Original Sin :In The Fundamentals

[Rippon]

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.

 

[Zenas]

Whitelaw got it right.

 

[kyredneck]

Whitelaw got it right.

Yes, and he may have put it lightly:

Whitelaw:
......a nature that has been weakened by sin.

.....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

 

[Rippon]

Yes, and he may have put it lightly:

You're right. Whitelaw was a little weak there.

 

[Winman]

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

We have learned from the prophets, and we hold it to be true, that punishments, and chastisements, and good rewards, are rendered according to the merit of each man's actions. Since if it be not so, but all things happen by fate, neither is anything at all in our own power. For if it be fated that this man, e.g., be good, and this other evil, neither is the former meritorious nor the latter to be blamed. And again, unless the human race have the power of avoiding evil and choosing good by free choice, they are not accountable for their actions, of whatever kind they be.
Justin Martyr, c. 160

We were not created to die, but we die by our own fault. Our free-will has destroyed us; we who were free have become slaves; we have been sold through sin. Nothing evil has been created by God; we ourselves have manifested wickedness; but we, who have manifested it, are able again to reject it. Tatian, c. 160

"Woe unto them!" he says, "For they have gone in the way of Cain." For so also we lie under Adam's sin through similarity of sin.
Clement of Alexandria c. 195

"If thou wilt be perfect." Consequently he was not yet perfect. For nothing is more perfect than what is perfect. And divinely the expression "if thou wilt" showed the self-determination of the soul holding converse with Him. For choice depended on the man as being free; but the gift on God as the Lord. And He gives to those who are willing and are exceedingly earnest, and ask, that so their salvation may become their own. For God compels not (for compulsion is repugnant to God), but supplies to those who seek, and bestows on those who ask, and opens to those who knock. Clement of Alexandria c. 195

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

 

[Rippon]

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.

 

[Rippon]

Calling something fundamental does not make it scriptural.

So, you are on record saying that The Fundamentals were not scriptural?!

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

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.