The theistic evolutionary organization BioLogos, which we have extensively criticized recently published an article that postulated that Adam was not the first man. That’s nothing new for BioLogos who has freely speculated that Adam did not even exist. However, this twist was new. Instead of claiming Adam didn’t exist, the author, a graduate from a theological cemetery… err seminary, claims that Adam was the first universal king of earth and the last until Christ. There are huge theological problems with this view, like all other old-earth views.
The most obvious problem is the “death before sin” problem. Like almost every other old-earth view, this view requires that there was death, lots of it before Adam sinned. It includes human death. After all, if Adam was not the first man, then men had to come before him. If men came before him, then men died before him. Yet Romans 5:12 tells us that death came into the world as a result of man’s sin. Specifically, the sin referred to is Adam’s. So no human death should have happened prior to Adam, yet this view requires it.
This is not the only place where this view contradicts Scripture. The Bible tells us creation was made “very good”. This very good creation had yet to be marred by sin. When sin occurred, God gave the curse which, we know based on Romans 8:20-23, we know brought death not just on man, but on the creatures as well. Further, we know from the fossil record that there was carnivory, tumors, disease, and thorns, all long before Adam in this view. This directly contradicts what Genesis 3 and Romans 8 tells us about the curse. Adam as king is incompatible with Scripture.
Getting into a few more specifics of this view, the author proposes that there were people outside the Garden who Adam was designated ruler over. He believes that, because Adam and Christ are compared in the New Testament, Adam being the first man and thus having dominion by virtue of being first cannot work because Adam had offspring and Christ did not. This is spurious for a number of reasons. Adam’s dominion had nothing to do with his ability to have children. It specifically related to his control over the earth, something that had nothing to do with how many kids he had. Further, he was given this control before he even had children.
The author further argues that one of the jobs of Adam’s kingship was to introduce agriculture. While I would agree Adam was the first farmer, who exactly was Adam to introduce agriculture too? The author, like Joshua Swamidass who we previously critiqued, that there was a multitude of people outside the Garden. That is purely speculative, and, frankly, does not work with the statement in Genesis 3:20 that Eve was the mother of all living. This statement destroys any claim that there were any humans outside the Garden. Adam and Eve were the only two people in existence. The author does not interact with this statement about Eve. At all.
The author also fails to mention that nowhere in the text is Adam referred to as a king. The Hebrew word for king “melek” does occur in Genesis but not until Genesis 14. The first eleven chapters of Genesis are completely devoid of the word. If God had wanted to tell us Adam was a king. the word existed in Hebrew to tell us. God elected not to use it. That in itself should speak against God intending us to understand Adam’s dominion as kingship.
Unfortunately, it is hardly surprising that BioLogos is propagating yet another false view of Scripture. They view most of the Old Testament as being the product of Ancient Near Eastern (ANE) myth and have no problem just hand-waving it away if it suits them. Such was not how God intended His Word to be taken, but that has never stopped a compromised Christian from twisting it. Adam as a king is not anywhere in the Scriptures. It only exists in the minds of those who want to accommodate secular ideas into the Bible. Every single time that happens it is the Scripture which is mutilated, not the secular ideas because these individuals do not see the Bible as authoritative and that is both sad and wicked.
Do you know what’s going to happen when you die? Are you completely sure? If you aren’t, please read this or listen to this. You can know where you will spend eternity. If you have questions, please feel free to contact us, we’d love to talk to you.
In His Image 