“Why didn’t Adam correct Eve?”

Steve Brown:
Why didn’t Adam correct Eve? The answer to that and other questions, on Key Life.

Matthew Porter:
Key Life exists to communicate that the deepest message of Jesus and the Bible is the radical grace of God to sinners and sufferers. Life’s hard for everyone, so grace is for all of us. But there is a lot of confusion about how grace applies to real life. So, here’s seminary professor and author, Steve Brown and Pete Alwinson to answer your questions.

Steve Brown:
Thank you Matthew. Hi Pete.

Pete Alwinson:
Hey, you cleaned up that, I mean, cause what the, what the guy said on the videos was a little more colorful.

Steve Brown:
We’ll see. He’s going to come in person on our phone lines. And so, we’ll see what that question is. That’s Pete Alwinson and if you haven’t gotten Like Father Like Son, you can get that in audio or a bound book. It’s a life-changing book. It’s written mostly for men, but we’re hearing from a lot of women who have found that book so very helpful to them. So, check on it. You get it at Key Life or wherever good books are sold, if they don’t sell that book at the store, to which you go, don’t patronize that store. And by the way, check out ForgeTruth.com for the weekly podcast, which you’re going to love. And as you know, Pete comes in and we answer questions on Fridays. By the way, you can ask your question anytime, 1-800-KEY-LIFE. If it is bothering you, pick up the phone, dial 1-800-KEY-LIFE and record your question. And sometimes we put your voice on the air. Or you can send your question to

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or you can send your question to [email protected] and I would love you more if you sent a contribution along with your question. Actually, I wouldn’t, and neither would Jesus, but we’re a member of ECFA in the States and CCCC in Canada. They oversee our books and our ethics. And we have a board that does exactly the same thing, and I promise we’ll be as faithful with your gift if you can give as you were in giving. And if you can’t do say a prayer for this ministry and we understand, Pete, why don’t you pray for us and we’ll get to some of these questions.

Pete Alwinson:
Oh, let’s pray. Our Father, what a joy to be able to come into your presence today as your people. Lord, it’s the end of the week and we’ve lived a lot of it already. But we remember and we look back thinking about how you really are in charge. We honor you for your grace and mercy. Thank you that you captured us by your grace. Grace for the past. Grace for the moment. Grace for the future. We love you because you first loved us and did everything necessary to turn our lives around and give us a new identity and purpose and character, confidence and a future. So, we honor you and praise you. And we just ask that this week-end as we go to church, that you’d be with our leaders, our worship directors and pastors and priests and teachers, and all those that serve in teaching Sunday school and in the nursery. Lord, be with all of them. And, may your name be lifted up and may grace continue to grip our hearts and capture us. And now we commit this time of Q&A to you. And we ask that you’d be honored and glorified as we pray in Jesus name. Amen.

Steve Brown:
Amen. Let’s go to our phone lines.

Caller 1:
Why did Adam, wasn’t there when Eve ate the apple, when she ate the fruit and just slap it out of her hand?

Pete Alwinson:
That’s picturesque. I could picture that.

Steve Brown:
Misogynistic if you ask me man, he just, no, that’s, you know, we, and there’s a great book by a friend of mine who said that the responsibility of men is to be, and I love this, the keeper of the garden. And that has, that was Brent Hansen. And I was trying to think of the name of his book, but I can’t think of it. But it’s a great book on marriage and the, and what men are supposed to be in marriage. And I thought, especially if you’re talking about the Garden of Eden, it really works there. Adam probably should have taken responsibility, as the keeper of the garden. I mean, that was what he was supposed to do, and maybe he didn’t, but the text doesn’t allow that, does it?

Pete Alwinson:
It really doesn’t. I mean, we don’t know, it does seem that he’s in the proximity. I mean, our producer made a joke, that he was on the back nine. And so, no, he wasn’t, and as I read Genesis, it seems like he’s nearby. And that’s why Crabb wrote the book, The Silence of Adam, that was the original title. And it was a very good book, I mean, our caller is right. He should have done, he should have exercised his leadership ability by saying, no, we’re not doing that. Eve, we’re not doing that.

Steve Brown:
Yeah. But he was silent.

Pete Alwinson:
But he was silent and then he was in collusion because she gave it to him and he took it and made it.

Steve Brown:
So, he not only was silent, he participated in this.

Pete Alwinson:
He participated. So, he affirmed her leadership in that regard. And, he really was failing in his leadership. But boy, there’s so much we don’t know. We are living after, and this, it does illustrate the challenge that it means, that there is present to be a godly, spiritual leader in your own home.

Steve Brown:
That’s true. And a spiritual leader means a lot of things, that you don’t think it means. It means that you’re probably going to submit to your wife more than she submits to you because that’s what sensitivity does, the keeper of the garden knows that.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right.

Steve Brown:
It doesn’t mean that you’re a tyrant and you get your way, so you demand it, you will submit. I’m the leader of this thing. It’s Christ-like submission. And Paul says that we should love our wives as Christ loved the church. And gave himself for her. And Paul says that we’re to have the mind of Christ, who didn’t think that equality with God was a thing to be grasped to himself, but emptied himself and became a servant. So, there are a lot of implications to that.

Pete Alwinson:
Oh, you are so right.

Steve Brown:
There are a lot, a lot different than what those people who are angry about it are saying.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right.

Steve Brown:
But don’t, we don’t know. I mean there’s a lot in that story as you said, that we don’t get.

Pete Alwinson:
And the call to be sacrificial, as you said, is the nature of servant leadership.So, you’re right on. You hit it. And so, we have a lot of brothers and Bible teachers out there who think that the call to submit is the command to submit, and that their job is to make their wife submit. And that’s not what Scripture says.

Steve Brown:
No. And I can’t anyway, man, she’s too stubborn. It just won’t work that way. If I’d say, I am the leader here and you will do what I say. My wife would start laughing. I mean, it just wouldn’t happen. But if I said, honey, and we’ve made this decision early on that somebody’s got to be the president and somebody’s got to be the vice president. And it gave wonderful security to our kids. They knew that we fought, but they knew if it got to be something that couldn’t be resolved, a decision would be made. And things would be okay. So, yeah, that’s a good conversation.

Pete Alwinson:
It is. That’s good.

Steve Brown:
Let me give you a question we get a lot. And also, in e-mails. What about transgenderism?

Pete Alwinson:
Hmm. Yeah. That’s a hot topic these days.

Steve Brown:
Oh, it really is. We did a, we did a talk show on that. And if you go to our website, it goes back, it’s been a number of months ago when we introduced this subject with a guy who wrote the book on it. And it was a kind of informative interview in that I learned a lot. The name of the talk show is Steve Brown Etc and it’s on about 250 stations. And it’s videoed on Youtube. And there are thousands of subscribers to that, and if you want to check it out, but if you’ll look and see if there’s an archive section, you maybe can find that program and listen to it. But bottom line, it’s sinful. You know, I don’t want a shilly shally on it.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right. And, we know we’re going in the face of culture, right now, that the dominant forces in our culture, at least the most vocal forces in our culture are for it. We also recognize the challenges of gender identity that people face and how painful that is for them.

Steve Brown:
That is so true.

Pete Alwinson:
We’re not downplaying that.

Steve Brown:
Yeah, we’re not. We understand that.

Pete Alwinson:
We live in a broken world where sin has affected everything. But where we come out as Christians is that we have to support Biblical teaching, which is God’s truth for us. Not only to how to live, but how we flourish. And so, what God establishes for us is what’s best for us.

Steve Brown:
And when the Bible says male and female, he created them. It’s pretty clear. Now, there are nuances to this that probably ought to be discussed. One is you brought up that we’re not unsympathetic, we understand that it’s a struggle sometimes and it’s hard. And we need to be compassionate and understanding. And if that has already happened, we need to be accepting and loving because that’s what Christians are supposed to do, and there’s no wiggle room in that. But secondly, there are in some instances far rarer than most people would say, when there’s a physiological reason for gender confusion, that there are chromosomes, that there are genital manifestations that require a decision, it’s not an established fact. And I think we need to recognize that that happens on occasion. I think today it’s become a fad, and it’s a dangerous fad. And especially when it’s imposed on children.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right. That’s right.

Steve Brown:
It is unconscionable when it’s imposed on children. I think kids always go through a wishing they were, if they’re a guy like mama. Or wishing they could be like daddy, that’s a phase. And if you hammer that phase in and then started doing mutilation, or you start doing medication, you’re doing something that’s just frankly quite wrong.

Pete Alwinson:
It’s wrong, it’s evil and it’s abusive of children and we claim to have a high view of children in America, and yet we do this to them. So, it’s really evil that has crept into the narrative here. And Abigail Shrier has got a great book on this whole thing. She’s a Jewish journalist who’s done a lot of great research. And really has put a, I would read anything Abigail Shrier says on the subject.

Steve Brown:
I agree. Really good stuff. And I’m, and I loved what you said about being compassionate. That was very wise. You know, we as Christians don’t take seriously the implications of this often.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right.

Steve Brown:
We live in a broken world and all of us, without exception, suffer from it. So, now you know don’t send letters. We’re not going to change. Got to go. Key Life is the listener supported production of Key Life Network.