[Ohio]

Originally Posted by Trapped

That makes no sense to me....to believe that an infant with absolutely no awareness of right and wrong and who, ostensibly, would not have actually committed a sin, would perish/be judged by God. For what exactly? What offense did they commit? Being born? That's not a just God....but that concept of God is what fuels some of the anger of some people who reject Him.

Additionally, it makes no sense to me that we would be born with an inherent sin nature, a tendency or drive to sin that we have no control over, and then Jesus, who is supposed to be like us in every way, has a completely different human nature than us....one without inherent sin. This is not "like us in every way"; this is, rather, a massive leg up on the problem! His not ever committing a sin, given his distinct advantage in that regard, ends up being more of a cop out than an encouragement or amazing feat. It's only if His and our human natures are the same that His being sinless is actually meaningful. If His and our human natures are the same, then either He had a sin nature like us, or we do not have a sin nature. The Bible is clear that He not only did not have a sin nature, He also did not commit acts of sin, so the former option goes out the window. So......that leaves the latter, and this puts the thought that WE have an inherent sin nature up for question.

(Note: in case it is not clear, I am making a distinction between a sin nature versus actually committing acts of sin.)

I think, honestly, that we are the same as Adam and Eve, pre-fall. They had a human nature that was granted free will to sin or not sin, to obey or disobey. And we have the same choice. I don't recall some kind of "nature change" of Adam and Eve in the Bible, or a "nature change" that ever came over me when I willfully sinned for the first time.

As an aside, I get a kick out of the fact that Jesus making a whip and driving them all out of the temple and overturning tables.......was not a sin! In the local church you end up apologizing for intangible things like being "too much"!

Trapped

I think this post is “too much!” lol

And we in the Midwest were at one time quarantined for the intangible sin of being “ambitious.” Yikes! To which one brother replied, “without a healthy dose of ‘ambition’ I would not even get out of bed in the morning.”

But back to the topic. It seems there is a definite connection between the Catholic error of “original sin” and WL’s of being “poisoned” by eating the forbidden Tree. Both emphasize inheriting a corrupted human nature rather than defining sin resulting from free will and disobedience.