Free Will vs Original sin
If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.” Gen 4:7
Scripture Affirms Man Born with Free Will:
1) God is NOT Responsible for man’s sin
2) He Does Not have to Over Power man’s will to make him believe
3) Man is capable of Right action and the Ability to Obey
4) Babies are Born Innocent
Effects of Sin Inherited from Adam:
1) God Directly Responsible for sin!
2) He MUST by Necessity Overpower man’s will if he is to believe
3) Man is incapable of Right action or Obedience
4) Babies are Born depraved
Therefore the Entire Scheme of Salvation by Faith is Changed: Under Free will man Must Repent and PROVE his repentance by his Deeds. His faith must WORK or OBEY, meeting the Conditions of Redemption, BEFORE Mercy Can be Granted. The Result is Purity of Heart, Zeal to Do Right and Full Vindication or (Justification) Acts26:18-21, 2Cor7:10-11
Under the Sinful Nature Doctrine: Repentance is OUT the Window! No Conditions or Deeds are Necessary. God Provides the Grace to off-set your inbred Depravity so you can believe, saves you in your sins, Forgives your past, present and future transgressions and provides you with a Magic COVER of ‘Imputed’ Virtue that hides your continual sinning from God.
The Result of this in the Churches:
1) Cannot Preach for Righteousness, Self-Control and the Judgment to come
2) Rather they preach for effectiveness and
not Purity of heart
3) People 'receive Jesus, but remain in bondage to their sins.
4) Sin is no longer the issue only unbelief
5) And no one can ever stop sinning until they die
Where did the Doctrine of Original Sin
come from:
In the twisted mind of a
North African Catholic Bishop of Roman Empire
named
Augustine (354-430AD) who Converted
to Roman Christianity out of necessity, from his Gnostic/ Manichaean Paganism,
that was outlawed in the Empire on pain of death. During his infamous career as
a theologian he was able to blend this pagan notion of 'Dual Natures' into
Apostolic Doctrine through a series of events that concluded in his favor by the
early 400's AD when he systematically used his influence and deceptive skills to
excommunicate his opponents and branded them as heretics.
Note: When Christians first encountered Manichaeism, they deemed it a heresy, since it had originated in a heavily Gnostic area of the Persian Empire. Augustine of Hippo (354-430 AD) converted to Christianity from Manichaeism, in the year 387. This was shortly after the Roman Emperor Theodosius I had issued a decree of death for Manichaeans (in 382 AD) and shortly before he declared Christianity to be the only legitimate religion for the Roman Empire (in 391). According to the Confessions of St. Augustine, after eight or nine years of adhering to the Manichaean faith (as a member of the Manichaean group of "hearers"), Augustine became a Christian
The Bases of Manichaeism/ Gnostic Teaching:
1) Denied the Real Incarnation & Bodily Resurrection of Christ
2) All things material are Corrupte, but the spirit is pure, thus the 'dual nature myth, flesh and spirit
3) This Dual Nature is influenced by the powers of Darkness and Light, like a mysterious 'force leading to good or evil
4) Everything is Predetermined, fated, there is no free will
Each tenet of the above concepts have been blended into Church Doctrine and were Systematized in the the
Westminster Confession of Faith, 1646:
Our first parents, being seduced by the
subtlety and temptation of Satan, sinned, in eating the forbidden fruit. This
their sin, God was pleased, according to his wise and holy counsel, to permit,
having purposed to order it to his own glory.
II. By this sin they fell from their original righteousness and communion
with God, and so became dead in sin, and wholly defiled in all the parts and
faculties of soul and body.
III. They being the root of all mankind, the guilt of this sin was imputed; and
the same death in sin, and corrupted nature, conveyed to all their posterity
descending from them by ordinary generation. IV. 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.
V. This corruption of nature, during this life, doth remain in those that are
regenerated; and although it be, through Christ, pardoned, and mortified; yet
both itself, and all the motions thereof, are truly and properly sin.
VI. Every sin, both original and actual, being a transgression of the righteous
law of God, and contrary thereunto, doth, in its own nature, bring guilt upon
the sinner, whereby he is bound over to the wrath of God, and curse of the law,
and so made subject to death, with all miseries spiritual, temporal, and
eternal.
The actual sins that men commit are the fruit of the corrupt nature transmitted to them by our first parents. By reason of this corruption, all men become wholly inclined to all evil; sin disables them. They are utterly indisposed to, and, indeed, rendered opposite to, all that is good. Elect infants dying in infancy are regenerated and saved by Christ through the Spirit, who works when and where and how He pleases. The same is true of all elect persons who are incapable of being outwardly called through the preaching of the gospel. Men who are not elected, even though they may be called upon to embrace salvation by the preachers of the gospel, and may be the subjects of some common operations of the Spirit, cannot be saved, because they are not effectually drawn to Christ by the Father, for which reason they neither can, nor will, truly come to Him. Much less can men who do not receive the Christian religion be saved, no matter how diligent they are to frame their lives according to the light of nature and the teachings of the religion which they follow.
Pretty Sick stuff, right ... its 100% fatalism, no hope, God determines everything man has nothing to do with anything, he is but merely a pawn in the great cosmic scheme of the universe subject to the whims of his Creator. But was this 'anything like the early Christians believed or what the Bible REALLY says? By no means! The evidence is abundantly clear in scripture and the testimony of the early fathers who followed the Apostles (quoted on his site under free will) that man is NOT born depraved or with a corrupted nature dwelling in his flesh and possessed free will to choose right or wrong, it was Rome asserting Pre-Eminence and tyrannical authority over what they declared as the 'Church around 325AD after Emperor Constantine supposedly ‘Converted to Christianity after his victory in the Eastern Empire and convened the Council of Nicea to declare Christianity as the official Roman Religion. Thus the assemblies scattered throughout the land (Ekklesia) were immediately branded suspect and the 'Church became the Pagan Temples of Rome with all their pomp and circumstance. In this began the controlling structure of Councils, Bishops and Popes all connected to the throne of the Roman Empire who had final say in all things religious and political. By 417AD this counterfeit structure was well in place and has remained so since. (right up through the reformation and beyond)
The Stronghold of Support for Fallacy of Sinful Nature Doctrine:
Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me. PS51:5
The word, ‘Shapen’ is NOT in the Hebrew Text. It appears in the English Translators to show David acknowledging the sin of his mother, not his personal sin. It was his mother who had been married to a pagan and now David's father who was guilty of sin, 'in her sin' she conceived me, it could easily be rendered.
Job14:1-4, 15:14, ‘Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean"
This is Job's friends speaking, not God, but its' where the blinded preachers all through the 1500's to now get their 'bad seed' theory. It's very sad they have to resort to men speaking to prove their fallacies when Job himself is said to be 'blameless and upright' by God at the very beginning of the story. Job1;1
Ps58:3 ‘The Wicked are estranged from the womb. They go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies!’
If sin is Transgression the Law (1Jh1:4) in accordance to ones ‘knowledge of that law, HOW can an infant, who CANNOT yet SPEAK, tell lies? This Text is a hyperbole (exaggeration) not to be understood in a literal sense, since it would defy reality. It would also contradict many other passages that show children are born innocent and even FILLED with the Holy Spirit in the Womb, Lk1:15,
Fearfully and wonderfully made and an inheritance from the Lord. Psalms 127:3, 139:14 Jesus called the little Children to Him and said such is the Kingdom of God, Matt19:14. so if they are born already children of the devil as heretic Augustine believed, why did Christ liken them to the Kingdom of heaven? Jesus said to the Jews he who commits sin is a slave to sin, John8:34, that makes your father the devil, not birth! John8:34-44
And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. Eph2:1-2
‘By Nature in this Text refers to a 'nature of growth (Physis) not a nature you're born with. Indulging your natural inclinations (passions and desires) in sin is a learned response. 1Pet1:18 says clearly we receive by 'Tradition foolish conduct from our fathers. Even Rom2:14
says: "For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law.” So if the nature is corrupted, HOW can it also be said to DO the right things, it could only be by CHOICE the Gentiles did the things contained in the law.
Rom. 5:12, 18, 19 "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned...Therefore as by the offense of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous."
Here's where Augustine altered the Word of God in the Latin Vulgate Catholic Bible, quoting this passage as: 'All sinned in Adam' instead of the conditional Greek, 'because all sinned, or in that they sinned'. If this passage means that by one man's sin every human being born afterward became a sinner, then because of one mans' (Christ) Righteousness they are ALL Justified! You end up with Universalism, that's why they had to invent 'Election, because anyone could easily see that not all men are Christians. And neither are all men sinners because of what Adam did in the Garden. They are 'sinners because they made the voluntarily choice to sin. The passage itself affirms that the concept of sin and righteousness cannot be applied to ALL men:
For if by the one man’s offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many Rom5:15
The choice to sin originates in man's own natural desires he choose to indulge in wrong doing, clearly explained thus:
'Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.” James1:13-15
Further Scriptural proof of man's free will:
Truly, this only I have found: That God made man upright, But they have ought out many schemes.” Ecc7:29.
”Why should the son not bear the guilt of the father?’ Because the son has done what is lawful and right, and has kept all My statutes and observed them, he shall surely live. The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.” Ezk18:19-20
Then little children were brought to Him that He might put His hands on them and pray, but the disciples rebuked them. But Jesus said, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of heaven.” Matt19:13-14 (Also See: Mark10:14, Luke18:16)
for the children not yet being born, nor having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but of Him who calls), Rom9:11
Curds and honey He shall eat, that He may know to refuse the evil and choose the good. For before the Child shall know to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land that you dread will be forsaken by both her kings. Isa7:15-16
Moreover your little ones and your children, who you say will be victims, who today have no knowledge of good and evil, they shall go in there; to them I will give it, and they shall possess it. Deut1:39
(Also see: 2Kings21:16, 24:4, Joel 3:19, James4:17)
Also Scripture Makes Clear that Children do not inherit the guilt or sin of the parent: Deut 24:16, 2 Kings 14:6, 2 Chron25:4, Ezekiel 18:2-4, 18:19-20
Nothing evil dwells in man's flesh. Flesh is flesh, SARX in the Greek, the covering of our bones, there cannot be a sinister corruption lurking in human flesh. When Scripture refers to flesh, the spirit lusting against the flesh, or in my flesh dwells no good thing, it means the 'passions and desires of the flesh given over to the self-indulgence of sin. It's the bad choices you've made over and over again that 'lusts against your spirit, which is the 'light of conscience God put in you to accuse your wrong doings! Rom2:14. If Rom7 is the Christians life then why bother to profess to anything, just sin and enjoy yourself like you're doing now.
Augustine, the Son of Perdition, man of sin who invented original sin! This horrible doctrine has sent more people to perdition than anyone could possibly imagine. It makes his Sin a Calamity instead of a Crime. It makes God Responsible for the sin. It creates double-minded, complacent professing Christians and breeds deception. It forces Ministers to excuse sin and not preach against immoral behavior and it Contradicts the Bible! It belongs on the trash heap of history and is Satan's masterpiece of deception, that began in the Garden when he uttered those infamous words to Eve; 'Thou shall surely not die' Gen3:4