Original Sin

“It is not for our actions only that we must give an account before the judge but also for every idle word. This evil mankind is responsible for is not innate in them as some false teachers say. But they themselves are the author of their own sin.” ~ Athanasius

When someone asks, “where did sin come from?” they often presuppose something false, which is that sin is some sort of substance that was made or formed. But sin is not a substance. Sin is a choice. It results from someone’s free-will decision. Evil is the absence of God even as darkness is the absence of light. Therefore, evil is choosing not God and it is therefore the privation of the life, light, and love that flow from the essence of His nature. Evil is corruption because evil is the absence of God’s graces. It is a choice that leads us away from God.

Augustine, who lived in the third century would actually think of sin as a substance which can be transferred from one generation to the next through the semen like a sexually transmitted disease. But this is absolutely ridiculous. In a state of innocence, Satan sinned and Adam and Eve sinned, leaving their original innocence. But we are all born innocent and without sin (Jer. 2:34; 19:4; Ec. 7:29). However, we have all gone astray from that innocence from our youth (Isa. 53:6). But we are not as some presuppose that we are, totally depraved from our birth. The reason we are responsible for rejecting Jesus is because we are response-able; that is, we are able to respond. But total depravity teaches that we are not able to positively respond to God in faith. Ironically however, under that form of doctrine, one is able to respond in any other faith or religion, just not the genuine saving faith of Christianity. This is preposterous and makes true saving faith the opposite of Romans 10:8 which says that “the word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart—that is, the word of faith which we are preaching” (NASB). The doctrine of total depravity makes salvation some far off thing, impossible to reach like saying, you must climb up to heaven to reach it or must descend into the lowest parts of the sea to find it but Romans 10 speaks the exact opposite of this. Salvation is so easy that you can believe in your heart and confess with your mouth and you will be saved.

Sin is not imputed to us and nor is guilt imputed to us from previous generations (Ro. 5:13). Sin is a choice, not a substance. Cain himself was given the free choice to choose between good and evil. He was not born totally depraved or incapable of choice (Gen. 4:6-7). He was told to master sin, meaning, sin was not his master at this point. It was not inevitable for him to act upon the inclination of his heart to hate his brother and then commit murder. The inward and outward choice to refuse to let sin rule was up to him.

What then is the “sinful nature” or “the flesh”? It is not something that is in substance evil, for that would be to follow the heretical gnostic teachings. The flesh is neutral. It is the body. This body has inclinations to sin and this is because of its inherent weakness and proclivity towards pleasure and the easy path. In the fallen world that we live in, we all eventually become sinners because we very quickly give into the weakness of our flesh and all the temptations around us. And if the flesh of our mother and father was weak, we also inherit that weakness. We also inherit their traits and temperaments which can predispose us towards easily giving in to sin. Therefore, since Adam and Eve, we all grow up sinners because of all these conditions stacked up against us. Even our parents who raise us if they display anger or radiate their frustrated heart towards us, it teaches us sin and gives us a taste for it to desire it and emulate it. And if this weren’t enough, we were also born with the law of God written on our hearts and inherited this basic instinct of the knowledge of good and evil from Adam who ate of the forbidden tree. Each of us therefore choose from an early age to rebel against the law written on our hearts as we choose the path of easy pleasure in the inherent weakness of our flesh. However, we are each individually responsible for our own sin, not the sins of our parents (Ezek. 18). God does not hold us guilty for Adam’s sin and nor is Adam’s sin or the sins of our parents an excuse for our own. God tells the Israelites to stop blaming their parents for their sin and to instead repent and turn from their sin. That is, the condition in which they were brought up is no excuse for their current behavior. They still have the ability to choose good instead of evil. The situation isn’t hopeless. If they chose good, they would live but if they chose evil, they would die. God was not commanding them to do something impossible or out of reach as if He were cruelfully teasing them because God is love and would not do such a thing.

Though we are created with the law of God written on our hearts (Ro. 2:15), this doesn’t mean that from a young age we have an intellectual understanding of good and evil (Dt. 1:39). That is, even though we may choose good or evil, our mental faculties are not developed enough to understand morally and intellectually why it is we made such a choice. It is for this reason that children are guiltless. They act according to impulse like an animal nature would but once they grow old enough to understand, they are culpable for their actions. James says that we sin out of our choice from knowing good and evil (Jas. 4:17).

In Ecclesiastes 7:29 the wisdom of Solomon says, “Behold, I have found only this, that God made men upright, but they have sought out many devices” (NASB).

Romans 5 says that it was “death” that spread to all men not sin that spread to all men. Now, sin has spread to all men as a result of Adam’s sin but result is not the same thing as direct cause. Adam did not cause us to sin by means of imputation of sin but we nonetheless find ourselves in this sinful fallen world where death reigns because Adam sinned and cut us off from the tree of life. Death is what Adam brought to all and sin is the result of this death state. Death is being cut off from God who is the source of all physical and spiritual life. We therefore, grow up as infants and children deprived of God’s love, joy, and peace which is now a hole in our hearts that seeks fulfillment and which easily grasps towards other things to find that satisfaction we crave and this leads to sin. The physical degradation of our bodies and poor diets has also led to weak bodies easily inclined toward sin to seek to fill that which we feel is lacking. So then, we find the principle that sin has left us both deprived and broken.

A Reflection and Paraphrase of Romans 5

We have not sinned in Adam but we have all sinned by our own volition. It is through our own sin that death spreads to everyone else. That is, there was opportunity for the cycle of sin to be stopped and therefore the cycle of death to be stopped but everyone got caught up in this cycle of sin and death and no one was able to break it until Jesus came. Though it was sin that entered the world through one man it was through all of us that sin continued to spread and with it death also spread to all. We die not because of Adam’s sin but because of our own sin. From Adam until Moses, there was no law telling people “do this” or “don’t do that” yet people sinned anyway and their own consciences were a law unto themselves. They had no law telling them all the possible evil acts they could commit, yet they performed evil anyway and invented new evils. But if evil had spread to many, how much more can the gift of Jesus Christ not only spread but abound to many? If it was through one man and one wicked act that brought condemnation to the whole world, how much more can one man, the God-Man, save the world through His life by one righteous act? Judgement came into the world because of one transgression but the gift of Jesus’ life came into the world because of the world’s many transgressions. One resulted in condemnation, the other in justification. In the race of Adam, transgressions and death reigned. But how much more should life reign for those who receive Jesus Christ, His righteousness, and become united to Him, and are adopted into His family? Adam’s one act of sin resulted in the condemnation of the human race but Jesus’ one act of righteousness provided justification of life to all who would receive His gift which is a gift offered to all. Many people became sinners through the one man’s disobedience as they also partook of this disobedience by practicing it themselves (Ex. 34:7). Their sins were both the result of their fathers but also their own sins in which they followed after the ways of their father. In a similar but also contrary way, the obedience of Jesus will make many people righteous as they partake in His life. When the law of Moses came, it increased people’s desire to sin and they sinned all the more but when the grace of Jesus our Savior appeared, righteousness increased even more so because of the abundance of God’s grace overflowing to us. If sin could reign the world through death, how much more can God’s love and grace reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord? Light shall overcome darkness because Jesus is life, light, and love. Sin and death are conquered through the presence of Jesus. Partaking of Him is the tree of life.

Athanasius

But beyond all this, there was a debt owing which must needs be paid; for, as I said before, all men were due to die. Here, then, is the second reason why the Word dwelt among us, namely that having proved His Godhead by His works, He might offer the sacrifice on behalf of all, surrendering His own temple to death in place of all, to settle man's account with death and free him from the primal transgression. In the same act also He showed Himself mightier than death, displaying His own body incorruptible as the first-fruits of the resurrection.
(On the Incarnation of the Word, 16)

Athanasius mentions that the debt humanity owed was a debt to death. That is, death itself needed to be paid and Jesus is the one who settled the account with death by His death on the cross. Jesus defeated death and by this, reversed the curse of death so that life could come in to bring healing and wholeness. Now God’s presence is available to us again so that God can live inside us to heal us, restore us, and bring His love, joy, and peace to free us from sin.

Some might wonder about Psalm 51:5 which says, “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.”? Come on! You know better than to build your theology off of poetry, songs, and non-didactic texts! David could have simply been speaking in hyperbolic language. How literal is this psalm? Were David’s bones actually broken? Or was he speaking metaphorically? And what if verse five is literal? Is it possible that David is simply speaking from the agony of his soul in reflection about his birth mother or how he was born? Did his mother do a shameful thing in which David was brought about into conception or birth? Was his mother an outcast, someone from pagan roots, a second wife of Jesse, or did she commit some sin that led up to David’s birth? Was he an illegitimate child in the eyes of society? All these things are possibilities. It’s very likely that the specific circumstances of his birth were the reason for why Jesse kept him from Samuel when all his sons were supposed to be present. It would also help explain why his brothers had it out for him and why he was kept from originally going to the battleground. For all these reasons, this psalm has no theological weight for the subject of original sin.

The problems of the doctrine of imputed sin and guilt are this:

The church had to create doctrines of infant baptism to save babies from hell if they were to die in their infancy. Though the Bible doesn’t teach infant baptism, the church had to create this doctrine because of the faulty doctrine of imputed guilt. Though in some reformed circles, they hold onto imputed sin but reject imputed guilt so that they don’t need to baptize infants. They have also developed the doctrine of “the age of accountability” to say that children are not guilty until they morally and rationally understand what they do. I would hold to this doctrine though I do not see how it is logically consistent to those who believe in total depravity and Calvinism, since under that doctrine, God has made and deterministically chosen who would go to hell since He did not select them for heaven and has also made them from birth incapable of choosing God in faith. However, if they were just as evil from birth and were already elected towards damnation, what difference would it make if they are allowed to grow up or not? I understand, it is a repulsive thought to think that God would torment babies in hell and for this reason it is quite an unfeasible doctrine. However, how can they also not see the repulsiveness of people being born incapable of ever choosing God in faith unless God has deterministically chosen them for salvation? Under this system, there are literally billions of people born without ever having any chance or any hope of being saved because they were deterministically destined to wrath. How can they not see their own logical inconsistency and view this also as too reprehensible to believe?

The church also had to create the doctrine of the immaculate conception of Jesus which has resulted in the Catholic church praying to Mary rather than Jesus or to the Father for their needs as if Mary possessed omniscience and could hear all petitions at once and has become as one with God in His divine attributes. But Mary did not need to be sinless to bear Jesus. Sin is a choice, not a substance. Sin therefore cannot be imputed to another person through DNA.

However, for those who do not have the doctrine of the immaculate conception, then they have to figure out an explanation for why Jesus was born without sin. Hebrews 4:15 says that Jesus was tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin and Hebrews 2:17 says that Jesus was made like us in all things. But how would Jesus become in nature like us in all things if our very substance is sin and evil from birth? He could not because if He did, He would no longer be the spotless Lamb of God to take away the sin of the world. But He also had to have a nature like ours so that He would understand our temptations and suffering to be our Great High Priest to come to the aid of those who are tempted. Jesus, therefore, understood the human struggle of temptation and the pulling of the body towards the easy and pleasurable things of this world so He knows what you and I go through. He Himself struggled in these things yet without sinning. The flesh itself is not evil, that would be a gnostic teaching. Jesus was not born evil and neither are we. But was Jesus’ body of the substance of Mary and all her genealogy, all the way back to Adam? Or was Jesus not “all things as we are”? And why even mention His genealogy if He had no actual connection? And how would Jesus really understand what we go through if He didn’t inherit the weakness and frailty of the human body inclined towards temptations? And if He “learned obedience through the things He suffered,” then that means He had to figure out the way forward to be obedient to His Father and was not granted this perfection of knowledge of this subject from birth. He, therefore, was a man like us in every way.

The doctrine of total depravity has created this “worm-theology” within reformed circles which greatly depreciates the image of God that we were made in, the sanctity of life, and our value as human beings. For many people, this can lead to a shame and guilt about themselves that is so heavy it cannot be shaken off. The result is that they will always live in bondage, unable to fully accept the love of their heavenly Father for them in full faith. It is for this reason that many are still held captive to their sins. The religious shame-culture has done this to them. Self-depreciation and self-deprecation are false-humility. This culture of constantly focusing on how they are unworthy worms, absolutely useless and infinitely vile, rotten to the core, etc. becomes their identity and self-worth rather than finding their life, value, and purpose in Christ.

By depreciating ourselves to such a degree with worm-theology, we impugn the One who designed and painted us, the One who made us. We say, “Oh my, what an ugly painting” and thereby desecrate God’s good works by our vile and ungodly thoughts.

Some people who hold to total depravity think that their children are so wickedly evil that if they were strong enough, they would kill their parents. But it is not the child which has evil in their hearts but rather the parents toward their children and that animosity against them deprives the environment of peace and love which then allows for the easy corruption of the child towards sin. The children do not have murder in their hearts but the parents do because of their evil thoughts toward their children as “depraved vipers in diapers.” Their animosity gives the devil a foothold to do his work.

Original Sin Refutation, Part 2:

Jeremiah 31:29-30

“In those days, it will never again be said,

‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes,
and the children’s teeth are set on edge.’

Rather, each will die for his own iniquity. Anyone who eats sour grapes—his own teeth will be set on edge.

The text says, “in those days,” implying that this proverb would still be used up until the eschatological time before the new age comes. The Israelites were using this proverb about sour grapes to basically excuse the sin of the children or at least to say that it is the parent’s fault that the child had sinned. They thought that the destruction and curses that had come upon them were because of the sins of their forefathers. God refutes this idea by saying “each will die for his own iniquity.” Elsewhere, God commands them to no longer use this proverb about sour grapes (Ezek. 18:3-4). But isn’t this proverb the same as what many Calvinists and Reformed teachers teach today? They say that the children are sinful and wicked because of their parent’s sin and guilt being passed down to them. They say that the children are sinful and wicked and totally depraved because of the sin and guilt that Adam passed down to us. But what does God say about children?

In Jeremiah 2:34 it speaks of the harlots who had abortions in order to keep their harlot business going, “Moreover, your skirts are stained with the blood of the innocent poor. You did not catch them breaking and entering.” And in 19:4-5 “they have filled this place with the blood of innocent children. They have built pagan shrines to Baal, and there they burn their sons as sacrifices to Baal” (NLT). And Psalm 106:38 “They shed innocent blood—the blood of their sons and daughters whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan; so the land became polluted with blood.” In Genesis 1:31 God saw that all that He made was very good. This same Hebrew word is used in 1 Kings 14:13 to describe a child in which God calls “good.” In Ezekiel 16:20 God describes the children as His very own saying that they were slaughtering “My children” by sacrificing them to idols. In 1 Corinthians 7:14 it says that the children are holy. Matthew 18:3 and 19:14 say that the kingdom of God belongs to the little children because they are humble and humility is the only way to enter into the kingdom.

Matthew 5:8 says, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (NASB). Hmm… pure in heart. Wait, is this actually possible? To have a pure heart? The Bible seems to indicate so (2 Sam. 22:27; Job 33:9; Ps. 18:26; 24:4; 73:1; 1 Tim. 1:5; 2 Tim. 2:22; Heb. 10:22; 1 Jn. 3:3). It seems to indicate we can achieve this. But wait, don’t the Calvinists say that no one has a pure heart? That we are all totally depraved, even as believers? Our hearts are still wicked and corrupt, they say. We sin every single millisecond of the day, they say. There is no good in us, they say. But are they true? Or is the Bible true? Yes, the Bible is true. Both children and adults can live before God with pure hearts.

So then, what is this rotten sound I hear in my ear that children are defiled? That children are “depraved vipers in diapers”? God never said anything of the sort. Repent of your wicked words. Tear down your abominable altars of theology and tradition in which you learned these things. What God has called “innocent,” DO NOT CALL “defiled.” What God has called “pure” and “holy,” DO NOT CALL “wicked.” Such things are detestable to the Lord. What God has called and created as innocent, pure, and holy …are surely so. He did not make any mistakes when he made us. For when he made us, He made us good. He made us pure. It is simply the weakness of our fleshly bodies that incline us towards sin. But sin did not dwell in us when we were born. Yet we have all gone astray because of the fallen world we live in.

What if you were to love your children the way Christ has loved you, to cover your children in unconditional love, to cover your children’s shame rather than placing burdens of shame upon their backs, maybe then they would live righteously before you? But alas, they are born into a fallen world and learn and pick up the sins, habits, and attitudes of their parents and begin to live in a way they do not understand yet. Because they do not understand, they are guiltless. They are operating by a mere animal and instinct nature. But if they were to receive all the love, joy, and covering of shame that Christ showed to you, then they wouldn’t be so disobedient. But because you do not have a sufficient grasp of God’s love, you have not loved them the way Christ has loved you. And because of this, they have become what only your natural eyes see as what you have called “depraved vipers in diapers,” “rebellious children,” and “terrible teens.” But because of your evil hearts and evil thought attitudes about the total depravity of your children, this steals peace from your hearts and creates a spiritual atmosphere that lacks peace. It is for this reason that your children are “unclean” and unsanctified (1 Cor. 7:12-16). Because, even though you are a believer, you carry very little peace with you. So it is as if you were not a believer because you do not carry the weight of glory that the New Testament saints carried. Your evil thoughts, attitudes, and word curses over your children have made them unclean and have put a curse upon them. By your own attitudes, you have come into agreement with the devil and have handed your children over in dedication to him despite whatever actions you took to have your pastor pray over your child to dedicate them to the Lord. Especially, if you ever wished you had a boy instead of a girl or a girl instead of a boy or you had wished your child was never born. These evil wishes allow the devil to steal the peace away from their hearts or prevent peace from entering even before the children can understand language. So then they grow up without peace and spiritually disabled. This, you must repent from. Now, by nature and from birth, your children are clean. They are pure and innocent. But your thoughts and attitudes have made them unclean and as the child grew older and consciously sinned, they were also made unclean.

Ezekiel 18:3-4 (NASB)

As I live,” declares the Lord God, “you are surely not going to use this proverb in Israel anymore. 4 Behold, all souls are Mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is Mine. The soul who sins will die.

“If a man is righteous and practices justice and righteousness […]” then “he is righteous and will surely live,” declares the Lord (Ezek. 18:5-9). But if this man has a violent and rebellious son who commits all sorts of atrocities, this son shall not live because he has committed all these abominations, “he will surely be put to death; his blood will be on his own head” (v. 10-13). And if a son has a wicked father who commits all sorts of atrocities but the son did not do likewise in following the path of his father, surely “he will not die for his father’s iniquity, he will surely live” but as for the father, “he will die for his iniquity” (v. 14-18).

Ezekiel 18:19-20 (NASB)

“Yet you say, ‘Why should the son not bear the punishment for the father’s iniquity?’ When the son has practiced justice and righteousness and has observed all My statutes and done them, he shall surely live. The person who sins will die. The son will not bear the punishment for the father’s iniquity, nor will the father bear the punishment for the son’s iniquity; the righteousness of the righteous will be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked will be upon himself.

The following verses in Ezekiel 18:21-32 cover all the other variable possibilities of who is the guilty person and the result is the same, the soul who sins shall die. God does not condemn us to hell because of what Adam did. We are condemned for our own sins. We are not punished by God because of what our forefathers did. We are not guilty for their sins because their sins are their own sins and our sins are our own sins. We are only responsible for our own sins.

Here are some quotes on the topic of original sin from the church fathers:

Quotes from the old church fathers where they deny original sin / sinful nature | Bjorkbloggen

Here is a YouTube playlist on Original Sin