I'm not fully up to speed with this original sin thing, i've never really given it much thought.
Is this correct? :
Biblical and pre-Augustinian view - we are the guilty sinners. This results in proper focus on how we relate to God , ourselves and each other.
Is this correct? :
Biblical and pre-Augustinian view - we are the guilty sinners. This results in proper focus on how we relate to God , ourselves and each other.
Sorry Mahogony, I don't know about the writings of the early church fathers. I just know that Pelagius and Augustine had a debate on this issue and Augustine somehow won and Pelagius has been known as a heretic ever since.
I always believed in Original Sin because that was what I was always taught. However, recently God showed to me that I have hated Him without a cause. Now if God has inflicted mankind with sin by inheritance from Adam, then God is to blame for me being sinful, or at best Adam is. But how unfair that God should allow us all to be born sinful due to Adam's wrong? What of all the suffering in this world? If we aren't to be blamed for being born sinful, how then can men not be angry with God for allowing this mess? But Jesus said: "They have hated me without a cause."
Augustinian and modern christian view - put the blame on adam and eve or God. This results in converts who perhaps haven't come to full realisation that God holds them accountable for their own sin. This is a more attractive view and avoids hurting people's feelings if we can blame someone else, ...but whether it produces real converts or not or whether it really matters at all is a good question.
I admit that I hold to the augustinian view personally, that our sin is a result of adam and eve. But I'm beginning to see that what I have always taken for granted about this, may not fit exactly with pre-augustinian christianity. And if it doesn't agree with pre-augustinian christianity, then it most certaily will not agree with biblical christianity.
When a person calls a certain view 'heresy'..and I'm guilty of this myself.... is that with respect to the roman catholic's standard of heresy? or the bibles? Maybe I can call myself a heretic.
I admit that I hold to the augustinian view personally, that our sin is a result of adam and eve. But I'm beginning to see that what I have always taken for granted about this, may not fit exactly with pre-augustinian christianity. And if it doesn't agree with pre-augustinian christianity, then it most certaily will not agree with biblical christianity.
When a person calls a certain view 'heresy'..and I'm guilty of this myself.... is that with respect to the roman catholic's standard of heresy? or the bibles? Maybe I can call myself a heretic.
Quest