The Original Sinner!

Words easily get warped and messages easily get mangled. A man addressed an acquaintance: "I hear you made a million dollars in oil in Texas." The second man replied, "Well, that is substantially correct; except it wasn’t in Texas, but Oklahoma; and it wasn’t in oil, but gas; and it wasn’t I, but my brother-in-law; and it wasn’t a million dollars but a hundred thousand; and he didn’t make it, he lost it." The story brings to mind the apostle Paul’s directive in 2 Timothy 2:15: "Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth" (KJV). Paul urges carefulness in studying and teaching the Bible. Otherwise, we may bend the truth and run the very real risk of being ashamed before God (James 3:1; 1 Timothy 4:16; 2 Timothy 4:1-4, etc.)!

All this brings me to a short and (due to space limitations) shallow consideration of the so-called doctrine of "original sin" – the widespread religious teaching that, due to Adam and Eve’s sin in Eden, every person since has inherited a spiritual stain and depravity due to our origin and descent from them. The doctrine asserts we are not sinners because we sin, but rather we sin because we are sinners. The guilt of Adam’s sin is imputed to every person who is born, along with a corrupted nature that makes us wholly defiled from birth in all the parts and faculties of soul and body (from Westminster Confession of Faith of 646, a standard theology of many denominations). The main text used by proponents of original sin is Romans 5:12- 21. To be honest, the apostle Paul says some deep things in that passage, and even some that are beyond total understanding (read it now and see!). But a careful reading reveals neither the words "original sin" nor the complex doctrine behind those words is taught by Paul. Verse 19, at the heart of the controversy over "original sin," reads as follows: "For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous." We can say little in this space. What we can say with complete certainty is that Paul discusses the "original sinner," Adam. And he expressly declares that through Adam’s disobedience "sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men because all sinned" (verse 12). But what we cannot say from this or any other Bible text is that any person inherits sinfulness or guilt from parents or any other person. God is on record in Scripture that, "Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor shall children be put to death for their fathers; a person shall be put to death for his own sin" (Deuteronomy 24:16; see also Ezekiel 18:4, 20). Scripture teaches we go astray and turn to our own way, not that we are born astray, already out of the way (Isaiah 53:6; Psalm 14:2-3; Romans 3:12)! Jesus expressly teaches that we must all be converted and become like little children if we hope to be in His kingdom (Matthew 18:3; 19;14) – and He was NOT urging us to become tainted with the guilt of "original sin" and be "totally depraved!" The Bible is clear that the original sinner was Adam. Through their sin he (and Eve) introduced sin and death into the world. But what we cannot find in the Bible, unless we warp its words and mangle its message, is the doctrine of original sin. Will you not "search the Scriptures to find out whether these things are so?" (Acts 17:11)

Dan Gulley, Smithville, TN