Are Men Born Sinners? - Library of Theology

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not to the sphere of the will. He accordingly perceives a sin rooted in natura, of course in the form which it has assumed, a sin that propagates itself with our nature. It would be easy now to prove that in thinking of inherited sin, he always has chiefly in view this very sin, the lust of procreation; but it is impracticable to quote his material here. And again: ...and Augustine imagined paradisaical marriages in which children were begotten without lust, or, as Julian says jestingly, were to be shaken from trees. All that he here maintains had been long ago held by Marcion and the Gnostics. One would have, in fact, to be a very rough being not to be able, and that without Manichaeism, to sympathize with his feeling. But to yield to it so far as Augustine did, without rejecting marriage in consequence, could only happen at a time when doctrines were as confused as in the fifth century. Augustine went so far as to say that, although matrimonial intercourse was permitted by the Apostle Paul, it was nevertheless still sinful. Augustine taught that God makes us sinners and decrees our sinfulness. God punishes sin with sin. He punishes us for sin with original sin. The sin which mankind inherits is both sin and sin's punishment. This has been ordained by God. It is the penalty of sin that we do the evil we would not. He believed in absolute and unconditional predestination and election, irresistible grace, complete bondage of the will (a necessitated will man is free only to do evil), and natural inability to obey God. He taught that all mankind sinned in Adam when he sinned and is condemned with him. Men are born sinners now and are completely unable to obey God or do anything good. He taught that those who are elect and saved are to make up for the fallen angels, so that the number of angels will be complete again. The death of Christ was a payment of what was rightly owed to the devil for our redemption. He believed in a purgatory, masses, alms, and prayers for the dead. He believed that all are polluted by original sin except for Mary. Unbaptized infants are damned because of inherited sin and guilt. He believed in the intercession of saints and martyrs in our favor, and the whole superstitious baggage of the Roman Catholic Church. In short, he was subject to all the prejudices and superstitions of his day in forming his religious views. Harnack says: So also he was implicated in all the prejudices of contemporary exegesis. It is to be added, finally, that, although less credulous than his contemporaries, he was, like Origen, involved in the prejudices, in the mania for miracles, and the superstition of the age...A slave learns to read in answer to prayer, in three days, and without human help; and we have divine judgments, miracle-working relics, etc. Again:
Even the most cultured Fathers from the fifth century ceased to be capable of distinguishing between the real and the unreal; they were defenseless against the most absurd tales of the miraculous, and lived in a world of magic and enchantment...Two clerics of North Africa were suspected of a scandalous act; both denied the charge; one must have been guilty; Augustine sent them over sea to the grave of Saint Felix of Nola. There they were to repeat their assertions; Augustine expected that the Saint would at once punish the liar. And again: At the sixth Council a Monothelite offered to prove the truth of his confession by writing it and placing it on the breast of a dead man, when the dead would rise up. The fathers of the Council accepted the test. It was from this soil the soil of religious ignorance and superstition, and from the soil of heathen philosophical speculation that the Augustinian doctrine of original sin sprang up. The following is a compilation of direct quotes from advocates of the doctrine of original sin, beginning with direct quotes from Augustine: Our nature sinned in Adam. Augustine R. Seeburg, History of Doctrine, Vol. I, p. 338. It was just, that after our nature had sinned...we should be born animal and carnal. Augustine R. Seeburg, History of Doctrine, Vol. I, p. 338. Our nature, there transformed for the worse, not only became a sinner, but also begets sinners. Augustine R. Seeburg, History of Doctrine, Vol. I, p. 342. From this condemnation no one is exempt, not even new-born children. Augustine R. Seeburg, History of Doctrine, Vol. I, p. 343. Unconscious infants dying without baptism are damned by virtue of their inherited guilt. Augustine Albert Henry Newman, Manual of Church History, Vol. I, p. 366. Children are infected by parents' sins as well as Adam's and the "actual" sins of the parents impose guilt upon the children. Augustine Harnack, History of Dogma, Vol. V, p. 227. There is in us a "necessity of sinning." Augustine R. Seeburg, History of Doctrine, Vol. I, p. 343. Whatever offspring is born is...bound to sin. Augustine R. Seeburg, History of Doctrine, Vol. I, p. 344. The "nature and essence" of man is, from his birth, an evil tree and a child of wrath. Martin Luther R. Seeburg, History of Doctrine, Vol. II, p.229.
Page 1 and 2: Are Men Born Sinners? The Myth of O
Page 3 and 4: Appendix A: The Nature and Attribut
Page 5 and 6: and that he has been created with a
Page 7 and 8: are born: "The wicked are estranged
Page 9 and 10: We are the offspring of God. Acts 1
Page 11 and 12: Biblical proof-texts. It is these p
Page 13 and 14: not a substance. It has absolutely
Page 15 and 16: flesh and of the mind." And then, s
Page 17 and 18: Rom. 5:12-19 does not in any way te
Page 19 and 20: This is the incredible dogma that i
Page 21 and 22: And, If in Adam human nature as a w
Page 23: e disciplined and purified. He taug
Page 27 and 28: They being the root of all mankind,
Page 29 and 30: 2. It means that, since we are the
Page 31 and 32: possible to make mankind miserable
Page 33 and 34: 10. The fact that men will deny the
Page 35 and 36: think of the multitudes upon multit
Page 37 and 38: Part Two: Answering the Christian's
Page 39 and 40: men are tempted through the desires
Page 41 and 42: doctrine that Christians were now d
Page 43 and 44: Christ, he points out that Levi had
Page 45 and 46: Why? doth not the son bear the iniq
Page 47 and 48: Those who heartily believe in the d
Page 49 and 50: forth good fruit; but a corrupt tre
Page 51 and 52: appealing to the false logic that "
Page 53 and 54: commanded the sun and not the earth
Page 55 and 56: Second, the doctrine of original si
Page 57 and 58: Part Three: Implications of a False
Page 59 and 60: 5. It is a stumbling-block to the u
Page 61 and 62: The Bible says that God will "judge
Page 63 and 64: heathen philosophy, and was foisted
Page 65 and 66: would lose all its force and meanin
Page 67 and 68: In 426 or 427, it was reported to A
Page 69 and 70: But again, the doctrine of inabilit
Page 71 and 72: The doctrine of a natural inability
Page 73 and 74: they think reason is to be distrust
Page 75 and 76:
art Four: Insurmountable Problems o
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sinned in Adam before they were bor
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Who will have all men to be saved,
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John wrote his epistles, condemning
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No man is able...by any grace recei
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means has been born and continues t
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Return to the Index Chapter 12: God
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Is God telling lies when he makes t
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6. See further commentary on Romans
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Finney, Charles G., Lectures on Sys
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Appendix A The Nature and Attribute
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until they have a knowledge of good
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accountability, for this they had b
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Matt. 13:38-39; John 3:8; Rev. 12:9
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summing up of all he had said befor
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"The righteousness of the law" is "
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The Bible can be used to prove the
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constitution and this mental consti
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It follows that the elect may deman
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us certain irresistible convictions
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manifestly angry; but I do not reco
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Excerpts from Charles G. Finney's L
Page 119 and 120:
where only the potency comes into a
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striking and melancholy evidences o
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this was through a degradation of t
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12-21. This passage has been usuall
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8. Moses Stuart, Commentary on Roma
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Are Men Born Sinners? - Library of Theology

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