Created

We can be thankful that God sent His Son, Jesus, to earth, to rescue fallen humanity - sin had entered the world through Adam and sin was conquered through Christ, who is referred to as the "last Adam" in 1st Corinthians 15:
45 And so it is written, "The first man Adam became a living being." The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.
46 However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual.
47 The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven.
48 As was the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust; and as is the heavenly Man, so also are those who are heavenly.

As laid out in Scripture, we can see two simple facts: first of all, God created a man in His image and placed him in a garden; He also produced a woman from man's flesh.  They were named Adam and Eve. Here are two created beings who departed from the ways of God.  But, we were sent a Savior to redeem us - Jesus.  This passage authenticates both Adam and the work of Jesus, and identifies the incredible work of redemption that He has done.

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The narrative of Adam and Eve, placed in the garden, who sinned against God, is woven throughout the Scriptures, which tell the story of the redemption God provided through the last Adam - the Lord Jesus Christ. Genesis 3 says:

1 Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, "Has God indeed said, 'You shall not eat of every tree of the garden'?"
2 And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden;
3 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, 'You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.' "
4 Then the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die.
5 For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."

A Christian publication has presented a question, but an editor at a Christian website has another one.  At the core is a debate on the subject of origins.  Tom Gilson, writing at The Stream, referred to an article at Christianity Today called “Evangelicals Have Four Proposals for Harmonizing Genesis and Evolution.”  He writes:

Their question was, “How harmonize human evolution with the Bible’s teaching on Adam and Eve, and with original sin?” The right answer would have been, “Evolutionary theory is broken beyond repair, so why would anyone try to make it fit with anything?”

Now, keep in mind that the son of the founder of Christianity Today, according to Newsweek, said that: "...It's obvious that Christianity Today has moved to the left and is representing the elitist liberal wing of evangelicalism."  If you're looking for some evidence, this article certainly could provide it.  By the way, that is a quote from Franklin Graham, the son of the late Billy Graham.

Gilson referenced an article by a Jay Johnson who reviewed a book by Calvin University professor Loren Haarsma called, When Did Sin Begin? Human Evolution and the Doctrine of Original Sin.

But, the concept of original sin could be swept under the rug, according to Gilson's analysis, which is based on Johnson's review.  Gilson writes:

Historic, orthodox Christian doctrine includes a firm belief in humans’ original innocence, in full, unrestricted fellowship with God. Our first parents messed that up through disobedience to God, and since then, every human being is born with a sin nature. We don’t acquire it by some corrupted set of genes, and we don’t acquire it by learning. The one true and sufficient reason we have a sin nature is because we’re humans, descended from Adam and Eve.

He goes on to say: "Johnson doesn’t even mention that original innocence, but it’s hard to square with evolutionary theory. So is original sin. Both doctrines fit well with the account the way Genesis tells it, but neither fits well at all with evolutionary human origins."

Gilson goes on to explain why the creation and naturalistic evolution, which he describes as "the theory that says every living thing came to be with no guidance or direction from God," are incompatible.

One example:

Evolutionary theory says random variation plus natural selection (NS) plus time are all it took to create every organism that’s ever lived. Scientists have proposed variations on that theme, but they all agree that evolution is a master builder. Just look at all it has done!

Everyone in the field also agrees (with recent minor adjustments) that it does this craftsmanship on the smallest possible scale: DNA, or organisms’ genetic makeup. That’s how evolution has built all this magnificent biological diversity.

Except it hasn’t. New research, just in the past two to three decades, has knocked that leg out from under evolution’s table and sent it spinning back into the woods.

Gilson says that:

On the surface that looks a lot like our master builder, evolution, has been growing new capabilities into bacteria. That’s what everyone used to think. Then a couple of decades or so ago, along came some serious advances in genetic biochemistry. And what it showed is that it’s actually the other way around. Evolution doesn’t build new genes. It breaks old ones.

He states that naturalistic evolution "can’t even get started without creating its own first cell. But science keeps finding, over and over again, natural processes can’t do that."

He had told the story of a man who had a tree that had fallen on a picnic table and broken it; he attempted to fix the table by taking the limbs from the tree and tying and duct taping them to the table, which seemed to work until the man's 10-year-old son knocked it down. Gilson contends: "The problem isn’t harmonizing evolution with theology. The problem is harmonizing evolution with anything in the real world at all."

So, considering the fallibility of the theory of evolution, this author had apparently tried to offer four ways to combine God and evolution. Gilson says, "Two of them say that Adam and Eve weren’t real people, views which Christians should reject even if they believe in evolution. Two of them make a sort of biblical sense if evolution is true — just like 'fixing' that picnic table with splinters and scraps of wood from the falling tree makes sense." Those two other ways, according to the article, are predicated on this: "God selected Adam and Eve from an existing population to represent all of humanity."

Gilson states that, "The title says evangelicals have four proposals for harmonizing Genesis and evolution. No, we have five, and the fifth is to toss out evolution for broken, just like we’d toss out that smashed picnic table."

As we consider this response to a flawed article, we should double down on our recognition of the authority and authenticity of the Scriptures.  The serpent asked Adam and Eve, whom we must consider as real figures, "Has God indeed said...?"  That is the preface to a question that has been asked about a number of subjects throughout the ages.  And, while we should engage in critical thinking, questioning the authority of God and truth of Scripture is not a productive pursuit.

We also have to ask an important question - without God, where did this all begin? The scientific evidence points to design, not the product of random processes.  We can understand and marvel at the incredible design in our universe that could not have arisen from nothing.  Some embrace what is called "intelligent design," but do not identify the designer.  The Bible takes it a step further and shows us the nature of God and of His Son, who came to redeem fallen humanity.  We can worship our majestic Creator.