What difference does Adam make? The answer, to many Christians today, is “not much.”
Adam, we are told, is a mythological figure who can safely be abandoned without compromising the authority and infallibility of Scripture. After all, is holding on to a historical Adam more important than downplaying Genesis 1–3 enough to mediate the gospel to our secular culture?
The Philadelphia Conference on Reformed Theology joins with historic Christianity in saying that yes, it is. Adam is not only necessary to our Christian faith and witness, but he makes a world of difference to our understanding of God, mankind, the Bible—and even the gospel itself.
The following contributors examine what the truth of Adam means about the truth of Scripture as a whole, how he shows us what it means to bear God’s image, and what an understanding of Adam teaches us about Christ.
Derek W. H. Thomas: The Bible’s First Word
Joel R. Beeke: The Case for Adam
Kevin DeYoung: Two Views of the Human Person
Liam Goligher: Adam, Lord of the Garden
Richard D. Phillips: The Bible and Evolution
Richard D. Phillips: God’s Design for Gender, Marriage, and Sex
Derek W. H. Thomas: Differing Views on the Days of Creation
Joel R. Beeke: Christ, the Second Adam
Richard D. Phillips: From God’s Garden to God’s City
Carl R. Trueman: Original Sin and Modern Theology
Learn what difference the historical Adam makes to us today, as followers of the second Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ.
