Original sin

This topic will mainly be about Original sin. But we will also talk about infants, salvation and even a little Calvinism vs Arminianism involved.

So, just what exactly is original sin? Many Christians may have different views on what it really is. Some think it is literally a genetic defect. Some, like me simply think it is when man and woman sinned and the result of it was a fall from a perfect and holy state. Thus, humanity is in a fallen state. But I don't believe this is physically passed down as if you can have it removed in surgery! I'm going to show you why I believe what I believe and then from there, I am going to show you my views on infants and salvation.

1. Spiritual consequences of sin cannot be transmitted from father to son but only falls on the one who committed the act: Ezek 18:1-4; 18-20; Jer 32:29-30
2. 1. Exodus 32:31­33 In this passage, Moses wanted to receive the punishment for someone else's sin. In verse 33, the one who sinned is removed from the book, not the one whose parents have sinned.
3. We will be judged only by our own actions: Mt 12:36-37; Rom 2:6; 2 Cor 5:10; 1 Pe 1:17
4. Isa 59:1-2, "Your sins have separated you from your God" not Adams
5. Sin is committed by individually breaking God's law: 1 John 3:4 (Infants have done nothing)

So we see with the verses above that we are not punished by Adam's sin or someone else's, like our fathers. Sin is merely only transgression of the law. I don't think we are born with something nasty in us called "sin". If that were the case. Wouldn't of Jesus been "infected" with original sin?

Verses used by those who believe in a sinful state of birth:

(Psalm 51:5) "Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me." This is from a Psalm of David after his sin with Bathsheba. It deals with the sin of an adult, and shows the repentance of an adult (vs. 10-13). David does not say he was a "sinner baby" but rather that his mother conceived him in sin. Read it again and see! David was born into a sinful world. Sin was all around him from birth, so he was 'brought forth in iniquity." The Jewish writers who wrote of this Psalm say the same thing.; David is saying that he was born into a sinful environment.

(Psalm 58:3) "The wicked are estranged from the womb; These who speak lies go astray from birth." First, note that if these people were born astray then they could not "go astray from birth." Infants are born into a sinful world with their eyes and ears wide open. They are so inquisitive, beginning to learn immediately through taste, touch, sound, sight and smell. They are watching, and they see evil all around them constantly from birth. They may not know it is evil yet, but it is there and it does influence them. The clincher is this: the ones going astray speak lies, so the going astray has to be accomplished, at the very least, only after the person has learned to speak!

(Ephesians 2:3) "Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest." What made these people "children of wrath"? Was it something they inherited or something they had done? Verses 1 and 2 help us to answer that question. "And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world..." They were "by nature" what they were. "Nature" here does not refer to constitutional character but rather to habit... sin became natural, or we sometimes say, "second nature" to them by their long and diligent practice of it.

Verses that contradict the sinfulness of infants:

(Matthew 18:3) "Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven." Jesus said we must become converted and like little children. He would not tell us to do this if children were truly born totally depraved. If they were born as totally depraved that would mean that there is nothing in them that is not depraved and therefore we should not become like children in any sense. But Jesus said there was something in children that we need to take as our example (their humility). This passage shows that children are not born totally depraved (see also Psalm 106:36-39).



More verses showing babies or innocent:

1. Why would Jesus use infants as a model for all believers to imitate in character if they were "utterly indisposed, disabled, and made opposite to all good, and wholly inclined to all evil"? Mt 18:1-3; 19:13-14
2. Paul also used infants as a model of purity for Christians to follow: 1 Cor 14:20
3. Paul states that he was once spiritually alive but then he sinned & died/was killed: Rom 7:9-11
4. God said that the king of Tyrus was "blameless in your ways from the day you were created, until unrighteousness was found in you." Ezek 28:15
5. "God made men upright but they sought devices" Eccl 7:29 (plural can't refer only to Adam)

Now, I want people to disprove me and show me how I am wrong, if I am wrong. I wish not to speak lies.

God bless.