I'll note that the NT presents the imputation of the sin of Adam (Ro 5:17, 12-16) to all those of Adam as the pattern (Ro 5:14) for a central NT doctrine: the imputation of the righteousness of Christ (Ro 5:18-19, 1:17, 3:21, 4:5, 13, 9:30, 10:6, Gal 3:16, Php 3:9) to all those of Christ.
I'll note that the imputation of Christ's righteousness is just as (Ro 5:18-19) the imputation of Adam's sin (Ro 5:17, 12-16).
If Adam is a myth, all that relates to or corresponds to Adam is necessarily a myth.
The last (second) Adam, Christ (1 Co 15:45, Ro 5:12-21, 45-49) would also be a myth.
In your unbelief of the existence of Adam, contrary to the apostolic teaching (Ro 5:17-19) of Christ (Lk 10:16), you nullify central NT doctrine.
This is most certainly true.
Interestingly, even though the Greek and Syriac fathers and Orthodox theology do not use the exact phrase imputed righteousness, even a cursory look at our doctrine and our hymns show that we believe the same thing.
The nominally different way we tend to express this shared reality is to say that by putting on our fallen human nature, Christ restored and glorified it (by, among other things, imputing righteousness), so that to paraphrase St. Paul, by putting on human nature, so that we could put on Christ, death being swallowed up in victory. I recently used the example of 1 Corinthians 15:35 as an instance where SDA theology has serious problems (also with Galatians).
St. Athanasius famously said “Christ became man so that man could become god”, not becoming new members of the Trinity (apotheosis) but rather becoming by grace what Christ is by nature - immortal and incorruptible, primed for eternal life.
At any rate, if we look at the most frequently used Eastern Orthodox hymnal, the one known as the
Octoechos (Eight Tones)*, we find a clear statement of an Orthodox doctrine that is essentially akin to the Western idea of imputed righteousness. For one of many examples consider this hymn from Vespers in Tone 3:
On the Aposticha, these Stichera, in Tone III:
By Thy passion, O Christ, * Thou didst darken the sun, * and by the light of Thy Resurrection * Thou hast made the whole universe radiant. * We beseech Thee to accept our evening hymn, ** O Lover of mankind.
Verse: The Lord is King: He is clothed with majesty. * The Lord is clothed with strength and He hath girt Himself.
O Gracious Lord, Thy life-bearing Rising hath enlightened the world, * and
reclaimed Thine own fashioned after Thine image, * which had become corrupt. * And so, delivered from the curse of Adam, we cry aloud, ** “O All-powerful Lord, glory be to Thee!”
Verse: For He established the universe * which shall not be shaken.
Howbeit, as God Thou art unchangeable, * yet by Thy suffering Thou hast undergone change in the flesh, * and creation, unable to bear seeing Thee hanging upon a cross, * was shaken with fear, * groaning as it sang the praise of Thy long- suffering; * and having descended into Hades, Thou didst arise on the third day, ** granting to the world life and great mercy.
Verse: Holiness becometh Thy house, * O Lord, unto length of days.
In order to ransom our race from death, O Christ, * Thou didst suffer death; * and arising on the third day from the dead * Thou hast raised with Thyself those who acknowledged Thee as God, * and Thou hast enlightened the world. ** O Lord, glory be to Thee!
*This contains the default hymns which are used if there are no proper hymns or alongside proper hymns on an eight week cycle, except during Bright Week when only the
Pentecostarion is used (that being the hymnal used from Pascha - Easter Sunday, until Pentecost, or Whitsunday, which in the Byzantine Rite combines the celebration of the Holy Spirit and the Holy Trinity on Trinity Sunday in the Western church, in the same way the early church used to celebrate the Nativity together with the Baptism of Christ on January the 6th, until all the local churches except for the Armenians, who retain the ancient practice, made the Nativity a separate feast in the 4th century in order to stress the importance of the Incarnation contra Arianism (which had not spread to Armenia, although not for a lack of trying on the part of Arius, who taught blasphemous hymns to sailors that stressed how the Son was not of one essence with the Father but was created; St. Ephraim the Syrian, one of the great hymn writers of the early church, began composing hymns in response.
At any rate, one tone is used per week, with the week beginning on the first Sunday after Easter, known variously as St. Thomas Sunday, Low Sunday and Antipascha, being assigned tone 1, and this continues through the Sunday after Ascension in Tone 6, the week of Pentecost, which has tone 7, and the week following All Saints Day, the Sunday after Pentecost in our rite, which has tone 8. The Syriac Orthodox also use an eight tone system, as do the Armenians. The content of the hymn changes with the tones. Other systems of chant have eight modes, like Gregorian, (which also has a hidden ninth tone) but do not in all cases rotate through an entire set of tones on a weekly cycle.
However, the Octoechos is seldom used by itself, because throughout the year, the Menaion, which contains the propers for fixed feasts such as that of the Apostles st. Peter and Paul, the next major feast, which is coming up on Sunday, and the feast of the Transfiguration on August 6th, the Dormition on August 15th, and the Nativity on December 25th, and the Holy Cross on September 14th, and the Baptism of our Lord on January 6th, and numerous other feasts of our Lord, of the Theotokos, of the Apostles, of the Martyrs, Confessors, Ascetics, Old Testament Prophets and Patriarchs (St. Elijah is coming up in July and is a particularly important feast), Unmercenary Healers and others who through being baptized in Christ, put on Christ and demonstrated this through their works. There is also the
Triodion which is used in Lent, the Sundays before Lent (which used to be a big deal in the West before the 1969 Missal, Septuagesima, Sexagesima, Quinquagesima), and Holy Week (Lazarus Saturday, Palm Sunday, and so on, through Great and Holy Friday and ending with the Vesperal Divine Liturgy on the morning of Holy Saturday, where in both our liturgy and the pre-1955 Roman Catholic Paschal Vigil Mass (which was also celebrated in the morning), a large number of Old Testament prophecies of the Passion and Resurrection of Christ are read, which dates back to the ancient use of Jerusalem in the fourth century; these prophecies were read while the energumens (catechumens ready for being baptized) were being baptized). There are special hymns in the
Euchologion for weddings, annointing with the oil of healing, funerals, and other rites of the Church, as in the West.
From 1 Corinthians 15 we also get the hymn we use for the feast following the Baptism of Christ on January 6th, which is also used at baptisms and Chrismations (Confirmations): Whosoever has been baptized in Christ, has put on Christ, alleluia!
All of this doctrinally depends on Adam and Eve being real and not mythological, and evolution does not require us to discount the existence of Adam and Eve as real persons, who were in the Garden of Eden in reality, who were tempted and fell into sin, in reality, and whose damage has been repaired by Christ on the Cross, who has set things up for although we die, we will be raised incorruptible, to a state greater than Adam.
