Over my long academic career, one of my greatest joys is seeing students grow in their faith and confidence in the Lord; but one of my greatest sorrows is watching some fellow educators drift and falter over time. Tragically, this seems to be the direction John Walton heads in his most recent book, New Explorations in the Lost World of Genesis: Advances in the Origins Debate (IVP Academic, 2025). I wrote a full-length review of it for the Christian Research Journal. The path that John and his son J. Harvey Walton take in this sequel to John’s earlier “Lost World” books, which focus on early Genesis, is very different than before. To quote him, "As mind-blowing on the one hand and perhaps disturbing on the other as this is for readers entrenched in traditional theology, it should only prompt us to dig deeper" (p. 183).

Digging deeper finds the Waltons abandoning the foundational biblical “creation-fall-redemption-consummation” view of human history, substituting a bizarre world where "Genesis does not begin with humanity in an ideal state of any sort, let alone a perfect state" (177), where "The godlikeness Adam and Eve acquired (Gen 3:22) was not wrong for them to have; it was inadequate to achieve their desired outcome" (182), and where “order for humans is not to be found by dwelling in the divine realm" (146).

Of course, the Waltons justify this view by evoking ancient Near Eastern parallels that find humans very uncomfortable dealing with the divine, but such fear isn’t surprising, as people are sinful and the surrounding polytheistic religions are messing with demons. However, imagining Genesis 2-3 from this perspective totally ignores the initial pre-Fall narrative where Adam seems quite comfortable working with God in naming the animals, in receiving Eve from God as his wife, and indeed it appears that the couple normally communes and walks with God in the cool of the evenings in the Garden. And what about the later promises to Israel, like Leviticus 26:11-12: "Moreover, I will make My dwelling among you, and My soul will not reject you, I will also walk among you and be your God, and you shall be My people" (NASB1995). Even stranger, in the book, the Waltons do not explore the eschatological implications of their thesis that humans are uncomfortable in the divine realm. Will we feel at home in heaven? What about the new heavens and new earth, where "the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them" (Revelation 21:3 NASB1995)?

The Waltons claim there is an "exegetical payoff" (143) to getting rid of the Fall from an initial ideal state, in that their model works with Darwinian theories of human origins (where humans gradually evolve upward over time), and that now Adam and Eve can be reduced to purely archetypes and anecdotes. While their approach totally agrees with consensus science (which I think is very hazardous, given science’s commitment to naturalism today), it definitely abandons the traditional Christian view of human history and weakens scriptural authority and inspiration.

Living in academic theological circles, it’s not uncommon for me to hear non- or anti-biblical views, but the surprise here is seeing such things coming from a (formerly) ‘go-to’ conservative evangelical scholar. But the pressure today to adjust scripture to the current cultural consensus is huge, and so finding ways to drift away from traditional understandings of early Genesis is convenient.

Readers may wish to see my more detailed review, but it deeply saddens me to see the Waltons’ latest work be such a cavalier abandonment of conservative views. I have pointed out how Walton’s earlier books tend to ignore context if it conflicts with his desired outcome, to force (sometimes imagined) parallels even in areas where Israelite culture clearly contrasts with that of her neighbors, and to dismiss the help and insights of later scripture for understanding a passage, but this book rises to new levels of concern. I pray this is not John Walton’s faltering swan song and he will reconsider his theological drift.