Adam, who is he?

Adam, the first man, is a controversial figure in the minds of many people. So is Eve, his wife. Together, they probably are the most misunderstood couple who ever lived on the earth.

This is hardly to be wondered at, though. Misconceptions and far-out theories have been bombarding the public concerning our first parents for centuries past. Probably the most to blame are teachers of religion themselves. Not knowing the facts about Adam and Eve, they have foisted their own private notions and uninspired creeds upon the people, with the result that a mass of confusion has mounted year after year.

Their doctrine concerning original sin has been at the root of most of the trouble. But the more recent tendency of clergymen and scholars alike to call the Garden of Eden account in the Bible a mere myth has not helped the situation. Neither have the evolutionary theories that attempt to trace our pedigrees back to some accidental development of a single cell which, it is alleged, eventually became human

Adding to the confusion are some who have so completely misunderstood gospel truths concerning the Garden of Eden that they assume that Adam was Deity, a thing completely at variance with both ancient scripture and modern revelation.

Some Jewish scholars also have joined the parade by saying that the Bible accounts of the creation, of the Garden of Eden, of our first parents, and of the flood are all myths, with questionable parallels in the writings of other early peoples. While orthodox Jews still believe in  the Torah and what it says about Adam and Eve, even they are becoming relatively fewer in number as disbelief invades the ranks of the "chosen race."