Nguyên tội và Hoàn toàn bại hoại

(Sự quy tội / Imputation of sin)

Typically, orthodox Protestants have believed in some form of original sin (also called inherited sin). At the most basic level, it means that when Adam sinned, sin infected the rest of us; when born, all people already have some sort of fallenness because of Adam. Many Christians have even gone further teaching, I think rightly, that we aren’t just born fallen but are born condemned (already guilty).

Below Tom Ascol deals with Romans 5 and some aberrant views about the doctrine of original sin. First, here’s the aberrant view of original sin (known as Provisionist/Provisionism/Traditional view). Note the word “alone.” 

• ‘We affirm that, because of the fall of Adam, every person inherits a nature and environment inclined toward sin and that every person who is capable of moral action will sin. Each person’s sin alone brings the wrath of a holy God, broken fellowship with Him, ever-worsening selfishness and destructiveness, death, and condemnation to an eternity in hell.’ (Article 2).

Here is part of Ascol’s appropriate response:

‘While no evangelical denies that sinners are guilty before God and liable to His wrath by virtue of their sins, when the authors of this statement add the word “alone” to that point, they transgress the bounds of Protestant orthodoxy.

‘The key biblical text that must be considered at this point is Romans 5:12-19. Five times in this passage (12, 15, 17, 18, 19) the universal judgment of condemnation and death on all men is attributed to the one sin of the first man Adam. There is an undeniable solidarity between the first Adam and his posterity. Death is the penalty for sin and it has “spread to all men” (12) as an act of justice. Unless the penalty has been unjustly executed it is inescapable that all men are regarded guilty when the sentence is pronounced, which was at the point of Adam’s sin. The last phrase of verse 12, when seen in the light of the whole passage, forcefully makes this point. Death spread to all men “because all sinned” (ep ho pantes hamarton). This raises the question, “How and when did all men sin?” The context gives the answer.

‘In verse 18 Paul clearly joins the sin of Adam to the condemnation of all men. Verse 19 identifies Adam’s disobedience as the cause of many being “made” (katestarthesan) sinners. Adam’s sin is constitutive of the sinfulness and condemnation of men. Universal judgment and death are inextricably bound to the sin of the original man in verses 15-19. The thematic integrity of the pericope indicates that Paul is dealing with the same issue in verse 12 that he considers in verses 15-19, namely, the origin of death and condemnation. In verse 12 he charges the death of all men to the sin of all men. In verses 15-19 he attributes death and condemnation to the sin of Adam.’

-Ascol, “Traditional” Theology and the SBC: An Interaction with and Response to the Traditionalist Statement of God’s Plan of Salvation, 2018, p. 36.

Order here.

(GSiV: If Calvinism is true…part 3; Nguyên tội và Hoàn toàn bại hoại–part 1; A Few Confessions of Faith in Vietnamese; Gospel Grace Versus Dead Religion–part 6; Phúc Âm cho Cơ Đốc nhân; Philadelphia Baptist Confession of Faith–part 19; “Thế Nào Là Một Hội Thánh Khỏe Mạnh?”; Năm Luận Điểm: Ông John Piper–part 12)