The distinction I make is that I believe you become a sinner when you sin, and it sounds like you believe you sin because you were created a sinner.
I believe in both. Psalm 51:5; 58;3; Jer.13:23; Eph.2:1-3.
These are some of the verses that teach that we are sinners from birth, and there are many others. I can support my position Scripturally. I don't believe you can support yours.
Since Biblicist is unable to answer, where in scripture do you believe it says that "sin is passed" rather than death is passed (if you believe we inherit a sin nature)?
Note the above Scriptures given. Also John 8:44 (children of your father, the devil), hence the need to be born again; born into God's family.
We are children of wrath; children by nature (sinful nature), according to the prince of the power of this world (Satan).
What would be unjust would be judging us guilty of Adam's sin. If we inherit sin, and the death we experience is in response to that sin, then we are being individually judged for someone else's sin. However the Bible gives us NO MECHANISM whereby sin can be passed. It does, however, give us a mechanism whereby death can be passed - the curse of Genesis 3.
Whenever death is mentioned there is sin. Death is a result of sin. Sin always comes first. Adam sinned; then death came. Because Adam sinned, his nature was marred. He no longer had the image of God.
This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man,
in the likeness of God made he him; (Genesis 5:1)
And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and
begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth: (Genesis 5:3)
--Seth was not made in the image and likeness of God, but rather after the image of Adam, which had been marred by the curse. His nature was cursed. It was a sin nature unable to live forever which it once had the capability of doing had he remained in the Garden of Eden and eaten of the fruit of the Tree of Life. The image was marred. It is only slightly restored when one is born again, and will be fully restored at the rapture, or when we receive or resurrection bodies. For now we are made in the image of Adam not in the image of God. We have a sin nature that is passed on from Adam.
--Thus the necessity of the virgin birth. Had Jesus not been born of a virgin he would have inherited a sin nature and been a sinner like us.
A scripturally supported view is one where death is passed, not sin. After we experience that death, we experience individual judgement;
Death is passed because sin is passed. Without sin there is no death.
Hbr 9:27 And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:
So the death we experience is part of the global curse, it isn't an individual judgement. That individual judgement comes after death.
All men will be judged. The saved at the Judgment seat of Christ, and the unsaved at the Great White Throne Judgment. Death is applicable to all, as is judgment.
Just to be clear, I don't think this because I don't adhere to the dogma of "original sin." Those who do believe in Original Sin must either believe that all (even infants) deserve death, or their beliefs are inconsistent Original Sin.
That is a fallacy in your own thinking.
I disagree. We are each only "guilty" of our own sin or righteousness (according to Ezekiel 18).
Ezekiel 18 has nothing to do with this and is a badly misunderstood passage. Remember, the serpent was also cursed. So was the ground. The woman received a different curse than the man. But it was the specific curse given to Adam that all the human race would be under the condemnation of sin. It was also the specific promise given to Eve that all the human race would be offered a Messiah.
If he beget a son that is a robber, a shedder of blood, and that doeth the like to any one of these things, (Ezekiel 18:10)
--What is the penalty for murder? It is death. This is context.
Now, lo, if he beget a son, that seeth all his father's sins which he hath done, and considereth, and doeth not such like, (Ezekiel 18:14)
--What happens to the son of a father who is a murderer, who does not follow in his father's footsteps?
Yet say ye, Why? doth not the son bear the iniquity of the father? When the son hath done that which is lawful and right, and hath kept all my statutes, and hath done them, he shall surely live. (Ezekiel 18:19)
--This is a rebuke to the nation. This son is not counted as a murderer just because his father was a murderer. Why should he inherit the label of his father when he has done no such sin?
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. (Ezekiel 18:20)
--In context it is speaking of murder. He that murders shall die according to law of capital punishment. The son shall not bear that kind of punishment that his father received. Why should he? He committed no such sin!
This misunderstood passage has nothing to do with original sin. It has to do with application of justice in a court of law, and how the Jews were treating the children of parents who lived wicked lives.
We all suffer the consequences of Adam's guilt in that his sin brought death into the world (the universe was separated from God, and is therefore corrupted and dying).
Adam lived 930 years after he sinned. We suffer the consequences of his sin, not his death. His death was a consequence of his sin. The death that is referred to is his spiritual death.
"In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die."
When did Adam die? At age 930, or when he ate of the fruit?
He died when he ate of the fruit, and still carried on a conversation with God, though he was dead!
Consider the flaw in logic - In order to be redeemed, we must be made righteous. There are two ways to be righteous - either follow the law perfectly never offending, or by faith in believing the gospel of Jesus Christ. If we are made righteous, then our sin is overcome or forgiven. Since we didn't individually commit Adam's sin, that sin cannot be individually applied. Since Adam represented the whole human race, and had authority over all of the earth, his sin and punishment were global. However, if that sin were part of the array of sin that convicts us, then it would need to be forgiven for us to have eternal life and be made righteous. Since it was only committed once, by one person and effected the entire creation, to forgive that sin would have a universal effect. By the act of one person being made righteous, it would for all eternity forgive the original sin, and no one would ever inherit a sin nature again because that one sin would have already been forgiven.
One sin was committed. One nature was corrupted. One sin nature was passed on to all future generations. To forgive the sins of all mankind One Person had to die, that person being perfect man, and God at the same time: perfect for only the sinless could die for the sinner, God, for only God could die for all generations. But God gives the choice. It is efficacious only to those that believe. It is universal in that it is for all. It is efficacious only to those that believe. Whosoever may come.
That isn't logical. That is the logical end according to your thinking, yes. Not according to mine. In my way of thinking, people have a choice - life or death. If you kill them you disrupt their choice. In your way of thinking, people don't have a choice, therefore, the responsibility for life and death is not their own. They are already dead (depraved) and have no opportunity for redemption unless God decides to do it for them (again, making sin and redemption both God's fault, not a human choice).
You are the one that wanted to take the law into your own hands and suggested to kill or abort all infants simply because they would have a sin nature. If that be true go on a full crusade and kill all. That is logical. Why would you suggest such? Man has the image of Adam, not of God. It is corrupted. He has the choice of trusting Christ and restoring that image even if it is only partially. Your concept of "dead (depraved) giving no opportunity for redemption" is not true. I am not a Calvinist, BTW.