"The Apostle Paul often found himself in a context in which he had to deal with many objections to the Christian faith. In 1 Corinthians 15, for example, the Corinthian congregation was questioning the future resurrection of believers: “How do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?” (1 Corinthians 15:12).The Corinthians struggled with the idea of a bodily resurrection because it did not fit into their worldview. The city of Corinth was permeated with Greek philosophy. The Greeks loved speculative philosophy and were proud of their intellect as they sought after and trusted in the “wisdom of men” (1 Corinthians 1:22, 2:5). In their own wisdom, some of the Corinthians rejected the resurrection from the dead because of the Greek idea.
Two thousand years later, not much has changed. Just as the culture in Paul’s day was permeated with Greek philosophy, so it is today. The worldview that undergirds Darwinian evolutionary thought is essentially Greek at its core. Many Christians are still integrating Greek philosophy into Christianity; however we have just given it the name science rather than philosophy.
Whereas Paul specifically asked how the Corinthians could say there is no resurrection, today’s Christians must ask, “How do some among you say there is no Adam?” Because Greek thinking has been synthesized with biblical thinking, it is becoming increasingly popular among many evangelicals to reject a historical Adam. Theistic evolutionist Denis Lamoureux believes not only that Adam never existed, but also that this fact has no impact whatsoever on the foundational beliefs of Christianity. Commenting on 1 Corinthians 15:1–7 he states:
This is the Gospel as stated in the Bible, and there is no mention whatsoever of Adam and whether or not he existed. Christian faith is founded on Jesus, not Adam. . . . . We must also separate, and not conflate, the historical reality of Jesus and His death and bodily resurrection from the fact that Adam never existed.Lamoureux acknowledges that the Apostle Paul understood Adam to be a real person. However he rejects this as a reason for us to believe in a historical Adam since, he believes, Paul’s view of Adam was based upon an ancient view of science.
Just as the Resurrection is central to the gospel, the idea of there being a first man, Adam, is foundational to the gospel and to the doctrines that are built upon it.
1 Corinthians 15:1–5
The uniqueness of Christianity is that it is grounded in history. The gospel is based upon the historicity of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, as Paul explains:Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. (1 Corinthians 5:12–16)The death and resurrection of Christ are the central events of the gospel. But notice that Paul says that
It is important to keep in mind that atonement involves a blood sacrifice (Hebrews 9:22), which implies violence and death. However, this surely makes no sense in a theistic-evolutionary worldview where violence and death have been a part of God’s process of creation over millions of years. Accepting millions of years of human and animal death before the Creation and Fall of man undermines the teaching of the atoning work of Christ. Theistic evolution does not just undermine Genesis and the supernatural creation of Adam, but it also undermines the doctrine of the atonement.
1 Corinthians 15:20–22
In verses 21–22, Paul connects Jesus’ death and Resurrection to the foundational historical events of Genesis 1–3. The Christian faith is dependent upon the historicity of these events.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.In verse 21, Paul tells the Corinthians that death came through a man, namely Adam. He then uses the Adam-Christ typology to explain the reason for the Resurrection. In verse 22, Paul points us to the mortality of the human race because of our relation to Adam. However, those who are in Christ will be made alive.
The claim that Adam was not historical overlooks the fact that the parallel between Adam and Christ is too close for one to be historical and not the other. Moreover, how could a mythological figure affect the human race in such a negative way? The focus throughout 1 Corinthians 15, however, is on Christ’s Resurrection from the dead—a physical Resurrection with spiritual implications. Those who argue that the death Adam brought into the world was only spiritual must answer the question as to why Christ had to die physically.
1 Corinthians 15:26
It was through Adam that death entered into the world, and it was through Christ that death was conquered:The last enemy that will be destroyed is death. (1 Corinthians 15:26)
1 Corinthians 15:45–49
In verses 42–44, Paul points out that our new bodies will have a glory that our present ones do not have. The reason we need new bodies is the result of the corruption brought about through Adam’s disobedience (Genesis 3:19). However, unlike the Greek view of the afterlife, Paul does not teach that our future bodies will be made out of spirit.In order to make his point about the nature of the body, Paul typically makes his appeal to Scripture. In verse 45, Paul quotes from Genesis 2:7 where God made Adam from the dust of the ground and gave him a soul, a living being:
And so it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual. The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust; and as is the heavenly Man, so also are those who are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man. (1 Corinthians 15:45–49)Paul uses the word “first” before “man” in order to draw the contrast between Adam and Christ. He also uses Adam as a proper name in order to identify the man in Genesis 2:7. In doing this, Paul clearly establishes Adam as the first man in relationship of order to humanity.
