Adam and Eve Helped Me Find Christ

AUSTIN WERK | Story of Faith

I was born into the Adventist church, and we were all attending and involved until my father started studying the Bible and encouraging the rest of us to do the same. I was around 15 years old when our family started attending Redeemer Fellowship and the Former Adventist Fellowship Friday night Bible study. I gave my life to Christ, and two years later I was baptized. I have been asked to share a little bit about what it was like leaving Adventism as a teenager ,so here’s what I remember.

To start, I want to reflect on one of the most well-known stories in the Bible, Adam and Eve. This was one my family knew well and had grown up hearing in Sabbath School.

In Sabbath School we had learned all about creation and how God had created man, Adam, to rule over it and how he had made Eve from Adam’s rib to be his wife. We learned that one day Eve had wandered away from Adam and was tempted to eat from the forbidden Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Eve fell to temptation, ate the fruit, and then took fruit to her husband who hadn’t been there to stop her. Adam ate the fruit, and then Adam and Eve were kicked out of the garden.

This story had been my reality—until it wasn’t.

Where Was Adam?

I was born Adventist, but for me that really only meant that we were special because we kept the Sabbath and followed the 10 Commandments. Looking back, I realize I was fortunate to grow up in a home where we knew the importance of the Bible and where Ellen White wasn’t really talked about.

As an Adventist our family held worship time during the sunsets before and after Sabbath. One night during Sabbath worship, the topic of Adam and Eve was brought up, and my dad, who had been studying out of the Adventist church, asked “Where was Adam when Eve ate the fruit?”

It was a simple question; my brother, sister, and I quickly answered that Adam wasn’t with Eve when she’d sinned and ate the fruit.

But Dad stood his ground and said that Adam was with Eve. He encouraged us to look in the Bible. So we did, and we read Genesis 3:4-6. If you can, please open it in your own Bible and follow along.

From the ESV, Genesis 3:4-6 reads: 

But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.—Genesis 3:4-6 ESV

We were shocked; we couldn’t believe that was really what the Scripture said, so we ran around the house and grabbed every Bible we could find: KJV, NIV, ESV—we had them all laid out on the table, and they all said the same thing, that Adam was with Eve when she ate the fruit.

It was hard to wrap my head around; I mean if the Bible said that Adam was with Eve, why had we all been taught differently. And if I was wrong about that, then what else did I have wrong?

I had always been taught that I needed to go to church on Saturday and follow the 10 Commandments, but salvation was hardly ever talked about. On the rare occasion salvation was talked about, it always started with the phrase, “I hope…” before it. As for me I always just did the best I could and never really thought about heaven, I guess I always figured God would decide when the time came.

I now know that thanks to Jesus and his perfect sacrifice, IT IS FINISHED. Jesus took my sins away and I am saved, not because of anything I have, can, or will do, but because the God of the universe loved me enough to die the death I deserve so that I can live forever with Him. And He loves you, too! Jesus loves you so much, more than you could ever know. Just put your faith and trust in Jesus and let Him take care of the rest.

Challenged To Think For Myself

After the Adam with Eve realization, our family continued to study and listen together as we unpacked different topics my dad had been studying. By now I was 15 and really had to start thinking for myself. What did I believe?

During this time, my mother was firm on one point: she didn’t want to leave Adventism and have no church to go to. Until that point my dad had been on YouTube learning as much as he could to unpack the many Ellenisms that had been engrained from the Adventist Church from his youth. This would eventually bring my dad to Redeemer Fellowship in the Holiday Inn where he would hear Pastor Inrig preach the word and, as he puts it, “Finally be fed”.

My dad eventually asked me one Sunday morning if I wanted a doughnut—and what kid refuses a doughnut? Dad also said I didn’t need to dress up, so I threw on a T-shirt and some shorts and went to church—on a Sunday—and listened and got my doughnut afterwards—and before you ask, no I don’t remember what kind of doughnut it was. What I do remember, though, was it didn’t feel weird. Sure, the day was different, and the people were different, the church building was different—but ultimately, it was just people worshipping God, and isn’t that what’s most important?

I would watch as my family slowly started attending Redeemer Fellowship more consistently and learn more about Jesus and the Bible. But my mom had some trouble letting go of Adventism. For some time she continued to attend the Adventist church on Saturday while coming to church on Sunday. I would always go along because I didn’t want her to go alone, and if I was there, she could talk about how she was feeling. I’ve come to learn the term for keeping up Sabbath-keeping while also worshiping in a Christian church is “having a foot in both camps”, and it can get pretty exhausting.

Learning To Trust

My favorite Bible verse, Proverbs 3:5-6, reads: 

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him(God), and he (God) will make straight your paths.”—Proverbs 3:5-6 ESV

Throughout this whole situation, I’ve learned it’s hard to let go of everything you’ve ever known to take a leap of faith trusting God. The “what if’s”, the doubts, and the piles of unanswered questions of which we could only begin to scratch the surface were overwhelming until had to just give it all to God and trust that He would take care of us and make our paths straight.

Eventually our family took the leap of faith and switched to full-time Sunday  worship, and we continued to learn and grow. We attended the Friday night FAF Bible study where the group was kind enough to pause their study on Acts and discuss the covenants, which is a very important topic if you have not already studied it.

The summarized version of the covenants is that God made arrangements with various people and people groups in the Bible. These agreements were made with and only with the covenant parties and can be classified as either conditional or unconditional covenants referring to what would be required of the human party.

The main covenants of the Bible are:

• The Noahic covenant God made with Noah and the earth, to never flood it again,

• The Abrahamic covenant God made with Abraham for land, seed, and blessing,

• The Davidic covenant God made with David, that there would always be a king from David’s line

But the two I want to focus on are the Mosaic Covenant and the New Covenant.

The Mosaic covenant God made with the people of Israel, and God established the Law, gave Israel the 10 Commandments, and Israel responded in Exodus 24:3,

“…All the words that the Lord has spoken we will do.”—Exodus 24:3 ESV

Israel—and only Israel—was given the law, and they accepted it, not knowing what a challenge it would be. But the law is a foreshadowing, and it points to the new covenant Jesus made with Israel and then grafted in all gentile believers as well. Jesus lived a sinless life, fulfilled the entire law, and thus made a path to salvation for all who believe in Him.

Learning about the covenants completely reshaped the way I viewed the Bible. Now I had placed my faith and trust in Jesus, but without a law constantly telling me everything I’ve done wrong, how am I supposed to live in such a way that honors God?

Matthew 22:36-40 sums up this question perfectly, explaining: 

““Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he (Jesus) said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.””—Matthew 22:36-40 ESV

In this passage Jesus gives two instructions, to love God and to love others, perfectly encapsulating the law in its entirety and perfectly summarizing how we are to live as Christians. That doesn’t mean I’m always perfect, but it means I try to honor God, with my thoughts and actions, because I love him and because He first loved me.

But God didn’t leave me alone. God gave me the Holy Spirt who indwells all who believe and are truly born again. As I continued to grow, the Holy Spirit worked within me to reshape and reform my heart to be more like God’s, to want the things that God wants, and to love and serve others. While we aren’t immediately perfect, God continues to work in us little by little, and as Philippians 1:6 puts it, it is a work that will be completed when Christ returns. (Paraphrasing Philippians 1:6.)

Some time passed, and Redeemer Fellowship was having a baptism. I had never really thought much about being baptized in Adventism; honestly, it felt kind of embarrassing being such a center of attention. I’d watched friends in the Adventist church be baptized, but I’d never taken that step. But for some reason when this opportunity was brought up, I seriously wrestled with it. I mean, I believed in Jesus and His finished work on the cross and that He died for my sins so that I could live forever with Him. I’d also read in the New Testament how as soon as believers had accepted and made that decision, they were baptized almost instantaneously. So why had I not been baptized? Why had I not shown the world that I do believe in Jesus? So what if I’d have to write out a testimony and have a few more eyes on me than usual? Baptism is important ,and so I got baptized.

In conclusion, I want to stress the importance of trusting God, of asking questions, and of finding solid ground as you begin to rebuild your faith. For me, solid ground was always Jesus and the Bible and being honest with myself. Everything else in Adventism didn’t line up with what the Bible had to say, just like with the story of Adam and Eve we’d heard in Adventism. 

I encourage you to ask your questions and seek out answers in Scripture and from others, Christian or Adventist, to better understand why either believes what they believe. But please be objective and neutral, open-minded to whatever truth is. And lastly, trust God. He’ll take you where you need to go. It’s not always the path you wanted, and it’s probably filled with trials and difficulties, but it’s the path you’ve needed in order to be a light for Him. I hope that as you continue to question and study, you trust God enough to say, “It Is Finished”. †