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Christianity Explained Information Find Christian Unity in Biblical Explanations of the Doctrines That Count! |
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You have a choice to
make: You can either believe the opinions of theologians, atheists, or
agnostics, or you can determine for yourself what the Bible says by
studying it. |
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What Is Religion and Where Did It Originate? What Is the Bible, and How Relative Is It to My Life? What Are Messianic Prophecies? Who Was Jesus of Nazareth, Really? Why Are There So Many World Religions? Why Are There So Many Christian Denominations? What Is the Law and How Does It Apply to Me? What's All This About the End of the World and End-time Prophecies? Isn't the Book of Daniel a Closed Book? Revelation: How can anyone understand all that symbolism? Who or What Was Jesus' Mother, Mary? Didn't Darwin Disprove Creation? What's the Truth About Faith and Works? Christian E-mails: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Complete Directory of Articles/Studies
Title Abbreviations for Books of the Bible Genesis - Ge |
What Is Original Sin? According to the doctrine of "Original Sin", Adam committed the original sin and it's condemnation was passed to all of his descendants. Hence the fact that you were born a human makes Adam's sin attributable to you and you need to be baptized as soon as possible lest you die in your sin, in an unsaved state. This doctrine, to my own surprise, is unbiblical! As we have studied, ALL of scripture is to be consulted when determining which doctrines are of God and which are of man. Here is what scripture has to say about this doctrine:
Since sin is the transgression of the law and infants have no knowledge of the law, infants cannot sin. Only those who know the law and disobey it are sinners. Now, does that mean the sin of Adam had no effect on humanity? No. It means just what it says: we are not responsible for Adam's sin, so we are not going to be judged by Adam's sin. That's good to know: we have enough sin of our own to worry about. We are born into a sinful environment, and from our earliest days are encouraged by Satan to be selfish about everything as we were while in the infantile struggle for survival. Instead of learning to trust our parents and God, we are encouraged to go our own way and ignore the rules that those who have more knowledge or experience than we have set for us. Once we reach an age where we know right from wrong, good from evil, selflessness from selfishness, we become responsible for our own sins, and repentence and baptism for the remission of sins and to receive the Holy Spirit become necessary. Specifically, it means you don't need to worry if your child died in childbirth, you don't need to pay anyone to say some words over your newborn or sprinke it's head in case it dies before it knows enough to love God and claim the salvation that is in Jesus. The only purpose a service for a young one serves is to remind its parent(s) that every child is a gift from God, and every parent is the steward of that child of God's. We need to dedicate our lives to bring up God's children in a way that will bring them close to him. When Jesus gave the great Commission, he said,
You can't teach an infant "to observe all things" Jesus commanded the disciples. Baptism is reserved for cognizant people who have the capacity to know who God really is, that Jesus is God's son, and that Jesus taught certain doctrines that are to be carried out by his followers. So, just to be argumentative, Original Sin was not Adam's at all. It wasn't even Eve's. It was Satan's.
Ezekiel gives a striking description of why Satan was cast out. He calls it a lamentation for the king of Tyre; however, no physical king of physical Tyre could possibly match all the specifics, so we know about whom he is really talking.
Satan was created perfect. His own ego and selfishness was his downfall . . . the Original Sin. Our original parents, created perfect by the hand of God, were seduced by Satan's ego and as sinners had to be separated from the source of life, thus dying. Satan lied to Adam and Eve. He said the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil would make them wise; it didn't make them wise, it just gave them knowledge--there's a difference. He said they would not surely die. However, they began to die the day they were sent out of the Garden, away from the tree of life and away from the presence of God. It is not Adam and Eve's seduction that causes us to be sinners. It isn't even Satan's selfishness. It is our own willingness to be led down the easy path to self-indulgence that will kill us. We simply buy into the same lies: gaining knowledge will bring us wisdom and no matter what we do, we'll live forever--either in heaven or hell. How much of the knowledge mankind has gained has been used wisely? How many discoveries meant for good have been used for evil? Is this wisdom? It is in the nature of mankind to try to fight the result of our own sinfulness. We do everythng we can to avoid dying and we take up all kinds of beliefs that allow us to deceive ourselves into believing that we won't truly die. What's weirdest is we'd rather believe we'll exist forever in a burning hell or be reincarnated as a wasp than believe the word of God to Adam and Eve, but that's another study. |
Related Links Written in the HeartThe Truth About Mary Magdalene
Scriptures: Within Text: name chap:verse-s More Study: name
chap:verse-s |
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Copyright 2005
Lynda Karr
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