Dear Prospective Disciple:
Thank you for your interest in the way of Christ. Before we can proceed with your application there are a few items of doctrine to be brought to your attention. At this time we will address the technicality of Original Sin.
Taking Genesis as a literal story, you must be informed that the original couple, Adam and Eve, decided to disobey God. God, being a good god, forgave Adam and Eve. But, also being a just God, because of their actions, every being born since that time has been born with the mark of sin.
Your approval process depends on this concept being accepted beyond the confusion of how a loving, forgiving God, would forgive Adam and Eve, yet not forgive you until you come to know and believe in Him. I am confident that you will find this a reasonable concept and I look forward to providing future answers.
And all God's people said.....
Amen
Imagine hearing the teaching of Original Sin for the first time. Would it sound reasonable to you? Would you hear it and shrink back from a God that would put a system in motion that dooms all of mankind because of the mistake of the original couple? Or would you accept it as reasonable and true?
I recently read a statement regarding original sin. The discussion came between a mom and her daughter. The daughter had drawn pictures telling the story of creation. Two pages into the story, there was a page completely colored in black. This page represented the entrance of sin. After a brief discussion, the daughter was instructed to tear that page out; not to erase that part of the story but to remove the dark cloud that followed throughout. It was said that if God needed to forgive Adam, He could have handled that long ago.
I have long wondered just how literal Genesis was intended to be accepted. N.T. Wright explains that being a Biblical literalist does not mean that every written story is to be taken literally. A Biblical literalist is one who understands to take the allegories as allegories, the parables as parables, the apocalyptic writings just as such, as well as the literal stories as fact. The challenge is to learn and know which is the appropriate application to the writing. A recent set of Bible commentaries compile opinions of the early church fathers. Interestingly enough, many of them accepted Genesis on the grounds of allegorical writing.
Considering the off chance that Genesis isn't meant to be taken completely literally, I've been wondering about the doctrine of Original Sin. Could it be that Original Sin is not exactly what it's been made out to be? Is it possible that God did forgive Adam and Eve and that was that? Is it at all within grasp that we are not born into this world automatically doomed for eternal, conscience torment thanks to the original couple?
Original sin is best summarized as Rebellion; deciding that one knows best for one's own life. It is safe to say that we each have a point in time that we make that decision. Rather than at birth, maybe at this choosing is the point at which original sin enters. Maybe each of us are born with a clean slate but it is our own humanity and idiocy that drives us to that one crucial choice and each of us fail miserably.
Contemplating sin from this new angle still leaves us with the same need as the original teaching implies: our need for a savior. Not from a standpoint of being doomed from the start but rather a moment that we each choose ourselves as controller. We each had a chance at perfection. We each failed; all but Jesus. We have no one to blame but ourselves and no one to rescue us but Christ.
