Posted on 11/27/2004 10:33:18 PM PST by Wallace T.
“By Adam’s fall we sinned all,” was a motto New England Puritan students learned in their elementary primers in the 17th and 18th Centuries. This motto is reflective of the historic Christian belief in original sin, a term not addressing Adam and Eve’s act of disobedience, but the effect that sin had upon mankind. The Scriptures speak repeatedly of sin and death entering the world through one man’s transgression. As a result of Adam’s sin, all men became sinners. The concept of original sin may be seen as inherited corruption. David stated in Psalm 51:5 that he was brought forth in iniquity. In Ephesians 2:3, Paul noted this corrupt nature: “among whom all of us also formerly lived out our lives in the cravings of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath.” (NET Bible)
This viewpoint has had its opponents for centuries. In America and Western Europe, the culture of secular humanism stands for a quite different premise. Jean Jacques Rousseau, the 18th Century French philosopher, expressed this viewpoint with his own slogan, “Man is born free but is everywhere in chains.” Rousseau’s aphorism expressed the concept that human nature is innately good but becomes corrupted by society.
The orthodox Christian and the secular humanist start from different theories of knowledge with regard to issues of ethics and morality. The orthodox Christian believes the words of Scripture as being the very thoughts of God. This belief is an irreducible axiom. Hence, when he says, “Stealing is wrong,” his ultimate source for this belief is the Eighth Commandment, “Thou shalt not steal.” In contrast, the humanist believes that morality may be rightly derived from an observation of nature and human behavior. Many humanists work from the presupposition that the physical universe is all there is, ever was, or ever will be, as Carl Sagan, a scientist and popularizer of the secular humanist viewpoint, put it. Further, observation of the physical universe, or nature, is the sole method of deriving knowledge, including codes of human behavior.
Among Christians there are differing views of the effect of Adam’s sin. Augustine of Hippo, church father and the most prominent theologian in the late Roman Empire, held the belief that humans are inherently corrupt, with the will being totally corrupt and inclined to evil. This view is represented in our time in the Calvinist and Lutheran understanding of original sin. Pelagius, a British contemporary of Augustine, held that humans were inherently good, and Adam’s initial acts only brought condemnation upon that man. Liberal Christians are the modern inheritors of this viewpoint.
A middle way between the position of Augustine and that of Pelagius was best articulated by Arminius, a Dutch theologian of the late 16th Century. He held that man is inherently corrupt. However, Adam’s sin only brought condemnation upon Adam. Only when a person sins is that original sin imputed to him. While humans have an inclination to sin, humans are given the choice to choose between good and evil. Furthermore, God gives prevenient grace to correct the sinful inclination. This position is represented in our time by Roman Catholics, Wesleyans (Methodists, Nazarenes, Holiness), and most Pentecostals.
As a Calvinist, I hold to the Augustinian view of the effects of original sin. James Petigru Boyce, 19th Century Baptist theologian, expressed the concept of Adam as being a representative of humanity generally: “The Scriptures teach that the fall of Adam involved also that of his posterity. In the covenant, under which he sinned, he acted not merely as an individual man, the sole one of his kind, or one isolated from all others of his kind, but, as the head of the race, for his posterity as well as himself. The condition of mankind shows that they have all participated with him in the evils which resulted. The Scriptures teach that this is due, not merely to his natural headship, but to a representative or federal headship, because of which his act of sin may justly be considered as theirs, and they may be treated as though they had themselves done that act, each man for himself.” This position appears to be the one most strongly supported by Scripture. Romans 5:12 (NET Bible) states, “So then, just as sin entered the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all people because all sinned.” Other observations in that same chapter include: “Many died through the transgression of the one man” (v. 15); “By the transgression of the one man, death reigned through the one” (v. 17); “Through the disobedience of the one man many were made sinners.” (v. 19).
The Old Testament reflects this position as well. “But the Lord saw that the wickedness of mankind had become great on the earth. Every inclination of the thoughts of their minds was only evil all the time.” (Gen. 6:5, NET Bible) The representative relation seen in mankind in general is recognized in the same forms in the Scriptures. In the words of Boice, “It is distinctly declared in the aspect of love and hate towards the children of those who love and hate him in Ex. 20:5, and is even more prominently brought to view in Ex. 34:7."
" observation of the physical universe, or nature, is the sole method of deriving knowledge, including codes of human behavior."
I tend to agree with this statement. I am not a professed humanist rather an objectivist. I think we should see things for what they are, not in relation to ancient scripture which derives primarily from oral history and is subject to the opinions and beliefs of men. If you read the both the old and new testament I think it is irrational to believe it is pristinely divine and therefore should not be taken verbatum.
I got some news for 2000 years of scribbling intellectuals: I didn't choose to be born here, or if I did I don't have any memory of it.
Therefore, claims about my having some sort of "Original Sin" connected with the fact that I happen to have arrived here in human form, are going to get seriously dissed.
I.e., blaming me for something I didn't choose to do, or which I at the very least have no memory of having chosen to do, are likely to be received with a full magazine, in .308. - or worse yet, with a barrage of Jew-boy rhetoric (and my grandfather was a rabbi, so just TRY me.)
"In this is expressed the very mystery of our Faith, that human nature is sinful from very conception. God did not create man sinful, but pure and holy. But since the first-created Adam lost his garment of sanctity, not from any other sin but from pride alone, and became corruptible and mortal, all people also who come from the seed of Adam are participants of the ancestral sin from their very conception and birth. He who has been born in this way, even though he has not yet performed any sin, is already sinful through this ancestral sin" (Homily 37.3).
Orthodoxy sees our sinful condition as a genetic one. It is not inherent- ie created into our nature, but it is deeply bound into it as a result of Adam's fall, and its continuation by all of his decendants. Salvation on our own is impossible: "If now man has become corrupt and mortal in nature, he cannot by the power of free will alone become incorruptible and immortal. And from the time of the banishment of Adam from Paradise, that is, from the time he became corruptible and mortal by reason of his transgression, even up to this present day, not a single man has ever been incorrupt and immortal" (St. Symeon, Homily 38.2).
But where we ourselves cannot save ourselves, God has sent His Son. Christ's becoming man, man under the law and subject to our weaknesses, has freed us from sin. St. Maximus Confessor says: "Rather, He became the 'sin that I caused'; in other words, he assumed the corruption of human nature that was a consequence of the mutability of my free choice. For our sake He became a human being naturally liable to passions, and used the 'sin' that I caused to destroy the 'sin' that I commit" (Ad Thal. 42). Christ has "disarmed" sin in man, and destroyed, in His own body, the corruption of sin. This enables men to be saved through Him. Orthodoxy understands the effects of Christ's redemption to be universally available- that Christ has enabled the freeing of human wills- otherwise entirely enslaved- unto salvation.
However, Judaism does provide prayer and obedience to the Law as means by which we may attain salvation and please the Lord. However, this position requires the observant Jew to believe in and try to achieve a works based salvation. The problem with that position is that God's standard is perfection. "The law of the Lord is perfect and preserves one's life." (Psalm 19:1) Historic Christian theology has held that since God does not "grade on a curve" and that perfection is unachievable. "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:23) Even Old Testament heroes described as "blameless," such as Noah, were guilty of sin.
Historic Christian theology offers the free gift of salvation by grace through faith. Most other religious systems are works based, at least in part.
The idea that someone can be held responsible and punished BOTH for acts which they committed voluntarily and in full knowledge of both the admonitions of the religions and the possible consequences thereof, AND for acts which were committed by their forebears, is ludicrous right on the face of it.
A God who punishes people for the acts of their parents, or for their genetic origin as a human, is no better than a racist or a Nazi, and anyone who worships such a God... well, draw your own conclusions.
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