Sin A Disease Inherited From Adam?

 

In the doctrines of Calvinism, it is taught man suffered total depravity when Adam sinned, and that the will somehow stopped functioning. In other words, since the fall, man is now stuck on disobedience. It doesn't matter how careful man is, everything he does is sinful, so sinful that he can't make a positive choice. It has come to the point where people are led to believe that sin is not an act of the will, but a heredity disease. They believe that everyone is born blind and captive to sin. This false teaching, based on spurious foundation, has even reached its way into Christianity since the Reformation where some forms of Calvinism has crept in. It is a philosophical five point system that in one point teaches that sin is a disease. Sin as a disease defies common sense, defies intellect, and defies the word of God.

A few questions for those who think we inherited sin and think of sin as a disease.

What happens when a person sins? What is sin? Some will say it's a transgression of the law. But what about when there was no law? Can that person still sin? He's not imputed as such, but even one with no law sins. For instance, when Cain killed Able, there was no law yet that said, "Thou shalt not kill." But yet God confronted Cain and God treated that murder as wrong.

What about the time of Lot? When Abraham and Lot walked this earth, there was no law yet against sodomy, adultery, bestiality, but nonetheless, God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrha. Why? Because they were sinning. On what basis did God punish them? Did God punish them because of their ignorance? No. God punished them because of their willful sin. Was their sin a disease they inherited or was it an act? Why was Abraham and Lot different? Why was Abraham different from the people of Sodom and Gomorrha? Why does the Bible say Noah was found righteous in his day and how come others were not? Why was Lot called a righteous man, and yet the people around were found wicked sinners, sinning exceedingly and were destroyed? Is it something that some of them inherited and others did not, or was there a difference, and if there was, what was that difference?

When we read the Bible, it is consistently clear that God treats all men as if they had a choice and as if they were responsible. It leaves no room for doubt. God treated men who had a free will and He held them responsible for their own sins, and so it is nonsense to assume that man is born and locked into a certain moral condition.

What about sin, is it a substance? Is sin a substance like a disease or something that you can inherit? Does sin operate according to fixed law? In other words, do we sin by necessity? Are we forced to sin? That which operates according to fixed law is physical, even when it's of the soul. For instance, I can force myself to blink my eyes, or I can let it function naturally according to fixed law. I can force myself not to bat my eye, but I can't keep from batting my eye if you decide to hit me in the eye, because there is a fixed law there that controls it. Therefore there can be no moral quality in shutting my eye when you decide to stab me in my eye. God couldn't tell me not to bat my eye if somebody decided to stab me in the eye. That is a voluntary function of the soul, but yet I have no control over it because of that fixed law built into my flesh that wants to protect that eye. There's certain functions even within my soul that are fixed according to innate law, but the question remains, is a man born fixed to sin? When Adam sinned, did sin so pass on the human race that sin becomes the penalty of sin? If I inherited Adam's sin in such a way that I am guilty for it, did I also inherit the sin of my great grandfather? Did I inherit the sin of my father? Did I inherit the sin of adultery from my great, great, great grandfather? Am I too guilty of adultery because of his sin? Is God going to blame me for it? What if we go back a thousand years and one of my relatives committed murder, am I a murderer? Does God despise my soul and want to damn me for being a murderer? If the sins of Adam have so passed on that I'm guilty and blameworthy, why not the sins of Cain, Shem, Ham, Japeth, Saul, David, etc.? Are all Hammites guilty of Ham's sin committed against Noah? Are they all to blame for that? Did you ever read of anyone in the Old Testament going before God and blame their acts of sin because of having a "sinful nature"? Did David use that excuse?

All of this that is taught is not only unscriptural, it's also irrational. The doctrines of Calvinism can be disregarded by serious Bible students.

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