>The response I have to this is Genesis 2:16,17 and 3:17-19. If Adam
>is a type of humanity and not a real person, from where did sin (and
>the knowledge of good and evil) arise? God cursed the ground because
>of the sinful disobedience of Adam. Adam disobeyed a direct
>commandment from God - if there was no Adam but only an evolutionary
>by-product, there would be no direct disobedience, hence no curse.
I've snipped the remainder of Bill's response for now. He makes some good
points that I may respond to later.
I was not claiming that Adam was not an individual. I agree that he was.
However, I don't believe it's necessary to believe a particular
interpretation of how men came to be sinful in order to accept that men are
sinful. There's a difference. If you are involved in evangelism (I hope
you are) you probably don't begin your witnessing to a nonbeliever by
relating Genesis 1-3 to him. More likely you tell him that men are
separated from God by sin, that the only remedy is Jesus' death on the
cross, and that this remedy is a free gift you can have simply by
confessing your sins and accepting it. This approach depends on the fact
that most people know they are sinful. And millions of people have
accepted Christ before they know much or even anything at all about
Genesis. Suppose all copies of the Old Testament were suddenly destroyed,
and no one remembered what the Old Testament teaches. Would you expect
believers to desert the faith because they no longer have an "audit trail"
back to the first sin? I hope not.
Bill Hamilton | Chassis & Vehicle Systems
GM R&D Center | Warren, MI 48090-9055
810 986 1474 (voice) | 810 986 3003 (FAX)
hamilton@gmr.com (office) | whamilto@mich.com (home)