Are Men Born Sinners? - Library of Theology

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Regeneration, according to this school, is a change in the constitutional nature of man. It is a change wrought by the power of the Holy Spirit, in which the sinner is wholly passive, and in which new and holy susceptibilities, dispositions, tastes, and appetites are implanted or created in the soul. The problem with this is that no such physical or passive regeneration is taught in the Bible. The Bible teaches that the work which the Holy Spirit does in the sinner is moral rather than physical. It is a work of moral suasion, of divine teaching and illumination, of convicting and reproving of sin. John 6:44-45, John 16:8, James 1:18, John 15:3, I Peter 1:22-23. The Bible teaches that the sinner cannot be passive in regeneration, but he must respond to the voice of God. He must repent and make to himself "a new heart and a new spirit." Ez. 18:30-32. The Bible teaches that regeneration is the work of both God and man: (1) The work of God: Titus 3:5, James 1:18, I John 3:9, John 3:5, John 6:44-45; (2) The work of the sinner himself: Ez. 18:31, I Peter 1:22, James 4:7-8, Acts 3:19, James 1:21, Jer. 4:14; (3) The work of men who preach the Word of God: I Cor. 4:15, Fil. 1:10, James 5:19-20, Prov. 11:30, Dan. 12:3, Mark 1:17, I Cor. 9:22; and (4) The work of the Word of God: I Cor. 4:15, James 1:18, James 1:21, I Peter 1:23. There is no passive physical change in the sinner when he becomes a saint. The Bible teaches that regeneration is an active, cooperative, moral change, and not a passive physical change. f. The doctrine of a natural inability to repent. If man's very nature is sinful, then it is a natural impossibility for him to repent. This fact has led naturally and necessarily to the doctrine that God first changes the sinner's nature in regeneration (passive regeneration), and then the sinner repents. According to this school of thought, repentance and conversion both follow regeneration because the sinner cannot obey God's command to repent and be converted until after he has been regenerated. g. The doctrines of arbitrary election and reprobation, absolute and unconditional predestination, irresistible grace, and a necessitated will. All of the above doctrines follow logically from a belief in constitutional sinfulness. Augustine, the father of the doctrine of original sin, taught that salvation depends on God's inscrutable election and predestination, independent of any human agency. He taught that man is born with a corrupt and depraved nature, that he is not free (except to do evil), that he has a necessitated will, that God's love is infused, and that man is by nature absolutely unable to love God, or do anything good. These teachings of Augustine engendered fatalism and despair in the hearts of some in the Catholic Church:
In 426 or 427, it was reported to Augustine that the monks in the cloister of Adrumetum in North Africa were in some cases driven to despair, in other cases moved to careless self-indulgence, by his teaching as to man's helplessness and as to irresistible grace. Free will, grace, predestination, election, and reprobation are, of course, biblical doctrines. It is only the extreme and fatalistic views of these doctrines, as taught by Augustine and others who believe in the constitutional sinfulness of man, that are unscriptural. h. The doctrine of a natural inability to obey God. The doctrine of a natural inability to obey God is at the very heart of the doctrine of original sin. According to the advocates of original sin, all men, even those who are Christians, have a corrupt, sinful nature and are unable to obey God as long as they are in this life: From this original corruption, whereby we are utterly indisposed, disabled, and made opposite to all good, and wholly inclined to all evil, do proceed all actual transgressions. Westminster Confession. This corruption of nature, during this life, doth remain in those that are regenerated. Westminster Confession. By reason of his remaining corruption, he doth not perfectly, nor only, will that which is good, but doth also will that which is evil. Westminster Confession. They deplore their inability to love their Redeemer, to keep themselves from sin, to live a holy life in any degree adequate to their own convictions of their obligations...They recognize it as the fruit and evidence of the corruption of their nature derived as a sad inheritance from their first parents. Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, Vol. II, p. 273. No man is able...by any grace received in this life, perfectly to keep the commandments of God, but doth daily break them in thought, word, and deed. Larger Catechism. ...whereby he is utterly indisposed, disabled, and made opposite unto all that is spiritually good, and wholly inclined to all evil, and that continually, which is commonly called original sin, and from which do proceed all actual transgressions. Larger Catechism. This doctrine opens the floodgates of rebellion against God, for it implies impunity for sin. Surely God would not be so unreasonable as to judge us for sin when he knows that we are by nature unable to obey him. Oh, what a lie the church has embraced! There is not one verse of Scripture in the entire Bible that says men have a sinful nature which makes them unable to obey God. It is true that all sinners are in a moral sense unable to obey God, but they are not naturally unable to obey God. And there is a great difference between a natural inability and a moral inability to obey God. Let us illustrate the
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 and 24: e disciplined and purified. He taug
Page 25 and 26: Even the most cultured Fathers from
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: would lose all its force and meanin
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
Page 77 and 78: sinned in Adam before they were bor
Page 79 and 80: Who will have all men to be saved,
Page 81 and 82: John wrote his epistles, condemning
Page 83 and 84: No man is able...by any grace recei
Page 85 and 86: means has been born and continues t
Page 87 and 88: Return to the Index Chapter 12: God
Page 89 and 90: Is God telling lies when he makes t
Page 91 and 92: 6. See further commentary on Romans
Page 93 and 94: Finney, Charles G., Lectures on Sys
Page 95 and 96: Appendix A The Nature and Attribute
Page 97 and 98: until they have a knowledge of good
Page 99 and 100: accountability, for this they had b
Page 101 and 102: Matt. 13:38-39; John 3:8; Rev. 12:9
Page 103 and 104: summing up of all he had said befor
Page 105 and 106: "The righteousness of the law" is "
Page 107 and 108: The Bible can be used to prove the
Page 109 and 110: constitution and this mental consti
Page 111 and 112: It follows that the elect may deman
Page 113 and 114: us certain irresistible convictions
Page 115 and 116: manifestly angry; but I do not reco
Page 117 and 118:
Excerpts from Charles G. Finney's L
Page 119 and 120:
where only the potency comes into a
Page 121 and 122:
striking and melancholy evidences o
Page 123 and 124:
this was through a degradation of t
Page 125 and 126:
12-21. This passage has been usuall
Page 127:
8. Moses Stuart, Commentary on Roma
show all

Are Men Born Sinners? - Library of Theology

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?