Original Sin

Message / Question

Dr Dave, what is your thoughts on original sin? What does that mean?

Response

A non believing husband asked his Christian wife, on her return from church, what the sermon was about. She replied that the pastor had preached on sin. The husband replied “Was he for it or against it???

In a convoluted way, his question could be asked of many Theologians about the issue of original sin.

The points of agreement are that God made man in His perfect image but by the exercise of his will, man sinned and thus sin entered into the world. To some, that’s where original sin starts and finished. Adam and Eve sinned, that was the original sin and that’s all there is to it. However a majority of theologians would agree that there’s a lot more to it. Because of Adam’s sin, humanity has, in some way, been morally and ethically corrupted or infected with sin. The extent to which every person born into the world is tainted by the Fall is an issue of much debate.

Some say that Adam’s sin is credited to every human being (some say at conception, some say at birth) and thus all of humanity is born with sin already on their personal record, meaning that they would be excluded from heaven unless grace and mercy are applied by God and this “original” sin is expunged.

Others say that Adam’s original sin caused his very nature to fall and this fallen nature has been passed on to all of his descendants – in other words, all human beings. As a result of this fallen nature being inherited, man is born with a propensity to sin and thus, when given the opportunity to do so, he will choose to sin. This is view is generally extended to argue that humans are only responsible for conscious acts of sin, not inherited sin. This means that man is not accountable for sin until he is aware of what sin is and its divinely provided remedy is neglected or rejected.

One of the issues that this doctrine raises is the issue of free will. Some say that, because of his fallen nature and his original sin, man is unable to ever choose that which is right and good, thus the only way for sin to be forgiven is for God to choose (predestine) him to seek salvation, because, if left to his own resources, he could not make the choice to seek forgiveness from God. Others take a strongly opposed view, saying that all people may become aware of their sin and of God’s grace and freely choose to seek God’s grace and forgiveness.

I would best fit into the group that sees original sin as creating the propensity to sin and sees man as having the opportunity to freely choose to accept or reject God’s way of finding forgiveness.