Romans 5:12, KJV
12. Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
It says that Adam's sin was passed to us: for that all have sinned:
That is not what is says at all. It says that by Adam sin entered the world. It does not say that Adam's sin passed upon us. That is a huge difference and people often read into the verse what it does not really say. It says sin entered the world by Adam, and the curse of death entered by sin. Then it says death passed upon all men because all men have sinned. It does not say Adam's sin passed upon us, it says we die for our own sin. God never punishes the child for the sin of the parent, or vice versa.
Eze 18:20 The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.
So, this teaching that Adam's sin passed on us is not scriptural, God says the son shall not bear the iniquity of his father, nor shall the father bear the iniquities of his son. This is a false teaching.
Now, why don't the scriptures say that by Eve sin entered the world? After all, she ate first. The scriptures say Eve was deceived. But importantly, they say Adam was not deceived.
1 Tim 4:13 For Adam was first formed, then Eve.
14 And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.
Now, these are very interesting verses of scripture that I am sure could be debated forever, but Eve was not held accountable for her sin. She did not eat in knowing disobedience, she was deceived. But Adam was not deceived by Satan's lie and knowingly ate of the forbidden fruit.
So, this shows that a person must be of an age or maturity of accountability to be guilty of sin.
But that's another subject.
The truth is, we do not know that Adam and Eve were created in sinless perfection. Yes, man was created in God's image, but that does not mean we have all the qualities and attributes of God, but we do share many of his attributes. Adam and Eve very well may have had the ability to sin from the beginning. If man was unable to sin, then why would God have to give him a commandment not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and warn him of the punishment? If man could not sin as God cannot, man would never have eaten of this tree. So, I do not believe man ever had sinless perfection and holiness as God does. Then we would be equal with God. The fact that they ate the forbidden fruit proves they had the ability to sin from the beginning.
And the death spoken of was not physical, it was spiritual. Adam did not fall dead the very day he ate the fruit, he lived 930 years. But their moral condition was altered, now they knew both good and evil.
Gen 3:22 And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:
And this is another area where I think Calvinism errs. Man knows good, the scriptures say so. It is a little far-fetched to believe that man can know what true good is, yet is not able to perform it.
The scriptures do not say that man has no righteousness, it says all his righteousnesses are as filthy rags. When the scriptures say no man is righteous, this is speaking of 100% sinless perfection. Righteousness is often compared to a garment in scripture. Man is not naked, he is clothed, but sin has torn and made filthy this garment of righteousness. This is not my point of view, I can show you this from scripture.
Eze 33:13 When I shall say to the righteous, that he shall surely live; if he trust to his own righteousness, and commit iniquity, all his righteousnesses shall not be remembered; but for his iniquity that he hath committed, he shall die for it.
This verse speaks of righteous men. And it says if they trust in their own righteousness and commit iniquity, then "all
his righteousnesses shall not be remembered". Now that is important, it shows that man can perform acts of righteousness.
So, the scriptures do not teach that man can perform no righteous acts as so many teach. Man knows good, man can perform good, but when man sins (and we all do) we come under the penalty of death which Adam introduced into the world through sin.
And not being able to explain how we believe does not prove the doctrines of Calvinism true. There are many abilities man has that are difficult to explain. For instance, who can explain the imagination? I have an imagination, and I had it before I was saved. I used to dream I was playing for the New York Yankees and would hit a grand slam home run when my team was down three runs in the bottom of the ninth with two strikes to win the World Series. I can still remember that.
How can you explain embarrassment? When a lady walks into a party to see another lady with the exact same dress on, why is she embarrassed? Why does she blush?
Do you have to be regenerated by the Holy Spirit to have an imagination, or to be embarrassed? No. But we all have these abilities and many more that cannot be explained.
How does memory work? Oh, I know scientists think they can explain memory, and they do understand it to a degree. But no one fully understands it or can explain it, yet we all have this abilitiy and do not need to be regenerated by the Holy Spirit to have these abilities.
So, it may seem like a clever argument to say that faith can only come from God, but it is a false argument and is easily disproven.
Now that said, all abilities we have are a gift from God. But unsaved man has the ability to excercise faith and does so everyday along with many other abilities that cannot be explained.
