Doctrine of Man - Part 22: Original Sin

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 and "shelter-in-place" recommendations, Dr. Craig gives this lecture from the safety of his home office.

"Defenders" is Dr. William Lane Craig's weekly Sunday school class on Christian doctrine and apologetics. This video is part 22 of his locus on the Doctrine of Man.

We welcome your comments in the Reasonable Faith forums:

[christophiluslovingchristb]

Ezekiel 18, has always been a favorite passage of mine indicating that children are never condemned by their parent's actions.

[josephtattum]

Whether we have "original" sin or not, what I know is that I chose to sin, and I have lived my life regretting it. Fortunately I found Jesus, in no small part thanks to Dr. Craig, and I am slowly living more connected to God and more distant from sin. Thank God for his incredible grace towards us through his son!

[walterarias]

David was not talking about his sin, but his mother sin. David was the result of his mother adultery. That’s why David was rejected by his brothers, as he was half brother only

[SolaScriptura]

For you formed my inward parts; you wove me in my mothers womb. I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works, and my soul knows it very well. Ps 139:13, 14.

[savedwretch]

Just stumbled onto your video. Great stuff !! Yes i have found a teacher that tickles my ears, but most importantly in line with Scripture. God bless

[levifontenele]

Good week, doctor. And thanks! Man can only do good by Grace. How wonderful it would be if people recognized that

[kshoults]

This is not convincing to me- we are condemned to death bc of Adam’s sin as he was cast out of Eden. But I don’t see anything saying we carry Adam’s sin. Condemned to die yes, and bc Adam screwed up. But no, I don’t see scripture saying that Adam’s sin is my sin. I sun on my own.

[TheLookingGlassAU]

Death spread to all men for all have sinned doesn't mean every human is sinful from birth, it means from birth nobody has access to life without Jesus..
All sin - no argument. But some think Jesus had to be somehow unlike humans to avoid original sin.
The theory goes that Augustine had a manuscript of Romans with an error, I haven't dived into that yet but sin is universal among humans, but guilt is not imparted by virtue of being a human - you have to sin and all will but death IS imparted on humans by virtue of being human.
Romans 5 doesn't say all are guilty, it says all die.
It's a contentious issue, I know.

[kirkmullins]

I came across this channel & was interested in the view of original sin here. The answer is very simple. However, many complicate the issue. No exception to that here. Since the Bible is about the generation of Adamic man & no others. More specifically it is about those chosen by God from the Adamic race the Israelites. The 1st sin in the Bible is simply disobedience to God which placed a generational curse upon the descendents of Adamic man & the earth that is still in effect today. Just ask a mother & a farmer.

[sonofnun]

Seems like Pelagius and Molina would agree on many points. So what does WLC actually think of original sin? It seemed as though WLC is agreeing with his comments about Pelagius. Am I incorrect about this?

[ronbo]

Sin being passed down is a lie . We are not accountable for another persons sins, only our own.

[SavedSkeptic]

It’s interesting that Pelagius gets so much flack, when in fact he did believe that salvation was still 100 percent dependent on God’s Grace.

[lisalmenard]

This was a very good explanation. Thank you. I know this was not the focus of this particular video, however, I’m also thinking of how the doctrine of the immaculate conception of Mary also is tied to Augustine.

[alemartinezrojas]

Personal sin is the result of a sinful nature. So if David was inclined to sin, it was not because suddenly out of the blue he had received some moral dysfunction he had never had or experienced before. The text of Psalms 51:6, serves a preamble for David, to introduce his fight against sin, and why it was so difficult to defeat it: he had come to this world with a sinful nature, and no human is exempt from it. This verse is fully attached to the concept of original sin, since, entails that humans come with a moral dysfunction. What would be the cause of being given birth in sin?

[gtgodbear]

We were made in the image of God. Conscience, Flesh and Soul. The Father the Son and the Holy Spirit. God is all-powerful and gave all three of HIS body parts consciousness to witness the creation of eternity.

[dgmontana]

I'm curious why so much of the Christian tradition has chosen to ignore or minimize the universality of Paul's understanding of Christ. In the passages cited from Romans (and also from 2 Corinthians, even if irrelevant to the specific evolution of doctrine), Paul describes the fall in Adam as a universal event in which all humanity participates. He then says that the free gift of acquittal has an even greater quality of univerality--the gift exceeds the trespass: in Christ, all are saved. At least in these passages, the gift of life is described as greater than the curse of death. Yet there are no conditions prerequisite to participating in the sin of Adam; it is involuntary and universal. The Church, however, has transformed the universal, unconditional gift of God into something conditional. No one can share in God's generosity without first meeting the requirements of the institution, without which damnation is inevitable. So it turns out that for the Church, the gift of God in Christ is limited and subordinate to the much more influential act of Adam, which the sacraments of the Church--not the gift of God in Jesus--alone can repair. And so the sacraments inevitably are weaponized as means of coercion and control, to be given or not according to the pleasure of the Church. Not exactly the God who causes the sun to shine on the just and the unjust, or the rain to fall on tthe evil and the good. How ironic, that we've taken our plows and beaten them back into

[SolaScriptura]

And Jesus said to them, Yes, have you never read, Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies You have prepared praise for Yourself. Matt 21:16.

[jenex]

I disagree with augustine on Imputed guilt of Adam. I agree sin is a spiritual disease.

Also disagree with infant baptism

[bradbrown]

Unless the concept of Original Sin is clearly seen with the Ante Nicene writers, I can’t be pop persuaded.

Look how Augustine used political means to get Pelagius condemned. When State and Church are mixed, it becomes a polluted mess. Jude 3 please.

[vincentthomas]

It's crazy that just because somebody has the title of doctor people would jump on board and believe that they are correct without any actual studying