Unoriginal Sin

Jeremiah 18:12

Introduction

The doctrine of Original Sin is one that I think we all have some familiarity with.

Perhaps we are all even influenced by the ideas of Original Sin even if we aren’t fully aware of it.

It is an idea whose beginnings can be fairly well traced in historical writings and then traced through evolution and refinement into a more codified idea.

Today, at least in word, most denominations proclaim some belief in Original Sin.

Because of the battles between Calvinists and Armenians, people suppose that groups like Armenians don’t believe in the doctrine but that isn’t true.

The believe in it but differ on the effects of original sin.

Because it is so universally believed, it makes it difficult to unpack since the vast majority of religious writers write not to defend the doctrine but rather with the assumption that it is true.

The Origins

The doctrine is universally credited to Augustine of Hippo.

He is the first person known to use the term original sin.

So if we start at the beginning of all recorded history in connection with scripture, the first time you will come across this term is in the writings of this man.

That is telling but not completely damning.

Someone can come up with language to describe legitimate Biblical concepts and the language is original but the concept is not.

It is the idea that we are guilty not just because of what we have done, but because of who we are from birth.

There is an additional element here of actually bearing the guilt of Adam’s sin but I am not going to give much attention to that today (it is not as broadly accepted or influential).

The idea here leaves us completely incapable of spiritual reason.

“But for this mystery, the most incomprehensible of all, we remain incomprehensible to ourselves.” - Blaise Pascal

We will talk about the blatant inconsistency of a man who made a career of using his mind saying that we can’t trust our own minds.

Additionally, the sin nature, is transmitted through biology. Originally, through the father (there are more theories now.

Augustine looked within himself to discover this doctrine (Jer. 17:9)

He himself admitted that the doctrine is not expressly taught in scripture.

Augustine had a Catholic mother and a pagan father.

He met a girl in his teens and they began to live together and had a son. They continued to live together until Augustine was in his early 30s.

During this time he became a follower of Manichaeism which was a combination of teachings from the Bible, Zoroastrianism, Buddism, and several other philosphies.

The main thing you need to know about this religion was that it was full of the Gnostic idea that physical creation was hopelessly corrupt and the realm of the spirit was entirely good.

They believed that one of the greatest evils was to act in such a way as to procreate because that trapped a righteous soul in a sinful body.

After Constantine gave special sanction to Christianity, Augustine left the Manichaeans as the opportunities for scholarship were much greater under the politically favored Catholic Church.

His parents were very concerned about his social success and when he reached his early 30s, they arranged an advantageous marriage for him. He responded by sending his wife away while he waited 2 years for the bride to reach the legal marriage age of 12.

It was during or shortly after this time that he became “depressed and even overwhelmed” and began to “search after the cause of evil” by entering “into the very innermost part of my soul.”

In this, he placed is own experience as literal proof of this universal truth.

One of the stories he tells is that he stole some peaches when he was a boy when he didn’t even need them. What more proof do you need that we are all depraved by the sin of Adam than one boy stealing some peaches one day.

Additionally, he ascribed the cries of a baby to malice and greed proving what he had already decided concerning himself.

Then he looked for scriptures to back up his idea (Rom. 5:12; Psa. 51:5).

He did not know Greek and accepted the Vulgate translation of Rom. 5:12 which reads something like:

“Wherefore as by one man sin entered into this world and by sin death: and so death passed upon all men, in whom all have sinned.”

But he came to the text looking for proof of a conclusion already drawn.

There is much more connection between this doctrine and Augustine’s early life and beliefs than there is to scripture which only came after.

The Motives

This would seem like a hard doctrine to believe.

We have learned from the prophets, and we hold it to be true, that punishments, and chastisements, and good rewards, are rendered according to the merit of each man’s actions. Since if it be not so, but all things happen by fate, neither is anything at all in our own power. For if it be fated that this man, e.g., be good, and this other evil, neither is the former meritorious nor the latter to be blamed. And again, unless the human race has the power of avoiding evil and choosing good by free choice, they are not accountable for their actions, of whatever kind they be. - Justin Martyr

Julian thought that pronouncing newborn babies guilty of sin and deserving of punishment turned God into a monster:Tell me then, tell me: who is this person who inflicts punishment on innocent creatures … You answer: God. God, you say! God! … He is the persecutor of new-born children: He it is who sends tiny babies to eternal flames … It would be right and proper to treat you as beneath argument: you have come so far from religious feeling, from civilized thinking, so far, indeed, from mere common sense, in that you think that your Lord God is capable of committing a crime against justice such as is hardly conceivable even among the barbarians.

It was a doctrine that helped the Catholic church increase power.

It encouraged pagans to join the Catholic church at the very least as a precaution.

But it also provided the grounds for forcible conversion.

What is particularly telling is how the doctrine evolved based on practical concerns.

Missionaries began to complain because they said teaching people they were hopelessly corrupt and unable to respond left them in a logical conundrum.

So the doctrine of prevenient grace was developed to solve the problem.

Many believe that it puts man into a properly humble place (Rom 3:23).

If we say that man is not hopelessly evil then it is because we have too high a view of humanity.

Which one of these puts man in a worse spot, we have all sinned because Adam sinned, or we all had capacity to not sin, but did it anyway?

So while we may think it sounds more humble to say we inherited our sinful nature, it ultimately removes responsibility for our sin away from us and puts it on God (Ecc. 7:9).

The Truth

If Romans 5 teaches the universal inheritance of sin, then it also teaches the universal inheritance of salvation.

Psalm 51:5 and Psalm 22:9-10 can’t both be literally true.

God says we can change, men say we can’t (Jer. 18:12).

Children are a synonym for innocence (Matt. 18:3-4; 19:14; 1 Cor. 14:20).

Conclusion

So often, when we think about doctrines, we think that somewhere along the way, someone was reading their Bible and just misunderstood a passage or two.

It isn’t so. Much more often, you have circumstances that drove people to cope and then find scriptures to back up their coping mechanism.

Original Sin is the product of a depressed genius mixed with religious politics and distilled finally in a fight against the Catholic church in the 16th century. What it certainly isn’t is original to the Bible.

Your sin is all you, not Adam. The solution to your sin is in your hands. God has made the offer to you and everyone else.

Pelagius had a crazy idea. He taught that if you want to be saved you need to put away sin and follow Jesus. But that doctrine didn’t increase anyone’s power and so he was rejected along with his followers.

Take responsibility for YOUR sins this morning and bring those (no one else’s) to Christ and have them washed away by dying and being resurrected with Him through baptism.