Quote:
Originally Posted by UntoHim
Certain new theologians dispute original sin, which is the only part of Christian theology which can really be proved.
G.K. Chesterton
My goodness, I would never have imagined that such a light-hearted quip would cause such a stir! I like to occasionally throw in a quote from people like Chesterton, who was not a trained theologian per se (He was a Christian philosopher/critic/comedian) because sometimes it really helps to look at Biblical/theological concepts and ideas from a more pragmatic, even cynical, point of view.
Another favorite Chesterton quote of mine: Just going to church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than standing in your garage makes you a car! Sometimes it takes a little standing back from the actual black and white of Scripture, and then combine scriptural concepts and ideas with our common human experiences and observations, and thereby come up with an axiom that expresses a biblical truism, and at the same time matches our human experience.
Whether or not the term "original sin" is a Catholic concept is not as relevant, I believe, as the fact that it is based upon a scriptural/historical event - the Fall of Adam and Eve, and the consequences of their abject disobedience to God. The apostle Paul clearly and strongly teaches that the consequences of Adam and Eve's sin were as devastating as they were enduring - "Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned". Coming back to Chesterton, he was simply making a claim based upon his human experience and observation.
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I didn't mean for my one post to be considered a stir, but I have been thinking about this topic since then.
Serious question: where do people point to in the Bible to justify the belief that Adam's nature changed from whatever it was prior to sinning to whatever it was after sinning? That Adam acquired a sin "nature"? I mean, specifically, is there a place that references a kind of change in "nature" of Adam and Eve when they sinned against God? Or were they simply people who's nature did not change, but who chose of their own free will to disobey God's word......nature unchanged?
Death spread to all men because all sinned doesn't mean "all sinned in Adam", or any kind of guilt by lineage like that. Death spread to all men because we all actually sinned, as in....committed a sin.
The problem with some kind of inherent or inherited sin nature is that it is typically paired with the thought that we are already guilty or that we "cannot help but sin"......which means to the careful listener, we are speaking of a God who is just and holy, and who yet finds no problem judging man for acts that he cannot help but commit through no fault of his own, and through no role he had in his own creation. This doesn't work in the light of a righteous God. I think the issue is with the concept of an in-born sin nature. If there is already a thread on this topic, well, I couldn't find it.
Trapped