Recently, I received a mass mailing of an e-letter sent out by a believer in Islam attacking Christianity for believing in the doctrine of Original Sin. It was titled, You Were Born Without Sin. It purported to demonstrate that mankind is judged on an individual basis, not on a corporate basis, and therefore Christianity is false (without actually naming Christianity directly).

I will first copy the text of the e-letter here, then respond to it.

This is a truly typical Mohammedian treatise. It sidesteps entirely the issue of truth and zeroes in on the issue of emotion and subjectivity. It also subtly misrepresents the case at hand.

The first and most obvious misrepresentation is the claim that it is unjust to find fault in one person for the failure of another. That is true. The misrepresentation lies in the unspoken – but insinuated – charge that this is what Christianity teaches. Much to the contrary, the Word of God declares "the soul that sins shall die." God through His prophet chided His chosen people Israel because of a proverb that was being spoken throughout the land during the time immediately preceding the Babylonian Captivity: "The sour grapes which the fathers have eaten have set the teeth of the children on edge." They were ascribing to God the very same injustice that the Mohammedian writer of the e-letter does. God further says in His Word that the righteous son of an unrighteous father would save his own soul through his righteousness; the unrighteousness of his father would not affect his standing before God; likewise, the unrighteous son of a righteous father would die in his sins; the righteousness of his father did nothing for his own standing before God.

This is the unified declaration of Scripture: Every man stands before God on his own, not on the coattails – whether for good or for evil – of another.

On the other hand – as alluded to by the e-mail author – the Word of God does in fact indicate clearly that when Adam – the first human – sinned, something happened both to the race and to the creation in general; a corruption was introduced that was not present beforehand. The author asks, "can you follow that logic?" With all due respect, you have no choice but to. Anything else violates either or both the holiness and justice of God and His love and mercy. Let me explain.

The Word of God indicates that when God created man in His likeness and image (as touching His communicable attributes), He created Him "good." That is, in "innocence;" Not having any moral stain, not having committed sin. He also created man with free moral agency; that is, the obligation (and therefore, necessarily, the capacity for) free, uncoerced choice (sorry, John Calvin). Adam was created not merely as a physical being, but with an immaterial component – a soul and a spirit – through which he experienced intimate fellowship with his Creator.

When Adam sinned, he destroyed the imagio Dei, the "image of God" within himself. Created spiritually and physically perfect, capable of eternal existence, his sin introduced corruption into his spirit. The Word of God indicates that Adam died that day – not physically, though the effects of the death he experienced directly affected not only his own physical state, but that of the creation he was created to be the head over, but spiritually. His spirit "died." In the Word of God, the Book of Ephesians brings this out in stunning clarity:

The Bible indicates that God created all things "according to their kind." Precisely what this means is uncertain (how does a "kind" relate to our concept of a "species" or "genus"? Is it primarily a taxonomical concept?), but the application is spelled out for us in Genesis 1; all things reproduce according to their kind. Essentially, cats beget cats (a cat will never give birth to a dog or a cow), dogs beget dogs, and humans beget humans. The process of "begetting," Scripturally speaking, involves more than the physical component. It is more than a reproduction of the phenotype (the body), but of the pneumatype (the immaterial part of man, soul-spirit). Adam’s progeny would be after the express image and likeness of himself. Just as in the physical realm, if a parent had a genetic defect, that defect would be passed on to his offspring, so too as pertaining to the spirit. His spirit was dead; his children’s spirits would also be dead. Like begets like. In one sense, all men are born stillborn.

This defect has some very serious repercussions. For one, it means that all men are born separated from God. God reaches continually out to them, but the ears through which they can hear and eyes through which they can see are nonfunctional. Also, and far more importantly, it means that we have all inherited not merely the physical form of our first father Adam, but also the spiritual defect of a dead spirit. We are born with this fallen nature; we have an innate tendency for rebellion – sin. This essentially means that in and of ourselves, without the Indwelling Spirit of God, our natural reaction to any situation is sinful. Given a chance, we sin in some way, shape, or form. If not in action, then in motive; if not in outward form, than in inward inclination. An innocent child’s first words, after "Mommy" and "Daddy" are usually "mine" and "no." Observe children at play; the natural mode of the child is to display some form of greed ("That’s my toy!"). Selfishness is a direct result of our fallen nature.

To put it another way, it is not true that we are sinners because we sin. Rather, the Scriptural truth is quite the opposite; we sin because we are sinners. The sin is not the cause of our condition; rather, our condition is the cause of the sin. (One way to understand this is to take an opposite extreme – God. God is absolutely holy and pure. Sin cannot enter into His Presence. However, it is not correct to say that God is holy because He does not sin; rather, it is far more correct to say that He does not sin because He is holy. It is not possible for God to be anything less than absolutely holy; His utter lack of imperfection of any sort is a function of His innate holiness. It’s not so much that He does not sin because He continually chooses not to; He continually chooses not to sin because He is innately holy. The cause of the holiness is not His choice not to sin; the cause of His choosing not to sin is His holiness.) Which brings up an important point: We are all free, but we are free within the dictates of our nature. As sinners, we freely and consistently choose to sin, as that is the particular "bent" of our nature. It’s not that as sinners – prior to conversion and being born again – that we are incapable of doing good; rather, it is that we are incapable of doing nothing but good. And truth be told, even the most noble, wonderful things we do in the flesh are tainted by sin. I feel "proud" that I did what I did; I lack faith that God will forgive me as He has said He would; I fail to love the Lord my God with all my heart, mind, soul, and strength. In essence, I am less than perfect; I have "missed the mark." That is what sin is. Missing the mark.

Which brings up a bit of a quandary. God is absolutely holy and just. His holiness is offended at our unholiness and rebellion. His justice demands satisfaction. Anything less than absolute holiness is destroyed in His Presence. Thus, the Word of God says that "the wages of sin is death". Even Mohammedism recognizes this. In order to earn your way into the Presence of God, you must be as perfect and holy as He is. Absolutely, 100% perfect and holy, without moral defect of any kind whatsoever. And that with unswerving consistency. To put it another way, God does not grade on a bell curve; you either make 100% success or you fail. Unfortunately, 100% is quite impossible. Due to our fallen nature – our inherited, sinful state – we are utterly incapable of meeting God’s holy standard.

God’s Word declares that the penalty for imperfection – for sin, for missing the mark – is death. We are all, therefore, under the death penalty.

The quandary comes into play in that whereas God’s justice demands the death of the transgressor, God’s immutable love declares that He "is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." He does, in fact, love the sinner. He is therefore in something of a bind. He cannot simply "forgive and forget" your sin; He cannot simply by fiat declare you justified. That would be a gross miscarriage of justice. Every transgression demands a payment. If He just blinked at our evil and forgave with no basis for doing so He would be less than absolutely just and holy. However, it is not His desire to destroy the wicked, for He "takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked."

The problem compounds when one considers that God’s justice is absolutely fair, and just as strict. If a man sins, a man must die. Since the tiniest sin separates him infinitely from the Holy God, he must die infinitely to pay the penalty and bridge that gap. In essence, that is one aspect of what Hell is; eternally dying, fully conscious, but never quite extinguishing one’s existence in the process. Only an absolutely spotless sacrifice can stand in the stead of the guilty sinner; therefore, only a man who had absolutely no stain of sin whatsoever is qualified for the job of the stand-in for the guilty one. But he can only die for one soul. The Law (which even the Mohammedian is forced to say is Divine in origin) says, "wound for wound, burn for burn, stripe for stripe, life for life." Therefore, no mere man can die in the place of all the guilty souls this earth has borne. Also, according to the Law, the one who so stands in the gap for the sinner must be a kinsman of his – a blood relative.

God’s solution is simple yet breathtakingly profound.

Almost two thousand years ago, in the little town of Bethlehem (the "House of Bread") the calm of the night was pierced as the angelic host of heaven delivered the proclamation: "Unto you is born this day in the City of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord." God, the Eternal Judge, the Holy One of Israel, stepped out of eternity and into time. Without diminishing His Deity in the least (for He is eternally God, and can never be less than He is), He took upon His full and complete Deity full and complete Humanity. He was conceived in the womb of the virgin Mary (as even the Mohammedian Qu’ran and Hadith state). In the greatest miracle since the Creation itself, God made Himself Flesh, without confusing His Natures (His Deity and His Humanity did not in the least mingle in the one Person of Jesus) yet with absolute integrity of Person (there were not two Christs, one Divine and one human; there was but One Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, Who was and is forevermore Himself both God and Man). Being born of the virgin, He did not inherit the sin nature from Adam.

He lived amongst us. He touched us, wept for us, laughed with us, blessed us, taught us. He lived as no man ever did; He lived in absolute obedience to the Law which He Himself ordained to demonstrate His righteous, absolute requirement. "He was as we are at all points, yet without sin." Being of the progeny of Adam, He was qualified to be our Go’el, our Kinsman-Redeemer. Being Himself God, He could make the infinite sacrifice of Himself required to purchase back fallen humanity from the curse of sin – which is slavery to the law of sin and death. And so He did.

What happened on the Cross that day was not simply a martyr’s death. It was not merely the passing of a prophet. On that dark, terrible, beautiful Day, God Himself fulfilled the righteous requirements of His own just and holy Wrath upon Himself.

He stood in my place. I am a guilty sinner. I deserve the just penalty of death. I have no defense. I have no plea. I have nothing to offer by way of excuse. I cannot offer Him my solemn promise never to sin again, since I have already sinned and have therefore already incurred upon myself the just penalty of death. That penalty must be paid, else God is less than righteous and just.

He stood in my place. By divine transaction, when I place my trust and faith in what He did, He accounts it as though I myself were on that terrible Cross. He exchanged places with me, and bore my sin. He stood as me, tasted the righteous wrath of a holiness offended, and died that infinite death in my place that only He as God could effect. And I now stand as Him, accounted with His perfect righteousness.

God’s just, holy wrath was satisfied, and His love was extended. The quandary was solved.

The "Scarlet Thread"

The preceding logic is insuperable. But here’s the real issue: Not only does it make perfect sense once all the facts are kept in mind, but it is the clear and uniform declaration of the Word of the Living God.

The Old Testament, comprising the five Books of Moses, the History of Israel (Joshua, Judges, Ruth, Kings, Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah), the Prophets, and the Poetical Books (thirty-nine Books in all) are the inspired, inerrant, confluent Word of the Living God. Although the Mohammedian will protest this, saying that they have been somehow magically corrupted without anyone taking notice of such at some time in the past, the burden of proof for this rests squarely on his shoulders. Even secular historians and archaeologists recognize the incredible accuracy of the Biblical Text. (In fact, it appears that just about the only persons who seriously disagree with the facts of science and reject Scripture as being historical are compromised, liberal "Christians" bent on disproving the very God they claim to worship; but I digress¼) The Old Testament is the second most attested to body of ancient literature (the most attested to body being, of course, the twenty-seven Books of the New Testament). Prior to the middle of this century, the oldest OT Text we had was dated at around AD 1000. When we discovered the Qumran Scrolls, and compared these far more ancient texts with our then extant text, we discovered that the Scripture had been transmitted to us with inhuman accuracy. There simply is nothing comparable to it, as accuracy is concerned.

This Scripture declares unapologetically that God is holy, man is fallen, and He is the only Redeemer. Man cannot ever hope to effect his own salvation. This is due to a universal defect in his moral character – his fallen nature. God’s standard is absolute, perfect holiness; "trying to do better" just doesn’t cut it. And God will send a Mashiyach ("Messiah") to redeem those who would by faith come to Him.

It also declares, absolutely unapologetically, that man is born in sin.

The New Testament reveals the consummation of God’s revelation concerning personal salvation. In it we find that "all have sinned and have come short of the glory of God." As a wise man once said, "All means ‘all’, and that’s all ‘all’ means." God’s Word says that the Law – God’s code of holiness – was not given to save men; that man is incapable of upholding it with the absolute, unswerving perfection that God justly demands. The Law was given to point men to the Saviour – to demonstrate in a graphic way that even when God’s standard of absolute holiness is spelled out in black-and-white (so to speak), he is still incapable of living up to it. Therefore, he needs Someone outside of himself – One greater than himself – to condescend to reaching down and lifting him up.

And that is Jesus Himself.

Finally, the doctrine of Original Sin (that since Adam sinned and corrupted his progeny through the perpetuation of the fallen nature) actually paves the way for the doctrine of salvation. Paul puts it best when he says:

If one thinks he is a victim of Adam’s transgression (and certainly this point can indeed be raised with some validity), he can readily rectify the situation by becoming a "victim" of Christ’s vicarious sacrifice in his stead, through the act of faith.

In Conclusion

I close with this: God’s Word is true. He cannot lie. He has given us His full and complete revelation in the sixty-six Books which comprise the Bible. It has stood the test of time. It is absolutely without error or defect of any kind. The burden of proof lies on anyone who declares the contrary, in light of the veritable mountain of evidence we have amassed over the centuries attesting to it. And it declares throughout God’s holiness, man’s unholiness, and God’s redemptive heart and plan.

The whole Book is about Jesus.

Appendix: Some Specifics

Our Mohammedian friend raises some specific points which must be addressed individually.