Total Hereditary Depravity

     In this article, we want to examine the doctrine of Total Hereditary Depravity in the light of the Scriptures. To define this doctrine let us read from the Presbyterian Confession of Faith,
"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.  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 faculties and parts of the soul and body. 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. 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."

   This doctrine is saying that all men are born in sin because they inherit the guilt of Adam's sin, and not only do they inherit the guilt of Adam's sin, but they also inherit a sinful nature whereby all men are utterly indisposed, disabled, and made opposite to all good, and wholly inclined to all evil.

    This doctrine is the reason infant baptism began to be practiced. Consider this quote from the Methodist Discipline: (Since) "infants are guilty of original sin, then they are proper subjects of baptism, seeing in the ordinary way, they cannot be saved unless this be washed away by baptism. It has already been proved that this original sin cleaves to every child of man, and hereby they are children of wrath and liable to eternal damnation."

    Does the Bible teach the doctrine of original sin, or the doctrine of Total Hereditary Depravity? 

God's Definition of Sin and How a Man Becomes a Sinner

    Let's begin by considering God's definition of sin.  Sin is described in a number of passages in the New Testament.  In 1 John 3:4 we are told that "Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness."  Sin is lawlessness; that is to go against God's laws.  So, when we go against God's laws we sin.  In 1 John 5:17, John tells us that "All unrighteousness is sin".  Again, when we go against the right thing to do, we sin.  James wrote something similar in James 4:17 where it says, "Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin."  If we go against the word of God we, therefore, are sinning.  That is what sin is:  going against the law of God or going against the right thing which God has commanded us to do.  Those are God's definitions of sin.  Now, let me ask you, in light of God's definition of sin, how could a person be born in sin?  According to the Bible, someone must go against God's laws to be in sin.  Since we cannot and do not do anything before we are born, then we cannot be born in sin.

    Furthermore, the Bible tells us how we become sinners in God's sight.  Isaiah wrote in Isaiah 53:6 that "All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all."   We read here in this prophecy of Jesus that He would bare all of our sins.  But how did we receive these sins, how did we become sinners?  Were we just born in sin?  Isaiah claims that each person has gone astray and turned to his own way.  That is how we become sinners.  We leave God's way, and we do our own will.  Later, in chapter 59:2, Isaiah says, "But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you, So that He will not hear."  Again, Isaiah says that it is our actions that cause us to be in a state of sin, and thus separated from God.  Paul wrote in Romans 3:12, "They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one." And down in verse 23 he says, "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."  How do we fall short of God's glory.  We all sin or go against God's law.  Since a person becomes a sinner by his own violation of God's law, how could he be a sinner by inheritance?  How could a person be born sinful if he has committed no sin.  The Bible says he cannot.

Each Man is Responsible for His Own Sins

    The Bible also teaches that each man is responsible for his own sins and not for the sins of his parents. Ezekiel chapter 18 teaches this principle and it is summed up in verse 20, "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." In verse 30, "'Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways,' says the Lord God .... "  Paul wrote in Romans 2:6 that God "will render to each one according to his deeds" not according to Adam's deeds. Also in 2 Corinthians 5:10, "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad." Each person will give an account to God for his OWN deeds in his body, not for what someone else has done. Where is the passage that says that we will give an account to God for Adam's sin? Since the Bible teaches that man is responsible for his own sins, and will give an account to God for his own sins, therefore, we do not inherit the guilt of Adam's sin.

God Gave Us Our Spirit

    In discussing this topic we also need to consider the fact that God gave us our spirit.  Ecclesiastes 12:7 says that when we die "the spirit will return to God who gave it".   Zechariah wrote in Zechariah 12:1, "Thus says the LORD, who stretches out the heavens, lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him:"  Also, the Hebrew writer wrote in Hebrews 12:9, "Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live?"  These three passages teach us that God is the Father of spirits because He formed our spirits and He gave us our spirits.  Now, does it make sense that a righteous and just God, who 2 Peter 3:9 describes as a God that wishes for none to perish, who loves us and wants us to be pure and holy, would put a totally depraved spirit in each man?  The God of the Bible would not.  But those who believe in total hereditary depravity and original sin teach that God necessarily created us depraved and thus, condemned.  This is unscriptural.

Jesus Christ Died for Our Own Sins

    Also Jesus saves us from our own sins. When we are forgiven, we are forgiven of our own sins, not of the sin of Adam. In Matthew 1:21, The angel said to Joseph concerning the birth of Jesus, "And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins." Jesus would save them from their own sins, not the sins they had inherited from Adam. In Acts 3:19, Peter said to the Jews, "Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out..." Notice if they would repent an be converted they would be forgiven of their own sins, not sins they had inherited from Adam. In 1 Corinthians 15:17, Paul wrote, "And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins!" If Christ was not raised from the dead then we are still in our own sins, not sins we inherited from Adam.

    Hebrews 8:12 says, "For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more." When one is forgiven of sin, it is his sins and lawless deeds that God forgives and remembers no more, not sins he has inherited from Adam. There is no passage that says that Jesus died to free us from a sin that we inherited from Adam.

What the Bible Says About Children

    If we look at what the Bible says about children and how it describes children, we can see that God does not consider children to be sinful creatures as the doctrines of total hereditary depravity and original sin teach.  In Matthew 18:1, Jesus' disciples came to Him and asked Him, "Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?"   Jesus then pulls a child to Himself and set him before them.  He then said, "Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven."  Another example:  In Luke 18:15-17 it says that "they also brought infants to Him that He might touch them; but when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them.  But Jesus called them to Him and said, 'Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of God.  Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it.'"  In these two passages, Jesus used little children (even babies) as examples of the the character of one who would enter into the kingdom of heaven.  If Jesus thought that these babies and children were sinful and depraved, do you think that He would have said, "Become like one of these?"  Instead He might have said, "Whatever you do, do not become like one of these depraved creatures that was born in sin."  In saying what He said, Jesus taught just the opposite.  Babies are not born in sin.  Again, the doctrine of total hereditary depravity and original sin contradict plain passages of Scripture.

Conclusion

    John Calvin's idea of inherited sin was based in part on a misapplication of the Romans 5:12-21 This passage is contrasting the act of the one man Adam (his sin) and its consequences that has come upon all men, and the act of another Man, Jesus Christ (His death on the cross) and its consequences upon all men.

    Because of Adam's sin all die. But what death is he talking about? What death spread to all men because of Adam's sin? Spiritual death or Physical death? Paul wrote in 1 Cor 15:21-22, "For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive." There is no question Paul is talking about physical death in this passage. We all die physically as a consequence of Adam's sin. And so In Romans 5 the death that reigned through the one man, Adam, is physical death. Paul does not say in this passage that all men inherit the guilt of Adam's sin and are therefore dead spiritually because of that inheritance. Paul is talking about the consequence of Adam's sin. There is a difference in receiving the consequence of Adam's sin and being guilty of that sin. A drunkard's wife and children suffer many hardships as a consequence of his sin, but that does not make them guilty of his sin. We receive the consequence (physical death) of Adam's sin, but we are not guilty of or responsible for his sin.

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