Hello Mike,
> -----Original Message-----
> From: MikeSatterlee@cs.com [mailto:MikeSatterlee@cs.com]
> Sent: Monday, April 22, 2002 11:58 AM
> To: asa@calvin.edu; jeisele@starpower.net
> Subject: Re: Bear sacrifice
> My position on this is a cross between that of Glenn's and Dick's.
>
> I believe Adam was a historical person who was created by God
> and inserted
> into an already populated world. I believe Bible chronology
> dates this event
> to 4,000 years before the birth of Christ. However, I do not
> believe that
> Adam was the first man who was created "in God's image." I do
> not believe
> that Adam differed in any way "spiritually" from the
> indigenous populations
> which surrounded Eden, other than being put under "law" by
> God. (Romans 5:13)
> I believe God simply used Adam, as a representative of the
> human race, to
> illustrate the fact that no human being is worthy of eternal
> life. His
> inability to obey one simple command demonstrated that fact
> and brought
> condemnation upon all men.
> His actions served to provethe
> fact that the human
> race had long been unworthy of eternal life and had thus been
> deserving of
> the deaths they had long been suffering.
AT: This doesn't make sense to me. If Adam was simply an illustration, then
Adam could not have been the cause of the condemnation, because the other
humans were already unable to obey, and have probably disobeyed prior to
Adam's disobedience. They would all have already been condemned. How do you
explain why Paul so clearly explained that sin came through one man, Adam.
> It seems that some here feel that Adam must have been the
> first man created
> in God's image because Gen. 5 seems to connect the "man" of
> Gen. 1:26,27 with
> the "Adam" of Gen. 2.
As does Romans 5:12-14
> However, I think this is not
> necessarily the case.
> Especially when we consider the fact that in Gen. 9:6 God
> says that it is
> wrong to shed "man's blood" because "in God's image he made
> man." God is not
> here forbidding the shedding of Adam's blood. Adam was then
> no longer living.
> Those who take your position must maintain that when this
> verse uses the
> Hebrew word "adam" for "man" God was then only condemning the
> killing of
> Adam's descendants. I don't buy it. If that's what God had
> meant I think
> that's what He would have said. I think the context of this
> verse makes it
> clear that God was saying that ALL human life was sacred to
> Him since all men
> were created in His image.
AT: It is correct that Gen 9:6 is talking about the sanctity of all human
life, but the traiditonal understanding is that all human life descended
from Adam. Therefore, it is also correct to say that God was condemning the
killing of Adam's descendents.
Peace.
Adrian.
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