A recent survey of American evangelical pastors revealed 20% don’t believe in a literal Adam and Eve. That means 1 out of every 5 pastors does not believe God’s Word is authoritative. Even stranger, 16% did not believe in miracles and 1% did not believe in the bodily resurrection of Christ. What this shows us is that mainline evangelical pastors think some of the Bible is true, but not all of it.
It means one out of every five pastors thinks they can tell which parts of Scripture are true and which aren’t (spoiler: it’s all true!). With what wisdom do they make this determination? With the fallible wisdom of man instead of the infallible wisdom of God, of course (1 Corinthians 1:20–25)!
If you don’t believe in a literal Adam and Eve, what do you do with the fact that Jesus did believe in a literal Adam and Eve (Matthew 19:4–5)? Was He a liar or maybe just deceived? We’re talking about the Son of God here. Are you comfortable calling Him a liar or a fool? You can’t have one without the other. Either Adam and Eve were real people or Jesus was wrong. And the excuse that Adam and Eve were just an allegory that Jesus was repeating doesn’t hold water because the textual context of Genesis is a written history, not allegory or poetry.
Almost all scholars accept Genesis as history, but many try to exempt the first eleven chapters from that distinction. They do so to make it align with man’s teaching about such things as evolution or the age of the earth. It’s laughable how otherwise intelligent men and women somehow think they know what happened thousands of years ago better than the One who was there and a witness to it all (Job 38:4). It’s all true because God is truth and there is no untruth in Him (Hebrews 6:17-18).
When Paul was instructing Timothy, he made sure his young protégé knew all of Scripture was true, from the beginning to the end (2 Timothy 3:14–17). As the survey shows, many evangelical pastors believe they can pick which parts of the Bible are true. But by what standard? God’s Word says it is complete (Proverbs 30:5–6; Revelation 22:18–19) and trustworthy (Psalm 119:160). If you reject what God says, how can you expect to survive His judgment (John 12:48)? Those who dismiss the authority of God’s Word are playing with fire in the most literal and devastating sense of the word (Matthew 13:49-50).
Many like to say that believing in a literal Genesis is not a salvation issue, and I have to agree because the Bible does not say that it is. My only authority is God’s Word and I will not try to make it say something it doesn’t. I will confess I’m uncertain how someone can come to faith based on who the Bible says Jesus is, and dismiss other parts of God’s Word as unbelievable. How do they know the parts they are believing are true? Again, you’re either relying on man’s wisdom or God’s. A literal reading of Genesis is what I believe, because that’s what Jesus believed. You can bet your life on God’s Word. It’s all true.