This blog is devoted to discussing the pursuit of eternal life.
Discussion and participation by readers is desired,
but contributions should correlate to the book,
The Race Set Before Us: A Biblical Theology
of Perseverance & Assurance

by
Thomas R. Schreiner
& Ardel B. Caneday



Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Essay on Historicity of Adam in Paul's Gospel Is Now Published

My absence from the virtual world has been due to the importance of projects in the real world. This entry does not necessarily signal greater frequenting of the blogosphere. I do, however, want to let you know that my essay, "The Language of God and Adam's Genesis & Historicity in Paul’s Gospel" has been published and is the featured essay in the latest issue of The Southern Baptist Journal of Theology. You may want to download it and read it later, since it is fairly lengthy.

I do hope and pray that this essay will be effective and useful for the strengthening of the faith of Christians everywhere. For anyone who may not have yet noticed, when I write essays for publication, I do so with pastoral concerns in mind. I do so for the establishment of Christian faith.

5 comments:

Stan said...

I've tried from both blogs that I follow to get to that link. It gives a 404 error -- not found.

abcaneday said...

Thanks, Stan. Something bizarre happened to the link. I have repaired the link. It now works properly.

Jan Sichula said...

Dear brother Ardel Caneday,

I am Christian from Slovakia who is following your blogs and had greatly profited from your online and printed works. Now, before I proceed to write more, let me share that I am YEC by mind and heart, even active in a kind of apologetic/teaching ministry.
Congratulations on your latest article in SBJT – it is superb. I have read it line by line. It helped me to clarify my thinking about how types are embedded into Genesis narratives and then later unpacked as revelation and salvation history progresses. True, some popular forms of YEC are weak on this point but there were always solid YEC ministers who understood the correlation between corporeal and typological along the lines you develop. Anyway, you helped me advance my understanding and I am so grateful for this article of yours. Also the way you exposed BioLogos people as less consistent than Athenian philosophers is so to the point and speaks volumes as to how much have the BioLogos people wandered from the biblical gospel.
Now here comes my question and a plea for clarification. In your article, you do not address directly the length of creation days and correspondingly the age of the earth. Now it is my conviction that what you present and defend is ultimately compatible only with YEC but would you please clarify where do you stand on those two specific issues. Thank you in advance for your time.

Joyfully serving my Creator in Slovakia,
Jan Sichula

abcaneday said...

Jan,

Your question is entirely reasonable, logical, and properly inferred from what I wrote in my essay. Since my assignment was not to address the age of the earth or the length of days in Genesis 1 but Adam's historicity, I made every effort to stay on topic. However, I do think that I left a lot of hints in a lot of places (especially in footnotes) that I believe that exegetically, literarily, and theologically the days of Genesis 1 are inescapably six twenty-four hour periods. Furthermore, I believe the biblical text requires acknowledging that the earth is young. How young? I do not know with exactness, of course, but I am confident that the so-called "old earth" view has it wrong because of what the biblical text requires us to believe concerning Adam's genesis and historicity. Adam's formation out of the ground took place on the sixth day. The created universe, in other words, is only five days older than humanity, not millions or billions of years older. And, most assuredly, the notion that "Adam" and "Eve" were humanoids who existed about 100,000 years ago along with at least 10,000 other humanoids is nothing but "scientific myth" and wishful thinking fabricated by those committed to evolution's two deities--Father Time and Mother Earth.

And yes, "old earthers" and deistic evolutionists (who prefer to identify themselves as "theistic evolutionists") snarkily hurl the invective, "Fundamentalist," at me, as one did last week in his knee-jerk reaction to my essay wherein I critically engaged his theological revisionism concerning "divine accommodation.".

I believe as I believe, unapologetically and unabashedly, because I am convinced that Scripture, God's Word, requires such beliefs. If anyone cares enough to convince me that Scripture requires me to believe differently, I eagerly desire to know and to be so convinced. But until someone exhibits such compassion and care, not snakiness or smarminess, to lead me to believe differently on the basis of Scripture alone, I am conscience bound to persevere in my present beliefs.

Thanks for your question Jan. I trust that the two books I sent have been instructive and useful for many.

Blessings!

Pilgrim said...

Any public response to the essay yet?