Rebecca Writes: Bonus Original Sin Answers

Here are the answers to the bonus questions on original sin.

1. This first quote is from John Calvin in Calvin's Institutes, Book 2, Chapter 1, Section 5, and is affirming the doctrine of original sin.

Surely there is no ambiguity in David's confession, "I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me," (Psa 51: 5) His object in the passage is not to throw blame on his parents; but the better to commend the goodness of God towards him, he properly reiterates the confession of impurity from his very birth. As it is clear, that there was no peculiarity in David's case, it follows that it is only an instance of the common lot of the whole human race. All of us, therefore, descending from an impure seed, come into the world tainted with the contagion of sin. Nay, before we behold the light of the sun we are in God's sight defiled and polluted. "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one," saysthe Book of Job, (Job 14: 4)

2. This quote I transcribed from Dave Hunt's radio program. In it he is denying the doctrine of original sin, although I'm not convinced he's aware that he did, and he may just be doing a little muddled thinking.

The fact is that they did not sin. They died as babies. It wouldn’t be just to condemn to hell. What are they going to suffer for in hell? What deeds have they done?

It's not in his belief that all babies who die go to heaven that he denies original sin, but rather in his statement that there would be no just reason for God to condemn them because they hadn't actually committed any sins, so they have nothing to be saved from. The doctrine of original sin says that it is not only our own deeds that condemn us, but a sin problem we are born with, so even babies need God's merciful salvation.

3. This is a quote of Robert Brow, who co-authored a book called Unbounded Love: A Good News Theology for the 21st Century, which is a book explaining a model of the way God works that they've worked out. Their model called Creative Love Theism.

The Bible does not say that by sinning Adam was sent to eternal damnation. He was excluded temporarily from the garden till God clothed him with new garments. And the garden is in this world where the Son of God wanted to walk and talk with him. Nor does the Bible tell us that all the billions of people who are Adam's offspring are condemned to eternal punishment unless they hear and make a decision to believe certain things. That can only be deduced from some Bible texts hanging together in a certain kind of model.

....In a model of Creative Love Theism, condemnation is the sense of guilt and shame that makes us hide, as Adam and Eve did, from the Son of God instead of walking joyfully with him. There are then two ways of living one's life in the world: either in Christ, or hiding from him.

In this model, the sin problem that human beings have is reduced from just condemnation for sin to a feeling of guilt and shame that cause us to hide from God. Robert Brow and Clark Pinnock set their Creative Love Theism model in contrast to what they call an Original Sin model.

4. I transcribed this quote from a lecture given by John Murray. The ellipses are a spot where John Murray says a few words that are unintelligible, but it's probably just a repetition of a few of the previous words, since Murray tends to do that.

When each member of the human race comes to be in the womb, from the very inception of his or her existence, he and she are involved in that depravity that belongs to the very definition of sin..... And yet, they did not exist when Adam sinned, but nevertheless they are contemplated by God as destined to exist; and consequently, whenever they come to exist, in the providence of God by natural procreation, they come to exist as sinful. They can never be contemplated as anything else.