(Part 1)

JBTM Book Reviews
118
under consideration explicitly affirm such a view. Romans 5:12 states that sin entered the
world through one man’s sin, and death entered because all sinned—not that man enters
the world spiritually dead. Also, Paul’s reference to spiritual death in Rom 7:9 contradicts
the claim that people enter the world spiritually dead. Rather, Paul states that he was alive,
then the commandment came, then “sin became alive and I died” (NASB). In the essay,
Schreiner states that “verses 15–19 clearly teach that Adam’s guilt is imputed to all human
beings” (276). Such a view is not clearly taught in Romans 5, as others have argued elsewhere.
2 After establishing that Augustine worked from a poor translation of Rom 5:12, Schreiner
affirms that Augustine’s conclusion is nevertheless correct, that “all sinned in Adam,”
since Adam is their “covenantal and federal head” (278). However, because the phrase “in
Adam” does not appear in the text, the concepts of covenantal and federal headship are not
required by the biblical text. Is it possible that Schreiner’s theological presuppositions are
driving his conclusions regarding original sin, rather than the text of Romans 5? In chapter
14, Noel Weeks skillfully demonstrates that extra-biblical sources do not adequately account
for human toil and death. Also, Weeks provides a biblical-theological treatment of
Genesis 3, which concludes that human misery and death outside the original garden is a
process and reality which flows from the actual disobedience of a genuine couple (304–5).
In chapter 15, William Edgar interacts with the work of Christopher Southgate and William
Dembski, who both assume the universe is very old, and attempt to account for the existence
of animal death and natural disasters prior to the first sin of Adam. Edgar provides a
strong critique of their work and suggests that the death of plants and animals prior to the
sin of Adam is compatible with God’s declaration in Gen 1:31 that creation was “very good.”
Readers of Adam, The Fall, and Original Sin will benefit from the sustained and robust
arguments for a historical Adam and fall as well as the need for redemption in Christ. Also,
the book raises the awareness that one’s view of original sin is inextricably connected to
other key doctrines, including one’s understanding of the work of Christ on the cross. For
example, Reeves and Madueme compare Christian doctrines to threads in a seamless garment,
in which pulling one thread can damage an entire garment. They suggest that “when
the doctrine of original sin is tampered with or lost, the doctrines of God and creation,
humanity, sin, and salvation are all significantly affected” (210). Also, readers will benefit
from a comprehensive argument, drawing upon the fields of historical theology, biblical
theology, systematic theology, and natural science.
²As examples, see Walter T. Conner, The Gospel of Redemption (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1945),
29; Frank Stagg, “Adam, Christ, and Us,” New Testament Studies: Essays in Honor of Ray Summers in
His Sixty-Fifth Year, ed. Huber L. Drumwright and Curtis Vaughan (Waco, TX: Baylor University
Press, 1975), 115–36; J. W. MacGorman, Layman’s Bible Book Commentary: Romans, 1 Corinthians
(Nashville: Broadman Press, 1980), 53; Joseph A. Fitzmyer, Romans, The Anchor Bible, ed. William
Foxwell Albright and David Noel Freedman, vol. 33 (New York: Doubleday, 1993), 408–9; and Adam
Harwood, Born Guilty?: A Southern Baptist View of Original Sin (Carrollton, GA: Free Church Press,
2013).