Are Men Born Sinners? - Library of Theology

Part Two: Answering the Christian's Objections
Chapter Five: Objections Answered
Several objections have been made to the Bible doctrine of sin, which is the doctrine that
men are created upright, and that they sin and corrupt themselves. Eccl. 7:29. The
following is an attempt to answer these objections:
1. OBJECTION: We know from observation that babies are born with a sinful nature,
because they fuss and scream, refuse to eat, go into a rage, throw tantrums, etc.
ANSWER: It is both morally and physically impossible to be born with a sinful nature.
First, it is a moral impossibility because a baby cannot justly be a sinner by birth that a
baby can be a sinner and guilty and condemned at birth is morally unthinkable! Second, it
is a physical impossibility because sin is not a substance and so cannot be transmitted
physically.
But we know that babies fuss and scream, refuse to eat, and throw tantrums before they
know the difference between right and wrong. Do those who advocate the doctrine of
original sin want to advance the argument that an inherited sin nature makes little babies
sin before they even know what it is and before they know that they are sinning? This
makes sin such a completely necessary, involuntary, and impersonal thing that there
could never be any blame or guilt for it. If it is true that little babies sin because of a
sinful nature and before they even know they are sinning, then it follows that they are
completely automated and that their sin is completely necessary, involuntary, and
impersonal. If all this were true, you could no more blame sinners for being sinners than
you could blame a clock for striking the hour something it does impersonally,
involuntarily, and necessarily because it was built to do so.
But babies fuss and scream, refuse to eat, throw tantrums, etc., not because of a sinful
nature, but in response to pain and discomfort, the likes and dislikes of appetite, and the
urges and desires of the sensibility. True, they do things which we think are selfish and
sinful, and things which would in fact be selfish and sinful if they did them knowing
them to be wrong. But while they have no knowledge of right and wrong, their actions
have no moral character, and therefore their actions are not and cannot be "sinful." It is
only when a child's reason has developed and he has a clear understanding of right and
wrong (an understanding of his accountability and the moral nature of his actions) that he
becomes a moral agent and is responsible and accountable for his actions.
2. OBJECTION: We know from observation that sin is inherited because we see children
inherit the sinful traits of their parents.
ANSWER: Children do inherit physical traits from their parents but they do not and
cannot inherit moral traits or sin from their parents. Children only appear to inherit the