Calvinism - Hereditary Sin, the Lie

Hereditary Sin, the Lie
It is hard to find a "Christian" denomination that does not believe in some form of hereditary sin. Even within the church of Christ, I have heard the echoes of this. Phrases like "we're all just sinners" and "its just human nature". Well, I completely disagree. I am not a sinner and it isn't just human nature and sin is not hereditary. In this article I want to address three major points to consider from scripture that show that this concept of hereditary sin is unscriptural, illogical, and a lie.
First, however, we need to define our terms.
==Definitions==
=== Catholic Perspective ===
The Catholic Encyclopedia defines hereditary sin under the term "original sin" where it states that original sin is: "one man has transmitted to the whole human race not only the death of the body, which is the punishment of sin, but even sin itself, which is the death of the soul".
=== Protestant Perspective ===
The Baptist Confession of Faith (1689) states in chapter 6 "The Fall of Man, Sin and Punishment":
# Although God created man upright and perfect, and gave him a righteous law, which secured life for him while he kept it, and although God warned him that he would die if he broke it, yet man did not live long in this honor.
## Satan using the subtlety of the serpent to subdue Eve, seduced Adam by her, and he, without any compulsion, willfully transgressed the law of their creation and the command given to them by eating the forbidden fruit.
## And this act God, according to His wise and holy counsel, was pleased to permit, having purposed to order it to His own glory. 
# Our first parents, by this sin, fell from their original righteousness and communion with God, and we in them. For from this, death came upon all: all becoming dead in sin and wholly defiled in all the faculties and parts of soul and body. 
# They being the root, and by God's appointment, standing in the room and stead of all mankind, the guilt of this sin was imputed, and their corrupted nature conveyed, to all their posterity descending from them by ordinary generation. Their descendants are therefore conceived in sin, and are by nature the children of wrath, the servants of sin, and the subjects of death and all other miseries, spiritual, temporal, and eternal, unless the Lord Jesus sets them free.
# All actual transgressions proceed from this original corruption, by which we are utterly indisposed, disabled, and made opposite to all good, and wholly inclined to all evil.
# During this life the corruption of nature remains in those who are regenerated, and although it is pardoned and mortified through Christ, yet this corrupt nature and all its motions are truly and properly sinful. 
=== Summary Definition ===
In other words, Adam and Eve sinned and transmitted to all of mankind the guilt of that sin so that we are born (conceived? I'm not yet clear on that point) with the guilt of sin already on our souls. In other words, we inherit sin like some spiritual genetic trait.
Now, this article is not concerned with addressing all the complicated and convoluted implications of this doctrine. In fact, by virtue of showing it to be false, all the implications of it become irrelevant really. Perhaps I shall deal with them in another place.
=== Definition of Sinner ===
I would also like to take a brief moment to again define the term "sinner". The word sinner comes from the Greek word ἁμαρτωλῷ (hamartolos).  It is a word that is often casually tossed about to mean "one who sins", but that is not how it is used in the Bible.  In the Bible it refers to someone devoted to, enslaved to sin, the lost. See Romans 6:16.
== Ezekiel 18 - The Contradiction ==
The first and most obvious point that makes Hereditary Sin false is that it directly contradicts explicit statements in scripture. Now, it is necessary to understand that we cannot simply take a single scripture in isolation and make a case from it because context might alter the meaning of any single phrase or verse. An example of this is how folks take a verse like Eph. 2:9 and, without regard for context, make it seem as though no works or action on the part of man are involved in our salvation. So, I'd like to examine briefly the full context of this chapter with a pointer to the broader context of the book of Ezekiel.
The book of Ezekiel is a book of prophecy concerning the southern kingdom of Judah. Ezekiel writes about the sins of Judah, what has befallen her, and what will become of her. In chapter 18, Ezekiel is set to prophecy against the Jews concerning an accusation they make against God. I highly recommend you read the entire context and my comments on the chapter for a more thorough look at the overall context. 
The Jews have been using a proverb which essentially means that the Jewish children are being held morally guilty for their ancestor’s sins without regard to their own moral choices, a warping of God’s statements in the second commandment (Ex. 20:5). This is the same accusation the denominations are using!
Ezekiel goes through and gives a series of examples to counter the accusation then sums up the prophecy in the climactic verses 19-20:
19Yet say ye, Why? doth not the son bear the iniquity of the father? When the son hath done that which is lawful and right, and hath kept all my statutes, and hath done them, he shall surely live. 20The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.
I would also note that Jeremiah says very much the same thing in Jer. 31:29-30 where he addresses the proverb explicitly.
The doctrine of hereditary sin is in direct contradiction to what the Old Testament taught concerning sin. The son does not bear the guilt of the father's sin. Folks, this is in the Old Testament before Christ. When Christ comes, the doctrine of hereditary sin became even more evil in its nature because it denies the power of the blood of Christ not once, not twice, but three times.
== Romans 5 - Hereditary Sin's First Denial ==
For a full, verse by verse look at Romans 5, please see my commentary on that chapter.
I want to simply present the logical argument here that shows that the doctrine of Hereditary Sin denies the power of the blood of Christ in that it teaches that whatever Adam did is more powerful than the blood of Christ.
In Romans 5, Paul sets up Adam as a type of Christ, Jesus Christ of course is the antitype, the thing which the type points to. It is the nature of the type/antitype relationship in scripture that the type is always physical and always inferior and limited compared to the antitype. Adam is a type in that he was the son of God being created directly by God rather than born from another human. Jesus is the superior spiritual antitype being the only unique Son of God. Adam, as the type, brought sin into the world and through that sin, spiritual death, which is separation from God, and physical death. Christ, as the antitype, brought redemption to the world, spiritual life, and resurrection (renewed physical life which is immortal - 1 Corinthians 15).
It should be evident that whatever Adam may have done through sinning, Jesus undead through His death, burial, and resurrection. This is Paul's point leading up to immersion into Christ in chapter 6 that saves us.
IF Adam brought sin into the world, THEN the blood of Christ brought true righteousness (not just imputed).
IF Adam brought spiritual death into the world, THEN the blood of Christ brought spiritual life (rebirth, regeneration, renewal).
IF Adam ended in the consequence of physical death for humans, THEN the blood of Christ ends in the consequence of physical resurrection for humans.
IF Adam's sin even brought in hereditary sinfulness, a wholly corrupted nature for all of mankind without exception, THEN the blood of Christ eliminated hereditary sinfulness and took away the wholesale corruption for all mankind without exception. [That Adam's sin did not do this was already examined in the point from Ezekiel 18 above, but we cover it here just in case that point didn't stick.]
If the blood of Christ did not bring in true righteousness, then Adam's sin is greater than the blood of Christ.
If the blood of Christ did not bring spiritual life, then Adam's sin is greater than the blood of Christ.
If the blood of Christ does not end in the consequence of physical resurrection for humans, then Adam's sin is greater than the blood of Christ.
If Adam's sin brought hereditary sinfulness (it didn't) and hereditary sinfulness still exists, then Adam's sin is greater than the blood of Christ.
The doctrine of Hereditary Sin denies the power of the blood of Christ in that it teaches that whatever Adam did, the blood of Jesus Christ was not able to undo. The very passage they use to teach Hereditary Sin, Romans 5, actually denies their doctrine. Paul's whole point is that whatever Adam did, the blood of Christ was greater still and undid whatever Adam's sin did. Who can affirm otherwise?
== Still Sinners - Hereditary Sin's Second Denial ==
The second denial of those who espouse this doctrine are those who claim to be washed in the blood of Christ but say they are still a sinner. I am ashamed for my brethren in the church of Christ who carry this denominational baggage in their hearts and still say this.
Paul writes in Romans 6:6-11:
6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. 7 For he that is dead is freed from sin. 8 Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: 9 Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. 10 For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. 11 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
I've literally had someone tell me they simply don't believe verse 7. What makes me angry, is that this was in a Bible class and the words came out of the mouths of two people who claimed to be members of the church of Christ! Rather than conform themselves to the plain teaching of scripture, they clung to their denominational baggage and flat out denied the scriptures.
Folks, to claim that as Christians we are still sinners is to say that there was no destruction of the body of sin, no death of the old man, no recreation of self. To claim to be in Christ yet still a sinner is to deny that the blood of Christ has any power at all to affect change, for if you are still a sinner, what actual change has been made in you?
The doctrine of Hereditary Sin denies the power of the blood of Christ by teaching that even as Christians we are still sinners, unrighteous and unworthy, or works nothing more than filthy rags (a misapplication of Isaiah 64:6 which has nothing to do with Christians).
== Hereditary Sin After Rebirth - Hereditary Sin's Third Denial ==
The third and final denial of the power of the blood of Christ is a corollary of the second denial.
IF Christ's blood is supposed to have reversed the effect of Adam's sin (Romans 5), and IF we are supposed to be new creatures in Christ (Romans 6), washed of all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9), then there is no sin within us to pass on to our offspring once we are in Christ. The offspring of Christians cannot inherit sin from parents who are free of sin.
The doctrine of Hereditary Sin denies the power of the blood of Christ by teaching that even as Christians, even as those supposedly free of sin, continually washed in the blood of Christ, they are capable of passing on sin to our children. The hereditary nature of sin, though such a thing does not really exist, should have been eliminated in Christ. 
== Conclusion ==
Ezekiel 18:20 explicitly states that the son does not inherit the sin of the father. The doctrine of Hereditary Sin in all its forms denies this.
Romans 5 teaches that whatever Adam's sin did, Christ's blood was more powerful and undid it. The doctrine of Hereditary Sin in all its forms denies this not once, but three times: denying that Christ's blood actually overcame Adam's sin, denying that Christ's blood actually changes anything because Christians are still sinners, and denying that Christ's blood washes us of all unrighteousness continually by arguing that Christians still pass on the sin-guilt to their offspring.
These deniers of the power of the blood of Christ are without hope because they teach that sin is more powerful than Christ's blood. They teach that mankind is incapable of choosing God, but that God, in an epic show of partiality (Romans 2:11), must save those who He already chose to be saved. This then means that none of them actually know if they are saved or not. It is reflected in their language and in what they teach about those who fall back into sin, denying that we can truly know we are saved (1 John 5:13).
I for one do not serve such a puny and impotent God.
In Truth and Love.
Category:Thematic
Category:Calvinism
Category:Denominationalism