As previously reported on The Aquila Report, two PCA presbyteries have overtured the 2012 General Assembly on the topic of Adam and Eve.
Savannah River Presbytery asks for affirmation of the following statements:
“That Adam and Eve were created, body and soul, by immediate acts of Almighty power…”
“That Adam’s body was directly fashioned by Almighty God, without any natural animal parentage of any kind, out of matter previously created
Rocky Mountain Presbytery asks for the following similar statements:
That Adam and Eve were created, body and soul, by immediate acts of Almighty power, thereby preserving a perfect race unity;
That Adam’s body was directly fashioned by Almighty God, without any natural animal parentage of any kind, out of matter previously created from nothing.
On February 18 the Session of Midlane Park Presbyterian (ARP) in Louisville, Kentucky adopted a memorial (the ARP title for what other churches call an overture) on the same topic.
This memorial will be on the docket and will be considered for adoption to send on to the General Assembly at their stated meeting to be held on March 5-6, 2012 at the French Camp Academy near Starkville, Mississippi.
Memorial on the Historicity of Adam
WHEREAS, the theory of evolution is a source of much debate and confusion in society, educational institutions, and churches today,
WHEREAS, the historicity of Adam has come under attack not only from secular groups and liberal churches, but also from professed evangelical individuals and institutions,
WHEREAS, the Old Testament Scriptures plainly teach that Adam and Eve, as the first man and woman, were the special creation of God, being made in His image (Gen. 1:27; 2:7,22),
WHEREAS, the New Testament Scriptures confirm that Adam and Eve were real, historical human beings (e.g., Matt. 19.4-5; Luke 3:38; Rom. 5.12-14; 1 Cor. 15:45; I Tim. 2:13-14),
WHEREAS, the confessional standards of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church also affirm these truths about Adam and Eve (e.g., WCF 4.2, 7.2; WLC Q. 17; WSC Q. 10).
THEREFORE, be it resolved that the Session of Midlane Park Presbyterian Church requests that Mississippi Valley Presbytery hereby memorialize the General Synod of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church to adopt the following affirmations and denials:
1) We affirm that Adam and Eve were special, unique, direct creations of God, created in His image, with Adam being formed from the dust of the ground and Eve being made from his side; as such, they were real human beings and the first man and woman,
2) We affirm that the account of creation as found in Genesis 1 and 2 is history;
3) We deny any teaching that claims that the account of creation as found in Genesis
1 and 2 is mythology;
4) We deny any theory that teaches that Adam and Eve descended from other biological life forms and that such a theory can be reasonably reconciled with either the Standards of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church or Holy Scripture.