Why Do We Have a Bible, Anyway?

By Roddy Bullock, author of "Without Excuse: Evidence for Creation by God"

Had Adam not sinned, would we have a Bible? If so, what would it say?

The Bible’s Genesis account lays out God’s orderly creation of human beings, including supernaturally forming Adam from the dust of the ground before breathing the breath of life into him. In doing so, Adam became, immediately, the first male human being. Eve’s creation as a complete human female to complement Adam’s maleness followed, equally supernaturally. God created male and female in his image, and this amazing accomplishment fills exactly two chapters of the Bible.

In the first two chapters of Genesis, we learn much about God. We learn that He created the heavens and the earth, and every living thing. This is the very heavens and earth that the Apostle Paul notes continue to proclaim God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and his divine nature—to all human beings. Indeed, today, for those with ears to hear, the heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

Also in the first two chapters of Genesis, we learn much about man. We learn that God purposefully created humans to fill and subdue the earth while living in personal communion with their creator in righteousness and holiness. Further, we read that God placed a free Adam in a beautiful garden among all other living things with but one command, a command with a clear consequence for disobedience: death.

Had Adam obeyed God, the entire rest of the Bible would be unnecessary. It would make no sense. Genesis 3 records the disobedience that severed Adam’s relationship with a holy God and prompted God’s promise of a future redemption. Starting there, the remaining 1187 chapters in the Bible communicate God’s redemptive plan, including the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ, all culminating in a new heaven and new earth.

It takes two chapters of the Biblical narrative arc to describe supernatural creation of mankind, and 1187 more to describe the sin-induced fall of mankind, the unfolding provision of redemption for mankind, and the promise to mankind of a future restoration in paradise. From Genesis 3 onward, the Bible illuminates for us God’s unified story of hope for an otherwise hopelessly fallen creation.

But consider a crucial inquiry: What if there never was a true Adam, created by God? If evolutionary processes explain the creation of human beings, at least one thing is true: there was no true, historical person named Adam created in God’s image. Further, if constant death to the weak and vulnerable drove our creation from a primitive life form, then a paradise on earth for humans never existed and sin carries no meaning. And most importantly, it follows that if evolution is a true explanation for human beings, then Jesus was nothing more than an evolved animal that succumbed to the clutches of natural selection.

Thus, for Christians, the “evolution vs creation” question takes on a critical dimension. Rather than being merely an academic inquiry, the question bears directly on the truth value of Christian theology. In short, the true creation of a man named Adam by God in his image is a theological necessity for the Gospel. Without it, not only are the first two chapters of Genesis a myth, but the remaining 1187 chapters become meaningless!

Without creation by God of a true, historical Adam accountable to God, there is no sin against God subjecting creation to the rebellion-induced fall producing the need for redemption to experience a future restoration. Creation, fall, redemption, restoration: the entire Gospel-centered narrative arc of the Bible is lost if we lose the truth of the creation in the first two chapters of Genesis.

If naturalistic evolutionary processes created the first human, then the entire human race exists in an amoral, evolved cosmos. Sin has no meaning or consequences: human beings are responsible to nothing and no one. Redemption is equally meaningless—human beings have nothing to be redeemed from. And restoration? Restoration to what?

If there was no first Adam who disobeyed and sinned against God to bring death into the world, there remains no theological necessity for a sinless, obedient last Adam (Christ) that became a life-giving spirit. A true, historical Adam created by God in Genesis 1 and 2 stands as a doctrinal necessity for Christianity to hold any theologically coherent message of meaning and hope in the remaining 1187 chapters of the Bible.

Why do we have a Bible, anyway? Because beyond recording a truthful creation account, it remains the only coherent message of hope to a dying world.

That is why we have a Bible.

(C) 2024 Creation Reformation. Roddy Bullock is the founder of Creation Reformation and author of several books related to creation and evolution. For more information, visit www.creationreformation.com, or visit (and follow!) us at Facebook.

Please send editorial comments, including indications of typos and grammatical errors to info@creationreformation.com.

Note that our book, Without Excuse: Evidence for Creation by God, can be studied in groups with the accompanying Study Guide and Leader’s Guide. Enjoy!