INTRODUCTION

One of the most extraordinary things in today’s churches is how few people actually believe that the man, Adam, and his wife, Eve, ever existed, or that they were created as it says in Genesis 2, and also that it happened right at the beginning of human history rather than after billions of years of evolution.

If you want to test out the spirituality and biblicism of a church today on these issues, just go and preach there on the subject of “Men & Women – Husbands and Wives”, taking as your text Genesis 2:15 – 3:20. You may be amazed at the results. If you use the word “submission” in relation to the role of the woman, the gulps and groans will show up on a Richter Meter. And if you speak about “male headship” , the roof is likely to blow off. But by far the greatest frisson will be reserved for the moment you say that the first human beings did not evolve out of apes but were divinely created spontaneously at the beginning of the history of the universe, which was NOT billions of years ago. I can guarantee that the floor will fall out at that point. Indeed, if you are a preacher and you look at the hostile faces of many in the congregation, you will have to keep reminding yourself of the Lord’s words of comfort to Jeremiah (Jeremiah 1:8,17)!

In his account of the Creation, did Moses say that the woman was created from Adam’s side because of his poor knowledge of human biology? Many professing Christians would say “yes”. Are the contents of Genesis chapters one to three 100% religious myths? Many professing Christians would say “yes”. Did those chapters get written that way because Moses didn’t have the benefit of modern science to assist him in his thinking? Many professing Christians would say “yes”.

If you ask these questions in many churches today — even in many evangelical churches — you will discover that it is necessary to go right back to square one and show people the profound implications of not believing the factuality of the first three chapters of Genesis. So what are the implications of not accepting the first three chapters of Genesis as fact — and in particular the creation of Adam and Eve as shown in Genesis 2 at the beginning of human history?

1) IF WE DENY THAT GENESIS 1 – 3 IS HISTORY, IT MAKES THE LORD JESUS CHRIST OUT TO BE EITHER A LIAR, IGNORANT OR JUST PLAIN DELUDED

People who claim to be Christians bear the name of Christ. If Christ was not who He claimed to be, or if what He said was not true, then there is no such thing as Christianity. The Lord Jesus plainly believed in the historicity and factuality of the creation and the Fall in Genesis chapters 1 – 3. First, He said Adam and Eve had been created by God at “the beginning of the creation” rather than after billions of years of evolution. The full quotation in Mark 10:6-8 reads like this: “From the beginning of the creation, God ‘made them male and female. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’…” . Jesus (who was quoting Genesis 2:24 right there) plainly believed in the spontaneous creation by God of the first man and woman, just as it says in Genesis 1:26-28. He had no doubt about the historicity of this. And why should He? For He had been there Himself at the creation, working alongside the Father “as a skilled craftsman… rejoicing in His whole world” (Proverbs 8:30-31; cf. John 1:1-3). Jesus also said that Satan was a murderer “from the beginning” and “the father” of the lie (John 8:44-45) — a plain reference to the historicity of the Fall in Genesis 3. The Apostle John [the closest to Christ?] agrees with this when he says that the devil was a being who was morally responsible, having “sinned from the beginning” , and that the Son of God had become incarnate precisely to “destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8). Therefore, it is impossible to be a Christian and not believe in the historicity of Genesis 1 – 3. Jesus believed it; and if He was wrong then He was either a liar, ignorant or deluded. And if that is the case, then He cannot possibly be the sinless Divine Messiah. And if He isn’t the sinless Divine Messiah He claimed to be, then our faith is an utter delusion and we are the most pitiable of all people.

2) IF WE DENY THAT GENESIS 1 – 3 IS HISTORY, IT MEANS THAT THE BIBLE CANNOT BE TRUSTED

It is clear that not only the Lord Jesus but also His Apostles and the other Scripture-writers believed in the truth of Genesis 1 – 3 as history. For example, Paul said that every human being was descended from one man (Acts 17:26). He also plainly stated that women cannot take a leadership role or be Bible teachers in churches because Eve was created second, out of the man, and because she was the one originally deceived by Satan (1 Timothy 2:11-14), a clear reference back to the narrative of Genesis 1 – 3. He also referred elsewhere to the fact that Eve was deceived by the serpent (2 Corinthians 11:3), plainly acknowledging it as a historical event. That serpent, in Scripture, is clearly identified as Satan (Revelation 12:9; 20:2).

The Gospel writer and “official” church historian, Luke, also regarded Adam as a historical person who lived at the beginning of human history as the father of Seth (Luke 3:38). Furthermore, the half-brother of the Lord Jesus Christ, Jude, plainly believed that Adam was a real person, as he wrote in his letter in the Bible (Jude 1:14).

If the accounts of the Creation and the Fall are solely myths rather than history recorded (obviously in a condensed form rather than in every single detail) then we are in serious trouble as it means that we cannot trust the words of people such as Jesus, Luke, Paul and Jude. In fact, if even a part of Scripture is untrustworthy, how can we trust any of it? And if there could be such huge mistakes in the Bible, what message would it give us about God the Holy Spirit, who is personally accredited with having written it through various men (e.g. Mark 12:36; Acts 28:25-27; Hebrews 10:15-17; cf. 2 Timothy 3:16-17)? Once again, the undergirding credibility of the Bible as a whole and the foundations of our faith are rendered meaningless if we deny that Genesis chapters 1 – 3 are history.

3) IF WE DENY THAT GENESIS 1 – 3 IS HISTORY, IT DESTROYS THE “ADAM-CHRIST” RELATIONSHIP ON WHICH ALL OF CHRISTIANITY HANGS

The Bible clearly shows that Christ came into the world to accomplish successfully what Adam had failed to do. When the Lord Jesus said “the ruler of this world [i.e. Satan] is coming, and he has no claim on Me” (John 14:30), the unspoken filled-out statement here is that whereas Satan had plenty of accusation to find in the first man Adam, there was none to be found in the Lord Jesus Christ (as we can see graphically in the temptation in the wilderness, Luke 4:1-13). This is why Scripture refers to Christ as the “Second Man” and the “Last Adam” . Much is made of this contrast between these two representatives of the human race in the letter to the Romans and the first to the Corinthians (please read Romans 5:12-21 and 1 Corinthians 15:21-28; 45-49). The first Adam messed up, so “God sent His Son, born of a woman” (Galatians 4:4) as a direct fulfilment of the prophecy given in the divine judgement on Satan after the Fall (Genesis 3:15). Of course, God was not taken by surprise with the Fall of our first parents. This act of salvation had been planned out before the world was created (Matthew 25:34; Ephesians 1:4; 1 Peter 1:20; Revelation 13:8; 17:8). Adam miserably failed the test of obedience. The Son was sent into the world as the Man Christ Jesus and gloriously passed that test of obedience. All this was designed as a massive cosmic lesson to the human race, demonstrating the mighty fact that without the Lord we can do nothing (cf. John 15:5).

It is therefore the height of irrationality to call oneself a “Christian” and at the same time to disbelieve the historical reality of Genesis chapters 1 – 3. The historical truth about Christ as recounted in the Gospels hangs together with the historical truth of Adam as recounted in Genesis — that he was spontaneously created by God at the beginning of the creation, and that Eve was made by God out of his side. If there is no Adam, there can be no Christ. If there is no Christ, there must be no such thing as Christianity. In other words, it is the highest act of foolishness for you to go to church and profess Christianity if you do not believe in the historical reality of Adam and Eve as described in the Bible, because without that reality your beliefs really are nothing but myths!

If you are among those who believe that Genesis 1 – 3 is purely allegorical and nothing but metaphors, then the problem is that if one decides that it is all allegorical, then the narrative becomes open to whatever interpretation seems right in a person’s eyes and there will be as many interpretations as there are people. The fact is that the Scriptures concerned are what have been presented to us in this manner by God and the meaning that He wants us to understand is very clear — especially when compared with other Scriptures which directly refer to those I am here examining. The creation and the Fall have been presented to us by God in the manner that we have in the Bible, and what counts is that it provides the factual basis for so much else — not least of which is that the actual man, Adam, is personally contrasted with the actual man, Christ — a necessary theological truth (Romans 5:12-21; 1 Corinthians 15:21-28; 45-49), and Adam and Eve are presented to us in inspired Scripture as real people (Luke 3:38; 2 Corinthians 11:3; 1 Timothy 2:13-14; Jude 1:14), not to mention that Satan, the old serpent, is presented everywhere in the Old Testament (15 times) and the New Testament (47 times) as the great opponent of God and His Christ.

CONCLUSION

If those who profess Christianity but who deny the historical accuracy of the Bible were to give more than a moment’s thought to the profound implications of their “Scripture-in-the-light-of-modern-science-and-common-sense” attitude, the bottom would fall out of their worlds. Well I would really like to encourage that event! There could be no greater service to 21st century Christendom than to undermine the great delusions of our time.

So let us never be daunted by the seemingly great intellect of the assorted scientists and philosophers who advocate these delusions about the creation of the world. They may have umpteen letters after their names (as they are often so quick to point out); they may wear beautiful stoles around their necks and gowns around their shoulders (as they are often so quick to show, cf. Matthew 23:5-7); they may be great public speakers who can have thousands guffawing in the aisles at their clever jokes about the Bible; their names may often appear at the head of learned articles in “Apostianity Today” or the “Journal of Evanjellycal Theology”; but we know Whom we have believed; and it is WE who have the true logic on our side!

If there is no Adam, there is no Christ. If there is no Christ, there is no Christianity. If there is no Christianity, then a chasm of nihilism opens up beneath us which is infinitely deeper than the miniscule Puerto Rico Trench!

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© Copyright, Alan Morrison, 2026
[The copyright on my works is merely to protect them from any wanton plagiarism which could result in undesirable changes (as has actually happened!). Readers are free to reproduce my work, so long as it is in the same format and with the exact same content and its origin is acknowledged]

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