Cedarville Magazine, Spring 2017

There is no place for racism in the Christian church. As believers, we should be leading the way against racism of any kind. Gender Identity. Did God create us male and female or did He not? If He created us male and female, then it is not up to us to choose what we want to be. We must embrace the truth: It’s not how we feel on any particular morning; it’s how God created us. We understand that; we embrace that; we live the life that God has given us. Marriage. If God established it, if it’s God’s design, then no man can put asunder what God has developed. Going back to Genesis 1:27, it’s all there. God created in His image. God created male and female. Sexual expression should also then be limited to this context. We should be leading the way to say sex-trafficking, the pornography industry — all of that has to stop. HOW DOES IT AFFECT THE DOCTRINE OF SIN? Without a literal creation and a literal Adam and Eve, how did sin enter humankind? Why is it that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God? How did death enter the world? Did God create a world that evolved to such a point that it had death, chaos, and destruction and then, all of a sudden, He proclaimed it was good? That’s not what the Genesis record tells us. Genesis tells us that He created the world, He created it for a purpose, and it was very good. We sinned. We created the mess we have today. God, out of His love, sent His Son to provide penal, substitutionary atonement on the cross so He could redeem this world, restore it, and make it the way it should be. This is the biblical record. With no explanation for sin, what do we need to be saved from? What are we going to be saved to? HOW DOES IT AFFECT THE DOCTRINE OF SALVATION? The first Adam’s sin was imputed to us. We all fell. You say, “That’s not fair.” Don’t go there too quickly. You may think it’s not fair, but it’s the second Adam’s righteousness that has been imputed to us — that’s God’s grace. We want the doctrine of imputation so that we can have Christ’s righteousness imputed to us. It’s not our own works. We can’t earn it. We must repent of our sins, place our faith in Christ, and God will impute Christ’s righteousness to us. Can it really be that easy? God, in His gracious love, has said so. If we have no union with the first Adam, how do we have union with the second Adam? The story of creation, the fall, redemption, and restoration rises and falls on creation and a historic Adam and historic Eve. We are all in the first Adamwith death. There’s a second Adam who was resurrected. If there is no resurrection, we are of all people most to be pitied (1 Cor. 15:19). It all comes down to authority. Did God actually say? We look at creation and we understand that God created. That God created the animals and gave Adam delegated authority. That the devil, who had already rejected God, looked up to God and said, “I want to be God.” And God looked back at the devil and said, “Not in my lifetime,” and kicked him out of heaven. That devil, in the form of the serpent in the Garden of Eden, deceived Eve, who in turn gave the forbidden fruit to Adam, thus setting the entire order of creation on its head. This same Satan is still trying to distort the biblical worldview, the biblical narrative, and the sources of authority. And we must stand and say, “No. That’s not right.” God created this earth. God created Adam and Eve. God used the biblical record to tell us what He wanted to tell us about Himself. It is God’s revelation. It is authoritative. It is inerrant. It is what we must stand on. And so, the real question is “Did God actually say?” Recognize today that these theological questions are not trivial. They’re not trite. These questions involve wrestling with supernatural enemies, and we must stand and say that — for us, for this institution—we will stand for the Word of God and the Testimony of Jesus Christ. Thomas White became Cedarville’s 10th President in 2013. He earned his Ph.D. in systematic theology from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is the author and editor of numerous publications, including the recently released First Freedom: The Beginning and End of Religious Freedom (B&H Academic). Follow him: @DrThomasWhite facebook.com/DrThomasWhite Subscribe at drthomaswhite.com Gary Varvel is a national award-winning political cartoonist for the Indianapolis Star . He is the father of Ashley (Varvel) Day ’06. Cedarville Magazine commissioned Varvel to illustrate the need of a real Adam and Eve in the Gospel story. God used the biblical record to tell us what He wanted to tell us about Himself. It is God’s revelation. It is authoritative. It is inerrant. It is what we must stand on. Cedarville Magazine | 9