After noon. You are sitting in the car facing south toward the stream
and woods at Pine Hill Lakes City Park in Mason. Carol is reading Discover
which arrived in the mail today. You completed your fuller reading of
Wikipedia's article on original sin. - Amorella
1231 hours. It was interesting. I underlined or bolded for myself. I am not sure how I feel about the subject.
When young we were taught original sin was a major event in the restructuring
of our nature. The sense was, to the younger me, that our species was closer to
being Angel-like in the physical world, before the Fall. After the Fall we were
less angelic and more selfish, prideful and greedy, etc. (with less empathy)
than we first were. Self-survival and survival of family/kin was the common
interest.
Below is the Wikipedia
article on 'Original Sin'. - Amorella
** **
Original
Sin
From Wikipedia, the free
encyclopedia
Original sin, also called ancestral sin, is a Christian belief of the state of sin in which humanity exists since
the fall of man,
stemming from Adam and Eve's
rebellion in Eden, namely the sin of disobedience in consuming from the tree of
knowledge of good and evil. This condition has been characterized in many ways,
ranging from something as insignificant as a slight deficiency, or a tendency
toward sin yet without collective guilt, referred to as a "sin
nature", to something as drastic as total depravity or automatic guilt of all humans through collective
guilt.
The concept of original sin was first
alluded to in the 2nd century by Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyon in his controversy with certain dualist Gnostics. Other
church fathers such as Augustine also
developed the doctrine, seeing it as based on the New Testament teaching of Paul the Apostle (Romans5:12–21 and 1
Corinthians 15:21-22) and the Old Testament verse of Psalms 51:5.
Tertullian, Cyprian, Ambrose and Ambrosiaster considered
that humanity shares in Adam's sin, transmitted by human generation. Augustine's formulation of original sin was popular among Protestant
reformers, such as Martin Luther and John Calvin, who
equated original sin with concupiscence (or "hurtful desire"), affirming that it persisted even after baptism and
completely destroyed freedom, although Augustine said that free will was
weakened but not destroyed by original sin.
The Jansenist movement,
which the Catholic Church declared to be heretical, also maintained that
original sin destroyed freedom of will.
Instead the Catholic Church declares "Baptism,
by imparting the life of Christ's grace, erases original sin and turns a
man back towards God, but the consequences for nature, weakened and inclined to
evil, persist in man and summon him to spiritual battle." "Weakened and diminished by Adam's fall, free will
is yet not destroyed in the race."
History of
the doctrine
The
doctrine of ancestral
fault (προγονικὸν
ἁμάρτημα progonikon
hamartema), i.e. the sins of the forefathers leading to punishment of
their descendants, was presented as a tradition of immemorial antiquity in ancient Greek religion by Celsus in his True
Doctrine, a polemic attacking
Christianity. Celsus is quoted as attributing to "a priest
of Apollo or of Zeus" the saying that "the mills of
the gods grind
slowly, even to children's children, and to those who are born after
them". The idea of divine
justice taking
the form of collective punishment is also ubiquitous in the Hebrew
Bible.
St
Paul's idea of redemption hinged upon
the contrast between the sin of Adam and the death and resurrection of Jesus.
"Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death
through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all
sinned." "For
as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive." Up till then the transgression in the Garden
of Eden had not been given great significance. As the Jesus scholar, Geza
Vermes has said:
Paul
believed that Adam's transgression in a mysterious way affected the nature of
the human race. The primeval sin, a Pauline creation with no biblical or
post-biblical Jewish precedent, was irreparable by ordinary human effort.
The
formalized Christian doctrine
of original sin was first developed in the 2nd century by Irenaeus, the Bishop of
Lyon, in his struggle against Gnosticism.
Irenaeus contrasted their doctrine with the view that the Fall was a step in the
wrong direction by Adam, with whom, Irenaeus believed, his descendants had some
solidarity or identity. Irenaeus
believed that Adam's sin had grave consequences for humanity, that it is the
source of human sinfulness, mortality and enslavement to sin, and that all
human beings participate in his sin and share his guilt.
Other
Greek Fathers would come to emphasize the cosmic dimension of the Fall, namely
that since Adam human beings are born into a fallen world, but held fast to
belief that man, though fallen, is free. They thus did not teach that human
beings are deprived of free will and involved in total
depravity, which is one understanding of original sin among the leaders
of the Reformation.
During
this period the doctrines of human depravity and the inherently sinful nature
of human flesh were taught by Gnostics, and
orthodox Christian writers took great pains to counter them. Christian apologists insisted that God's
future judgment of humanity implied
humanity must have the ability to live righteously.
Historian Robin
Lane Fox argues
that the foundation of the doctrine of original sin as accepted by the Church
was ultimately based on a mistranslation of Paul the
Apostle's Epistle to the Romans (Romans
5:12–21) by Augustine, in his On the
Grace of Christ, and on Original Sin".
Apocryphal books
The
original sin doctrine can be found fourth
Book of Esdras, which refers Adam being responsible for the Fall of man whose
offspring inherited the disease and evil.
O
Adam, what have you done? For though it was you who sinned, the fall was not
yours alone, but ours also who are your descendants.─ 4 Esdras 7:48(118).
For
the first Adam, burdened with an evil heart, transgressed and was overcome, as
were also all who were descended from him. Thus the disease became permanent;
the law was in the hearts of the people along with the evil root; but what was
good departed, and the evil remained. ─ 4 Esdras 3:21-22.
For
a grain of evil seed was sown in Adam’s heart from the beginning, and how much
ungodliness it has produced until now—and will produce until the time of
threshing comes! ─ 4 Esdras 4:30.
Augustine
Augustine of Hippo (354–430)
taught that Adam's sin is
transmitted by concupiscence, or
"hurtful desire", resulting
in humanity becoming a massa
damnata (mass of
perdition, condemned crowd), with much enfeebled, though not destroyed, freedom
of will.
When
Adam sinned, human nature was thenceforth transformed. Adam and Eve, via sexual
reproduction, recreated human nature. Their descendants now live in sin, in the
form of concupiscence, a term Augustine used in a metaphysical, not a psychological sense.
Augustine
insisted that concupiscence was not a being but a bad quality, the privation
of good or a
wound. He
admitted that sexual concupiscence (libido) might have been present in
the perfect human nature in paradise, and
that only later it became disobedient to human will as a result of the first
couple's disobedience to God's will in the original sin.
In Augustine's view (termed "Realism"), all of
humanity was really present in Adam when he sinned, and therefore all have
sinned. Original sin, according to Augustine, consists of the guilt of
Adam which all humans inherit. Justo Gonzalez interprets Augustine's teaching
that humans are utterly depraved in nature and grace is irresistible, results in conversion, and leads to perseverance.
Augustine
articulated his explanation in reaction to Pelagianism, which
insisted that humans have of themselves, without the necessary help of God's
grace, the ability to lead a morally good life, and thus denied both the
importance of baptism and the teaching that God is the giver of all that is
good. Pelagius claimed that the influence of Adam on other humans was merely
that of bad example.
Augustine
held that the effects of Adam's sin are transmitted to his descendants not by
example but by the very fact of generation from that ancestor. A wounded nature
comes to the soul and body of the new person from his/her parents, who
experience libido (or concupiscence).
Augustine's view was that human procreation was the way the transmission was
being effected. He [Augustine] did not blame, however, the sexual passion
itself, but the spiritual concupiscence present in human nature, soul and
body, even after baptismal regeneration.
Christian parents transmit their wounded nature to children,
because they give them birth, not the "re-birth". Augustine
used Ciceronian Stoic concept of passions, to interpret St.
Paul's doctrine
of universal sin and redemption.
In that view, also sexual desire itself as well as other bodily
passions were consequence of the original sin, in which pure affections were
wounded by vice and became disobedient to human reason and will.
As long as they carry a threat to the dominion of reason over
the soul they constitute moral evil, but since they do not presuppose consent,
one cannot call them sins.
Humanity will be liberated from passions, and pure affections
will be restored only when all sin has been washed away and ended, that is in
the resurrection of the dead.
Augustine
believed that unbaptized infants go to hell as a consequence of original sin.
The Latin Church
Fathers who
followed Augustine adopted his position, which became a point of reference for
Latin theologians in the Middle Ages. In the
later medieval period, some theologians continued to hold Augustine's view,
others held that unbaptized infants suffered no pain at all: unaware of being
deprived of the beatific
vision, they enjoyed a state of natural, not supernatural happiness.
Starting around 1300, unbaptized infants were often said to inhabit the "limbo of infants". The Catechism
of the Catholic Church, 1261 declares: "As regards children who have
died without Baptism, the Church can only entrust them to the mercy of God, as
she does in her funeral rites for them. Indeed, the great mercy of God who
desires that all men should be saved, and Jesus' tenderness toward children
which caused him to say: 'Let the children come to me, do not hinder them', allow us to hope that there is a way of
salvation for children who have died without Baptism. All the more urgent is
the Church's call not to prevent little children coming to Christ through the
gift of holy Baptism."
But
the theory of Limbo, while it "never entered into the dogmatic definitions
of the Magisterium ... remains ... a possible theological hypothesis".
Cassian
In
the works of John
Cassian (c. 360 –
435), Conference XIII recounts how the wise monk Chaeremon, of whom
he is writing, responded to puzzlement caused by his own statement that
"man even though he strive with all his might for a good result, yet
cannot become master of what is good unless he has acquired it simply by the
gift of Divine bounty and not by the efforts of his own toil" (chapter 1).
In
chapter 11, Cassian presents Chaeremon as speaking of the cases of Paul the
persecutor and Matthew the publican as difficulties for those who say "the
beginning of free will is in our own power", and the cases of Zaccheus and
the good
thief on the cross as
difficulties for those who say "the beginning of our free will is always
due to the inspiration of the grace of God", and as concluding:
"These two then; viz., the grace of God and free will seem opposed to each
other, but really are in harmony, and we gather from the system of goodness
that we ought to have both alike, lest if we withdraw one of them from man, we
may seem to have broken the rule of the Church's faith: for when God sees us
inclined to will what is good, He meets, guides, and strengthens us: for 'At the
voice of thy cry, as soon as He shall hear, He will answer thee'; and: 'Call
upon Me', He says, 'in the day of tribulation and I will deliver thee, and thou
shalt glorify Me'. And again, if He finds that we are unwilling or have grown
cold, He stirs our hearts with salutary exhortations, by which a good will is
either renewed or formed in us."
Cassian
did not accept the idea of total
depravity, on which Martin
Luther was to
insist. He taught
that human nature is fallen or depraved, but not totally.
Augustine
Casiday states that, at the same time, Cassian "baldly asserts that God's
grace, not human free will, is responsible for 'everything which pertains to
salvation' – even faith". Cassian
pointed out that people still have moral freedom and one has the option to
choose to follow God. Colm Luibhéid says that, according to Cassian,
there are cases where the soul makes the first little turn, but in
Cassian's view, according to Casiday, any sparks of goodwill that may exist,
not directly caused by God, are totally
inadequate and only direct divine intervention ensures
spiritual progress; and Lauren Pristas says that "for Cassian, salvation
is, from beginning to end, the effect of God's grace".
Church reaction
Opposition
to Augustine's ideas about original sin, which he had developed in reaction to Pelagianism, arose
rapidly. After a
long and bitter struggle the general principles of Augustine's teaching were
confirmed within Western Christianity by many councils, especially the Second Council of Orange in 529. However, while the Church condemned Pelagius,
it did not endorse Augustine entirely and, while Augustine's authority was
accepted, he was interpreted in the light of writers such as Cassian.
Some of the followers of Augustine identified original sin with concupiscence in the psychological sense, but
this identification was challenged by the 11th-century Saint Anselm of Canterbury, who defined original sin as
"privation of the righteousness that every man ought to possess",
thus separating it from concupiscence.
In
the 12th century the identification of original sin with concupiscence was
supported by Peter
Lombard and
others, but was
rejected by the leading theologians in the next century, chief of whom was Thomas
Aquinas. He distinguished the supernatural gifts of Adam before the
Fall from what was merely natural, and said that it was the former that were
lost, privileges that enabled man to keep his inferior powers in submission to
reason and directed to his supernatural end.
Even after the fall, man thus kept his natural abilities of
reason, will and passions. Rigorous Augustine-inspired views persisted
among the Franciscans, though
the most prominent Franciscan theologians, such as Duns
Scotus and William
of Ockham, eliminated the element of concupiscence and identified
original sin with the loss of sanctifying grace.
Protestant reformation
Martin
Luther (1483–1546)
asserted that humans inherit Adamic guilt and are in a state of sin from the
moment of conception. The second article in Lutheranism's Augsburg Confession presents
its doctrine of original sin in summary form:
It
is also taught among us that since the fall of Adam all men who are born
according to the course of nature are conceived and born in sin. That is, all
men are full of evil lust and inclinations from their mothers' wombs and are
unable by nature to have true fear of God and true faith in God.
Moreover,
this inborn sickness and hereditary sin is truly sin and condemns to the
eternal wrath of God all those who are not born again through Baptism and the
Holy Spirit.
Rejected
in this connection are the Pelagians and others who deny that original sin is sin,
for they hold that natural man is made righteous by his own powers, thus
disparaging the sufferings and merit of Christ.
Luther,
however, also agreed with the Roman Catholic doctrine of the Immaculate Conception (that Mary was conceived free from original
sin) by saying:
[Mary]
is full of grace, proclaimed to be entirely without sin. God's grace fills her
with everything good and makes her devoid of all evil. God is with her, meaning
that all she did or left undone is divine and the action of God in her.
Moreover, God guarded and protected her from all that might be hurtful to her.
Protestant Reformer John
Calvin (1509–1564)
developed a systematic theology of
Augustinian Protestantism by interpretation of Augustine of Hippo's notion of original sin.
Calvin
believed that humans inherit Adamic guilt and are in a state of sin from the
moment of conception. This inherently sinful nature (the basis for the Calvinistic doctrine of "total
depravity") results in a complete alienation from God and the total
inability of humans to achieve reconciliation with God based on their own
abilities.
Not
only do individuals inherit a sinful nature due to Adam's fall, but since he
was the federal head and representative of the human race, all whom he
represented inherit the guilt of his sin by
imputation. Redemption by Jesus
Christ is the only remedy.
John
Calvin defined
original sin in his Institutes of the Christian
Religion as
follows:
Original
sin, therefore, seems to be a hereditary depravity and corruption of our
nature, diffused into all parts of the soul, which first makes us liable to
God's wrath, then also brings forth in us those works which Scripture calls
"works of the flesh" (Gal 5:19). And that is properly what Paul often
calls sin. The works that come forth from it – such as adulteries,
fornications, thefts, hatreds, murders, carousings – he accordingly calls
"fruits of sin" (Gal 5:19–21), although they are also commonly called
"sins" in Scripture, and even by Paul himself.
Council of Trent
The Council
of Trent (1545–1563),
while not pronouncing on points disputed among Catholic theologians, condemned
the teaching that in baptism the whole of what belongs to the essence of sin is
not taken away, but is only cancelled or not imputed, and declared the
concupiscence that remains after baptism not truly and properly "sin"
in the baptized, but only to be called sin in the sense that it is of sin and
inclines to sin.
In
1567, soon after the close of the Council of Trent, Pope Pius
V went
beyond Trent by sanctioning Aquinas's distinction between nature and
supernature in Adam's state before the Fall, condemned the identification of
original sin with concupiscence, and approved the view that the unbaptized
could have right use of will.
The
Catholic Encyclopedia refers: "Whilst original sin is effaced by
baptism concupiscence still remains in the person baptized; therefore original
sin and concupiscence cannot be one and the same thing, as was held by the
early Protestants (see Council of Trent, Sess. V, can. v)."
Denominational
views
Roman Catholicism
The Catechism of the Catholic Church says:
By his sin Adam, as the first man, lost the original holiness
and justice he had received from God, not only for himself but for all humans.
Adam and Eve transmitted to their descendants human nature
wounded by their own first sin and hence deprived of original holiness and
justice; this deprivation is called "original sin".
As a result of original sin, human nature is weakened in its
powers, subject to ignorance, suffering and the domination of death, and
inclined to sin (this inclination is called "concupiscence").
St.
Anselm refers:
"the sin of Adam was one thing but the sin of children at their birth is
quite another, the former was the cause, the latter is the effect". In a child original sin is
distinct from the fault of Adam, it is one of its effects. The effects of
Adam's sin according to the Catholic Encyclopedia are:
1. Death and Suffering.
2.
Concupiscence
or Inclination to sin. Baptism erases original sin but
the inclination to sin remains.
3.
The
absence of sanctifying grace in the new-born child is also an effect of the
first sin, for Adam, having received holiness and justice from God, lost it not
only for himself but also for us. Baptism confers original
sanctifying grace, lost through the Adam's sin, thus eliminating original sin
and any personal sin.
The
Catholic Church teaches that every human person born on this earth is made in
the image of God. Within man "is both the powerful surge toward the good
because we are made in the image of God, and the darker impulses toward evil
because of the effects of Original Sin". Furthermore, it explicitly denies
that we inherit guilt from anyone, maintaining that instead we
inherit our fallen nature. In this it differs from the Calvinist/Protestant
position that each person actually inherits Adam's guilt, and teaches instead
that "original sin does not have the character of a personal fault in any
of Adam's descendants ... but the consequences for nature, weakened and inclined
to evil, persist in man". "In
other words, human beings do not bear any 'original guilt' from Adam and Eve's
particular sin."
The
Church has always held baptism to be for the remission of sins including the
original sin, and, as mentioned in Catechism
of the Catholic Church, 403, infants too have traditionally
been baptized, though not guilty of any actual personal sin.
The
sin that through baptism is remitted for them could only be original sin.
Baptism confers original sanctifying grace which erases original sin and any
actual personal sin. The first comprehensive theological explanation of this
practice of baptizing infants, guilty of no actual personal sin, was given by
Saint Augustine of Hippo, not all of whose ideas on
original sin have been adopted by the Catholic Church. Indeed,
the Church has condemned the interpretation of some of his ideas by certain
leaders of the Protestant Reformation.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains that in "yielding to the
tempter, Adam and Eve committed a personal
sin, but this sin affected the human nature that they would then transmit in
a fallen
state ...
original sin is called "sin" only in an analogical sense: it is a sin
"contracted" and not "committed"—a state and not an
act" (Catechism
of the Catholic Church, 404). This "state of deprivation
of the original holiness and justice ... transmitted to the descendants of Adam
along with human nature" (Compendium
of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, 76) involves no personal responsibility or
personal guilt on their part (cf. Catechism
of the Catholic Church, 405).
Personal
responsibility and guilt were Adam's, who because of his sin, was unable to
pass on to his descendants a human nature with the holiness with which it would
otherwise have been endowed, in this way implicating them in his sin.
The doctrine of original sin thus does not impute the sin of the
father to his children, but merely states that they inherit from him a
"human nature deprived of original holiness and justice", which is
"transmitted by propagation to all mankind".
In
the theology of the Catholic
Church, original sin is the absence of original holiness and justice
into which humans are born, distinct from the actual
sins that a
person commits.
The
absence of sanctifying grace or holiness in the new-born child is an effect of
the first sin, for Adam, having received holiness and justice from God, lost it
not only for himself but also for us. This teaching explicitly states that
"original sin does not have the character of a personal fault in any of
Adam's descendants".
In
other words, human beings do not bear any "original guilt" from
Adam's particular sin, which is his alone. The prevailing view, also held in
Eastern Orthodoxy, is that human beings bear no guilt for the sin of Adam. The
Catholic Church teaches: "By our first parents' sin, the devil has
acquired a certain domination over man, even though man remains free."
The
Catholic doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of Mary is that Mary was conceived free from original
sin: "the most Blessed Virgin Mary was, from the first moment of her
conception, by a singular grace and privilege of almighty God and by virtue of
the merits of Jesus Christ, Savior of the human race, preserved immune from all
stain of original sin". The doctrine sees her as an exception to the
general rule that human beings are not immune from the reality of original sin.
Criticism
Soon
after the Second Vatican Council, biblical theologian Herbert
Haag raised
the question: Is
original sin in Scripture? According to his exegesis, Genesis 2:25 would indicate that Adam and
Eve were
created from the beginning naked of the divine
grace, an ordinary grace that, then, they would never have had and
even less would have lost due to the subsequent events narrated.
On
the other hand, while supporting a continuity in the Bible about the absence of preternatural gifts (Latin: dona
praeternaturalia) with
regard to the ophitic event, Haag never makes any
reference to the discontinuity of the loss of access to the tree of life.
Eastern Orthodoxy
The Eastern
Orthodox version
of original
sin is the
view that sin originates with the Devil, "for the devil sinneth from the
beginning (1 John iii. 8)". They
acknowledge that the introduction of ancestral
sin into the
human race affected the subsequent environment for humanity (see also traducianism).
However, they never accepted Augustine of Hippo's notions of original sin and
hereditary guilt.
Orthodox
Churches accept the teachings of John
Cassian, as do Catholic Churches eastern and western, in rejecting the doctrine of total depravity,
by teaching that human nature is "fallen", that is, depraved, but not
totally. Augustine Casiday states that Cassian "baldly asserts that
God's grace, not human free will, is responsible for 'everything which pertains
to salvation' – even faith". Cassian points out that people still have
moral freedom and one has the option to choose to follow God. Colm Luibhéid says that, according to Cassian,
there are cases where the soul makes the first little turn, while Augustine
Casiday says that, in Cassian's view, any sparks of goodwill that may exist,
not directly caused by God, are totally
inadequate and only direct divine intervention ensures
spiritual progress. and
Lauren Pristas says that "for Cassian, salvation is, from beginning to
end, the effect of God's grace".[53]
Eastern
Orthodoxy accepts the doctrine of ancestral sin: "Original sin is
hereditary. It did not remain only Adam and Eve's. As life passes from them to
all of their descendants, so does original sin."
"As
from an infected source there naturally flows an infected stream, so from a
father infected with sin, and consequently mortal, there naturally proceeds a
posterity infected like him with sin, and like him mortal."
The
Orthodox Church in America makes clear the distinction between "fallen
nature" and "fallen man" and this is affirmed in the early
teaching of the Church whose role it is to act as the catalyst that leads to
true or inner redemption.
Every
human person born on this earth bears the image of God undistorted within
themselves. In the
Orthodox Christian understanding, they explicitly deny that humanity inherited guilt from anyone. Rather, they maintain that we
inherit our fallen nature. While humanity does bear the consequences of the
original, or first, sin, humanity does not bear the personal guilt associated
with this sin. Adam and Eve are guilty of their willful action; we bear the
consequences, chief of which is death."
The
view of the Eastern Orthodox Church varies on whether Mary is free of all
actual sin or concupiscence. Some
Patristic sources imply that she was cleansed from sin at the Annunciation, while
the liturgical references are unanimous that she is all-holy from the time of
her conception.
Classical Anglicanism
The
original formularies of the Church of England also continue in the Reformation
understanding of original sin. In the Thirty-Nine Articles, Article IX "Of Original or
Birth-sin" states:
Original Sin standeth not in the following of Adam, (as the
Pelagians do vainly talk); but it is the fault and corruption of the Nature of
every man, that naturally is ingendered of the offspring of Adam; whereby man
is very far gone from original righteousness, and is of his own nature inclined
to evil, so that the flesh lusteth always contrary to the spirit; and therefore
in every person born into this world, it deserveth God's wrath and damnation. And this
infection of nature doth remain, yea in them that are regenerated; whereby the
lust of the flesh, called in the Greek, Φρονεμα σαρκος, which some do expound
the wisdom, some sensuality, some the affection, some the desire, of the flesh,
is not subject to the Law of God. And although there is no condemnation for
them that believe and are baptized, yet the Apostle doth confess, that
concupiscence and lust hath of itself the nature of sin.
However,
more recent doctrinal statements (e.g. the 1938 report Doctrine in the Church of England) permit
a greater variety of understandings of this doctrine. The 1938 report
summarizes:
Man is by nature capable of communion with God, and only through
such communion can he become what he was created to be. "Original
sin" stands for the fact that from a time apparently prior to any
responsible act of choice man is lacking in this communion, and if left to
his own resources and to the influence of his natural environment cannot attain
to his destiny as a child of God.
Methodism
The Methodist
Church upholds
Article VII in the Articles of Religion in the Book of Discipline of the United
Methodist Church:
Original
sin standeth not in the following of Adam (as the Pelagians do vainly talk),
but it is the corruption of the nature of every man, that naturally is
engendered of the offspring of Adam, whereby man is very far gone from original
righteousness, and of his own nature inclined to evil, and that continually.
Seventh-day Adventism
Seventh-day Adventists believe that humans are inherently sinful due
to the fall of Adam, but they do not totally accept the Augustinian/Calvinistic understanding of original sin, taught in
terms of original guilt, but hold more to what could be termed the "total
depravity" tradition. Seventh-day Adventists have historically
preached a doctrine of inherited weakness, but not a doctrine of inherited
guilt. According
to Augustine and Calvin, humanity inherits not only Adam's depraved nature but
also the actual guilt of his transgression, and Adventists look more toward the Wesleyan model.
In
part, the Adventist position on original sin reads:
The
nature of the penalty for original sin, i.e., Adam's sin, is to be seen as
literal, physical, temporal, or actual death – the opposite of life, i.e., the
cessation of being. By no stretch of the scriptural facts can death be
spiritualised as depravity. God did not punish Adam by making him a sinner.
That was Adam’s own doing. All die the first death because of Adam’s sin
regardless of their moral character – children included.
Early
Adventists Pioneers (such as George Storrs and Uriah
Smith) tended to de-emphasise the morally corrupt nature inherited
from Adam, while stressing the importance of actual, personal sins committed by
the individual. They thought of the "sinful nature" in terms of
physical mortality rather than moral depravity. Traditionally, Adventists
look at sin in terms of willful transgressions, and that Christ triumphed over
sin.
Though
believing in the concept of inherited sin from Adam, there is no dogmatic
Adventist position on original sin.
Jehovah's Witnesses
According
to the theology of the Christian Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses, all
humans are born sinners, because of inheriting sin, corruption, and death from
Adam. They teach that Adam was originally created perfect and sinless, but
with free will; that the Devil, who was
originally a perfect angel, but
later developed feelings of pride and self-importance, seduced Eve, and
then through her, persuaded Adam to disobey God, and to obey the Devil instead,
rebelling against God's sovereignty, thereby making themselves sinners, and
because of that, transmitting a sinful nature to all of their future offspring.
Instead
of destroying the Devil right away, as well as destroying the disobedient
couple, God decided to test the loyalty of the rest of humankind, and to prove
that man cannot be independent of God successfully, that man is lost without
God's laws and standards, and can never bring peace to the earth, and that
Satan was a deceiver, murderer, and liar.
Jehovah's
Witnesses believe that all men possess "inherited sin" from the
"one man" Adam and they teach that verses such as Romans 5:12-22,
Psalm 51:5, Job 14:4, and 1st Corinthians 15:22 show that man is born corrupt,
and dies because of inherited sin and imperfection, that inherited sin is the
reason and cause for sickness and suffering, made worse by the Devil's wicked
influence. They believe Jesus is the "second
Adam", being the sinless Son of
God and the Messiah, and
that he came to undo Adamic sin; and that salvation and everlasting life can
only be obtained through faith and obedience to the second Adam. They
believe that "sin" is "missing the mark" of God's standard
of perfection, and that everyone is born a sinner, due to being the offspring
of sinner Adam.
Mormonism
The Book of
Mormon, a text sacred to Mormonism,
explains that the opportunity to live here in a world where we can learn good
and bad is a gift from God, and not a punishment for Adam's and Eve's choice. As
Mormon founder Joseph
Smith taught,
humans had an essentially godlike nature, and were not only holy in a premortal
state, but had the potential to progress eternally to become like God.
He
wrote as one of his church's Articles of Faith,
"We believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for
Adam’s transgression." Later Mormons took this creed as a rejection of the
doctrine of original sin and any notion of inherited sinfulness. Thus, while
modern Mormons will agree that the fall of Adam brought consequences to the
world, including the possibility of sin, they generally reject the idea that
any culpability is automatically transmitted to Adam and Eve's offspring. Children
under the age of eight are regarded as free of all sin and therefore do not
require baptism. Children who die prior to age eight are believed to be saved
in the highest
degree of heaven.
Swedenborgianism
In Swedenborgianism, exegesis of the first 11 chapters of
Genesis from The First
Church, has a view that Adam is not an individual person.
Rather, he is a symbolic representation of the "Most Ancient Church",
having a more direct contact with heaven than all other successive churches. Swedenborg's view of original sin is referred
to as hereditary
evil, which passes from generation to generation. It cannot be completely abolished by an
individual man, but can be tempered when someone reforms their own life, and are thus held accountable
only for their own sins.
Quakerism
Most Quakers (also known as the Religious Society of
Friends), including the founder of Quakerism, George
Fox, believe in the doctrine of Inward
light, a doctrine which states that there is "that of God in
everyone". This has
led to a common belief among many liberal and universalist Quakers affiliated
with the Friends General Conference and Britain Yearly Meeting, based on the ideas of Quaker
Rufus Jones among others, that rather than being burdened by original sin, human
beings are inherently good, and the doctrine of universal reconciliation, that
is, that all people will eventually be saved and reconciled with God.
However,
this rejection of the doctrine of original sin or the necessity of salvation
is not something that most conservative or evangelical Quakers affiliated with Friends United Meeting or Evangelical Friends Church
International tend to
agree with. Although the more conservative and evangelical Quakers also
believe in the doctrine of inward light, they interpret it in a manner
consistent with the doctrine of original sin, namely, that people may or may
not listen to the voice of God within them and be saved, and people who do not
listen will not be saved.
In Judaism
The
doctrine of "inherited sin" is not found in most of mainstream Judaism.
Although some in Orthodox
Judaism place
blame on Adam for overall corruption of the world, and though there were some
Jewish teachers in Babylon who believed that mortality was a punishment
brought upon humanity on account of Adam's sin, that is not the dominant view
in most of Judaism today. Modern Judaism generally teaches that humans are
born sin-free and untainted, and choose to sin later and bring suffering to themselves.
Jewish
theologians are divided in regard to the cause of what is called "original
sin". Some teach that it was due to Adam's yielding to temptation in
eating of the forbidden
fruit and has
been inherited by his descendants; the majority of chazalic opinions,
however, do not hold Adam responsible for the sins of humanity, teaching that, in Genesis 8:21 and 6:5-8, God
recognized that Adam did not willfully sin. However, Adam is recognized by
some as having
brought death into the world by his disobedience. Because of his sin, his
descendants will live a mortal life, which will end in death of their bodies. According to book Legends of the Jews, in Judgement
Day, Adam will disavow any complaints of all men who accuse him as
the cause of death pass on every human on earth. Instead, Adam will reproach
their mortality because of their sins.
In Islam
The concept of inherited sin does not exist in Islam. Islam teaches that Adam and Eve
sinned, but then sought forgiveness and thus were forgiven by God.
The
Qur'an says that after Adam and Eve sinned, they were sent down to the earth
for a temporary life as a consequence. In their earthly life, they received
words from God, through which God granted them repentance.
Then
Adam received from his Lord [some] words, and He But Satan caused them to
slip out of it and removed them from that [condition] in which they had been.
And We said, "Go down, [all of you], as enemies to one another, and you
will have upon the earth a place of settlement and provision for a time."
accepted his repentance. Indeed, it is He who is the Accepting of repentance,
the Merciful.
— Surat al-Baqara:36–37
They
said: "Our Lord, we have wronged ourselves souls. If You forgive us not
and bestow not upon us Your mercy, we shall certainly be of the losers.
— Surat al-Aʻrāf:23
Thus
did Adam disobey his Lord, so he went astray. Then his Lord chose him, and
turned to him with forgiveness, and gave him guidance.
— Surat Ṭā Hāʼ:121–122
The Qur'an further says about individual responsibility:
That no burdened person (with sins) shall bear the burden (sins)
of another. And that man can have nothing but what he does (of good and bad).
And that his deeds will be seen, Then he will be recompensed with a full and
the best [fair] recompense.
— Surat an-Najm:38–41
Selected
and edited from Wikipedia - Original Sin
**
**
You stopped at Potbelly's for lunch to go,
drove to a nearby parking lot and ate while watching cars driving up and down
Mason-Montgomery Road. Presently you are sitting in the car one the west side
of Rose Hill Cemetery under the half shade of a large fir tree. Carol is on
page 16 of David Baldacci’s The Guilty. "How's your book?" you
ask. Carol responds, "Okay, I guess." - Amorella
1445 hours. From the tone, I'd say she not into it far enough. Normally,
she likes Baldacci's books. It's mostly sunny which is better than this
morning, but there's a sustained wind out of the north and it's only 37
degrees. We had a dusting of snow this morning and the temperature was down to
27 last night. Carol's decided to take a break and is already into a nap mode. I
don't know what to make of Original Sin. John Milton certainly put the story
together fine in Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained and Sampson
Agonistes. I have great respect for his word choices, particularly in Paradise
Lost.
What is the best quotation, the one that
hits the nail on the head so to speak? - Amorella
1456 hours. The last few lines of Book XII because they provide both
clarity and hope for our species.
** **
The
World was all before them, where to choose
Thir place of rest, and Providence thir guide:
They hand in hand with wandring steps and slow,
Through Eden took thir solitarie way.
Thir place of rest, and Providence thir guide:
They hand in hand with wandring steps and slow,
Through Eden took thir solitarie way.
P.L.
Book XII
** **
You are surprised with your response -
Amorella
1502 hours. I thought I would choose my favorite lines from Book I but I
chose from the conclusion, from Book XII instead.
What are those lines from Book I of Paradise
Lost?
1507 hours. Satan's rationalization for his plight.
** **
Here
at least
We shall be free; th' Almighty hath not built
Here for his envy, will not drive us hence: [ 260 ]
Here we may reign secure, and in my choyce
To reign is worth ambition though in Hell:
Better to reign in Hell, then serve in Heav'n.
We shall be free; th' Almighty hath not built
Here for his envy, will not drive us hence: [ 260 ]
Here we may reign secure, and in my choyce
To reign is worth ambition though in Hell:
Better to reign in Hell, then serve in Heav'n.
P.L.
Book I
** **
A stop at Graeter's and another at Kroger's
on Tylersville and Cox. - Amorella
1546
hours. You had an understood subject and verb in the sentence above; very
unlike you, Amorella
Did you ever try to drop grammar into the
spiritual world as you see it? - Amorella
1550 hours. It is difficult to use a noun or verb. An Angel for instance
is not a person, place or thing or even an abstract. A verb shows action or
state of being. I guess an Angel could be in a state of being.
The Living are in a state of being also. -
Amorella
1553 hours. True. This is another thing I admired about Milton, the
ability to attempt to show a sense of time when from an Angel's perspective (as
an eternal) could not image a sense of time any more than humans can imagine
being an eternal or eternal-like being. It has always been fun to think on such
matters.
For you, it has. - Amorella
1558 hours. If a soul were to absorb mind and heart then one could be
less mortal-like.
One would be physically dead, at least in
here. - Amorella
1601 hours. In yesterday's or today's 'Science Alert' app an article
shows that doctors have a case that shows that ten minutes after the person was
pronounced dead they were still able to monitor Delta waves coming from the
brain.
You are done with errands
and home. Carol is making vegetable soup for supper. Post. - Amorella
1717 hours. This blog page is somewhat loose-ended.
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