Original Sin?

As I wrote last week, my reading of Genesis is that God created Mankind in Genesis 1, over some period of time, then and a specific Man, Adam, and a specific woman, Eve, in Genesis 2.  If we read it just how it’s written, the contradictions in order of creation between 1 and 2, and  who Cain was afraid of and who he married go away.  But if Adam was not the first person, what about Original Sin?

In Genesis 2:16-17 God told Adam that in the day he ate from the Tree of Knowledge, he would die.  Obviously Adam did not literally die in that specific day, but centuries later.  It is thought that this means a spiritual death, as when sin separates one person from another, or from God.  As Paul writes in Romans 5:12-13, “When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned. Yes, people sinned even before the law was given. But it was not counted as sin because there was not yet any law to break.”

In Romans 7, Paul asserts that we would not know what coveting was without the Law.  But in Romans 2, he writes that Gentiles instinctively obey God’s Law which is written on our hearts.  I think both are true.  Things like murder, rape and stealing are wrong and we “all” know that.  

Coveting is a good example though.  There is no immediate harm from coveting.  But there is sin: dissatisfaction with God’s blessings.  Coveting can lead to these other sins.  As Hannibal Lecter said in Silence of the Lambs, “We covet what we see every day.”  So the vast majority of the poor in this country are jealous of what others have and unhappy with their own life, when in fact, they are blessed with safety, clean air and water, abundant food, electricity, heat and shelter, where many around the world struggle to get these things.  Coveting is one of the Big Ten.  If someone was born without Judeo-Christian ethics, are they taught coveting is bad?  Stealing, yes.  Coveting?  Maybe not.  But I might suggest that coveting can lead to so many other sins.  

For many centuries, the Jews were the only ones with God’s Law.  What shall we say then?  Does God condemn everyone who does not believe in Jesus to eternal damnation?  That is my understanding of Original Sin.  www.catholic.com says:  “based on the principle of St. Augustine… “the deliberate sin of the first man is the cause of original sin”. This principle is developed by St. Anselm: “the sin of Adam was one thing but the sin of children at their birth is quite another, the former was the cause, the latter is the effect”.  

Paul says in Romans that, if there is no Law, there is no sin.  However, he also says in 1:20 God’s qualities and nature can be seen by all people so we are without excuse.  And Jesus tells us in Matthew 11:21-24 that the Jews who saw his miracles and heard his preaching and experienced his love first-hand but failed to repent and follow him would be worse off than the people of Sodom and Gomorrah on Judgment Day.  This is not to say that those people will Get Out of Hell Free, but that one who has not heard will be held to a different standard.  It is not an excuse to murder, rape and steal because you were raised in another faith.  But you and I have the Bible.  We have Jesus.  We have the Holy Spirit.  We do not have that excuse.

Whether you believe Adam was the first human in world history or merely the first human to have a personal relationship with God, there are billions of people over the ages who never heard God’s Word.  There are babies and children who die unbaptized.  What kind of God would condemn these people to an eternity in Hell because of Adam’s sin?  He would be a monster.  

But God is Good.  Those without the Law are not judged by the Law, though there are some parts (murder etc) that are universal.  

So what is “Original Sin”?  First of all, it is a term you will not find in the Bible but from St Augustine and St Anselm.  Paul writes about Adam’s sin spreading to all humanity, but he also says we must have knowledge of God’s Law - some is inherent and obvious, some is only by revelation.  In the Psalms there are references to being born sinful.  While it is true we are born selfish and with sinful tendencies, mankind was also part of God’s “very good” Creation.  Jewish tradition of an age of accountability is hinted at in the Torah, and in the Bar / Bat Mitzvah wherein one begins to become an adult at age 13 and enters adulthood at 20 years old.  This is seen throughout the book of Numbers, but especially in 14:29, where the entire generation who refused to go into the Promised Land are told they will die in the desert, those who are over twenty years old.  Old enough to know better.  Jewish teaching is that we have Free Will, the choice each of us faces between Good and Evil.  We are each capable of both.  And remember, they are looking at the exact same text concerning Adam and Eve.  

So in summary, I believe Adam’s “original sin” affects us all once we become aware of our responsibility.  As parents, we must teach our children right from wrong from an early age, help them become less and less selfish and more responsible for their own actions.  As Christians, we are called to “make disciples of all nations”.  That, however, is another topic for another post.