Are Men Born Sinners? - Library of Theology

10. The fact that men will deny the wrong they have done shows that they recognize an
absolute standard of right and wrong. For instance, a man is accused of lying, cheating, or
stealing. If the accusation is true, why does he deny it? It can only be that he recognizes
that what he has done is wrong, for he would have no reason to hide or deny what he has
done if he did not recognize it to be wrong.
11. The fact that men blame other men for wrongdoing shows that all men have the law
of God written in their hearts. For instance, if someone's car is stolen, he would never
say, "Oh, I don't blame whoever stole my car. After all, there is nothing wrong with
stealing. People just think it's wrong to steal because society has educated them that
way." The employee who is cheated out of his wages by his employer doesn't say, "Oh,
he hasn't done anything wrong. He just learned a different set of ethics than most of us."
All men resent unjust treatment when they are treated unjustly. If anyone abuses them
with degrading or filthy language, they will be offended and blame the one who has
abused them. And if anyone were to attempt to explain to them that they have not really
been wronged and that they just think they have been wronged because of their religious
education or environment, they will judge that person a fit candidate for the crazy house.
The truth is that all men blame other men for wrongdoing, and this is true even if they
know that they themselves are guilty of the same things. A man may be a liar, a thief, and
a cheat himself, but he still judges those attributes as wrong in others. Whoever heard of a
liar who was happy to be deceived by another liar? What liar would ever say, "I just love
and admire liars; they are so noble"?
12. There is no escaping the fact that men have a common awareness of right and wrong
and that they have this awareness without ever having read the Bible, and without the
shaping or teaching influence of society. Man's knowledge of right and wrong is not the
product of society. On the contrary, it is because of man's innate knowledge of right and
wrong that an ordered society can and does exist with some degree of cohesion and
decency. In fact, it is only man's common awareness of right and wrong, given him in his
nature, that keeps society half-way on the track of decency and order. I say "half-way"
because, although our moral nature forces irresistible convictions of right and wrong
upon us, it cannot force us to do the right. We, as free moral agents, are able to obey or
disobey the law of our nature.
13. Man's whole system of human government with its law and its penalty for the broken
law is founded and built upon his common awareness of responsibility and
accountability. Without this awareness, human government would not and could not
exist. Therefore, human government with its laws, penalties, police forces, courts, judges,
etc., gives mute testimony to the fact that all men know themselves to be moral agents
and fully responsible and accountable for their deeds. Otherwise, moral government
would be an imposition and senseless, as senseless as a moral government over the beasts
of the field.
Man is created as more than one of the dumb beasts of the field. Man is an intelligent
rational spirit. He is created in the image and likeness of God. He is able to know God,
commune with him and have fellowship with him. How noble is the nature that God has