The primary passage on Original sin is:
- Rom 5:12-19 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come. But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification. For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.) Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.
One of the least popular doctrines of the Christian faith is that of original sin. This paper will attempt to defend the teaching of Original Sin as being Scripturally based.
This section defines the relevant terms.
For the purpose of this paper, original sin is the idea that we, as humans, receive a sin nature from Adam. This sin nature results in our ultimate condemnation from God.
Sin is not a material object. Sin is a broken relationship with God. Because of Adam's sin, we have sin natures. [Christ was born of a virgin and did not inherit the human sin nature.]
Thomas Aquinas noted that "sin" is singular, not plural, and contended that this passage was evidence that Christ took away the Original Sin.
John 1:29 The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.
Even our conception was stained in sin.
Psa 51:5 Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.
Those who deny this doctrine are forced to turn this statement from the Psalms into pure hyperbole.
1 Cor 7:14 For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband: else were your children unclean; but now are they holy.
Those who deny Original Sin are left with a question posed by this passage. Why does the child have to be made clean if they are born clean? Regardless of the interpretation of the passage as to what "sanctification" means in the context, and other issues, the point remains that for the believer God considers the children to be clean. If they were already clean, then the passage would make no sense at all.
Psa 58:3 The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies.
Psa 71:6 By thee have I been holden up from the womb: thou art he that took me out of my mother's bowels: my praise shall be continually of thee.
Job 14:4 Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one.
Job 15:14 What is man, that he should be clean? and he which is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?
Jer 13:23 Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.
These verses are the key passages refuting many of the points of those who deny this doctrine.
Rom 5:12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: 13 (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law. 14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.
This verse is part of the same context.
Rom 5:18 Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.
The child in the womb can communicate with God.
Luke 1:44 For, lo, as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy.
Man is a sinner by nature.
Eph 2:3 Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.
God provided the solution to the problem.
Eph 2:12 That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: 13 But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. 14 For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; 15 Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; 16 And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby:
2 Cor 5:18 And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. 20 Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. 21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
Col 1:19 For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell; Col 1:20 And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. Col 1:21 And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled Col 1:22 In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:
Rom 5:10 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.
Rom 11:15 For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?
Mat 23:37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!
The view that I am proposing is known as the Federal Head view. Adam committed high treason against God and condemned himself and his children to banished from God's presence. Christ was the perfect sacrifice for God which brought men back to God.
The king has a law that anyone who commits treason will die. A man commits high treason. The king pardons the offender, but banishes him from his kingdom. His children can't even come back into the land as they are aliens to the land, being foreign born. The king has even more mercy and sends emissaries to the land to tell the people that he wants them to reconcile. They kill the messengers. Finally, the king sends his own son, hoping that they will respect his son. They kill his son as well.
It's not fair that God would condemn someone for the sin that another person did, after all didn't God say that the soul that sins is the one that shall die?
This is certainly the primary objection to the doctrine of Original Sin. However, God has set a clear precedence in this area in the old Testament.
Deu 23:2 A bastard shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD; even to his tenth generation shall he not enter into the congregation of the LORD.
Note in particular the use of the word "he" as in "shall HE not enter". What could this mean? After all the "he" has been dead for many years. For example, if there's 20 years between each generation born, and "he" lived 100 years after sinning, then "he's" been dead for about 100 years by the time of the 10th generation.
Yet "he" is said to not be allowed to enter. How could "he" enter? He's been dead for 100 years (in this example). In fact, "he's" present in his descendents in the way that God recons things.
Echos of Adam, huh?
The people of Israel did not interpret the passage in the same way as the modern critics.
2 Ki 14:6 But the children of the murderers he slew not: according unto that which is written in the book of the law of Moses, wherein the LORD commanded, saying, The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, nor the children be put to death for the fathers; but every man shall be put to death for his own sin.
Here's another one:
Deu 23:3 An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD; even to their tenth generation shall they not enter into the congregation of the LORD for ever: Deu 23:4 Because they met you not with bread and with water in the way, when ye came forth out of Egypt; and because they hired against thee Balaam the son of Beor of Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse thee.
The following passage is similar:
Exo 34:7 Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.
This one is based on the horribleness of the alternatives. In one of the alternatives every crime gets turned into a capital offense. Every first sin a person does earns the death penalty. There's no way that God could be just if he gave people the death penalty for saying "no" to mommy, for instance. The punishment must fit the crime.
The passage itself is being misinterpreted and quoted out of its context. Here's the passage as it was understood by those who received the law.
2 Ki 14:6 But the children of the murderers he slew not: according unto that which is written in the book of the law of Moses, wherein the LORD commanded, saying, The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, nor the children be put to death for the fathers; but every man shall be put to death for his own sin.
Thus, in it's context, the passage shows that the children of a murderer should not be put to death for their father's crimes. This passage has nothing to do with the subject at hand as it's a point of civil law. This is in the law:
2 Chr 25:4 But he slew not their children, but did as it is written in the law in the book of Moses, where the LORD commanded, saying, The fathers shall not die for the children, neither shall the children die for the fathers, but every man shall die for his own sin.
Objection #2
These passages are not talking about spiritual death, but physical death only.
The trouble can be seen as the follows:
That's the thorny issue. Point #3 can't happen if #1 and #2 are true. Pick the poison. Either:
I choose door 2 at the very least. I have serious questions about point 1 (another day). I do believe that point 3 is definitely false.
If everyone is a sinner 2, then sin can't be as narrowly defined as it has been by some ( a transgression of the law).
Sin according to Thomas Aquinas has two aspects. One of these is more forensic (you get it as part of your nature). The other is more habit (you did it yourself).
Didn't Paul say that For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. (Rom 7:9)
This is not talking about sin that is forensically reconed, but actualized. There is a class of sets of passages about sin relate to individual sin, and another group that refers to the sin of Adam (ie, the sin nature).
Pelagius, a Welsh monk, began this teaching that bears his name. He denied that we inherit original sin from Adam's sin in the Garden, and become personally sinful only because we are born in solidarity with a sinful community, which gives us a bad example (ref).
From the Summa Theologica.
If Adam had not sinned, he had not died; but a sentence of death was passed, as upon a criminal; it passed through all men, as an infectious disease that none escape. In proof of our union with Adam, and our part in his first transgression, observe, that sin prevailed in the world, for many ages before the giving of the law by Moses. And death reigned in that long time, not only over adults who wilfully sinned, but also over multitudes of infants, which shows that they had fallen in Adam under condemnation, and that the sin of Adam extended to all his posterity. Read quote.
John Wesley SERMON 44 (text from the 1872 edition)
R. C. Sproul, a 5-point Calvinist, has written a decent defense of the doctrine of Original Sin in his book, "Willing to Believe: The Controversy over Free Will", Baker Books, 1997, starting at page 148:
Original Sin and It’s Effects (Roman Catholic article)From the 18th cent. the influence of rationalism and natural science tended to attenuate the dogme of Origina sin, but it has been strongly reaffirmed by modern RC orthodox theologians and, in its Protestant version, esp. by K. Barth and his school.
Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church entry for "Original Sin"
SDAnet Discussion of Original Sin
Jewish Religion denies Original Sin
Atheistic author Ayn Rand denied Original Sin:
Christian writing against the doctrine of Original Sin
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