Pre-Adamites...

I'm inclined, after reading Berkhof's take on
pre-Adamites in his Systematic Theology (pg. 188 of the
Eerdmans edition), to reverse my
course and see what I saw at first when hearing Arnold
Murray. I see that the Bible does in fact teach
6th-day man and '8th-day' Adam.

How this effects doctrine such as original sin and the
fall and all is the question. It's hard to think of
all the implications in one fell swoop, but the fact
that Berkhof (and Turretin for that matter) doesn't
mention any implications along those lines gives away
that there aren't necessarily any.

Berkhof just kind of dismisses the 'theory' with a
"it's not biblical." Yet it certainly can find
biblical warrant.

I always cringed when I had to defend the old
challenge of not only where did Cain find his wife,
but how could he leave the vicinity of the Garden when
he was ousted and worry about people doing him in and
going to found a city and influence people and so on
by stating all the people in question were Adam's
offspring (sons, daughters, nieces, nephews,
grandkids, cousins, etc.)...

On the other hand this is all very historical whereas
much of the Genesis account, as Calvin said, is meant
to be figurative, though representing reality in a
real, general way.

But Adam must be seen as the 'federal head' of all
mankind. If Eden was a mountain (as Kline finds it to
be in the Hebrew, and as apocryphal books portray it
as) then Adam was the King of mankind who held God's
mountain. If he'd have accomplished the covenant of
works he's have accomplished it for all mankind, and
the earth would also have been transformed. He
failed, and this was meant to be as part of God's plan
so that individuals could develop in a real way.

When Adam fell all mankind then and all future
generations descended from them fell, and the earth
fell as well. Nature fell.

Adam afterall was unique as the fount of the specific
bloodline of royalty that culminated in the birth of
King Jesus Christ. That bloodline really is the
magnetic center of humanity.

I see even usually biblically on-the-mark Reformed
theologians making, often, overstatements. To say
that there is no biblical support for pre-Adamites is
an overstatement. Another one is to state that at
death you either are in eternal hell or you are with
God in heaven. The Bible is silent on where
unregenerate people go at death (prior to the final
judgment). Recurrence can happen there.

And if you have to wonder how or why 6th day man is
sinful and all that there is the fact of Cain being
the line of the serpent seed and his influence in 6th
day man's bloodline. But also, just the fact that
Adam was the king of 6th day man. Anyway, I'm not
bothered by such questions that question the
'fairness' of man's condition and all that. It is
what it is, and it is for a reason. God could make
everybody perfect by fiat, but then everybody would be
robots.