CatholicConvert
New Member
Carson --Original Sin isn't a "stain" on the soul. It isn't a positive presence of anything. It's a privation. Original Sin is the loss of the indwelling presence of the Blessed Trinity in the human soul. It's a lack thereof.
I am wondering about something and would appreciate your input from your studies.
What you have described above sounds alot like being "dead". Calvinists speak of man as being naturally "dead in sin" and even of men and women being born that way.
If we take the Biblical definition of "dead" (which is NOT the Calvinist erroneous definition), "death" is the state of separation from God (Parable of the Prodigal). To be separated from life is to be dead, right? And since all life is in and from our God, to be severed from Him is to be "dead," right?
Therefore, it seems that mankind is "born dead" naturally because we are born into that state of "original sin" which is the separation from God which is the inheritance Adam left his progeny. And being "born again" is simply coming to unite with the life giving God and have His life -- real life -- as ours.
Thus, if we are "dead" (separated from God) at birth by Adam's sin, we are indeed born with Original Sin (or perhaps Original Separation?)
Your comments or corrections, please?
Thanks,
Brother Ed
PS...to Neal....the Orthodox view of man is the same as the Roman view. Man is not "totally depraved" and "dead" in the Calvinistic sense. He is severely damaged by sin and cannot, without the grace and aid of God, do anything of himself to earn Heaven or repair himself.