Original Sin

"But of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die" (Gen2). The sin of Adam and Eve brought on both physical and spiritual death. Physical death is separation of our spirits from our bodies. Spiritual death is the separation from our souls from God.

The psalmist and Isaiah recognize that the spiritual and temporal consequences of the FALL have been passed down on all mandkind. "Thy first father hath sinned, and thy teachers have transgressed against me" (Isa 43). "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me" (Psalm 51).

"The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation" (Ex 34). Spiritual and temporal effects of sin can be seen everyday in families. For instance, family psychologists talk about "breaking the cycle of abuse." If an individual is abused as a child he is more likely to be abusive to his children. Many aspects of sin opperate like this and not so much because God has cursed them. "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it" (Prov. 22). Unfortunately the opposite is true as well.

The Law of Moses teaches that the atonement of Jesus Christ covers sin done in ignorance. "And if any one of the common people sin through ignorance, while he doeth somewhat against any of the commandments of the LORD concerning things which ought not to be done, and be guilty; Or if his sin, which he hath sinned, come to his knowledge: then he shall bring his offering, a kid of the goats, a female without blemish, for his sin which he hath sinned. And he shall lay his hand upon the head of the sin offering, and slay the sin offering in the place of the burnt offering" (Lev 4).

Although there are concequences of sin passed down from father to son, the Law of Moses teaches that man will be punished for his own sin and not the sin of a parent throught the atonement of Jesus Christ. "The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers: every man shall be put to death for his down sin" (Deut 24).

The atonement of Christ covers all the consequences of original sin. All men will be resurrected and brought back to the presence of God to be jugded according to their own works whether they be good or bad according to the individual's knowledge and circumstances. Little children who die before becoming fully accountable are covered by the atonement of Christ or judged according to their degree of accountability.

"For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive" (1Cor15).