![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/peteenns.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/evolution-of-adam.jpeg?resize=130%2C201&ssl=1\" "\\"evolution")
<\/a>I\u2019ve been watching the Adam and evolution\u00a0debates\/discussions on line, in social media, and in print. I think I am beginning to see more clearly what accounts for the deeply held, visceral, differences\u00a0of opinion about whether Adam was the first man or whether Adam is a story.<\/p>\nThe reason for the\u00a0differences\u00a0is not simply that people have different theological systems or different ways of reading the Bible.\u00a0A more fundamental difference lies at the root of these (and other) differences.<\/p>\n
I think we have a different God.<\/p>\n
Christians are supposed to think about God they way Jesus showed us to think about him.<\/p>\n
That God does not hesitate to participate\u00a0in the human drama, to encounter humanity within the limits of the human experience. That means that biblical writers wrote about the God they\u00a0encountered\u00a0as they understood him within their cultural limitations.<\/p>\n
True encounter with God, expressed in truly human, cultural, terms.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why I have no problem reading the Adam story as a story of origins like other stories of the ancient world, or understanding Paul\u2019s take on Adam as an outworking of his Jewish world (where biblical texts are molded to fit an argument), and calling this kind of writing \u201cGod\u2019s word.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Gospel teaches me that this<\/em> kind of Bible reflects the character of God. This<\/em> kind of Bible is what I have come to expect.<\/p>\nThe Gospel\u00a0does not <\/em>teach me that it is a problem for\u00a0God to enter into the human\u00a0experience\u00a0and allow that human\u00a0experience to shape\u2013from beginning to end\u2013how the Bible behaves. The Gospel teaches me exactly the opposite.<\/p>\nAnd the Gospel certainly does\u00a0not<\/em> teach me that\u00a0God is up there, at a\u00a0distance, guiding the production of a diverse and rich biblical canon that nevertheless contains a single finely-tuned system of theology that he expects his people to be obsessed with \u201cgetting right\u201d (and lash out at those who don\u2019t agree).<\/p>\nWhen it comes to things like Adam and I hear how people explain their position, the question I ask myself now is \u201cwhat kind of God<\/em> are you\u00a0presenting\u00a0to me here when you say X\u2026.?\u201d Is it<\/p>\nan incarnating God\u2013Immanuel, God with us, or<\/p>\n
a Platonic god\u2013where you have to peel off the obscuring \u201cdown here\u201d hindrances to get to the untainted \u201cup there\u201d god, with the Bible as an encoded inerrant guidebook to get you there.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t like the platonic god. I don\u2019t think Jesus did either.<\/p>\n
You can tell something about the god people believe in by paying attention to how they talk about controversial issues of the Bible\u2013like Adam. \u00a0Do you see a system-dispensing administrator who keeps his distance or \u201cGod with us\u201d? If you keep your eyes open, my bet is that you will see one or the other coming through loud and clear.<\/p>\n
This post first appeared in April, 2012.<\/em><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/peteenns.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/evolution-of-adam.jpeg?ssl=1\" "\\"evolution")
<\/a>I\u2019ve been watching the Adam and evolution\u00a0debates\/discussions on line, in social media, and in print. I think I am beginning to see more clearly what accounts for the deeply held, visceral, differences\u00a0of opinion about whether Adam was the first man or whether Adam is a story.<\/p>\n