It has been taught from days of old that the Bible, or Holy Scriptures, is the inerrant Word of God.
This, I believe; and this we are expected to believe.
Pope Benedict XV wrote in Spiritus Paraclitus:
Holy Scripture is invested with supreme authority by reason of its sure and
momentous teachings regarding the faith. Whatever, then, it tells us…this we
believe…we believe it simply because it is written in Scripture; and unless we
believe in Scripture we can neither be Christian nor be saved.
These Holy Scriptures teach us the solid truth and the foundations of our faith.
According to Dei Verbum, a document from Vatican II:
since everything asserted by the inspired authors or sacred writers must be held to be asserted by the Holy Spirit, it follows that the books of Scriptures must be acknowledged as teaching solidly, faithfully, and without error that truth which God wanted put into sacred writing for the sake of salvation.
With these statements in mind, the words of Scripture must be taken as nothing but solid truth and must be believed, for it is the Word of God.
To not believe what God says, or inspires, is to ignore or disagree with God and His authority.
Now the past few decades has seen the growth of a “modernist theologian” point of view that Adam, Eve, Cain, Abel, and Noah (the first eleven chapters of Genesis) are nothing but stories, myths, and or legends; symbolic, but not real.
According to these “modernist theologians”, these “myths” are to be used in preparing the reader to understand the origins of how God responds to and relates to man.
Traditional history, through the ancient writings, shows that these “myths” are actually historical and symbolic.
For the sake of salvation, we shall now encounter the following pieces of evidence in support this traditional view.
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Number One:
In the Anamnesis at Mass, the Priest says:
Look with favor on these offerings and accept them as once you accepted the gifts of your servant Abel, the sacrifice of Abraham, our father in faith, and the bread and wine offered by your priest Melchizedek.
Now, do we really think that the Church would refer to a character of a “myth” in a prayer during the Sacrifice of the Mass?
That would be like saying: Here God, accept this sacrifice just like you accepted the sacrifice from that mythical character from that mythical story.
That kind of thinking would make God…a myth.
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Number Two:
We must believe in a first set of parents; that we are descended children of Adam and Eve.
In Humani Generis, a papal encyclical from Pope Pius XII, paragraph 37 states:
For the faithful cannot embrace that opinion which maintains that either after Adam there existed on this earth true men who did not take their origin through natural generation from him as from the first parent of all, or that Adam represents a certain number of first parents.
In essence, the Church teaches that all humanity descended from a single set of original parents, Adam and Eve.
There could never have been true men that did not descend from Adam and Eve, otherwise, there could be descendants running around without Original Sin because they would have descended from un-fallen parents.
Paragraph 38 continues:
This letter, in fact, clearly points out that the first eleven chapters of Genesis, although properly speaking not conforming to the historical method used by the best Greek and Latin writers or by competent authors of our time, do nevertheless pertain to history in a true sense,…
Adam and Eve are not myths.
Paragraph 39 continues:
Therefore, whatever of the popular narrations have been inserted into the Sacred Scriptures must in no way be considered on a par with myths or other such things,…
The Scriptures are not myths.
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Number Three:
According to paragraph 375 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church:
The Church, interpreting the symbolism of biblical language in an authentic way, in the light of the New Testament and Tradition, teaches that our first set of parents, Adam and Eve, were constituted in an original “state of holiness and justice.” This grace of original holiness was “to share in…divine life.”
Does it sound like this paragraph from the Catechism of the Catholic Church is referring to parents from a myth?
Paragraph 404 of the catechism states:
…by yielding to the tempter, Adam and Eve committed a personal sin,…
How do two characters from a fable or myth commit a personal sin and change the whole culture of humanity?
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Number Four:
According to the old Baltimore Catechism:
Q233 – Who were the first man and woman?
A – The first man and woman were Adam and Eve.
Q234 – Are there any persons in the world who are not the descendants of Adam and Eve?
A – There are no persons in the world now, and there never have been any, who are not the descendants of Adam and Eve, because all the whole human race had but one origin.
Only Adam and Eve are the natural origins of all humanity.
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Number Five:
According to the Catechism of Pope Pius X:
35 Q: In what state did God place our first parents, Adam and Eve?
A: God placed our first parents, Adam and Eve, in the state of innocence and grace; but they soon fell away by sin.
36 Q: Besides innocence and sanctifying grace did God confer any other gifts on our first parents?
A: Besides innocence and sanctifying grace, God conferred on our first parents other gifts, which, along with sanctifying . grace, they were to transmit to their descendants; these were: (1) Integrity, that is, the perfect subjection of sense and reason; (2) Immortality; (3) Immunity from all pain and sorrow; (4) A knowledge in keeping with their state.
37 Q: What was the nature of Adam’s sin?
A: Adam’s sin was a sin of pride and of grave disobedience.
38 Q: What chastisement was meted out to the sin of Adam and Eve?
A: Adam and Eve lost the grace of God and the right they had to Heaven; they were driven out of the earthly Paradise, subjected to many miseries of soul and body, and condemned to death.
39 Q: If Adam and Eve had not sinned, would they have bee exempt from death?
A: If Adam and Eve had not sinned and if they had remained faithful to God, they would, after a happy and tranquil sojourn here on earth, and without dying, have been transferred by God into Heaven, to enjoy a life of unending glory.
40 Q: Were these gifts due to man?
A: These gifts were in no way due to man, but were absolutely gratuitous and supernatural; and hence, when Adam disobeyed the divine command, God could without any injustice deprive both Adam and his posterity of them.
41 Q: Is this sin proper to Adam alone?
A: This sin is not Adam’s sin alone, but it is also our sin, though in a different sense. It is Adam’s sin because he committed it by an act of his will, and hence in him it was a personal sin. It is our sin also because Adam, having committed it in his capacity as the head and source of the human race, it was transmitted by natural generation to all his descendants: and hence in us it is original sin.
42 Q: How is it possible for original sin to be transmitted to all men?
A: Original sin is transmitted to all men because God, having conferred sanctifying grace and other supernatural gifts on the human race in Adam, on the condition that Adam should not disobey Him; and Adam having disobeyed, as head and father of the human race, rendered human nature rebellious against God. And hence, human nature is transmitted to all the descendants of Adam in a state of rebellion against God, and deprived of divine grace and other gifts.
43 Q: Do all men contract original sin?
A: Yes, all men contract original sin, with the exception of the Blessed Virgin, who was preserved from it by a singular privilege of God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ our Savior.
44 Q: Could not men be saved after Adam’s sin?
A: After Adam’s sin men could not be saved, if God had not shown mercy towards them.
45 Q: What was the mercy shown by God to the human race?
A: The mercy shown by God to the human race was that of immediately promising Adam a divine Redeemer or Messiah, and of sending this Messiah in His own good time to free men from the slavery of sin and of the devil.
46 Q: Who is the promised Messiah?
A: The promised Messiah is Jesus Christ, as the Second Article of the Creed teaches.
In this catechism, Pope Pius X does seem to refer to Adam and Eve as real people.
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Number Six:
Concerning Noah and the flood:
…no one, however stubborn, will venture to imagine that this narrative was written without an ulterior purpose; and it could not plausibly be said that the events, though historical, have no symbolic meaning, or that the account is not factual, but merely symbolic, or that the symbolism has nothing to do with the church. No; we must believe that the writing of this historical record had a wise purpose, that the events are historical, that they give a symbolic meaning, and that this meaning gives a prophetic picture of the Church. (Saint Augustine – Bishop, Father, Doctor of the Church)
Now, what faithful Catholic would disagree with Saint Augustine, a Doctor of the Church?
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Number Seven:
According to the Catholic Encyclopedia concerning the flood:
…the view of Christian tradition maintains that the Bible story concerning the Flood has never been explained or understood in any but a truly historical sense by any Catholic writer. It would be useless labor and would exceed the scope of the present article to enumerate the long list of Fathers and Scholastic theologians who have touched upon the question. The few stray discordant voices belong to the last fifteen or twenty years are simply drowned in this unanimous chorus of Christian tradition.
I take from this that anyone who agrees with the camp of the “modernist theologian” has turned against the traditional teachings of the Church.
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Number Eight:
From a book called The Gospel Truth:
It is significant that Jesus mentions Noah. Noah isn’t just some make-believe person in a fairy tale about a flood. Regardless of any specific details about the Great Flood, Noah is a real person, a person to whom – after the flood – God made a promise. God promised never again to wreak such havoc directly on the entire human race. Not until the world as we know it ends will the life of every person be abruptly, profoundly, permanently affected. God made an everlasting covenant with Noah and with all living beings (Genesis 9:16). It will remain in force as long as the world lasts. (Ken Ogorek; The Gospel Truth, OCE, Archdiocese of Indianapolis)
How could God make a standing covenant with a person from a myth?
It would seem that if Noah is a myth, then the covenant with Noah is a myth; thus making God into a myth.
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Number 9:
Saint Peter, the first Pope, wrote:
For Christ also suffered for sins once,
the righteous for the sake of the unrighteous,
that he might lead you to God.
Put to death in the flesh,
he was brought to life in the spirit.
In it he also went to preach to the spirits in prison,
who had once been disobedient
while God patiently waited in the days of Noah
during the building of the ark,
in which a few persons, eight in all,
were saved through water.
(1 Peter 3:18-20, RSV-CE)
So, let me get this right:
Christ died,
descended to preach to those imprisoned from a myth,
and then rose from the dead.
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Number Ten:
Let us now reference a quote from Saint Paul.
Therefore as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all men sinned – sin indeed was in the world before law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sins were not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come. (Romans 5:12-14, RSV-CE)
Adam is used here as if he were a real historical figure.
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Number Eleven:
Saint Paul refers to Jesus as the second Adam, the new Adam, but the “modernist theologian” says there was no Adam; it was just a story, a legend, a myth.
Mary is the new Eve, but the “modernist theologian” says there was no Eve that it was just a story, a legend, a myth.
The saved baptized children of God, the true believers in the Word, meet on every holy day in a church building, a ship, a “Nave” in order to show their belief; that they side with Noah and not with the unbelievers who perished.
They board the ship and renew their hearts as prefigured by Noah and the Ark where the true believers after 100 years of Noah preaching God’s word resulted in only the salvation of eight souls.
They were saved through the waters, a prefigurement of baptism, but the “modernist theologian” says there was no Noah or a flood, that it was just a story, a legend, a myth.
The “modernist theologian” perspective makes our teaching foundations of baptism and salvation out to be myths, thus making our lives focused on fulfilling myths.
And we wonder why the youth of today seem to be leaving the faith.
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Number Twelve:
According to Scott Hahn, a true modern scripture scholar:
Pope John Paul II in his encyclical “Redemptor Hominis” underscores the fact that God established a creation, a covenant bond, with humanity, with Adam.
Do we really think that the beloved Blessed Pope John Paul II would be teaching myths?
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Number Thirteen:
From The Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma, Dr. Ludwig Ott states:
The whole human race stems from one single pair. This teaching pertains to the Faith. It is theologically certain. It is a doctrine on which the Teaching Authority of the Church has not yet finally pronounced, but whose truth is guaranteed by its intrinsic connection with the doctrine of Revelation. Whilst not a dogma, the unity of the human race is a necessary pre-supposition of the dogma of Original Sin and Redemption.
So, one of the most respected theologians in history, Dr. Ott, states that Adam and Eve are theologically certain.
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Number Fourteen:
Fr. J Franklin Ewing SJ wrote the following about the Churches consistent teaching as regards the actual historicity of Adam and Eve in Creation Discovered:
Although the exact doctrine that Adam and Eve were the first parents of all men since their time has never been defined, still one is struck by the fact that all the ecclesiastical documents concerning them take this for granted. The Council of Carthage in 418, the Council of Orange in 529, the Council of Trent in 1546 – to mention outstanding and ecumenical examples, all speak of original sin, and in this connection of one Adam. The Biblical Commission, in 1909, mentions “the unity of the human race” as one of the fundamental doctrines reported in Genesis. All the Scriptural references dealing with our first parents plainly take it for granted that there was one man and one woman.
ALL SCRIPTURAL REFERENCES TO ADAM TAKE IT FOR GRANTED THAT HE WAS REAL AND NOT A MYTH.
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Number Fifteen:
Nine teachings we must believe as expounded by the Pontifical Biblical Commission of 1909:
1. the creation of all things by God at the beginning of time.
2. the special creation by God of man.
3. the formation of the first woman from man.
4. the unity of the human race…that all of humanity is descended from an original single pair of parents.
5. the original happiness of our first parents…that they were created in an original state of holiness, justice, and immortality.
6. the divine command placed upon man to prove his obedience,
7. the transgression of that divine command at the instigation of Satan in the form of a serpent.
8. the fall of our first parents from the state of innocence because of the disobedience.
9. the promise of a future redeemer.
It sounds to me like the PBC expects all Catholics to believe in a real Adam and Eve.
I might also add that these expectations are not the result of an out-of-date PBC, all these expectations can be found in the current Catechism of the Catholic Church.
The Argument
Some will state:
Well, that is just Scripture. No one can support these legends or myths with science, they are impossible.
Does everything have to be explained or proven to be physically possible?
No.
Acts of God do not need to be supported by the evidence of science.
God did it.
He said he did it in the Scriptures, which is the inerrant word of God; therefore, we believe it.
I hope that we are not waiting on science to explain and support:
…the apparitions of Mary at Fatima and Lourdes
…the miracle of the Eucharist at Lanciano
…the stigmata wounds of Saint Francis and Saint Padre Pio
…the Body and Blood of Christ at every Mass
…the virgin birth
…the resurrection of Christ from the dead
…and so on
And on top of all this, from a theological standpoint, if Adam and Eve are myths, then Original Sin is a myth.
If Original Sin is a myth, then we don’t need Baptism; we wouldn’t need to be “born again” to cleanse ourselves from Original Sin.
If we don’t need Baptism, then we are already clean, already born into a state of grace, and already born into a covenant with God; therefore, we would not need a Redeemer who comes to walk among us and die on a Holy Cross.
Bottom line: Adam, Eve, and Noah were real people.
To make Adam, Eve, Cain, Abel, Noah, and the flood out to be myths reduces the foundations of our faith to a myth.
This kind of view and teaching, that these are myths, is much closer to taking a page out of the atheist agenda than a page out of the Catholic or Christian handbook.
It reduces the faith foundations to “make believe” and places doubt in the heads of our youth.
In all honesty, a “modernist theologian” is a step away from teaching atheism and a mile away from the truth.
In matter of fact, if this kind of “modernist theological” teaching continues, then the next “myth” I expect to hear is that Jesus was just a story and is a metaphor of how we should live lives of love in order to be a peaceful “modern” society.
God did it, He said he did it, it is in the Bible, we believe it.
Pope Benedict XV wrote in Spiritus Paraclitus:
Holy Scripture is invested with supreme authority by reason of its sure and momentous teachings regarding the faith. Whatever, then, it tells us…this we believe…we believe it simply because it is written in Scripture; and unless we believe in Scripture we can neither be Christian nor be saved.
The Challenge
Adam and Eve are not fables or myths because Genesis is not a myth.
Genesis may use some symbolic language, but it does teach historical truth.
Symbolic language only teaches truth when the foundational event that it reflects was also true.
To quote John Martinoni of EWTN Open Line and the Bible Christian Society:
Challenge anyone, who teaches differently, to produce their sources from a magisterial document. They cannot do it. They can, however, produce countless books and articles by “theologians”. Not good enough.
Conclusion
I believe that God uses historical events to give spiritual hope.
You can have faith and believe that God can raise you from the death of sin, of alcoholism, of perversion, of illness, of despair, of whatever because he saved the righteous Noah in the Nave, he raised Lazarus, healed the blind, healed the lame, and saved the Hebrews through the Red Sea not because these were stories, but because they really happened.
God can really happen in our lives as evidenced by these past historical events; but, if they are reduced to myths or stories, then how are we supposed to believe in God and that he can become a huge part of our lives and raise us up?
We can believe because it is true!
God said it, it is in his book, and unless we believe in Scripture, we can neither be Christians nor be saved.
+PAX
Brother Pilgrim
