Are We Born Sinners? (Part 4 - Objections: Scriptures Used to Support Original Sin) by Mike Miller

Third most common objection:
What about all those Scriptures that teach we are born sinful?
It always amazes me that folks seem to assume that we have never seen those verses in the Bible. Most of us who have rejected the doctrine of original sin were once just as strong in believing it as our critics are now. We have taken a second honest and closer look at those verses that appear to teach this doctrine of devils and found that we had been looking at them with a preconditioned bias that made us see what we wanted to see in those verses. It is amazing how stubborn and blind we can be when we get an idea in our mind. We can look so deeply and at the same time miss the most obvious and simple facts. If we hope to understand God's Word correctly we must lay aside all our prejudices and fears of what others might think and be totally honest in our heart before God. If we have no intention of accepting or obeying what God shows us then you may be assured that God is not going to reveal anything to you.
Of course, the kingpin of all the verses that "teach beyond a doubt" that man is born sinful would be found in Psalm 51:5:
Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me. - Psa. 51:5
Just yank this verse out of context and it looks like the issue is settled doesn't it? However, that violates every rule of interpretation by anyone's standards, and so anyone who is going to be honest is going to have to look a little closer. There are several ways to look at this, unless you have your mind already made up and don't intend to change it.
First of all, this is David's prayer of deep and thorough repentance. He sees himself as very low in the light of God's holiness. He has sinned against God and his guilt is great. He is humbling himself before God, as we all have to do. He is saying that he is just unworthy of anything from God. His best has not been anything to compare with God's holiness, and the best he has ever done now looks very worthless in view of his sin. His sin is all that is before him now and it is the great obstacle between him and God.
This is figurative language and that cannot be denied. If we take this statement and make a literal application with it, then we must also take verse 7 and apply it literally.
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. -Psa. 51:7
But we know that hyssop will not cleanse us from our sins - it is figurative language. The idea is that David wants to be clean from his sin. He is begging God for deliverance and forgiveness and holding forth nothing of his own merit, but putting himself as low as he possibly can. He is saying, "I've never done anything worthy of your mercy, but I'm asking anyway."
Again in verse 8 we see figurative language used:
Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. - Psa. 51:8
God did not literally break his bones, and bones do not rejoice. It is figurative language and in the same context as verse 5. Again it is speaking of David's low estate because of his sin and his desire to have his innermost heart pure and right with God.
Another way of looking at this to realize that he said "I was shapen IN iniquity, and IN sin did my mother conceive me…" Sin entered the world through Adam. David was born IN this world. His mother conceived him IN a sinful world and he was shapen as he grew IN the midst of a world full of iniquity. This is the way that Jewish writers of old interpreted this verse. We are all in the same boat. We were born into a world full of sin and we have been exposed to it from the day we entered the world. How can anyone imagine that it would not be a factor in our "going astray" or "becoming filthy?"
Some have put forth the idea that David was saying he was conceived when his mother committed fornication. I completely disagree with that idea. I see no evidence to even justify thinking such a thing. In my opinion it is far from a satisfying explanation for this verse.
We can also start dissecting the words in this verse and see much more than the "obvious" meaning that has filled so many textbooks and doctrinal books. "Shapen" means to "writhe or twist in pain." He says he was "shapen in iniquity." It is connected to the later part of the verse, which says, "and in sin did my mother conceive me." The word "sin" there means "a crime or its penalty." Take a look at Genesis 3:16: Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. - Gen. 3:16 Part of the result of sin entering the world through Adam and Eve is that childbirth is painful. David is saying that he entered the world in the midst of writhing and pain and it was because of the fact that sin had entered the world long ago. We surely see the effects and results of sin everywhere, but that doesn't mean that it is physically transmitted from generation to generation. It is a moral problem - not a physical problem. Sin has definitely affected the entire creation, but INFLUENCE is the way sin is spread - it hasn't done so by physically transmitting itself from one being to another.
Of course, Augustine, the father of this doctrine of devils, believed this verse to say that the union of David's parents in which he was conceived was sinful in itself. Augustine believed that intimacy between a man and woman was sinful because it involved lust. The fact that they were married made no difference, as far as he was concerned. He believed that sin was transmitted to the child because of the lust that was involved in the intimacy between husband and wife. Never mind that it is a natural desire given by God and also blessed by God inside a marriage relationship.
Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge. - Heb. 13:4
Of course, when you look at a verse with your mind already made up you just don't think about all those other verses that contradict your private interpretation.
So you see that there are other interpretations for Psalm 51:5, and they also fit much better with the rest of the Bible and its teaching on sin.
Second proof text for original sin:
The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies. - Psa. 58:3
Once again we see the words "go astray." If this verse teaches us anything it teaches that we are NOT born sinful - it is something that BEGINS at birth. By the way, infants do not "speak" anything, they only cry. They have to be able to "speak" before they can "speak" lies. Infants only have physical needs, they do not have the ability to reason and make choices. They are not capable of the scheming and planning required to "speak" a lie or deliberately deceive someone.
They "go astray as soon as they be born." The trouble begins when they are born into a sinful world. By the time their reason starts to develop they have already made physical pleasure their number one priority. Self-gratification is what their life is about. Before they know anything about God they have already known the lust of the flesh. Paul said: For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. (Rom. 7:9) Sin is not imputed where there is no law. Infants do not know or understand the law of God and therefore are not sinners according to the Bible definition. As soon as they come to the age where the law of God is revealed to them they become accountable and therefore are sinners in the eyes of God. When they obtain the "knowledge of good and evil" that is when they begin to be accountable to God for choosing evil over good.
Third proof text for original sin:
Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: - Rom. 5:12
This verse is used to "prove" that we are born sinners. However, it is one of the easiest to refute. The verse says plainly that DEATH passed upon all men - NOT SIN! By one man SIN ENTERED INTO THE WORLD. Death entered BECAUSE of sin and DEATH passed upon all men BECAUSE all have sinned. This verse does NOT teach that sin is passed physically through the genes to all the generations since Adam. It is simply reaffirming the fact that all men have sinned, and "sin when it is finished bringeth forth death" 100% of the time. Read it and interpret it correctly and it fits with all other Scripture. Interpret it through original sin-stained glasses and you have added to the Word of God, a crime which carries a stiff penalty according to Revelation 22:18.
Our critics might say that the fact that all people will inevitably become sinners is no different than saying all men are born sinners. Either way it isn't our fault and therefore we could still blame God for letting us be born in a sinful world where we have no chance. Let me remind you that it wasn't God who ruined the world, but men. And it wasn't just Adam who has made such a mess of this world, all his descendents have done their full share, also. Sin is MAN'S fault - NOT God's fault. God has done far beyond what any man would do to save us from sin. God has provided a cure for it. He has provided an escape from its bondage. You can trade your sin for Jesus and get a renewed mind, a new heart, a new life, a new song, new desires, eyes that can see, ears that can hear, and a home in heaven, all to boot!
Fourth proof text for original sin:
For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. - Rom. 5:19
In the first place, if we are going to be consistent then we must say that if Adam MADE ALL men sinners then Jesus MADE ALL men righteous. You cannot change your interpretation between two identical phrases in the same verse. The Universalists use the doctrine of original sin to prove that all men are going to heaven. If you believe in original sin then you have no grounds on which to argue with them - they win the debate. The word used here is not ALL, but MANY. This verse is speaking of the INFLUENCE of Adam - not what he physically passed to his descendents. We are not trying to lessen the significance of Adam's sin because it surely did bring sin into the world. It was the beginning of every heartache and misery that has been experienced by men since that day, not to mention all the death. However, the doctrine of original sin is a terrible distortion and misrepresentation of what really happened.
For example, we could say that Hugh Hefner of Playboy magazine has made many men immoral, adulterers, and perverts. That is certainly true, but we don't think of the sins of Hugh Hefner being imputed to others! That would be a ridiculous twist of reason! We could say that all the devil-possessed rock musicians of our day have ruined multitudes of people with their music and their message of drugs and rebellion. That would be true, but we would not think of them being ruined in the sense that the rock singers' sins were imputed to them by some physical means. Again, we might see a family where the father was a drunkard and all his sons were drunkards, too. We would say that father made drunkards out of his boys with his drinking, and that would be true. But you would never think that the father somehow passed that to his children physically. We understand that it was his INFLUENCE that caused his boys to be drunkards also. We have sense enough to understand these things correctly but when it comes to the Word of God we put a twist on it that doesn't fit with reason, or with the rest of the Scripture.
Along that same line of reasoning, we all have known wicked fathers who had sons who were righteous. The Bible is also full of examples like that. Likewise, we have seen righteous men who have had wicked sons. It is the INFLUENCE - NOT THE GENES! It is whether or not they submit their heart to God and his law or rebel against it. EVERY person must choose for themselves - and they DO!
Fifth proof text for original sin:
Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. - Eph. 2:3
This is another verse held up as PROOF that we are born sinful. The word used here is WRATH - not a thing said here about being born sinful. The book is written to a Gentile church. The context and emphasis of the chapter is that he is speaking to Gentiles who have been saved. They were born Gentiles - by nature they were Gentiles. The Jews considered the Gentiles to be "dogs" and enemies of God. There wasn't much hope for a Gentile as far as the Jews were concerned. They were "children of wrath." They were wicked and estranged from God and would be recipients of his wrath on Judgment Day.
It is just a terrible strain to try to make this verse "prove" that we are born sinful. The only way someone can believe that is because they come to this verse with an idea already fixed in their mind and every verse must be FORCED to fit their preconceived idea. Try reading it IN CONTEXT while forgetting about the doctrine of original sin.
There are other verses that are also used to support this false doctrine, but these we have discussed are the strongest and most commonly misinterpreted. The Bible does NOT teach the doctrine of original sin. Anyone who is willing to look honestly at the Scripture and lay aside their biased opinion will have to acknowledge that fact.

Next Part: How Can We Sin Without a Sinful Nature?

Are We Born Sinners? (Part 2 - Objections - Are All Men Sinners?) by Mike Miller

First most common objection:
Are you saying all men aren't sinners?
Over the years I have noticed that the first reaction of most people is the same when they hear the doctrine of original sin refuted for the first time. They immediately assume that we are saying that all men are NOT sinners. This is just absolutely not true. The Bible is clear on that fact: “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” “There is none righteous, no not one.” Many other verses prove that all men are sinners in need of a Saviour. If they do not come to Christ and trust Him as the only hope for forgiveness of sin they will perish forever in hell. That is why we are so fervently contending that we MUST get the message right! We must make the path STRAIGHT – and not crooked! We MUST understand what sin is, what its cure is, and how to obtain it! The stakes are too high to handle the Word of God lightly in this matter, or just accept what a certain school of theology teaches. Eternal souls are at stake!

All men are sinners and must be saved or they will perish. That is not the issue here. What IS the issue is the ORIGIN OF SIN. Most of modern Christendom says it is part of our physical makeup we were born with and we are contending that the Bible teaches otherwise. The Bible teaches that we are born innocent and without any knowledge of good and evil and that we GO ASTRAY. We TURN ASIDE every one to his own way.
They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one. – Psa. 14:3
Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions.Eccl. 7:29
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. – Isa. 53:6
How think ye? if a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone astray? – Matt. 18:12
They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.– Rom. 3:12
Which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; – 2 Pet. 2:15
For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.1 Pet. 2:25

The Bible is clear in its language – man is born innocent and corrupts himself by allowing himself to be controlled by his lusts. He “turns aside.” He “goes astray.” He “becomes filthy.” He “turns every one to his own way.” He “becomes unprofitable.” He “forsakes the right way.” We find man’s waywardness expressed in the same way over and over in the Word of God. If men are born guilty sinners then from what are they turning? If they are already filthy how do they “BECOME filthy?” Sin is something that happens AFTER you are born – it is not something that is in your genes, DNA, or chromosomes. If sin IS a physical problem then man will surely come up with a way to fix it on his own one day. Through genetic engineering and all they are prying into they will surely find the “sin gene” and be able to make a drug that will suppress it or kill it. Don’t you see how ridiculous it is to believe that sin is physical? I’m sure that you would agree that this is never going to happen. The reason it will never happen is because sin is a HEART PROBLEM and NOT A PHYSICAL PROBLEM! Jesus said so:
And Jesus said, Are ye also yet without understanding? 17Do not ye yet understand, that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the draught? 18But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. 19For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: 20These are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man. –Matt. 15:16 through Matt. 15:20
Sin is a moral issue and not a physical issue. It is impossible to be born with your morals already corrupted. When you are born you have no knowledge of good and evil. You have no ability to even reason with your mind. You have no capacity to make choices. As you develop physically and mentally you begin to acquire knowledge and part of that knowledge is the knowledge of good and evil. Then you begin to make choices. Because “sin entered the world” through Adam the world is corrupt and the influence to make the wrong choices is overwhelming and powerful.

There has only been One in all of history who has made the right choices and not become a sinner – the Lord Jesus Christ. Those who view the Bible through the doctrine of original sin explain that fact by saying that Jesus was different physically than the rest of us. Again, their false doctrine blinds them to the plain teaching of the Scripture:
For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham. Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. 18For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted.Heb. 2:16-18
Jesus was made just like us IN ALL THINGS. In fact, the Bible is so forceful in this teaching that even any spirit that denies this fact is labeled “antichrist.”
And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world. – 1 John 4:3
Jesus overcame the world, the flesh, and the devil by the same means that are available to us – the Word of God and the Spirit of God. He used divine power to still the raging sea and to raise the dead, and heal the leper, but when it came to resisting temptation He only used the Word of God, being led by the Spirit of God. No divine power was used to overcome sin, and if it was then we certainly don’t have a chance at all because we are not divine.

The wonderful thing is that we DO have the Word of God and we DO have the Spirit of God indwelling us if we are saved, and therefore, there is victory in Jesus for us! There IS power to overcome sin and live a holy life that is pleasing to God! Hallelujah! That is such a different message than can be preached by those who base everything on original sin. That is such a different message than the defeated, hopeless Christian life that original sin preachers present. They declare Romans 7 to be the best you can expect as a Christian. If I had no better hope than that to give to a sinner I certainly would quit preaching! But I don’t have to quit because there is Romans 8, and a host of other Scriptures that make very clear that we are “MORE THAN CONQUERORS THROUGH HIM THAT LOVED US!”
 

Next part: What about our sinful nature?

Are We Born Sinners? (Part 1)

When I took a stand against the teaching of sin nature, I was told that I was teaching some new doctrine that went against the "fundamentals of the faith" taught by great men of God. I agree that I took a stand against these "fundamentals" as taught by great men of God, but that it is a new doctrine is false. Although the support of men isn't necessary to believe God's word, it does "sharpen" your faith to know that there are others who "prove all things" rather than blindly accept the popular teachings in many churches. For this reason, I searched recently to see if there was anyone else who let God's word decide on this issue of "sin nature" and I came across an article by Mike Miller. I have never met Mr. Miller before and have only spoken to him a few times by email after realzing my belief in a sin nature was wrong. In the next 10 posts, I will share with you, with his permission, the articles he wrote on the issue. As I read these articles, it was as if Mr. Miller was fully acquainted with what I was going through the past few weeks. Not only did it seem that he knew my situation, but it also seemed like he wrote exactly what I have been trying to write in my posts on Shepherd's Goad (only he wrote much clearer). This doesn't come as a surprise to me, for he is studying the same KJV Bible that I am, and the Holy Spirit guided him into all truth as He did me. If you are like me, and couldn't wait before reading all 10 of his articles, you are welcome to visit his website  (See "Miscellaneous Links: Midway Bible Baptist Church Archives)

P.S. I will continue writing after I post his 10 articles.


Are We Born Sinners?
3/21/2005

PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU READ THIS ARTICLE!

The tone of this article may seem rather harsh at times, but I feel that it needs to be. Be it known that I am not attacking people, but I am attacking what I believe with all my heart to be a false doctrine. I do not imagine that everyone who believes in original sin is unsaved or ungodly. I personally know many dear brethren who, I believe with all my heart, love God supremely and serve Him in holiness, but yet preach this (false) doctrine. I have observed that most of them have never given it any serious thought or study – they are just repeating what they have been taught and heard all their lives. So please don’t take personal offense at this article. It is not intended to hurt the feelings of people but to “contend for the faith once delivered to the saints.” It is intended to stir you up and get you to study and take an honest look into this matter in the light of the Word of God.

What is at stake is too important! We must get it right! “Make straight the way of the Lord!” We just can’t be slothful and careless with the souls of men, so please read and consider this challenge to what has become the foundation of modern Christianity.
 

---

Are We Born Sinners?
So you believe all men are born sinners? That is the foundation from which you build all your other doctrines. Rejoice, because you have plenty of company. This doctrine is the common thread among all the cults, including Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Catholic Church, and Calvinists. It is the common ground for evolutionists and Christians who believe it. It was a major factor in many of Sigmund Freud’s misguided ideas that have done so much to guide the world away from God and his Word. The world uses the idea of original sin as a basis for the excuses and explanations for evil and excess. It is the best excuse men have ever come up with for their sin. It has done more to encourage men to continue in sin than any idea ever conceived.

The cult known as Jehovah’s Witnesses are famous for not allowing blood transfusions. The reason is because they believe sin is in the blood and will be transferred to them if they take someone else’s blood. The Catholic Church baptizes infants because they believe they are born guilty of Adam’s sin and will go to hell if they die without having those sins washed away by baptism. All of Calvinism is pretty much summed up in one word – “inability” and according to their logic, it is a result of being born sinful. Take away the doctrine of original sin and Calvinism has no foundation for its major doctrines. We are hearing from the humanistic world now that sodomites were “born that way.” Drunkards were “born that way.” Now we are hearing the same explanation for people who are fat, or who are thieves, or child molesters, or perverts, and on and on. Recently there was an article in the news proclaiming that the tendency to be religious is also a result of your genetic makeup. In other words, you inherit that trait physically from your parents and therefore you can’t help it if you are religious or not. That ought to make the Calvinists happy – the humanists believe just like they do!

Therefore, original sin is the common ground for humanists, evolutionists, psychiatrists, and most modern denominations of Christianity. They all believe that the physical body is the source of all the problems. You are what you are because of your genetic makeup. You do what you do because you are preprogrammed from conception.

Of all the damnable, deceitful, dirty lies that devil has deceived mankind with through the years, the doctrine of original sin must be his masterpiece! It has ruined more souls, destroyed more churches, put out more fires of revival, and quenched the working of the Holy Spirit more than any other doctrine that has ever entered the minds of men. It has undermined the true gospel message and rendered it impotent. It has turned the reality of salvation through Christ into a mere form of religion and the multitudes have embraced it. It has made the church and its message a mockery before the world.

It is illogical and unscriptural! It is unthinkable! It is amazing that men of sound minds could swallow such a load of deceit and nonsense! It is obvious that this is the work of the great deceiver. It is also evidence that sin truly does cause depravity in man. Anyone honest person who knows anything about the Bible and who hasn’t been exposed to this horrendous doctrine automatically rejects it when they hear it for the first time. It is so preposterous that even a child will reject it. The very idea that newborn infants are guilty sinners while they have no knowledge of good and evil and no ability to reason or make choices flies in the face of the very nature of every person on earth – saved or lost! That a just God will cast these infants into hell if they die is an abomination to every sensible human being! There really are those who preach such nonsense, but you can rest assured that if they preached this at the funeral of an infant, there would not be one single person there who would believe it, no matter how many doctrinal books they lay out to prove it.

This perverted doctrine denies the justice of God. It removes the responsibility for sin from the sinner, but worse than that, it places that responsibility on God himself. What blasphemy! It confuses the definition of sin and presents it as something completely different than it is in reality. It is an outright lie because it teaches that sin is a substance passed through the genes, and particularly, the blood of our physical bodies. It makes sin a NATURAL thing and it certainly is NOT. God did not create man to sin, so it is completely UN-NATURAL. This can be easily understood by the natural barriers that God gave us to protect us from sin. Every sin is most difficult the first time we do it, after that it gets easier each time. For example, any kind of addiction, from tobacco, to drugs, to booze, is something you have to work at in order to develop. Your body resists these things naturally. Think of someone tasting hard whiskey for the first time. They will almost choke. Think of someone inhaling a big puff off a cigarette for the first time. He coughs, and gags, and sometimes gets physically sick. But if you do it again, and again, you will eventually overcome that natural resistance and truly develop an un-natural desire for something. That desire is not what God created you with, but it is of your own making. Sin is anything but natural – it is completely un-natural.

This hellish idea makes God the author of sin. Only the devil himself is mean enough to come up with an idea like that and make it acceptable to men who claim to love and serve God. If you are born sinful then it is of God’s doing because He is your Creator! Who doesn’t believe that? Your countenance, the color of your eyes, the color of your hair, your smile, are all designed by God himself. If you are born sinful then it is also of his doing. You can’t deny the fact that this ungodly doctrine lays the blame for sin at the feet of God himself! That alone should make you back up and think about it! That alone should make you question what you’ve been taught about this matter! If you believe this doctrine you are charging God Almighty with the sin of all mankind. You are telling Him that He is to blame for every dirty deed you have ever done and every time you have yielded to your lusts and did as you pleased against his law.

This doctrine hatched in hell has produced plenty of offspring. Why do you suppose the Catholics had to come up with the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception? The doctrine of original sin had them in a tight place. They couldn’t answer the questions about how Jesus could be born of an earthly mother and yet have a sinful nature. The only way they could do this without trashing the doctrine of original sin was to make Mary sinless, also. Now that’s a pretty difficult task if it has to be based on the Bible because the Bible plainly says that Mary went and offered her sin offerings after the birth of Christ just as she was supposed to do. They were only able to do it because they do not believe the Bible is the final authority – they believe the Catholic Church is.

All the “Bible-believers” that adhere to original sin don’t worry about answering the questions that arise, they just use their tongues to slay the ones asking the questions and mark them as “heretics.” That solves the problem for them. There are others who try to explain it by saying that sin is passed through the father’s blood and because Jesus had no earthly father he didn’t receive that sinful nature. This has all been proven to be a fairy tale and is medically and scientifically false. The baby’s blood is from both father and mother, not from just one. The sin is NOT in the blood – it is NOT a physical attribute or a substance passed from one generation to another physically!

Infant baptism is another practice that has no basis in the Word of God. It is the result, or at least in the beginning, it was the result of the false doctrine of original sin. They baptized infants to wash away their sins. Oh, not the sins they had committed, but the sins they were born with. Foolishness!

Then there are all the doctrines of Calvinism that have poisoned the waters for so many multitudes and left so many without any hope in God. Without the doctrine of original sin there would be no such thing as Calvinism or Catholicism. No one would ever get the idea that they are outside the elect and without hope. No one would ever sit on their rear end until they die and go to hell thinking there was nothing they could do but wait on God to save them through some passive faith and grace that they have no part in. It is a damnable, deceitful, and truly wicked doctrine!

This is the doctrine that has produced the idea that men cannot obey God. They are unable, even with the Spirit of God dwelling in them, to even come close to obeying the law of God. What an affront to God himself! What a mean God He must be! He made the law, then he made us unable to keep it, and sends us to hell because we can’t! I would like someone to show me just one law that we cannot keep. Where is it written? Which one is it? Some have said, “Well, that’s easy! It’s the very first one – “Thou shalt love the Lord they God with all thy heart, soul, mind, and strength. No one lives up to that one.” If someone asked you if you loved your children with all your heart, what would your answer be? I suspect you would say yes. I will just say that if you can’t honestly say you love God that much you should really consider checking up on your salvation. For most people the statement above would be enough to jar their mind into thinking clearly again. Don’t you see how this doctrine of devils has the power to warp your mind and cause you to think in a twisted way about God and your sin?

The doctrine of original sin makes many things sin that aren’t sin at all. It makes people think in such a way that they consider temptation to be the same thing as sin itself. Many poor people live in misery and defeat because they have an evil thought, and to them, that proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that they are wicked and possessed of this “sinful nature” they were born with. No matter how hard they try they cannot overcome sin. They want to do right, but cannot. When they would do good, they do evil anyway. The strange thing is that when they got saved they quit cursing, they quit drinking, they quit smoking and gambling. They quit committing fornication and started attending church and tithing. They overcame SOME sin, but can’t overcome others. What is this sin that they can’t seem to overcome? It is their thoughts. They think if they have a bad thought they have sinned. How ridiculous! Thoughts precede actions. Temptation is always in the mind BEFORE sin is committed. To think a thought and cast it aside is NOT sin. You are NOT guilty until you dwell on that thought and start planning and plotting to carry it out in action. What freedom many people could know if they simply would understand the difference between temptation and sin! Remember, Christ himself was TEMPTED IN ALL POINTS LIKE AS WE ARE – yet He was without sin.

The zealous proponents of this doctrine of devils try to prove it by pointing to an infant crying for its mother and calling that sin. Wow! That should bring up a red flag to anyone who is thinking! That child is innocent and as pure as the driven snow. He has no evil thoughts! He has no depraved thinking! He is not lying there and thinking about how he can deceive his mother! He is simply reaching out for help in the only way available to him – crying. There is nothing sinful about wanting to be in the arms of his mother. There is nothing sinful about being hungry or needing a diaper changed! What kind of a mind calls this sin? Think about it!

Allow me to point something out to you. The same kind of mind that calls this infant’s crying a sin will call other things in adults simply “Christian liberty.” Isn’t that amazing? We have no right to call things sin when Christ gave us “liberty” but they charge an innocent infant with sin and he has no defense. We’re to the point now where fornication is considered “Christian liberty” by many. Hellish music is “Christian liberty.” Dirty habits that abuse your body, ruin your testimony, and dishonor God are “Christian liberty,” and a baby crying for his mother proves that we are born sinful and uttering lies. How can anyone possibly believe such as that?

Right now you probably have a number of questions running through your mind. Asking questions is natural when you are challenged about something you have embraced as truth. I believe there are reasonable, scriptural answers to your questions. I would also say that if you intend to stake out your ground in original sin, then you have a boatload of questions to answer yourself. However, you are going to find yourself in a real predicament because you can’t answer those questions unless you give up the falsehood of original sin, or cast the Word of God aside.

That only leaves the option of attacking those who have challenged you to think. I hope you won’t do that, but that you will consider these things and truly seek the mind of God through the Word of God on this matter.

Next part: Aren't all men sinners?