While the earth might not be the physical center of the universe, science today is suggesting that the universe was fine-tuned for the purpose of intelligent life on our planet. I'm guessing you are familiar with the anthropic principle.
Jesus also rose from the dead, thus ensuring our own resurrection, reversing the death caused by Adam's sin. If Romans 5 is only referring to spiritual death, then was Jesus not raised in a physical body?
Do you believe that the Bible presents Adam as the historical father of all humanity, by whom we inherited sin and death? If not, why not?
Luke's genealogy of Jesus, for example, makes pretty clear that he regarded Adam as a historical person. Luke traces Jesus back to Adam in order to show that Jesus is the savior for all humanity, just as Adam was the father of all humanity.
Yeah, it's common that when we read the book of Luke (sometimes referred to as Dr. Luke) we see a lot of very detailed statements that imply an effort provide validity to what he's saying.
And this very well could be with respect to a historical Adam as well. In which case I think that we need to ask a personal question to ourselves. Now of course Luke wasn't present to know what was around in the beginning. So there's naturally this difficult question that we have to ask ourselves. Do we want to perceive the scripture as it appears to be written? The book of Genesis does appear to describe 24-hour days, in my opinion. And some Christians will say that maybe the sun didn't exist and that a day might mean some period of time and things of this nature. But I think that if we take a really plain and simple reading of the scripture, it does appear to simply say that the earth was created in six days.
And so if we do take on a position that the authors literally did mean what appears to be simply put, And if we do hold that thought that Luke may have actually meant very literally that Adam existed, Then the only place left to go is to simply ask the question of if we are convinced by that statement.
If so, then we may as well be young earth creationists. But for those of us who are not convinced, then we really have no choice but to move on to these alternative options of considering that either the authors were liars (which I don't think any Christian truly believes), or that the authors were speaking in non-literal ways with parables, or maybe they were speaking absolute truth and with full honesty, but maybe they just had limitations on what they knew etc.
Sometimes I consider this question of why I believe that the Earth is billions of years old. Why do I? And in truth it's something that I don't really have a choice over. No more than I have a choice over if I perceive grass as green or the sky blue. Some things just are as they are. And some things when they are seen cannot be unseen.
So when I look at scripture that appears to say something, frankly, that goes against my observation and experience, personally, I have no choice but to view it as non-literal or in a manner other than YECism.
And I think that Adam is absolutely presented as a historical father of all humanity in scripture. And that through him sin entered the world. Do I think that Adam literally existed? I don't think so. But I think that when it comes to reading scripture, and Christ dying on the cross for our sins, sin being introduced through Adam really sets the stage for the redemption of mankind. Scripture appears to quite plainly describe Adam as having been created, naming animals and Eve being made out part of Him. I think the book of Genesis clearly describes a man and woman in the beginning.
Now if Adam wasn't literally real, would that mean that Jesus died for nothing? I think that people are still clearly broken and in need of a savior. I don't think that Adam being literally real or figuratively real changes the astonishing and miraculous sacrifice of Christ.
And regarding Romans 5, Scripture describes the stone being rolled away and people being astonished that the body of Christ was gone. Now I don't have a time machine to go back to see what happened, and some people might believe that it was a physical resurrection, some might believe that it was a spiritual resurrection, or both. I think that, while I may not personally know what happened that day, regardless of whether this was physical or spiritual, Christ defeated death either way. And in His victory, He has risen and has saved us. I don't think that the resurrection being of a physical body or not takes away or adds to the message.
And of course doubting Thomas came and Jesus called on Thomas to stick his hand in Jesus' side and into the holes of His hands. And for literal scripture readers, this is very plain and simple English. But even if it were more of a spiritual experience that Thomas had, I think that the impact of what Paul was writing is clear and remains significant. Paul is really driving home that this is eternal truth and that it is worth believing. Paul never met Jesus (during his humanly ministries). It is interesting to wonder what the spiritual experience Paul had was like, and how Paul later came to translate his thoughts onto paper. His authorship has brought countless people to Christ.
