Original Sin
Taken from The Gospel Witness, Volume 1, Issue 11, which published it from an earlier uncited source. We believe in the doctrine of original sin, and that all of Adam’s posterity are sinners by nature, and that they have neither will nor power to deliver themselves from their condemned state. In this principle of faith is a clear and concise expression of the state and character of the fallen race of the family of Adam. It is an absolute truism that we who now dwell upon the earth are in actual possession of a sinful, depraved and corrupt nature, with which we were born into this world. It is not something that we have simply acquired by imitating others, but it is born in us. It is what we have received from our parents. The question propounded by Job, the good old servant of God, is certainly to the point here when he asks: “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one” (Job 14:4). This agrees also with the doctrine of our adorable Savior in His simple metaphors, in which He so clearly teaches us that a corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit. It is universally conceded that in nature every seed produces after its own kind. ”That which is born of the flesh is flesh,” is a truth, and we only have to refer to the Scriptures to find that “God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth” (Genesis 6:12). If we should start back up the long stream of time, through all the generations of men, from now until the date of Adam’s transgression, we would find not one single generation – no, not one nation or family or even one individual person – born so pure and holy as to live uprightly before God and not sin. The most favorable picture in the Bible of the moral condition of man is decidedly against him. “There is none that doeth good, no, not one,” (Romans 3:12) is about as good as we can find for poor sinful man, in the sacred writings. “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23),in the unerring decision of inspiration. Every nation that has existed in the whole world, and every generation, has recorded crime of almost every description – yea, and every family, almost, has had its dark page in its history; and even in our own day and country, our daily newspapers are largely devoted to the publication of almost everything that poor, corrupt nature can invent in the way of wickedness and nefarious abominations in the sight of God. This depravity and degeneracy are as extensive as our fallen race. This important truth was revealed to the ancient servant of God: “There is not a just man upon the earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not” (Ecclesiastes 7:20). While man was in the Garden of Eden, he was good, innocent and harmless, and in that state he was not condemned for wrong doings, for he had done no wrong. Disease, pain, sorrow, disappointments, mental or physical afflictions, not even death could invade his premises. Everything around him was smiling, and the sunshine, in its most cheerful effulgence and glory, seemed to face him in every direction he might look; and, above all, he had free communion with God, his Creator. While in that innocent, he never dreaded to meet Him and hold sweet intercourse with Him. In the words “And God saw every thing that He had made, and, behold, it was very good” (Genesis 1:31), man was embraced, he was very good, and God, who had created him found no fault with him until after he had transgressed God’s law, and then how suddenly matters changed and what a different aspect is opened up to our gaze. Man is sunken very low now, in comparison of what he once was; God made him but a “little lower than the angels” but now we find him likened to the beasts that perish. In his fallen and wicked state, he is represented as being a compound of evil
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