Theology Pub: The Historicity of Adam and Eve

Did Adam and Eve really exist? This is a question that’s stimulating a lot of debate these days. Tim Keller writes:

[Paul] most definitely wanted to teach us that Adam and Eve were real historical figures. When you refuse to take a biblical author literally when he clearly wants you to do so, you have moved away from the traditional understanding of the biblical authority. If Adam doesn’t exist, Paul’s whole argument—that both sin and grace work ‘covenantally’—falls apart. You can’t say that ‘Paul was a man of his time’ but we can accept his basic teaching about Adam. If you don’t believe what he believes about Adam, you are denying the core of Paul’s teaching.

On the other hand, when asked if all humans descended from Adam and Eve, Dennis Venema, a professor of biology at Trinity Western University, replied, “That would be against all the genomics evidence that we’ve assembled over the last 20 years, so not likely at all.”

How can we make sense of this important and contentious issue?

Join us for the next Toronto Theology Pub. Stan Fowler, professor at Heritage Seminary, will be leading this discussion. The pub takes place next Monday, Novemer 28 at 7:00 p.m. at The Bishop and Belcher in downtown Toronto. More details here. Please email me to let me know you’re coming.