Original Sin — Scriptural Fact Or Man-made Fiction?

[Matthan]

Some denominations proclaim that, since Adam’s sin, all men who have been born have been infected with the taint of the "original sin" of the first man. But, is that the truth, or just another man-made tradition? We find the following in Romans 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:"

No one could argue that, because of Adam’s sin, death entered into the world, and has continuously haunted man from Eden until today. But, the important question is not if any particular man will die or not, but whether or not new born infants and small children are infected with some kind of sin obtained directly or indirectly from Adam’s original sin against God.

Concerning small children, Jesus tells us, (in Matthew 18:10)

"Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven."

If the angels of small children are in direct contact with God, how can they be tainted with sin during their life here on earth?

Also of importance, we find in Ezekiel 18:20,

"The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him."

Is there such a thing as original sin? If so, can anyone point to Scripture to indicate where such proof lies?

Matthan <J><

 

[YahwehLove]

Men die now because God took the Tree of Life from us after Adam sinned.

 

[nahMish]

the definition of sin includes: "the transgression of the law" (i JOhn 3:4) and a failure to act by anyone "who knows the good he out to do and doesnt do it." (james 4:17) and "whatever is not from faith (Romans 14:23).

paul said, "in adam all die" (1 Cpr 15:22). the human heart corruption affects the WHOLE person. in luight of this Job exclaims,
"who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean, NOT ONE !" (job 14:4). david said, "behold i was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me." (ps 51:5).

and paul stated that, "the carnal mind is emnity against God;for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. so then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. " (Rom 8:7,8). before conversion, he pointed out, believers were "by nature children of wrath" just like the rest of humanity (Eph 2:3). although as children we acquire singfful behaviour through imitation, the above texts affirm that we injerity out basic sinfulness. the universal sinfulness is evidence that by nature we tend toward evil, not good.

most likely the place where jesus speaks about "not hindering the children-for they belong in heaven"....is alluding to the fact that children are untarnished by sin in the way that adults are: accumulate problems, knowledge etc...children (in general) have a type of purity and innocence that we as adults dont have and tend to gravitate more easily to the things of heaven than those who have "been there done that" because they carry more baggage...children can have faith more easily as they are more trusting maybe? LESS CYNICAL !!!

 

[Eternal Mindset]

We do not inherit sin from our ancestors.

We inherit a conscience because of Eve and then Adam's sin.

Before they sinned, the only thing telling them right from wrong was God.
Once they had eaten the fruit, they gained the knowledge of sin (i.e. a conscience).

Afterwards they knew they had done something bad, they knew they were naked, and they were ashamed.

Before this, they could not have committed sin; for no one will be judged by a standard to which he is not aware of (and they had no conscience).

We do not inherit sin, we merely inherit a knowledge of it.

 

[God_follower]

Sinful nature or original sin? Uhhh we all get sin... no matter what... noone can be born without sin if you have a father... because the seed of man is the carrier because the seed of the woman is Jesus, because He has no earthly father. The seed of all men were tainted in the garden because in a sence we were all in his loins. This kind of brings up the age of accountability thing... but thats later. Do we have original sin from adam?... yes, i think so because we were in his loins. Children, I believe God has special grace because we must become like little children to enter the kingdom of God. So why would little children not be little children... What that age is i dunno a number, but more then likely its.. when they know. thats my take on it.

God bless,
Louis

 

[Dad Ernie]

We do not inherit sin from our ancestors.

We inherit a conscience because of Eve and then Adam's sin.

Before they sinned, the only thing telling them right from wrong was God.
Once they had eaten the fruit, they gained the knowledge of sin (i.e. a conscience).

Afterwards they knew they had done something bad, they knew they were naked, and they were ashamed.

Before this, they could not have committed sin; for no one will be judged by a standard to which he is not aware of (and they had no conscience).

We do not inherit sin, we merely inherit a knowledge of it.

Greetings Eternal Mindset,

That is quite profound coming from a 15 year old. Did someone teach you that? I'm going to have to give that some consideration.

Sin simply means disobeying God. There are a few verses in the OT like this:

2 Samuel 12:13 And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the LORD. And Nathan said unto David, The LORD also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die.

We also know that each of us are responsible for ourselves. God made it clear that "for your own sin shall you die", the sins of the father shall not be passed down to the son.

A child not knowing or having eaten from the "tree of knowledge of good and evil", I believe, fall under the following category:

Romans 7:7-9 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. 8 But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead. 9 For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.

Children are now and from the time of Cain and Abel, have a "propensity" to sin and are born into an environment where sin abounds and there is NO ONE, NOT ONE that is righteous, but all have fallen short of the glory of God. So from birth we begin to be inundated with sin abounding all around us. It is no wonder that the most natural thing for a child to do is "sin".

Blessings,

Dad Ernie

 

[ChristianMuse]

The first Adam... all are dead or as good as dead because of his sin.

The second Adam... all will live, even those who are currently dead because of the sacrifice for the sin of the world.

Then comes the judgement.

Some to life eternal and others the second death.

There is comfort in knowing that God will do what is right, tempered by mercy.

 

[Theophorus]

So if sin is inherited, why does the whole of creation groan under its consequence?
(Rom 8:19-22)

Do frogs inherit the sin of Adam, or were they always doomed?

 

[God_follower]

uhh that was because When Adam fell he kinda gave the authority that he had recieved from God over the creation to Satan, and the thief comes to kill steal and distroy, so everyhting just kinda went downhill from there.

 

[Dad Ernie]

So if sin is inherited, why does the whole of creation groan under its consequence?
(Rom 8:19-22)

Please consider:

Ezekiel 18:4 Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die.

Ezekiel 18:20 The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.

Do frogs inherit the sin of Adam, or were they always doomed?

Let's look at your reference IN CONTEXT:

Romans 8:20-23 For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, 21 Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. 23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.

The redemption of our body has yet to be fully revealed. This will occur when we are "changed to be like Him". Then will swords be turned into plowshares and the Lion will lay down with the Lamb and a child shall put his hand into an adder's hole.

Even now, since we have that "hope", we are redeemed and the creation and the angels rejoice over the salvation of this world's occupants. We can see a picture of what is yet to come when Daniel was thrown into the Lion's den.

In Adam we gave up the "dominion" God gave us to that Serpent - Satan. In Christ we have the opportunity to take back that dominion by rejecting "sin" and doing what is right in God's eyes.

Blessings,

Dad Ernie

 

[vanshan]

We are sick with sin because through Adam death entered the world, corrupting our desires, leading us away from the desire for communion with God to desires for created things. We do not inherit Adam's guilt, we inherit the corrupted world and nature, which are products of his fall. Death entered the world and now we are all subject to it. Christ defeated death, making it possible for all men to enter back into Paradise.

Original sin is a man-made doctrine, based on a misunderstanding of some scriptures.

Basil

 

[SPALATIN]

We do not inherit sin from our ancestors.

We inherit a conscience because of Eve and then Adam's sin.

Before they sinned, the only thing telling them right from wrong was God.
Once they had eaten the fruit, they gained the knowledge of sin (i.e. a conscience).

Afterwards they knew they had done something bad, they knew they were naked, and they were ashamed.

Before this, they could not have committed sin; for no one will be judged by a standard to which he is not aware of (and they had no conscience).

We do not inherit sin, we merely inherit a knowledge of it.

I couldn't disagree more with you. As you are a young person you do not have the benefit of having your own children yet. Once you do you will realize just how sinful we are whether we have a conscience or not. When we sinned we lost free will to choose God. We are slaves to sin and can not by our own reason or will come to faith or seek God in our desires. We seek only to please ourselves.

We do know right from wrong, but we have only the ability to do wrong until we receive Christ through Baptismal regeneration. Only then do we have any capability of comprehending good in our life.

1 John 1:8-9 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

The Word of God does not say "for some have sinned" it says for all have sinned and fall short of God's glory" (Romans 3:23) If we only have a knowledge of sin this verse is not true and doesn't belong in the Bible.

We all fall short of God's glory because even at our best we still sin.

Scott

 

[Theophorus]

Please consider:

Ezekiel 18:4 Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die.

Ezekiel 18:20 The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.


Let's look at your reference IN CONTEXT:

Romans 8:20-23 For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, 21 Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. 23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.

The redemption of our body has yet to be fully revealed. This will occur when we are "changed to be like Him". Then will swords be turned into plowshares and the Lion will lay down with the Lamb and a child shall put his hand into an adder's hole.

Even now, since we have that "hope", we are redeemed and the creation and the angels rejoice over the salvation of this world's occupants. We can see a picture of what is yet to come when Daniel was thrown into the Lion's den.

In Adam we gave up the "dominion" God gave us to that Serpent - Satan. In Christ we have the opportunity to take back that dominion by rejecting "sin" and doing what is right in God's eyes.

Blessings,

Dad Ernie

So, we do not inherit the paticular sin of Adam, but the consequences of it, the same as the creation, for which sin is not applicable. I would agree.

 

[holyrokker]

Sinful nature or original sin? Uhhh we all get sin... no matter what... noone can be born without sin if you have a father... because the seed of man is the carrier because the seed of the woman is Jesus, because He has no earthly father. The seed of all men were tainted in the garden because in a sence we were all in his loins.

Ummm.. The father is a "sin carrier"????? Where does THAT come from?

And then why isn't the opposite true - Why aren't the children of Christians automatically Christians as well?