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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

   

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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