Original sin?

Question

Besides being an excellent song...heres something to chew on.

One of the most important concepts in Christianity is original sin or the belief that all mankind has inherited a sinful nature brought about by the acts of Adam and Eve.

Rom. 5:12 "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:"

Rom. 5:19 "For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners,..."

1Cor. 15:22 "For as in Adam all die, ..."

Yet, no amount of theological reasoning can make an inherently unjust idea seem right. Punishing billions of people for the acts of one is not only inherently unfair and unwarranted but also in opposition to other Biblical verses such as:

Deut. 24:16 "The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers (2Chron.25:54) :every man shall be put to death for his own sin." (2 Kings 14:6)

Ezek. 18:20 "The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bearthe iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him."

Ezek.33:20 "O ye house of Israel,I will judge you every one after his ways."

Jer. 31:29-30 "In those days they shall say no more, The fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the children's teeth are set on edge. But every one shall die for his own iniquity: every man that eateth the sour grape, his teeth shall be set on edge."

Rom. 2:6 "Who will render to every man according to his deeds."

Ezek. 18:4 "... the soul that sinneth, it shall die."

Each of these verses shows that every person should only be punished for those sins which he commits, not those of others.

Original sin makes about as much sense as if I were sitting at home one evening and the following occurred. The police came to my door and stated I was under arrest because my father in Europe just shot and killed someone. I responded by asking what that had to do with me and they said, "He's your father isn't he?"

so? is it Biblical errancy?

Answer 1

What do you expect from a god who sends his only son to earth to die an agonizing death on the cross with thousands of other Jews?

Answer 2

What Paul is saying in Romans is consistent with the traditional story about Adam and Eve - that the world was perfect until the serpent tricked Adam and Eve into disobeying God. This act of disobedience, according to tradition, brought sin into the world.

Original sin is an empirically observable phenomenon. Everywhere one looks there is evidence of the fallen state of humankind, both in personal relationships and on a larger scale. It's not that one person has committed sin and so all are punished; rather, original sin should be thought of as a sort of congenital defect or predisposition which we all possess. All of us are stained by original sin, and this stain becomes manifest when we wrong one another.

Answer 3

You are failing to understand... Original Sin is a concept, it isn't stated in the bible... Perhaps it would be better stated THE Original Sin.

Adam and Eve sinned and were doomed at that moment to death, however God in HIS MERCY gave them a life span in which to live BEFORE their death and delayed the day of judgment until the end of history / end of the world.

As the progeny of Adam and Eve, we are sinful. All people have sinned. Every one (except Jesus) has sinned of their own accord and will die. That is absolute.

Adam had complete LIBERTY. He could freely choose good or evil. We have FREEDOM, BUT NOT LIBERTY. Or choices are colored / influenced by our desire and our desires are evil... Sin in the world can also be thought of as imperfection. Everything we do is marred by the imperfection of sin. WE cannot draw a straight line because of the corruption of sin…

We WILL BE judged by our works. If you believe you will be judged the finished work of Christ, which was perfect. If you do not believe, you will be judged by the law. NO one, except Jesus, has ever kept the law.

Answer 4

“Who can produce someone clean out of someone unclean? There is not one.” (Job 14:4)
The passing on of sin from Adam to succeeding generations is a result of the recognized law of heredity. Sin, along with its consequences, entered and spread to all the human race not merely because Adam was the family head of the race but because he, not Eve, was our human life source. From him, as well as from Eve, his offspring would inescapably inherit not merely physical characteristics but also personality traits, including the inclination toward sin.

A perfect piece of machinery cannot be produced from an imperfect mold, so Adam in his imperfection could not produce perfect children, free from sin.

Jehovah has made loving provision to save repentant ones from the bad effects of inherited sin and death. This will come through the ransom sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Concerning this provision the Bible says: “God sent forth his only-begotten Son into the world that we might gain life through him.” (1 John 4:9) So, in God’s due time, under the Kingdom rule of his Son, inherited human imperfection will gradually be taken away, and mankind will no longer feel the effects of Adam’s sin. Why, even the death we inherited from Adam will no longer have power over us! (Revelation 21:3, 4)
http://www.watchtower.org/library/w/2004/10/1/article_02.htm

Answer 5

Here is one way to describe Original sin.

The paradise in which God created the human race was a place where all people lived in complete holiness. They loved God with all their heart, with all their soul, and with all their mind. They loved their neighbors as much as they loved themselves.

Then the first human beings disobeyed the commandment of God, choosing to follow their own will rather than God's will. This was the Original Sin.

As a consequence the first human beings lost the grace of original holiness, and became subject to the law of death; sin became universally present in the world.

Besides the personal sin of the first human beings, original sin describes the fallen state of human nature which affects every person born into the world. Therefore we are not responsible for Original sin but we are affected by it.

It was this fallen state from which Christ, the "new Adam," came to redeem us. Jesus makes paradise available to us again and teaches us how to live there, "You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

With love in Christ.

Answer 6

Original sin is true
Man;s nature is tinged by sin and no longer completely free to choose good and evil, but limited
and... actually the corruption of human nature is fairly easy to validate and history confirms it quite well over and over


happily there is another side to this,
Jesus dying on the cross imputes a righteousness not my own to me and there is a second Adam in Jesus that gives eternal life

Answer 7

A huge amount of the Bible is symbolic, original sin may not necessarily be interpreted as a sin committed by all because of our supposed ancestor's sins. It is possible that this is a burden we must bear because it symbolises human weakness, that we must always be aware of our potential for destruction and corruption so that we keep it in check. I always found this concept quite similar to Shakespeare's message of the culpability of all men in "The Tragedy of King Lear"

Answer 8

I find your agruement against Original Sin terrific. I shouldn't be punished for sins of Adam.

Indeed if we put on the mantle of pretending to be believers, I would come back to you with Revelation 20:10-13 which specifically states that you and I will be judged by God for our works if we do not have the savior Jesus Christ.

So to play the game of God, based on the Bible, yes original sin is not something we have to worry about, but indeed our own sin. And the only interpretation I see from the entirety of the Bible is that belief in Jesus means we won't stand punishment on that Judgement Day.

You and I don't believe in God. To do so is to lead an inathentic life. But for those who do believe in God, their only hope must be Jesus.

Answer 9

Nope, just an incorrect interpretation of original sin. Original sin simply means that mankind is mortal and capable of committing sins (and all do). Men will be punished for their own sins and not for Adam's transgression.

Answer 10

your example is correct. You would not be responsible for the crimes of your father, but if your father died with a massive amount of debt, wouldn't it be passed onto you as his heir? Before you state it isn't fair, would you not also receive an inheritance if he died incredibly wealthy? Why take the good and not the bad?