Shirene asked a question on "original sin" last Friday. And
I'd like to take a more coherent shot at it on a low-key Saturday
night.
Let's just to back up a lil' for some background first…
Original sin means that every human being is born with an inclination
to do evil, or a sinful nature. Every religion teaches that we are
sinners because we sin. Christianity agrees, but also add; "We sin
because we are sinners".
Original sin doesn't mean that we don't have the physical and mental
capacity to choose "good". We have the natural ability not to sin if
we don't want to. But the problem is, we do want to sin so we are
morally responsible.
We can see original sin at work by observing not a single morally
perfect person on earth. And that you don't have to teach a child to
do bad stuffs, he picks it up on his own.
But I can sympathize with the first FAQ here:
"Isn't it unfair that I inherit the sinful nature for something that
Adam did? Why doesn't everybody get a clean slate to start with?" So
here goes…
Everyday, we are represented by other people. For example, our Prime
Minister and Cabinet represented the whole country to make political
calls. Their decisions affect every individual in Malaysia.
So, Adam represented all of us as the head of the human family. It's
not really unfair for some people to act on behalf of a larger group
of people.
But the Malaysian government gets elected by us recently, right? So
we have a say in who represents us but I never voted for Adam and
Eve?? Hahah…
Well, the real issue is whether Adam and Eve represented us
accurately? (Not whether we chose them to represent us)
For example, we chose our government but does that mean fairness? Not
necessarily. Even elected representatives make some dumb decisions
that do not accurately express ours. Or, we may think a person is a
good leader but he turns out to be an idiot.
But what if someone who knows us inside out (and loves us completely)
chooses someone who would represent us perfectly? That would NOT be
unfair because we would be represented accurately even though we
didn't have a say in it.
And that's precisely what God did when He created Adam. Adam
represents us rightly so much so that if we were in Eden with a clean
slate, we would have done the same thing as he did, if not worse!
I'd like to take a more coherent shot at it on a low-key Saturday
night.
Let's just to back up a lil' for some background first…
Original sin means that every human being is born with an inclination
to do evil, or a sinful nature. Every religion teaches that we are
sinners because we sin. Christianity agrees, but also add; "We sin
because we are sinners".
Original sin doesn't mean that we don't have the physical and mental
capacity to choose "good". We have the natural ability not to sin if
we don't want to. But the problem is, we do want to sin so we are
morally responsible.
We can see original sin at work by observing not a single morally
perfect person on earth. And that you don't have to teach a child to
do bad stuffs, he picks it up on his own.
But I can sympathize with the first FAQ here:
"Isn't it unfair that I inherit the sinful nature for something that
Adam did? Why doesn't everybody get a clean slate to start with?" So
here goes…
Everyday, we are represented by other people. For example, our Prime
Minister and Cabinet represented the whole country to make political
calls. Their decisions affect every individual in Malaysia.
So, Adam represented all of us as the head of the human family. It's
not really unfair for some people to act on behalf of a larger group
of people.
But the Malaysian government gets elected by us recently, right? So
we have a say in who represents us but I never voted for Adam and
Eve?? Hahah…
Well, the real issue is whether Adam and Eve represented us
accurately? (Not whether we chose them to represent us)
For example, we chose our government but does that mean fairness? Not
necessarily. Even elected representatives make some dumb decisions
that do not accurately express ours. Or, we may think a person is a
good leader but he turns out to be an idiot.
But what if someone who knows us inside out (and loves us completely)
chooses someone who would represent us perfectly? That would NOT be
unfair because we would be represented accurately even though we
didn't have a say in it.
And that's precisely what God did when He created Adam. Adam
represents us rightly so much so that if we were in Eden with a clean
slate, we would have done the same thing as he did, if not worse!
Comments
i'm reading something by a rather strong 5-point Calvinist who surprisingly holds to accessibilism i.e. there is hope for the unevangelized (except their pagan religions are NOT 'vehicles' of salvation). Eye-opening, :)
Al
http://hedonese1.blogspot.com/2004/07/whats-so-original-about-guilt.html