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This is the fourth post in a series describing the life-cycle of a Christian. The foundation of this series can be found here.
In my last post, I observed the following: “…every individual is born and raised in a society and setting that inevitably leads to his or her sin. In turn, each individual loses the privilege of eternal friendship with and nurturing from God.” This post will follow up by describing the origin of sin and the sinner.
Original Sin.
The concept of “original sin” has been a source of debate for centuries. As the term implies, the question is: when and where did sin originate? I believe we can look to the Bible for the correct answer to that question.
Chapters 2 and 3 of the biblical book of Genesis relate the story. God created the universe and placed mankind within it. God told mankind how to live in harmony with the universe and with Himself. Apparently this was not very difficult because, according to the Genesis story, there was only one thing that God them not to do. Unfortunately, they did that one thing. As a result, the harmony of their relationship with the universe and with God was broken. This was the origin of sin.
In his letter to the Romans the apostle Paul speaks of Adam’s sin in the Garden of Eden: “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and death spread to all men, because all sinned—” (Romans 5:12). Note that Paul asserts that Adam’s disobedience in the garden was the origin of all sin. Many other biblical sources confirm this.
There is little doubt among Christian authorities that the origin of sin lies with the first persons that God created. There is also little doubt that sin is universal among humans. For example, read Romans 5:12 (above) again. Sin entered into the world through Adam and thereafter every other human sinned. When I say “every other human” I am excluding individuals who may be incapable of sin.
On the other hand, there is plenty of disagreement about how this “sinfulness” made its way from Adam to everyone that followed him. Some Bible students support a sort of “genetic theory” of the inheritance of sinfulness. They often quote King David who had committed adultery followed by murder in an attempt to cover it up. In a prayer of contrition before God David cries out, in part, “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.” (Psalm 51:5) I think that this theory is inadequate for two reasons:
- The quote from David’s prayer is unnecessarily ambiguous. If you ask a number of people what David’s statement above means, you are likely to get any number of answers, because it could mean lots of things. However, I doubt if you would barely get an answer to the effect that David meant that his mother was innately sinful just because she was a human being and that his conception by his sinful mother caused him to be sinful, as well. If David had intended to blame Adam’s sin for his own sin, he could have expressed his intent in much clearer language. I am not sure exactly what David did mean in his statement, but it seems likely to me that it has more to do with the circumstances of his particular conception and birth than it does with original sin.
- There is no scientific evidence that sinfulness has a genetic component. If we are going to look for a scientific cause for the inheritance of sinfulness among humans, we must be willing to look for scientific evidence for it. What is the “sinner” gene?
Other authorities believe that the tendency to sinfulness is passed from generation to generation by some form of “social inheritance.” In other words, the first human individuals sinned and, because they were the role models for their ancestors, their ancestors sinned, as well. This actually seems more plausible to me than the genetic theory.
The Universality of Sin.
Actually, the means of transmission for sinfulness may be irrelevant to the larger spiritual point. That is, there is almost no disagreement among Christian Bible scholars that sinfulness is universal among humans. (Romans 3:23) Every thoughtful person comes to a point in his life at which he knows he is making choices between right and wrong. At some point, each of those persons chooses wrongly. Willfully choosing wrong instead of right is sin.
One of the most critical mistakes that people make is confusing “original sin” with “original guilt.” The “original guilt” proposition holds that every human is guilty of sin by virtue of his birth, even if he has not personally sinned. I believe that this is incorrect and that each individual is accountable for his own sin. Here are a few of my reasons:
- A number of biblical passages, including Romans 5:12, above, affirm my position. That particular passage asserts that sin entered the world through Adam, but that [spiritual] death spread to all men because all of them sinned. Further, Romans 3:23 states, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”
- Almost all authorities agree that the attribution of sin to “all” uses the word “all” in a general sense. That is, they allow for the fact that there are some humans who lack the maturity or mental capacity to sin. The simplest example is an infant. Christian groups that hold that every individual is guilty of sin at conception or birth have to deal with the issue of infants who die before they individually commit sin. If they are guilty of sin even though they have not committed sin they are required by Adam’s guilt to suffer the consequences of sin for eternity anyway. Apparently, religious persons don’t like to deal with this implication. As a result, rituals such as infant baptism or concepts like “limbo” have been developed by some major church groups to deal with the problem. In recent years, some prominent Christian leaders have even adopted positions that allow everyone to escape from the consequences of sin, in direct opposition to the Bible and to their own denominational doctrines and traditions. When you have to work that hard and continually change your beliefs in order to try to deal with a problem, you probably need to look for an honest way to get rid of the problem.
- Again, however, my major objection to the notion that the origin of “original guilt” is that it is simply not necessary. All of the above Bible passages clearly indicate that, while Adam’s sin accounts for the origin of sin, each individual human is accountable for the consequences of his own sin.
In any case, the sinner is hopelessly separated from God unless God Himself can provide a solution. More about that in my next post.
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