By Andrew Mackinnon
Last updated: 30th October, 2022
(This post is a rewrite of an email that I wrote and distributed in 2012.)
One of the reasons why the Anglican Diocese of Sydney has been so weak over the past thirty to forty years is that it denies the historical existence of Adam and Eve.
The exercise of using a concordance to look up every verse in the Bible that contains the word “Adam” or the word “Eve” proves beyond any doubt that Adam and Eve were real, historical people.
For example, the genealogy in Genesis 5 from Adam to Noah bears witness to the historical existence of Noah at the end of the genealogy and therefore bears witness to the historical existence of Adam at the beginning of the genealogy, since it is impossible for an historical person, Noah, to be descended from a person who never existed. Either Adam and Noah are both historical people or neither of them are historical people. (This genealogy from Adam to Noah is repeated in Luke 3:36-38.) Since Jesus Christ himself bears witness to the historical existence of Noah in Matthew 24:37-39 and Luke 17:26-27, both Noah and Adam must be historical people.
In addition, Jesus Christ himself bears witness to the historical existence of Abel, Adam’s son, in Matthew 23:34-35 and Luke 11:49-51. (Genesis 4:1-2 recounts the birth of Cain and Abel to his father and mother, Adam and Eve.) By implication, Adam must therefore be a real, historical person as the father of Abel, since it is impossible for an historical person, Abel, to be descended from a person who never existed. By implication, Eve must therefore also be a real, historical person as the mother of Abel.
Denial of the historical existence of Adam and Eve is heresy because it is in direct conflict with the testimony of Jesus Christ himself.
It is obvious from 1 Timothy 2:13-14 that the apostle Paul, who wrote the book of 1 Timothy, believed that Adam and Eve were real historical people.
Paul also makes reference to Adam in Romans 5:14, 1 Corinthians 15:22 and 1 Corinthians 15:45. Paul also makes reference to Eve in 2 Corinthians 11:3.
Jude makes reference to Adam in Jude 14.
I have watched the church go round in circles on this important issue for the best part of thirty years. Not only do I myself need a healthy church to attend which promotes truth so that I can grow in fellowship with others, but hundreds of thousands of other people in Sydney do also. The simple fact is that if the Anglican church continues on its current path of denying the historical existence of Adam and Eve, it will lie in ruins sooner rather than later. Some Christians think that it is intellectual suicide to believe that Adam and Eve were real people and that this belief will invite the world’s scorn and lead to the demise of the church. This is false. It is the acknowledgement of the historical existence of Adam and Eve that will lead to the thriving of the church on a scale which has not been seen for a long time.
The historical existence of Adam and Eve is the basis for:
> the gospel of Jesus Christ since the sin for which Jesus Christ died on a cross entered the world through Adam and Eve
> the God-ordained institution of marriage between a man and a woman and the intimate and fulfilling nature of that union (Genesis 2:24-25)
> opposition to marriage between two men or between two women
> understanding God’s intention for manhood and for womanhood
> rejecting the leadership of women over men in the church and in society in general (Genesis 2:18)
I realised in the middle of 1995 that Adam and Eve were real, historical people after reading the magazines put out by the Creation Science Foundation (now Answers in Genesis) called “Creation Ex Nihilo” (i.e. creation out of nothing). As an almost 23 year old reading these magazines, my mouth was literally hanging open. It became immediately apparent to me that Adam and Eve were real, historical people, based on what I already knew of the Bible. It also became quickly apparent that the theory of evolution is a lie and is so full of logical incongruities, inconsistencies and contradictions that it is intellectually indefensible. Making peace with the theory of evolution is making peace with a lie which has been promulgated with the express intention of destroying the church of Jesus Christ.
I soon discovered that the historical existence of Adam and Eve was not considered to be an important issue by the Anglican church I attended. My excitement at what I had discovered was generally met with indifference and so, being quite a reserved person, I learned to keep it to myself. Within a few years, I decided to stop reading the material from the Creation Science Foundation (now Answers in Genesis) because, although I was already convinced of the claims that they made, this material served to highlight to me my aloneness in this position I held. It grieves me that in the 1990s, people such as myself who believe that Adam and Eve were real, historical people were considered to be potential troublemakers who were seeking to bring division to the church of Jesus Christ. It also grieves me that my conviction was mocked on a couple of occasions by other older members of the Anglican church I attended. I was made out to be stupid and misguided. (In hindsight, it is obvious to me that one of these older members was a Jew (i.e. Edomite) pretending to be a follower of Jesus Christ and the other one was either a Jew (i.e. Edomite) pretending to be a follower of Jesus Christ or a Freemason pretending to be a follower of Jesus Christ.) However, it is not so easy to dismiss Dr Raymond Damadian, who invented the entirely revolutionary MRI scanner (magnetic resonance imaging scanner) and is a Christian believer in the historical existence of Adam and Eve, as stupid and misguided:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Vahan_Damadian
answersingenesis.org/articles/cm/v16/n3/science
In hindsight, it was a mistake for me to stop talking about what I had learned, however the church did not support me in my discovery or encourage me. Instead, the culture of the church I attended became a source of alienation to me and I was left with no real outlet for what I had discovered. Over time, I became increasingly frustrated by the teaching in the church which seemed to be delivered in a vacuum, cut off from reality by the denial of the origins of humanity found in the first man Adam and the first woman Eve. The historical existence of Adam and Eve, from whom we are all descended, is the logical connection between the gospel of Jesus Christ that the Anglican Diocese of Sydney preaches and the world around us in which we live in the year 2022. One Sunday in late 1998 or early 1999, after listening to another detached sermon, I walked out at the end of the service, some seven years after I began attending the church, and resolved to never return to an Anglican church. I was wasting my time and wasting my life.
Based on what I have discovered since that time, I now realise that the issue of the historical existence of Adam and Eve is too important not to confront. It is an issue which goes to the very heart of whether the church stands on a foundation of truth or whether the church is knocked off that foundation and left to decay, which is exactly what has happened to the Anglican Diocese of Sydney over the past thirty to forty years. I am unwilling to attend any church that doesn’t recognise the historical existence of Adam and Eve. How could I confidently submit to the leadership of the church and grow as a Christian in fellowship with others if the leadership does not properly handle and truthfully interpret the first five chapters of the Bible in the book of Genesis? The simple fact is that secular science, which contends that man physically evolved to his current state over a long period of time, is wrong. What the Anglican Diocese of Sydney has done is to elevate the authority of this flawed science above the authority of the Bible which clearly teaches that God Himself made Adam and Eve so that after He created them they were fully functioning human beings without any need for further improvement.
The leadership of the Anglican Diocese of Sydney has sought to come up with all sorts of ways to revive the church, but it has ignored this most basic and foundational issue of the historical existence of Adam and Eve. The following points need to be clearly understood:
> New Christians in the church will grapple with the question of the historical existence or otherwise of Adam and Eve sooner rather than later.
> If new Christians conclude that Adam and Eve were not real, historical people because the church encourages them to reach that conclusion, then they will either stay in the church and grapple uncomfortably with this obvious dissonance, or they will leave the church.
> The Anglican Diocese of Sydney is losing members every month who leave the church because they are either dissatisfied with the church’s teaching on Adam and Eve or because they have accepted that Adam and Eve were not real people as the Anglican Diocese of Sydney teaches and decided that the Bible is not trustworthy, that the teachings of Jesus Christ are not authoritative and that the gospel of Jesus Christ is not authoritative.
> Considering how hard the Anglican Diocese of Sydney works to draw new members to its churches, it simply cannot afford, in any sense of the word, to be losing members on account of its teaching that Adam and Eve were not real, historical people.
It has become manifestly obvious to me that the most effective way of drawing new members into the church is what is known in the commercial world as “attraction marketing”, which means to present something that people want or to be something that people want to emulate. Attraction marketing is powerful and it works. Instead of only pursuing people and attempting to persuade people to attend church, attraction marketing is about being the kind of church they want to join and about being the kind of Christians they want to become. The fact is that people respect, at worst, or are magnetically attracted to, at best, Christians who have the courage of their convictions. It has become manifestly obvious to me that the Anglican Diocese of Sydney will become most successful in growing (which is God’s desire for the church) by presenting the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. This is what will attract new members such as myself. Presently, the Anglican Diocese of Sydney is not doing this because it is teaching that Adam and Eve were not real, historical people. This is not truth. This is falsehood. The last thirty to forty years have proven that the strategy of entertaining the lie of the theory of evolution does not cause the church to grow.
I believe that there are just two key positions of leadership in the Anglican Diocese of Sydney that are responsible for controlling the dialogue on this important issue of the historical existence of Adam and Eve. They are:
> the office of the Archbishop which was formerly held by Peter Jensen, from 2001 to 2013, by Glenn Davies, from 2013 to 2021, and which has been held by Kanishka Raffel since 2021
> the office of the Principal of Moore Theological College which was formerly held by Peter Jensen, from 1985 to 2002, by John Woodhouse, from 2002 to 2013, and which has been held by Mark Thompson since 2013
Kanishka Raffel is presumably a Freemason pretending to be a follower of Jesus Christ, presumably not a Jew (i.e. Edomite) pretending to be a follower of Jesus Christ, whose allegiance is to the Rothschilds-led synagogue of Satan.
Peter Jensen is a Jew (i.e. Edomite) pretending to be a follower of Jesus Christ whose allegiance is to the Rothschilds-led synagogue of Satan.
Glenn Davies is a Jew (i.e. Edomite) pretending to be a follower of Jesus Christ whose allegiance is to the Rothschilds-led synagogue of Satan.
John Woodhouse is a Jew (i.e. Edomite) pretending to be a follower of Jesus Christ whose allegiance is to the Rothschilds-led synagogue of Satan.
Mark Thompson is a Jew (i.e. Edomite) pretending to be a follower of Jesus Christ whose allegiance is to the Rothschilds-led synagogue of Satan.
(Another very enthusiastic promoter of the lie of the theory of evolution in the Anglican Diocese of Sydney is Barry Newman, who is a Jew (i.e. Edomite) pretending to be a follower of Jesus Christ whose allegiance is to the Rothschilds-led synagogue of Satan.
Barry Newman is committed to promoting the same satanic lie of the theory of evolution inside the church of Jesus Christ, that enemies of the gospel of Jesus Christ like Richard Dawkins promote outside the church of Jesus Christ, so that followers of Jesus Christ sitting in the pews of churches in the Anglican Diocese of Sydney are exposed to the same corrosive, confusing influence of the satanic lie of the theory of evolution, which undermines their confidence in the authority of the Bible and thereby undermines their belief in God and their faith in Jesus Christ.
Barry Newman, who is a Synod Representative of Christ Church St Ives, is so committed to promoting the lie of the theory of evolution in the Anglican Diocese of Sydney that he has been promoting it for more than 25 years.
Like all of the tares listed above, Barry Newman hates the gospel of Jesus Christ, because it provides human beings with the means to become more like God and His Son Jesus Christ, which is why tares like Barry Newman, listed above, are inclined to continually preach about the sin of human beings and seldom preach about what the King James Version of the Bible trumpets at every opportunity, which is the need to avoid sin and become more obedient to God in order to become more like God and His Son Jesus Christ.)
Prior to John Woodhouse becoming the Principal of Moore College in 2002, Peter Jensen served as the Principal of Moore College from 1985 to what would appear to be 2002. This means that Peter Jensen has had key control over the dialogue in the Anglican Diocese of Sydney regarding the historical existence of Adam and Eve for more than 27 years from 1985 to 2013, comprising the time from 1985 to 2002, when he was the Principal of Moore College, and the overlapping time from 2001 to 2013, when he was the Archbishop of the Anglican Diocese of Sydney.
The historical existence of Adam and Eve is too important an issue to be left to such a small number of deceiving personalities to address.
There is a very serious problem in the culture of the Anglican Diocese of Sydney which has led to its decline over the past 20 years and longer. It is a culture of control which has discouraged younger Christians in the church, irrespective of where they are on their journey of faith, from putting forward their views with any hope that they would be taken seriously. In hindsight, it is absolutely obvious to me that God was rousing me in 1995 by showing me the obvious reality of the historical existence of Adam and Eve. However I existed in a culture in the church which discouraged the entertainment of beliefs which were not accepted by the leadership of the church. At best it was considered to be misguided. At worst it was considered to be divisive and subversive. (I attended Christ Church St Ives in the Anglican Diocese of Sydney from May, 1991 to late 1998 or early 1999. John Woodhouse was the Senior Minister of Christ Church St Ives from some time in 1991, such as July, 1991, to some time in 2002, when he left to become the Principal of Moore College.) However, it is manifestly obvious to any thinking Christian that it is the serious consideration of a diversity of belief that is based on the authority of the Bible that leads in time, through a process of sifting and sorting, to the obtaining of ultimate truth which greatly enriches the church. It is precisely because this culture of healthy conflict has been discouraged that the Anglican Diocese of Sydney has declined over the past 20 years and longer. People such as myself have given up and left and the diocese has been left to yield the fruit of its leadership, which has been decline.
There has also been a distasteful element in the culture of the Anglican Diocese of Sydney which has historically, essentially said, “Well, you haven’t trained at Moore College, so what would you know? Your point of view is not worth considering.” Of course, it is conveyed more politely than that, sometimes simply by silence. What this attitude has done is place more confidence in men who train at Moore College than in the authority of the Bible. I raise this point about Moore College, not because I wish that I had studied there, because I don’t. I raise this point because it is harming the health of the Anglican Diocese of Sydney; it is leading to a monoculture which is intolerant of truthful input which conflicts with accepted teaching at Moore College; and it breeds entire generations of compliant Christian “Yes-Men” leaders who do not pledge their allegiance to the authority of the Bible but instead pledge their allegiance to following whatever is the prevailing standard at Moore College. We are now at a point in history at which the Anglican Diocese of Sydney can no longer expect to thrive if this kind of cowardice continues. The church does not need unthinking automatons who perpetuate the same falsehood year in, year out, so that it soon becomes an expected part of the landscape. The church needs thinking leaders who confidently put forward the ideas that they have already carefully considered and know to be true on the basis of the authority of the Bible and the witness of the Holy Spirit of God. And what the church needs most of all is a culture that is prepared to listen to these ideas. An opposite culture of lack of receptiveness to ideas which conflict with prevailing thought at Moore College has led to the manufacturing of leaders at Moore College who are pressured to accept the prevailing thought or be seen as divisive. Furthermore, this opposite culture has historically led to the Anglican Diocese of Sydney becoming boring, which is something the church of Jesus Christ should never be. If the church of Jesus Christ becomes boring, it means that something has gone wrong and needs to be fixed.
It is of enormous concern to me that I believe that there are just two positions of leadership in the Anglican Diocese of Sydney that are responsible for the diocesan position that Adam and Eve were not historical people, being the office of the Archbishop of the Anglican Diocese of Sydney and the office of the Principal of Moore Theological College. I believe that the unhealthy culture of control which has historically existed in the diocese is the reason why Peter Jensen’s view and John Woodhouse’s view on this important issue has not been properly challenged, overruled and overturned. Both of these people, Peter Jensen and John Woodhouse, have encouraged followers of Jesus Christ in the Anglican Diocese of Sydney for decades not to take the first few chapters of the Bible literally and reach the accurate conclusion that Adam and Eve were real, historical people.
As time goes on, all of us, including myself, are getting older. I was twenty and now, sooner than I would like, I am nearly fifty. We are all on this conveyer belt of life whereby people are born at one end and people die at the other end. It is undeniable. People of all ages are constantly moving through the church on this conveyer belt, so that the members of the church who are in their twenties today will move into positions of leadership in the church in the years to come. It is therefore critically important that there is a continuous feedback mechanism in place whereby these younger Christians (and indeed Christians of any age) can put their views to the leadership of the church and know that they will be taken seriously, irrespective of the level of theological qualifications they hold, if any. Not only will the dialogue that results from this enrich the church and perhaps lead to the appropriation of important truths not yet understood, but it will ensure that these younger Christians do not become disenfranchised from the church – feel that the church is not really the slightest bit interested in what they think, which is the conclusion I came to, and leave the church.
Time is short and I am not prepared to watch the Anglican Diocese of Sydney spend another year doing another lap denying the historical existence of Adam and Eve when I know full well that they were real, historical people. I am not prepared to tolerate Christian leaders believing and teaching permissively that Adam and Eve were not real, historical people because:
> It is falsehood.
> It is in contradiction to the testimony of Jesus Christ himself, which bears witness to the historical existence of Abel, Adam’s son, in Matthew 23:34-35 and Luke 11:49-51, which implies that Adam and Eve must therefore be real, historical people also as Abel’s father and mother.
> It is undermining the authority of the Bible.
> It is elevating the authority of flawed secular science above the authority of the Bible.
> It is undermining the gospel of Jesus Christ, since the sin for which Jesus Christ died on a cross entered the world through Adam and Eve.
> It is confusing new Christians and leading them to doubt their belief in God and their faith in Jesus Christ.
> It is frustrating and alienating sincere followers of Jesus Christ who know that Adam and Eve were real, historical people.
> It is undermining the God-ordained institution of marriage between a man and a woman and the intimate and fulfilling nature of that union (Genesis 2:24-25).
> It has emboldened supporters of marriage between two men or between two women.
> It is handicapping the church of Jesus Christ and greatly restricting its enormous potential.