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Original Sin :In The Fundamentals

Discussion in 'Baptist Theology & Bible Study' started by Rippon, Mar 29, 2010.

  1. Rippon

    Rippon Well-Known Member
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    In my church library I ran across a copy of The Fundamentals. It is apparent that the doctrine of original sin was indeed a fundamentalist teaching. Perhaps not so much any more. It is still a doctrine frequently opposed even by Fundamentalists types these days. But was a doctrinal plank in Fundamentalist history.

    Thomas Whitelaw wrote three essays for TF's. Here is what he says in The Biblical Conception Of Sin. :

    Upon his descendants it opened the floodgates of corruption by which their natures even from birth fell beneath the power of evil... This is what the theologians call the doctrine of original sin, by which they mean that the results of Adam's sin, both legal and moral, have been transmitted to Adam's posterity, so that now each individual comes into the world, not like his first father, in a state of moral equilibrium, but as the inheritor of a nature that has been weakened by sin.

    ... But whether confirmed or contradicted by modern thought, the doctrine of Scripture shines like a sunbeam, that man is "conceived un sin and shapened in iniquity" (Psa. 51:5; see also Psa. 58:3; Eph. 2:3; Gen. 8:21; and Job 15:14). If these passages do not show that the Bible teaches the doctrine of original, or transmitted sin, -- it is difficult to see in what clearer or more emphatic language the doctrine could have been taught. The truth of the doctrine may be challenged by those who repudiate the authority of Scripture; that it is a doctrine of Scripture cannot be denied.
     
  2. Zenas

    Zenas Active Member

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    Whitelaw got it right.
     
  3. kyredneck

    kyredneck Well-Known Member
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    Yes, and he may have put it lightly:

    .....we....were by nature children of wrath.....
    .....we were dead..... Eph 2:3,5

    .....we were yet weak....
    .....we were yet sinners...
    ....we were enemies.... Ro 5:6,8,10
     
  4. Rippon

    Rippon Well-Known Member
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    You're right. Whitelaw was a little weak there.
     
  5. Winman

    Winman Active Member

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    The majority of early church fathers before Augustine came along around 400 A.D. did not believe in original sin.

    Calling something fundamental does not make it scriptural. It is a fundamental doctrine of the Catholics to teach baptimal regeneration and baptize babies.

    The early church fathers did not believe sin was inherited from Adam, but every man had a free will and choice whether to obey God or not, thus making man entirely responsible for his own actions, and that all men come under condemnation for willingly choosing to disobey God.

    If anyone is interested, here is a very good and detailed study on Original Sin by A. T. Overstreet (Baptist).

    http://www.gospeltruth.net/menbornsinners/mbsindex.htm
     
    #5 Winman, Mar 29, 2010
    Last edited by a moderator: Mar 29, 2010
  6. Rippon

    Rippon Well-Known Member
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    A portion of an article by another contributor of The fundamentals might be helpful. Charles Bray Williams wrote :"Paul's Testimony to the Doctrine of Sin."

    ...when Adam sinned, "all were made"(stood down or constituted) "sinners"(Rom. 5:19). The apostle here means, doubtless, that all the race was seminally in Adam as its progenitor, and that Adam by the process of heredity handed down to his descendants a depraved nature.
     
  7. Rippon

    Rippon Well-Known Member
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    So, you are on record saying that The Fundamentals were not scriptural?!


    With a huge assist by the Pelagian -- Charles Finney. The latter denied more Bible doctrines than he affirmed.

    Overstreet may be a Baptist, but Baptists come in all flavors. His theology is tinged with error.
     
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