From: Adrian Teo (ateo@whitworth.edu)
Date: Fri Dec 20 2002 - 01:28:11 EST
Hello Jim,
It would be poor exegesis to simply point to a single passage in
Scripture to prove one's point. Scripture is to be understood as a
whole, and in the context of the universal church's understanding of
it. In this regard, then, one is able to say that the doctrine of
original sin and the imago Dei is incompatible with a gradualistic
account of human creation. Paul, himself, presented his point about
sin (Romans 5), and simply assumes that Adam was a historical man.
Jesus is presented as the 2nd Adam, undoing the work of the first.
The geneaology of Jesus goes back to Adam. The reality of original
sin in all of us necessitates a single source, and in parallel, the
reality of salvation for all of us necessitates a single source,
which is Christ. We all (i.e. humans) have to be sons of Adam in
order for the need to be saved by the second Adam.
Blessings,
Adrian.
-----Original Message-----
From: Jim Armstrong [mailto:jarmstrong@grand-canyon.edu]
Sent: Wed 12/18/2002 2:15 PM
To: asa@calvin.edu
Cc:
Subject: RE: Evolution wars
Perhaps you could point to the passage that necessitates the
instantaneousness of this aspect of creation? Regards - JimA
-----Original Message-----
From: Adrian Teo [mailto:ateo@whitworth.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, December 18, 2002 2:40 PM
To: Jim Armstrong; asa@calvin.edu
Subject: RE: Evolution wars
In defense of no-longer-lurking Sheila, I think it is perfectly
reasonable to infer from the bible and Christian tradition that there
are certain modes of creation that is incompatible with God's action.
For example, the notion of a gradual (quantitative
incremental) creation
of humans is clearly incompatible with humans as created in
the image of
God in the Genesis account. The creation of humanity is a unique,
singular, and instant event (qualitative). In other words, there never
was a time when partial humans existed. There was a time when
human-like
creatures existed and evolved, with physical features similar
to humans,
but these were not humans, not even partial ones. Then at some point in
creation, God breathed human soul into either some ancestral
creature or
a body molded from raw matter, and behold, the human person came into
the scene. I am not sure how He did it, but He did not do it in a
gradual way.
Blessings,
Adrian.
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