Who taught the baby to scream, kick and become angry? Wow … you may be thinking … “He is opening a can of worms now.” There is a Doctrine hated by many people across the Christian World. It is known as the Doctrine of Original Sin. Those fighting against this Doctrine deny that babies are born with a sinful nature. They would say things like … “How can an innocent baby sin?” Don’t get me wrong … I love babies … we had three. They are cute, cuddly, playful and loveable. There is no question about that … but … we may not replace what God teaches in the Bible with our feelings!
1) The Doctrine of Original sin proved from Scripture.
Ps 51:5 Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
You might say this only implies David. If you do say that then you have to apply other Biblical teachings to individuals alone. Take Jesus’ words:
Jn 3:3 In reply Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”
Would this mean that only Nicodemus needs to be born again to enter heaven? My point is that you cannot change one teaching to apply to too only one individual and ignore another. What David writes is about himself and it applies to all humans ever born. We come from Adam and as soon as Adam sinned, that sinful nature was transferred from him to his children and the same applies today. David says that he was a sinner from the moment of conception. From the moment the egg and the sperm gelled there was a sinner.
If this is true, then there is no such thing as an embryo followed by a fetus! Yes the teaching in biology is that there is an embryo and a fetus … they say … In human pregnancies, a baby-to-be isn’t considered a fetus until the 9th week after conception, or week 11 after your last menstrual period… Then they add … The embryonic period is all about the formation of important systems of the body … And lastly they say … The fetus which is 16 weeks can be regarded as human being because of ensoulment. It follows from this that one is authorized to refer to fetus which is 16 weeks or more as human being. If it was not so sad it would be laughable. You see, David, inspired by the Holy Spirit (Who is God the Holy Spirit) says two important things …
(a) From the moment of birth … from the moment the baby enters the world he / she is a sinner.
(b) But he goes further … he says … sinful from the time my mother conceived me. I said above … “From the moment the egg and the sperm gelled there was a sinner”.
Now, only a human being can be a sinner, therefore, from the moment of conception there is a human being in the mother’s womb. This creates all sorts of problems for people believing in the “embryo followed by the fetus”. To them this is not viable human life until the 16th week of pregnancy. To God the viable human life starts at moment of conception. This means that the way God sees ethics is that should any woman, by force, coercion or willing submit to abortion they are killing the human life in the womb. This is far from a “Democratic” position, but it is spot on from a Theocratic position.
Right here, man and God are in conflict! Who is right? Only one can be, and that one is God! Christians are hated for this. They are said to be spoilers. They ruin the lives of young girls, especially those who were raped! The lady who travelled America speaking to High School Teens about sex, Pam Stenzel, in her testimony tells of a young lady who was raped. She fell pregnant and gave the child up for adoption because she could not face dishonoring God by having an abortion. The baby was a girl, the father was a rapist and that girl was Pam Stenzel. She thanked God that her biological mother did not have an abortion because as she says … she had the right to life. Getting back to you and me … we are born with a sinful nature and disposition. The Church Father’s labelled this as Inherit Sin and Total Depravity.
(I) Inherited Sin comes from the Biblical teaching that because of the Fall in Genesis 3, every human being inherits a sinful disposition from Adam, passed on through Noah and his sons (post flood) to their descendants. Get this, if you are human, you descend from Adam through Noah and you are a sinner! You did nothing to earn or deserve this nature, but your (and my) first parent, Adam set the platform for a sinful race because of his sin. This is known as “Substitutionary Sin”. He sinned on our behalf. He sinned in our place. (This makes sense when we consider Jesus’ substitutionary death and resurrection.) If you knock your “funny bone” or a doctor knocks immediately below your knee there is an immediate reflex … reaction. Spiritually, where there is temptation, mostly before salvation, the immediate reflex or reaction is sin. This proves we have an inherited sinful disposition.
(II) The concept of Total Depravity, although fully Biblical, is not mentioned in the Bible. This is a state of corruption due to original sin where every part of man’s nature is infected, making the natural man unable to know or able to obey God. Amongst the many verses one could use, I want to present two. The first comes from Genesis:
Ge 6:5 The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.
Every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was evil all the time. The second comes from Matthew:
Mat 15:18 But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man ‘unclean.’ 19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. 20 These are what make a man ‘unclean’.
Jesus says sin comes out of the heart. When you place these two Scriptures alongside each other you realize God is saying man is totally depraved. There is no area or aspect of our being that has not been effected by sin. That is the true meaning of Total Depravity. We are not as bad as we could be but in every aspect of our being we are sinful. Remember, we are building a case for the Virgin Birth and Incarnation … and we are seeing that man (human race) is desperately wicked and evil and prone to take the sinful road before God’s holy road. We have seen the glorious holiness of the Divine One and the terrible wickedness of the human race and before we can pull these two teachings together it is right and proper to ask ourselves what we would or could do about this unequally yoked environment … Holy God / Wicked Race.
Father we are starting to see how desperate our situation is as we gaze upon Your holiness as sinful people. Thank You for grace in Jesus. Amen.