[Linux4christians] Wake Up -2

[Rob Mitchell]

Mike McMullin wrote:

<snip>  The whole Original Sin thing bothers me, we certainly are born with
a nature that tends towards sin, without argument,so let me address your
question based on what we can agree on, our ability to sin, vs inherited
taint.
  If I recall my Catechism correctly, Sin is knowing breaking God's,
something that all newborns are incapable of doing, no sin, no need of
rebirth.</snip>
  
Greetings to the list, and to you, Mike.

I'm not sure what tradition you were catechized in, so I can't really
comment.  If you'd be kind enough to reveal that datum, I have copies of
most of the creeds and catechisms of the church, being a student of
historical theology and church history.  Please note that I said student,
and not expert; I'm not here to pontificate.

But I would note that there are several approaches to the whole idea of sin,
and the cause/effect issue of whether we sin because we're sinners, or
whether we are sinners because we sin.

The definition you proffered in your post, that sin is a knowing outward
act, is what is sometimes called a casuistic perspective, that is, sin does
not exist except in cases of acts of sin.  Now, I'm not trying to back you
or anyone else into a corner here, but one of the logical consequences of
this is that it follows from such an approach that Christian ethics are an
outside-in affair; that is only those things are sin which are acts of
volition (and volitional acts can take place in the mind as well as in the
flesh, so that such a construct can accommodate the teaching of Jesus in the
Sermon on the Mount regarding lust, anger, etc.

The strength of such an approach is that it takes very seriously the issue
of human responsibility for acts of sin.  Yet at the same time it has a
weakness in that it doesn't really address the "why" question.  If children
are born as ethical tabulae rasae (blank slates) who are incapable of sin,
then where does the propensity to sin come from?  At what point do children
become moral agents?  I believe someone used the term "age of
accountability" on this list, and although it is probably a useful term in a
practical sense, I'm not sure if it is one for which there is good
Scriptural and theological support.

Then comes the idea of Original Sin, that somehow the taint of sin affects
us all.

At this point for the sake of honesty and openness I must disclose that I am
in the Reformed Tradition - I'm a Calvinist (but no one need worry; I left
my stake and matches in the utility room).  This is a tradition that takes
Original Sin seriously, a strength which casuistic approaches to the idea of
sin lack.

But the doctrine is often misunderstood and caricatured.  I'd like to
provide an illustration of how it works, or at least an imperfect analogy
which explains my understanding of it.  I had a gel pen in the pocket of a
white shirt, which my wife laundered along with other whites.  When that
load of laundry came out of the wash, I was in the doghouse, because the pen
had leaked and there wasn't a single piece of clothing in the load that came
out unstained.  Note that there wasn't a single piece of clothing, either,
that was dyed completely black.  Some people caricature the Calvinistic
doctrine called "Total Depravity" in this way:  "Calvinists say that we are
all of us as bad as we can possibly get."  That's not what we believe.  What
we do believe is that there is no aspect of our being that is completely
free from sin's deleterious effects, and these effects are with us from our
birth.  We are born sinners, in other words, even before the sin is
instantiated in will and action.  Our nature makes it impossible that we can
remain free from actual sin, even though as infants we may lack the
capability to actualize it.  In other words, babies are born in need of
salvation by grace through Jesus Christ.

The Bible doesn't spell out what happens to babies who die.  In his dialogue
with Nicodemus, Jesus makes two statements about the need of the new birth.
Both have the same point, but one seems to be epistemological and the other
practical.

This post is too long already, so I'll end up with a couple of final points.

Again, the Bible doesn't spell out what happens to babies who die.  But
there is at least one hint.  When news of the death of Bathsheba's first
baby was reported to David, among other things he said, "I will go to him,
he will not return to me."  This of course reflects an early, pre-Christian,
Judaic idea of the afterlife and confidence that his son would be there.  I
think there is some comfort there.

Next, all we need to do is remember that God is good, and merciful and just.
We can trust God to do what is right with babies who die.

Lest anyone who reads this think that I engage in idle conjecture and
theologizing, let me state unequivocally that this is NOT a theoretical
matter for me and my wife, because we lost an unborn child between our
oldest and middle children.  I don't have a proof text to stand on, but I'm
standing on the character of God and the grace of Jesus Christ:  My wife and
I believe that our Sasha is alive and with Christ, and we long for the day
when at last we will be able to embrace all four of our children, not just
the three who remain on earth.  When someone asks how many children we have,
we always reply, "Three here, and one in heaven."  

I'll leave that last note to those who caricature Calvinists as those who
want to send babies to hell.  Not THIS Calvinist, nor any other that I know
or have read.  My dead child is in heaven and has had, I trust and believe,
a better father than all of my living children.  I don't know the details,
or at what age Sasha will appear in heaven, but I'm confident that Sasha
lives with Jesus.  I must confess that as I write these words and recall our
loss after several years and my confidence that our child is with Christ, I
didn't expect to experience the emotions of loss all over again, but that's
what's happening.  But there's also a kind of almost fierce joy and
gratefulness, and confidence in thinking of my little one in the presence of
the Savior.

Kindest regards in Christ,

Rob Mitchell