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Hereditary Total Depravity I.Introduction A.Some say that the guilt
of Adam's sin passed inherently to all B. The Confession of Faith of the Presbyterian Church says, "Our
first parents...by sin fell from their original righteousness, and communion
with God, and so became dead in sin, and wholly defiled in all the faculties
and parts of soul and body.They being
the root of all mankind, the guilt of this sin was
imputed, and the same dead in sin and corrupted nature conveyed to all
their posterity, descending from them by ordinary generation.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" (Chapter VI; Of the Fall of Man, of Sin, and
of the Punishment Thereof). II.Arguments
Favoring This Teaching A.Infants get angry,
proving they are under the control of the devil. 1. God is capable of anger, but God is not depraved (See Exodus
32:10; Mark 3:5). 2.Infants smile and coo
as well as cry. B. "There is none righteous, no, not one; There is none that understandeth,
There is none that seeketh after God;
They have all turned aside, they are together become unprofitable; There
is none that doeth good, no, not, so much as one" (Rom. 3:10-12). (a) Paul is not discussing inheriting corruption, but people who
are wicked because they do wicked things. Infants are incapable of being swift to shed blood (Rom.3:15);
infants cannot deceive with their tongues (Rom.3:13); an infants mouth
is not full of bitterness and cursing (Rom. C. "The wicked are estranged from the womb: They go astray as
soon as they are born, speaking lies" (Psalms 58:3). (a) The passage says they "go astray," and not are born
astray; they speak lies, which an infant cannot do. D. "Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity; And in sin did my
mother conceive me" (Psalms 51:5). 1.The world is a wicked
place, and David was born into the sinful world, therefore he was brought forth in iniquity, and his mother conceived
him while living in a world of sin. E. "Therefore, as through one man sin entered into the world,
and death through sin; and so death passed unto all men, for that all sinned"
(Rom. 5:12); "For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection
of the dead.For as in Adam all die,
so also in Christ shall all be made alive" (1 Cor. 1.Death passed to all
men, not because of Adam's sin, but because all sinned. Sin is common to
the mature. 2.The death that comes
from Adam is not spiritual death but physical death.All
die in Adam, in Christ all (same all) are made alive.If
this means spiritual death and life, then all will be saved. (a)The Bible tells us
some will be lost (John (b)Every person must
die a physical death--even those who are alive on the earth when Jesus
returns--and every person will be resurrected (John 5:28-29). III. Arguments Against This
Teaching A. "Evil men and impostors shall wax worse and worse, deceiving
and being deceived" (2 Tim. If we are wholly evil at birth we cannot get worse. B. "Jesus called them unto him, saying, Suffer the little children
to come unto me, and forbid them not: for to such belongeth
the Innocent children in their present state belong to the kingdom. C. "The soul that sinneth, it shall
die: the son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the
father bear the iniquity of the son; the righteousness of the righteous
shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him"
(Ezek. D. "Furthermore, we had the fathers of our flesh to chasten us,
and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto
the Father of spirits, and live?" (Heb. 12:9) 1.If Jehovah is the father
of the human spirit, then the spirit cannot be evil at birth, or when first
given. We may inherit from our earthly parents physical impurities, but
the spirit comes and returns to God and cannot be corrupt at the time it
is given.The spirit returns to
God who gave it (Eccl. 12:7). E.There is a difference
in guilt and consequence. 1.We must live in consequence
of Adam's sin, but are not guilty of his disobedience and rebellion. Physical death and all its attendant misery is the
consequence of Adam's wrong, but we are not guilty of his sin. 3.We must live in consequence
of the sins of all who have gone before us. F.How
sin comes. The infant has no sin.Upon
reaching the time in life when he knows the difference between right and
wrong, he does wrong and refuses right.In
this way sin enters his life. Divine justice cannot make us responsible, in thevery
nature of justice, for sins committed by others.Each
person is responsible and accountable for his own wrongs. 2.Just as each person
goes into sin by his own choice, so is each
redeemed by his volition. "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that disbelieveth
shall be condemned" (Mark (b)There is something
for us to do--believe and be baptized. (c) Each person sins; and each must personally act to receive
salvation.
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