000 years.
It is the exploration in depth
of this relationship between the First and the Last Adam that
forms the subject of this volume. It demonstrates that in this
controversy concerning the origin of man's body, the biological
data are only part of the issue: it is the theological data that
must now be addressed.
What the Lord
Jesus Christ accomplished on Calvary cannot really be understood
without first grasping the difference between our physical death
and that of an animal, and between the death of Jesus Christ
and that of us men for whom He died. These three kinds of physical
death are entirely different in certain fundamental essentials.
It is quite beyond the ability of evolutionary theory to account
for these physiological differences.
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Copyright © 1988 Evelyn White. All rights
reserved
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