> 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 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.
I know and agree that evangelism should and must begin and end with
the fact of sinfulness and the redemption we have in Christ.
Unfortunately, in dealing with engineers and scientific people, I
have had difficulty occasionally in getting them to see their
sinfulness due to the "problems" with Genesis. Some persons I have
talked to are resistant to the gospel because they will not accept
the concept of personal sin because of a denial of the existence of
Adam and the associated story of sin. They are intent on denying the
existence of God and any associated responsibility to obey Him. Sin,
to them, is a conditioned guilt complex created by society to impose
order. Thus, by following the, "You're Okay, I'm Okay" method of
guilt denial, they repress the concept of sin and accountability.
For these people, knowledge of the factuality of Adam and sin is my
only course to undermine their false faith in psychological denial.
Jesus said that "the sons of this age are more shrewd in relation to
their own kind than the sons of light" (Luke 16:8, NAS). These
persons zero in on inconsistencies in our beliefs and exploit them,
like loopholes, to avoid repentence. Since the alternative is to
abandon them, I must strive to reason with them on their level and be
consistent in all that I claim; hence the questions I have brought
up.
William M. Frix
Assistant Professor, Electrical Engineering
Box 3021
John Brown University
Siloam Springs, AR 72761
Phone: (501) 524-7466
FAX: (501) 524-9548
EMAIL: wfrix@engr.jbu.edu