PROOFS THE BIBLE IS TRUE, Part 1
‘PROOF ADAM & EVE EXISTED’
I. A MAJOR TEACHING OF SCRIPTURE
A. ARE REAL, NOT MYTHOLOGICAL
The Bible presents Adam and Eve as real human beings, not as mythical characters. Here are some examples:
1. “[God] made out of one man every nation of men.”—Acts 17:26.
2. “Through one man sin entered into the world and death through sin, and thus . . . death ruled as king from Adam down to Moses.”—Rom. 5:12, 14.
3. “The first man Adam became a living soul.”—1 Cor. 15:45.
4. “Adam was formed first, then Eve.”—1 Tim. 2:13.
5. “The seventh one in line from Adam, Enoch, prophesied also regarding [the wicked].”—Jude 14.
6. Jesus Christ Himself upheld the creation story of Adam and Eve as being true; “But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.’” Mk. 10:6.
B. THEIR REALITY IS THE BASIS OF MAJOR DOCTRINES
1. THE HUMANITY OF JESUS, Lk. 3:38. The fact that Jesus was directly descended from Adam is theologically important because Jesus, as Redeemer, must be part of the human race. Also, just as Adam was the head of the fallen human race, Paul sees Jesus as the head of a new race of redeemed creatures with new natures. Jesus is called the second or last Adam.
2. WE ARE CREATED IN GOD’S IMAGE and are special and of great worth. We’re unlike other creatures – we’re made very similar to God Himself, having many God-like attributes. Why? Because God wants us to fellowship with Him throughout eternity!
3. SIN, DEATH, SALVATION. The biblical teaching of sin entering the world, death as a result of sin, and the need for the death of Christ upon the cross, are all based upon the fact that Adam and Eve were actual people. “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned…” Romans 5:12.
4. DOCTRINE OF RESURRECTION
“For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:21,22). Since we are special creations, God will raise our bodies and make them immortal.
5. OUR PURPOSE/ DESTINY. We’re not cosmic accidents but special creations by God with an awesome purpose. We’re custodians of this world, with the task of developing it. We’re to become like Jesus. We’re to demonstrate His love to a lost world. And we’re supposed to win the lost to Jesus.
6. BIBLICAL BASIS OF MARRIAGE AND SEXUALITY. It’s based on the pattern laid out by the Creator – one man and one woman for life. Only by that combination are children produced. God means for men and women to spend the next 22 years raising their child/children. By that time, the woman is leaving her child-bearing stage and the couple is heading into old age.
C. DOES IS MATTER WHETHER THE ADAM/EVE STORY IS TRUE? YES! 2 CHOICES: COSMIC ACCIDENT OR SPECIAL CREATION
1. EITHER "In the beginning, GOD CREATED the heavens and the earth...and God formed man from the dust of the earth" (Gen. 1:1; 2:7) OR "Once upon a time... perhaps two and a half billion years ago, under a deadly sun, in an ammoniated ocean topped by a poisonous atmosphere in the midst of a soup of organic molecules, a nucleic acid molecule came ACCIDENTALLY INTO BEING that could SOMEHOW BRING ABOUT the existence of another like itself" (Isaac Asimov, The Well-Springs of Life).
2. Two choices. Take the FIRST, and you see all natural history as divinely guided toward Man's coming; with it the conviction that man has special destiny and moral responsibility (with a probable judgment on the horizon as well). Take the SECOND, and you are left with no God, heaven, hell, or for that matter, any confidence in humanity and its future.
3. CREATED BY GOD! David wrote: “I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works.” Psalms 139:14 (NKJV). God designed every detail of your creation. He deliberately chose your race, your gender, the color of your hair, the color of your skin, the color of your eyes, and where and when you would be born. You are not an accident!
4. HOW MUCH ARE YOU WORTH? Researchers estimated your molecules as worth about $7.50. But God thinks we’re worth much more. Peter said, "For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you are redeemed from precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect." 1 Pet. 1:18. The Lord Jesus said; Luke 20:36, "... and they can no longer die; for they are like the Angels. They are God's children, since they are children of the resurrection."
II. PROOFS ADAM AND EVE EXISTED
A. GENETIC PROOF
1. The Genetic study “Mitochondrial DNA and Human Evolution” appeared in the January 1, 1987 issue of Nature, (Rebecca Cann, Mark Stoneking, Allan C. Wilson). They announced that they had “proven” that all modern human beings can trace their ancestry back to a single woman who lived 200,000 years ago in Africa. They nicknamed “Eve” [see also Time, 1-26-87; Newsweek, “The Search for Adam and Eve” (Tierney, et al., 1988)].
2. Since mitochondrial DNA is almost exclusively passed from mother to offspring without recombination, the scientists studied genetic material from 145 mothers from across the globe and determined the similarity so exact, that all women must be descended from one woman -- the original "Mitochondrial Eve".
3. Then it was discovered that only the male passes the Y-chromosome. The Y chromosome of 69 men across the world were studied, and “Lo and behold,” the similarity was so exact that they announced that all men must be descended from one man the Y-chromosome Adam!
4. So genetics proves that all humans came from two progenitors- one man and one woman. This contradicts the ad hock evolutionary hodge-podge idea.
B. WORLDWIDE ANCIENT LEGEND CONFIRMATION
1. If the story of Adam and Eve were limited to the Middle East, one could easily argue that the “myth” was made up there. But what if many cultures, separated by oceans and continents, had in their histories the same account of origins? Wouldn’t historians have to take a second look at it? Of course they would.
2. At least 16 scattered cultures have a similar account to the Bible story. Australian aboriginal, South India, Cherokee, Chinese, Hindu, Inca, Kenyan, Sioux, New Zealand, Navajo, Norse, Polynesian, Greek, Philippine, and Shintoism all have similar accounts (see protoplast religion).
3. In the Greek account they were made from the dust. In the Indian account the woman was taken from the man’s rib-bone. The Polynesian account the couple was given a Garden and forbidden to eat a particular fruit. In the Chinese, when they became intimate they felt shame and plaited grass to cover their faces. Wow! In all there was only one man and one woman.
C. RECENT LOCATION OF GARDEN OF EDEN
1. MOUNTAINS OF EASTERN TURKEY. The discovery (January 11, 2001, Michael Sander, Mysteries of the Bible Research Foundation) that at the head of the Tigris and Euphrates there are two other rivers, the Murat and the north fork of the Euphrates, opens the possibility they could be the Pison and Gihon of Gen. 2:10.
2. HEAD OF THE PERSIAN GULF. Archeologist Juris Zarins (Smithsonian 18:2 (1987): 132) believes the Garden of Eden was situated at the head of the Persian Gulf, where the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers run into the sea. LANDSAT satellite images show that the Bible’s Gihon River could correspond too the Karun River in Iran, and the Pison could correspond to the Wadi Batin river system that once drained the central Arabian Peninsula.
3. Jaris Zarins is probably right. The evidence for the location of the Garden of Eden seems to point to lower Mesopotamia, near the convergence of the Tigris, Euphrates, Karun, and the Wadi Batin. The Garden, had it existed until the Flood, was certainly washed away then. But Jesus promises us, “To him that overcomes, I will give to eat of the Tree of Life, which is the paradise of God” Rev. 2:7.
D. CENTER OF ANTHROPOLOGICAL MIGRATION
1. HUMAN ORIGINS FINDINGS CONFIRM. For decades anthropologists have placed human origins in lower East Africa, which would be contrary to a Fertile Crescent origin. Now new findings push back the date of Homo Sapiens to 300,000 years and the fossils are in Morocco (“Ancient Fossils from Morocco Mess Up Modern Human Origins,” June 8, 2017). Morocco is on the Atlantic coast of Africa!
2. Then another story rocked the origins research. A skull discovered 40 years ago in China – the Dali Skull – has now thrown a wrench into human origins being in Africa, and has Homo Erectus being in China 260,000 years ago.
3. Interesting, because it’s a long way from West Africa to China, and throws the long-held Africa theory into crisis (“Skull Found in China Could Re-write ‘Out of Africa’ Theory of Human Evolution,” (Independent, 11-20-17, Andrew Griffin)).
4. It’s not an accident that the Fertile Crescent lies near the midpoint between China, Morocco, and lower East Africa (Tanzania). I believe that the theories on origins will one day float back to the Iraq area, where the Garden of Eden was once located.
