Abstract

Table of Contents

Part I

Part II

Part III

Part IV

Part V

Part VI

Part VII

Part VIII

Part IX
   

Volume 5: The Doorway Papers Series

THE VIRGIN BIRTH AND THE INCARNATION

Abstract:   This study is about the central message of the Christian faith: the redemption of mankind by the offering of the body of Christ, once for all. From data both scientific and theological, the author discusses some of the physical effects of the Fall of Adam from eating the forbidden fruit which then necessitated the Redeemer's virgin birth and incarnation, of why and how this Redeemer had to be both human and divine, and the physical aspects of the Redeemer's crucifixion and resurrection. Our redemption depends upon the kind of physical body possessed by both the First and the Last Adam. This study reveals how the Plan of Redemption determined just how God had to design mankind and even the very Universe for such an event.

    Was Methusaleth really 969 years old when he died? Did the patriarchs live for centuries as the Bible says? Even records of antiquity speak of extraordinary long life. Are they not more myth than truth? How reliable is the biblical record?
     The question now being asked in biology is, Why do we die at all? It seems that death is not natural, that living things must be 'killed', as it were. . . . Information is now known about why we "die so soon". The implication is that man was created physically immortal � we could have lived forever!

THE NATURE OF THE FORBIDDEN FRUIT

   Nowadays this story of Eve giving an apple to Adam is regarded as a myth, or allegory. But let us suppose that Adam and Eve are real people in a real Garden with real trees � just as Genesis 2:15-17 says. And let us suppose that God warned them not to eat the fruit from one particular tree because "in the day you eat of it you shall surely die". And let us suppose that Eve did eat the fruit and gave to Adam who also ate it. And they discovered they were naked!
    The narrative is too simple. Yes, they disobeyed and had to leave the Garden. If they hadn't eaten that fruit, would they never have died? Besides, Adam didn't die 'that day' � he lived to be 930 years old!
     Yet if we take Scripture to mean what its words say, a great deal is learned about the physical effects of eating this forbidden fruit � and it is what one would expect from a study of biology and chemistry and genetics.
     This "story" of the Garden of Eden is sober history; and an understanding of it is fundamental to our understanding of our Redemption.

IF ADAM HAD NOT DIED

      Was Adam one of the Immortals who could have lived on and on without ever experiencing death? An indication of what God had in mind can be gleaned from what happened to the Second Adam on the Mount of Transfiguration.
     If death for mankind was not the original intention, then why did God create a potentially immortal creature knowing that this potential would be so soon surrendered? God had a very good reason: indeed, the Plan of Redemption depends upon the fact that Adam was created possessing physical immortality � that is, not that death was not possible but only that is was not inevitable.
     Only if the First Adam had this immortality (even though briefly), only then could the Second Adam become our Saviour by vicarious sacrifice.
     This fact sheds much light on God's purposes in creating Adam the way He did, in creating Eve out of him, and then in subjecting them to temptation, paying particular attention to the nature of Adam's as opposed to that of Eve's.

THE VIRGIN BIRTH AND THE INCARNATION

     The Articles of the Christian Faith, which together form an organic unity in which each Article is essential, are given by revelation. We cannot pick and choose � even though common sense tells us Virgin Birth is not possible.
     The Virgin Birth (or rather, the Virgin Conception) and the Incarnation are miracles, and beyond scientific analysis � yet not quite wholly so. The light from genetics and embryology only increases our wonder without decreasing the miracle. Nor does it reduce the need for the exercise of faith.
    The Plan of Redemption depends upon the creation of man in the manner stated in Genesis. There could not be two separate creations: one for Adam and one for Eve. Unless Adam was created and then Eve taken out of him, there could not be one Redeemer to stand in the place of all men.
     Genetics shows us how this was done: theology tells us why it was done. And so our Faith is also rationally satisfying.

    This Paper is not an attempt to explain the Trinity: this is taken as a fact. It is about the Incarnation, and the wonder of the Incarnation lies in the identity of Jesus.
     If Jesus Christ was merely a perfect Man and no more, his sacrifice could be applied vicariously to only one person. But because the Lord Jesus Christ was God-made-man, his sacrifice was sufficient for ALL men. When God the Son died for our sakes, God the Father raised Him from the dead. If there had not been at least one other Lord in Heaven when the Lord on earth died, the Universe would have come to an end.
     And what was God the Son doing before the Incarnation? The King James Version has adopted a method of translation of the Hebrew which informs us which Person of the Trinity is actually speaking or working. Thus the One we know so well by his activities and words in the Gospels can be just as familiar to us throughout the Old Testament.

Preface

Introduction

Chapter 1. The Significance of the Pronoun "Us" in the Old Testament

Chapter 2. The Use of the Term "Lord" for the Trinity in the New Testament

Chapter 3. The Appearance of the Lord Jesus in the Old Testament

Chapter 4. The Evidence of Two Persons in the Old Testament

Chapter 5. Jesus as Jehovah

Chapter 6. The "Angel of the Lord" and the "Voice of the Lord"

Chapter 7. Specific Old Testament References to the Trinity

Chapter 8. Some Conclusions

Appendixes

A FRESH LOOK AT THE MEANING OF THE WORD "SOUL"

   And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul (Genesis 2:7). What a simple statement! But the implications are profound, dealing with two thorny issues: the nature and the time of personhood.
     Human nature, then, is composed of dust, the material (or physical) and breath, the non-material (or spiritual). In Scripture we find two words for the non-material: spirit and soul. Are they synonymous? If not, then what is the soul? This Paper is a study of the precise meaning of these two words in Scripture.
     From Genesis 2:7 is is clear that personhood results when the material and non-material are fused. There is little agreement as to when this occurs in Adam's descendants. The crucial test of any answer must be, ultimately, the Incarnation � that tremendous moment in the history of the Universe when the Lord of glory came down and entered that little body so "perfectly prepared" (Hebrews 10:5) and the "Word became flesh and dwelt among us".

     This Paper discussess the Lord's death not as a theological event but as a biological event. For his death was without parallel in the whole of human history. Without question He died ON the Cross. But did He die as a consequence of being crucified? Though He may have died with a ruptured heart, even this was not the cause of his death. Jesus died sooner than expected.
     He did not merely choose the time of dying -- as we can do: He chose TO DIE! He simply dismissed his life (John 19:30). He laid down his life and no man took it from Him (so emphatically stated in John 10:15, 17,18). Of all forms of capital punishment employed by the Romans, crucifixion alone was capable of providing the essential setting in which this unique event could be realized.
    It is the HOW � not the WHY � of the Lord's death that is of interest in this Paper.

     The really surprising, and incredible, element of the Gospel message is not so much the sacrifice � for the concept of sacrifice is commn to all human idealism the world over � but the resurrection! Do not misunderstand: without the sacrifice there could be no salvation for man. Nevertheless, without the resurrection the sacrifice would be ineffective. And this is true for three reasons.
     Do you know the historical reason for the necessity of the resurrection? Or the theological reason which required Jesus' bodily resurrection? Or in what ways your salvation now depends upon his resurrection? Is it possible that by an over-emphasis on the crucfixion and the neglect of the resurrection, we are actually distorting the truth?

     This Paper touches upon that most imporant of questions, How are we to define true 'humanity' � what is the precise definition of Man? Now Adam sums up in himself all of humanity. Yet the Bible speaks of two men, and only two, both of whom are called Adam � as if all the rest of mankind are less than Man, in need of redemption to regain true manhood. A study of the unique relationship between these two men, the First and the Last Adam, shows what God had to do in order to provide a salvation that restores us to true manhood.

1976 published by Zondervan Publishing Co.
1997 published online
2001 2nd Online Edition – corrected, edited and re-formatted