Doctrine of Sin Notes
Essay by tritalley • November 27, 2016 • Course Note • 2,743 Words (11 Pages) • 1,229 Views
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Doctrine of Sin
Subject
- In Karl Menniger’s published work, Whatever Became of Sin? (1973) he speaks about the “disappearance of sin” from 20th century society.
- Wrongdoing is now identified as a crime, a symptom of illness, or a “collective responsibility” (Grudem,451)
- The language of what sin is has changed. (2 or 3 ways sin has changed)
- Adultery is called “an affair”
- Fornication is called “hooking up”
- Two unmarried people living together before marriage was called “shacking up” and was scorned, now it is a “trial” to see if marriage will work
- Teenage pregnancy is no longer looked down upon.
- Cheating is seen as competing.
- Stealing is justified as getting what one deserves.
- Abortion is seen as a choice.
- Two Broad Categories
- Philosophical Naturalism- Sin is die to man’s essential finitude or creaturely weakness.
- Philosophical Idealism- Sin is due to bodily appetites or instincts, or to man’s possession of a body.
- Grudem defines sin as “any failure to conform to the moral law of God in act, attitude, or nature.”
- Old Testament Words— know 3
- Chatat- “to miss”
- Gen. 4:7 in reference to Cain- “sin is crouching at the door”
- Avon- iniquity/wickedness
- Lev. 16:21 in reference to Aaron laying hands on the goat
- Pesha- revolt, transgress
- Prov. 28:19
- Shagah- to err, stray
- Prov. 28:10
- New Testament Words
- Hamartia- to miss the mark
- Rom. 6:6
- Paraptoma- fault, transgression, deviation from revealed way
- Eph. 2:5
- Aselgeia- lasciviousness, lewdness
- Eph. 4:19
- Anomia- lawlessness
- 1 Tim. 1:9
- Epithumia- lust
- Rom. 7:8- “desire”
- There are a variety of terms in the Bible that describe sin as rebellion against God.
- This rebellion is man’s actions, attitudes, and nature.
- Sin is any type of rebellion, no matter how great or small, against God’s moral law and/ or character
- Many people attempt to classify sin as “big” or “little”, but this is a humanistic approach with a subjective view.
- How did sin originate?
- Sin did not originate with God.
- It did not come from some eternally existing evil force.
- The devil was a created being.
- Is. 14:12-15
- Ezekiel 28:1-16
- The rebelión of angels
- Gen. 1:31; Gen. 3:1-5
- 1 Peter 3:18-19
- 2 Peter 2:4
- Jude 6-7
- Adam and Eve
- Genesis 3
- Doubt v.1
- Denial v.4
- Deceit v.5
- Desire
- Pragmatic- good for food
- Pleasing- looked good
- Powerful- able to make wise
- Disobedience v.6
- Eve was deceived, but Adam disobeyed without deception
- Results
- Fig leaves
- indicates they were intelligent and artistic
- Shame and fear
- They hid themselves
- Blame
- “The woman whom You gave to be with me.”
- “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
- Serpent cursed
- Probably had legs prior
- Ground cursed
- Adam was instructed to tend the garden so “work” is not a result of the curse
- Pain in childbearing and longing to be lord over husband
- Sacrifice
- Verse 21- God made tunics of skin. God was the first to make a sacrifice.
- Paradise lost
- Romans 5:12
- “Because all sinned”- All humanity was in Adam
- We area not just sinners because we sin, we sin because we are sinners.
- Romans 5:16
- 2 Corinthians 11:3
- 1 Timothy 2:14
- The Extent of Sin
- No-one is immune to sin
- 1 Kings 8:46
- Ps. 143:2
- Proverbs 20:9
- Eccles. 7:20
- Is. 53:6
- Rom. 3:10,12,23
- Gal. 3:22
- 1 John 1:8
- Results of Sin (from Erickson, 619ff)
- Affecting the Relationship with God.
- Divine Disfavor
- Guilt
- Punishment
- Death
- Physical—Heb. 9:27
- Spiritual—Romans 6:23
- Eternal—Matt. 25:34-40
- Affecting the Sinner
- Enslavement
- Flight from Reality
- Denial of Sin
- Self-Deceit
- Insensitivity
- Self-centeredness
- Affecting the Relationship with others
- Competition
- Inability to Empathize
- Rejection of Authority
- Inability to love (agape)
- Views
- Pelagian
- Even human soul is immediately created in a state of innocence, free from depravity.
- Death is not a consequence of sin, but the natural outcome of mortal life.
- Man is a sinner because he sins, not because he is born sinful.
- If God requires us to live holy lives, we must be able to do so.
- Socinians and Unitarians hold this view.
- Pelagianism was condemned at the Synod of Carthage (418) and at the Council of Ephesus (431)
- Augustinian
- Adam transmitted sin to his progeny by means of natural generation.
- The entire human race existed seminally in Adam.
- Identified humanity as spiritually dead.
- Semi-Pelagian
- Attempt to find middle ground between Pelagianism and Augustinian views.
- Adam’s sin caused spiritual weakness rather than fallenness.
- Spiritually sick instead of well or dead.
- Wesuffer from a spiritual deficiency due to Adam’s fall.
- Common view of Roman Catholicism.
- Some would put Charles Finney (first to use the “altar call) into this category.
- Arminian
- Adam’s sin causes guilt, depravity, and punishment in the human race.
- God’s prevenient grace enables man to cooperate with God to overcome this state.
- Given to all humans indiscriminately.
- Basis of all the goodness found in humans everywhere.
- Universally given to counteract the effect of sin.
- Since God has given this grace to all, everyone is capable of accepting the offer of salvation.
- There is no need for any special application of God’s grace to particular individuals.
- John Wesley was a proponent of this view.
- Federal/Covenantal
- Adam was appointed head of the human race by God.
- God entered into covenant with Adam, agreeing to give eternal life on condition of obedience.
- The race is condemned on the basis of Adam’s sin.
- New School
- All men are born with a physical and moral constitution that predisposes them to sin.
- All do sin wen they arrive at moral consciousness.
- The original predisposition may be called sin since it leads to sin, but only voluntary acts are actually sin.
- God imputes men only their own acts of rebellion.
- This view was a reaction to Puritan theology.
- Neo-Orthodox
- The fall is representative of what happens to everyone.
- We all have our own “little scene in the Garden of Eden”
- Both Barth and Brunner rejected the reality of a literal, historical Adam and Eve
- Liberation Theology
- Sin is a collective reality revealed in social and political situations.
- Sin is a act of society rather than an individual act.
- Oppression of the poor, ethnic, or gender groups.
- The solution of sin is social and political freedom.
- Many stories taken as allegorical.
- Moses leading the Israelites shows God freeing His people from oppression.
- Mediate or Immediate
- Immediate
- Transfer of guilt and corruption
- Mediate
- Propensity for sin. Personal sin and personal responsibility.
- Are there degrees of sin?
- “Little sins” are still against a holy God.
- Different sins may have different consequences.
- The same sins may affect people differently according to their role or position in leadership.
- The Death of Infants
- All infants are lost due to their corruption by sin.
- Only elect infants are saved.
- All infants are saved through benefits of the atonement.
- Infants are in a state of sin and requires regeneration— Ps. 51:5; Eph. 2:3
- Infants posses relative innocence—Deut. 1:39; Jonah 4:11; Matt. 18:3-4
- Appear to be special objects of divine grace— Matt.18:5,6,10,14; Matt. 19:14
- Age of accountability
- You don't have to teach a child to sin.
- Evidence for the salvation of infants.
- Deut.1:39
- 2 Sam. 12:23
- Revelation 5:9?
- Closing Toughts
- Sin of commission and omission.
- Commission- doing wrong willfully
- Omission- unkowingly or without thought
- All sin is sin.
- 1 John 3:4; 1:9
- James 1:9
- We are held responsible by God or both.
- Idolatry
- Col. 3:5
- Fornication- “immorality”
- Undearness- “impurity”
- Passion- “physical side”
- Evil desire- “mental side”
- Covetousness- “greed”
- These sins follow the individual’s desires instead of God’s. We end up worshipping ourselves and not God. We make ourselves to be our own god.
- The Ten Commandments
- They reveal our sin.
- People do not understand their need for a Savior if they do not know that they need saving.
- Let God’s Word convict
- We are unable to keep them.
- If we sin once we have broken them all. They are a unit.
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