Subject:
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Re: Essential nature of mankind
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Wed, 4 Apr 2001 14:12:18 GMT
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Viewed:
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3570 times
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Jeremy Sproat writes:
> That's...interesting. If I were busted for aggrivated attempted
> shoplifting and reckless driving, would my children be responsible
> for my actions? Would my great-great-grandchildren, then, have the
> task for paying my debt to society?
>
> Or is Adam, and Adam alone (amongst mortals, now) responsible for Adam's
> sins?
When Adam sinned, He incurred the punishment for sin: "in the day that you
eat from it [the forbidden tree] you shall surely die" (Genesis 2:17). Adam
did not drop dead then, but the biological tendency to die started working
and nine hundred years later he did physically die. His descendants
inherited this built-in death tendency, and now all people die. Romans 5:12
says that "Through one man sin entered into the world, and death through
sin." Sin and death were closely linked at the beginning, so that just as
the death tendency was inherited, so the sin tendency was too. If there was
no sin tendency, and someone happened to live a life secluded from the
world, theoretically he would be perfect. Since it is a fact that all die,
however, this perfect man would die. But that would contradict what God
said, that only one who sins would die.
> And either way, how does this make you INHERENTLY EVIL...unless you're
> making some kind of confession unrelated to the nature of man...?
What I meant by that was that I inherently have a *very* strong tendency to
sin. My parents had to teach me to do right, because I did wrong by
default. That's the case with everyone.
> Again, interesting... I can see how, given your previous statement that
> we are all evil in nature, this can have its appeal. This would really • help
> in putting the fear of God in folks.
> Perhaps we're judged by our actions, rather than our nature. Perhaps
> there's some kind of attainable goal, and in order to reach it, we must
> prove ourselves in some way based upon our *own* talents and motives.
> Perhaps Christ (who is the son of God) volunteered to be an example of
> proper behavior, and working with Him gives us a kind of, I dunno, call it
> a "sin filter" with which we can work on our problems. Call me crazy, but
> this makes a lot more sense to me.
The only goal that there is is perfection, and we *can't* attain it. And by
God becoming man and dying for us, He demonstrated His love for us (Romans
6:23). If, as you propose, Jesus' life was merely a standard to which we
can compare ourselves, we wouldn't know how much He loves us. According to
the Bible, it is "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but
according to His mercy he saved us" (Titus 3:5). God did all the work for
us, and it takes some humility to realize that there's nothing we can do to
earn His favor. It is a gift which He paid for, and all we have to do is
reach out and take it; we don't have to pay Him for it in order to obtain it
(Ephesians 2:8-9).
--Ryan
> 1. Funny how it's never mentioned that woman is evil by nature...an
> omission to which I wholehartedly agree! :-,
That's very true (and I'm sure you know that by _man_ I mean _mankind_) :)
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: Essential nature of mankind
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| (...) Don't you agree, however, that's a broad assumption based on an even more broad definition of sin? Keep in mind that sin is relative to a culture, not a hard and fast rule to all cultures and creatures. Eating pork is a sin for Hebrews and (...) (23 years ago, 4-Apr-01, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: Essential nature of mankind
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| (...) That's...interesting. If I were busted for aggrivated attempted shoplifting and reckless driving, would my children be responsible for my actions? Would my great-great-grandchildren, then, have the task for paying my debt to society? Or is (...) (23 years ago, 3-Apr-01, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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