This letter from Daniel Mann addresses the dire dangers of teaching "Christian evolution"...
Below is a letter I had sent last week to Ron Choong and his two senior pastors at Redeemer Presbyterian Church for which I haven’t received a response:
Ron,
I was glad to be able to sit in your class several weeks ago. Below, I attached a mini-essay written in response. Before I send it out, I wanted to give you an opportunity to respond.
Your Brother in Christ,
Daniel Mann
Choose You this Day
In February 2010, my wife and I attended a Ron Choong (Academy for Christian Thought) seminar at Redeemer Presbyterian Church, NYC, on the doctrine of humanity. Choong concluded,
“Adam and Eve were probably collective names describing a community of hominids [pre-humans] selected by God for moral cognition.”
As innocuous to the Christian faith as this statement might sound, it contradicts NT teaching and consequently, the credibility of the entire Bible.
In opposition to Choong’s thesis, Luke regarded Adam as a single actual individual – “son of God” – according to the genealogy that he recounts (3:38). As all the other people in Luke’s genealogy were actual individuals, we should assume that this also pertains to Adam. (Through its genealogies, the OT also identifies Adam as an historic individual.) Jude 1:14 also suggests that Adam was a single man from whom all others descended.
Although Jesus didn’t mention Adam and Eve by name, He indisputably made reference to them as individuals, not a “community of hominids”: “…at the beginning the Creator 'made them male and female,' and said, 'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh'" (Matthew 19:4-6 quoting Gen. 1:27 and then Gen. 2:24). Jesus then states that because God had joined man and woman together, they should not be separated. This couldn’t possibly refer to not separating a “community of hominids.” Nevertheless, according to Choong, God had separated them from their ape-like brethren to make them human.
Paul literally identifies Adam as “one man” (Romans 5:12, 15, 17). He also identifies Jesus as his corollary, the One who will correct the chaos created by the other man. As Jesus isn’t a “community,” so too Adam isn’t!
Furthermore, in both this passage and also 1 Corinthians 15:21-22, Paul validates the account of the Fall (Genesis 3) in which sin and death entered into the world through one man. In contrast to this, according to Choong, death, and perhaps sin also, had already been in the world for millions of years.
Once again, in 1 Corinthians 15:45-49, Paul affirms the Genesis 2 account, where God breathed into Adam who then became a single “living soul” – singular! He also corroborates the fact that, while Eve succumbed to the temptation, the single individual Adam, not a community, had not been deceived (1 Tim. 2:13-14 quoting Gen. 3).
Paul also attests to the fact that Adam was formed before Eve (1 Tim. 2:13). If “Adam and Eve” had been “collective names” for a tribe of hominids, it would be impossible to say that Adam was formed first.
The biblical evidence is overwhelmingly uniform that “Adam and Eve” were two individuals and not a collection of hominids. The choice is very straight-forward. Either we allow evolution to determine what the Bible is teaching, or we embrace the Bible as pre-eminent and allow it to determine how we should think (2 Cor. 10:4-5).
We can’t have it both ways (Matthew 6:23-24). We can’t add to the Word interpretations that just aren’t there (Deut. 4:2; 12:32; Rev 22:18-19). Paul warns that the stakes are indeed high:
“See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ” (Col. 2:8).
(This will not be posted at www.Mannsword.blogspot.com. You may respond to me via this email. When I had stated that I preferred that you respond at the blog, I didn’t mean that I didn’t want your response via email.)
Below is a letter I had sent last week to Ron Choong and his two senior pastors at Redeemer Presbyterian Church for which I haven’t received a response:
Ron,
I was glad to be able to sit in your class several weeks ago. Below, I attached a mini-essay written in response. Before I send it out, I wanted to give you an opportunity to respond.
Your Brother in Christ,
Daniel Mann
Choose You this Day
In February 2010, my wife and I attended a Ron Choong (Academy for Christian Thought) seminar at Redeemer Presbyterian Church, NYC, on the doctrine of humanity. Choong concluded,
“Adam and Eve were probably collective names describing a community of hominids [pre-humans] selected by God for moral cognition.”
As innocuous to the Christian faith as this statement might sound, it contradicts NT teaching and consequently, the credibility of the entire Bible.
In opposition to Choong’s thesis, Luke regarded Adam as a single actual individual – “son of God” – according to the genealogy that he recounts (3:38). As all the other people in Luke’s genealogy were actual individuals, we should assume that this also pertains to Adam. (Through its genealogies, the OT also identifies Adam as an historic individual.) Jude 1:14 also suggests that Adam was a single man from whom all others descended.
Although Jesus didn’t mention Adam and Eve by name, He indisputably made reference to them as individuals, not a “community of hominids”: “…at the beginning the Creator 'made them male and female,' and said, 'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh'" (Matthew 19:4-6 quoting Gen. 1:27 and then Gen. 2:24). Jesus then states that because God had joined man and woman together, they should not be separated. This couldn’t possibly refer to not separating a “community of hominids.” Nevertheless, according to Choong, God had separated them from their ape-like brethren to make them human.
Paul literally identifies Adam as “one man” (Romans 5:12, 15, 17). He also identifies Jesus as his corollary, the One who will correct the chaos created by the other man. As Jesus isn’t a “community,” so too Adam isn’t!
Furthermore, in both this passage and also 1 Corinthians 15:21-22, Paul validates the account of the Fall (Genesis 3) in which sin and death entered into the world through one man. In contrast to this, according to Choong, death, and perhaps sin also, had already been in the world for millions of years.
Once again, in 1 Corinthians 15:45-49, Paul affirms the Genesis 2 account, where God breathed into Adam who then became a single “living soul” – singular! He also corroborates the fact that, while Eve succumbed to the temptation, the single individual Adam, not a community, had not been deceived (1 Tim. 2:13-14 quoting Gen. 3).
Paul also attests to the fact that Adam was formed before Eve (1 Tim. 2:13). If “Adam and Eve” had been “collective names” for a tribe of hominids, it would be impossible to say that Adam was formed first.
The biblical evidence is overwhelmingly uniform that “Adam and Eve” were two individuals and not a collection of hominids. The choice is very straight-forward. Either we allow evolution to determine what the Bible is teaching, or we embrace the Bible as pre-eminent and allow it to determine how we should think (2 Cor. 10:4-5).
We can’t have it both ways (Matthew 6:23-24). We can’t add to the Word interpretations that just aren’t there (Deut. 4:2; 12:32; Rev 22:18-19). Paul warns that the stakes are indeed high:
“See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ” (Col. 2:8).
(This will not be posted at www.Mannsword.blogspot.com. You may respond to me via this email. When I had stated that I preferred that you respond at the blog, I didn’t mean that I didn’t want your response via email.)
