Tombo,
Here are the fallacies in your post.
1.
Firstly, not being born a sinner does not equate to not needing Christ. We all need Jesus Christ because He is the way the truth and the life. Christ in us is the hope of glory. Also you have sinned in the past (which we all have) then you need the blood of Christ so you can be made pure and reconciled to God.
2.
Cain chose to sin when he yielded to the passions and desires of his flesh. God warned him not to do so but he did not heed the warning.
Gen 4:7 If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well,
sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.
Sin lies at the door because we all are born with natural passions and desires. James explains how sin works.
Jas 1:14 But every man is tempted,
when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.
Jas 1:15 Then
when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.
Eve did not need to be born a sinner to yield to the lust of the flesh.
Gen 3:6 And when the woman
saw that the tree was good for food, and that
it was pleasant to the eyes, and
a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
Eve yielded the passions and desires of her flesh and disobeyed God. She made the choice to do so.
Cain yielded to the passions and desires of his flesh and disobeyed God. He made the choice to do so.
When you yield to the passions and desires of your flesh you do it because you make the choice to do so.
The "born in sin" heresy shifts the blame for sin off you and onto God because you were made that way. Hence God gets the blame and sinners are victims.
Jesus was tempted in exactly the same way as we are yet he never disobeyed the Father.
Heb_4:15 For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but
was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.
Those who are in Christ crucify the flesh with its passions and desires.
Gal 5:24 And
they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
When we crucify our flesh with its passions and desires it means we do not yield to them anymore. We rule over them because we are under grace and not under the dominion of sin.
Rom 6:12
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.
Rom 6:13 Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
Rom 6:14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.
That is what the Bible teaches. Ignore it and call me a liar if you like, your problem is with God, not me.
3.
You allude Jeremiah 17:9 which says in context...
Jer 17:5 Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD.
Jer 17:6 For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited.
Jer 17:7 Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is.
Jer 17:8 For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.
Jer 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
Jer 17:10 I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.
Jeremiah is teaching that are to trust in God and not in ourselves. Anyone who trusts in themselves can be deceived by their heart. A wicked heart is rooted in departing from the Lord, ie departing from the grace of God which teaches us how to live. A human being left to their own devices through rejecting the source of life, which is God, is but an animal subject to the lusts of the flesh. Jeremiah is teaching not to do that.
To take that verse and imply that an innocent baby is actually wicked at birth is to shift the blame of sin from you to God who made you that way.
Sin is a choice not a disease. You sin when you make the choice to yield to the passions of the flesh when you know it is wrong to do so. That is why people are condemned.
Joh 3:19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
They refuse to yield to God's grace.
Tit 2:11 For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,
Tit 2:12 Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;
4.
You say,
It will only be in the new heaven and earth that our sinful desires will be completely done away with. But until then we will continually struggle against sin, and Jesus will be there to help us. But we have NO POWER IN OURSELVES to resist sin. If God didn't save us and open our eyes, we would not even want to repent or follow Christ.
The passions and desires of the flesh are not sinful in and of themselves. That is what Augustine taught when he brought his platonic philosophy into the church. Sin is when the passions and desires are yielded to in disobedience to God.
The sexual desire is a good example, it is just a natural desire. It is not sinful when yielded to within the bounds of marriage. It is only sinful when yielded to in disregard of marriage to satisfy the flesh. In other words sin is when you suppress the knowledge of the truth walk like an animal taking pleasure in unrighteousness.
You are correct when you say we have no power in ourselves to resist sin. That is true and that is why we have grace. This is why we cannot produce fruit apart from abiding in the vine because God is the source of all light.
The walk of a true Christian is to walk a crucified life, denying the flesh, yielding to the Spirit thus producing the fruit of true righteousness by a faith working by love.
God indeed opens our eyes and initiates salvation through His grace. If He did not do that we would not come to Him. He calls us first. Yet this call via His grace has appeared to all men through the light revealed in our souls. We can freely choose to yield to that light or reject it.
Original sin denies this light by deeming all men unable and thus a later manifestation of grace is invented to offset this inability. The reformers teach irresistible grace and the arminians teach prevenient grace. Both are errors because men are not born sinners.
Men are indeed born subject to the passions and desires of the flesh but sin can only occur when there is knowledge of right and wrong. Committing sin hardens the heart and thus dims the light of grace eventually leading to reprobation. Thus the natural disposition to sin is developed through the repeated acts of sinning, that is what the nature in Ephesians 2 is speaking about. Likewise repeatedly yielding to the grace of God will develop the natural disposition to do right and that is the nature spoken of in Romans 2.
5.
You say,
Paul is clearly saying that both the Jews under the law, and the gentiles are all under sin. There is none righteous, not even one. No one seeks for God (contrary to what skinski7 says). No one does good, not even one (contrary to what skinski7 says). There is no fear of God before their eyes (contrary to what skinski7 says).
You are referring to this section of Romans...
Rom 3:9 What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin;
Rom 3:10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
Rom 3:11 There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.
Rom 3:12 They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
Paul is quoting Psalm 14:3 where the context is of the fool.
Psa 14:1 To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David.
The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.
Psa 14:2 The LORD looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God.
Psa 14:3
They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
Isa 53:6 is also a parallel reference...
Isa 53:6 All
we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
As well as Jer 50:6...
Jer 50:6
My people hath been lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go astray, they have turned them away on the mountains: they have gone from mountain to hill, they have forgotten their restingplace.
That passage in Romans is written in the context of Rom 3:9 which says...
Rom 3:9 What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved
both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin;
It is not in the context of individuals but of the peoples. The Jews and the Gentiles are both under sin and thus both need a saviour.
There are plenty of examples in the Bible of people who "understand," and "seek God" and are "righteous."
John the Baptist's parents for example...
Luk 1:5 There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judaea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the course of Abia: and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elisabeth.
Luk 1:6 And
they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.
You cannot say they were desperately wicked and unrighteous. Romans 3 is a general statement made in regard to the peoples of both the Jews and Gentiles.
Noah, Job, and Daniel are all declared as righteous in the Old Testament. It is dangerous to isolate scripture out of its context so stop doing it.
6.
You say,
And why did Paul say all of this? "So that every mouth may be stopped (stopped from boasting that they can do anything to save themselves, like skinski7 teaches), and the whole world may be held accountable to God (which skinski7 says you are not if you just do good works).
The boast was in claiming to be a Jew and resting the law (Rom 2:17). I have explained this in detail but in brief it is simply a reference in trying to make yourself righteous by outside works apart from the grace of God. True righteousness is from the inside out which comes by an obedient heart yielding to the grace of God. That is how heart purity is produced as opposed to having to keep rules and regulations which are just dead works.
Just because I say you must obey Jesus you continually say that somehow that is some sort of boast in saving oneself. Obedience to Jesus Christ is simply a necessary mechanic in the process of salvation. It is what the Bible teaches.
I just repeat what Jesus plainly taught...
Mat 28:19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
Mat 28:20
Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
You call me a false teacher because I say that you must obey God.
7.
You then say,
Flee from this false teacher. He will only lead you to destruction by telling you that your heart is not as bad as God tells us it is, and that if you just trust in your repentance, you will saved, instead of trusting fiully in Christ Jesus for your complete salvation.
Putting words in my mouth I see. Anyone who is living in rebellion to God has a bad heart. They can only be cleansed through a genuine repentance experience where they can approach God by a true faith and thus be cleaned by the blood of Jesus Christ.
It is a real shame that you say that I am saying, "just trust in your repentance and you will be saved.' When all I am saying is that...
2Co 7:10 For
godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.
8.
You say,
And don't believe skinski7 when he tells you that you can lose your slavation that Christ won for you. He will tell you that a saved person who has been givern eternal life, can lose that salvation and eternal life. He doesn't understand what the word eternal means. If eternal life can be lost, it is not eternal. He makes God a liar.
You use rhetoric and not the Bible.
The Bible is full of warnings about holding fast lest you fall away. All those warnings must have no meaning to you.
2Pe 2:19 While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.
2Pe 2:20 For
if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.
2Pe 2:21 For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.
2Pe 3:16 As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.
2Pe 3:17 Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before,
beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness.
Why would Paul warn the Ephesians with tears for three years if there was no danger of being deceived and falling away?
Act 20:28
Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.
Act 20:29 For I know this, that
after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock.
Act 20:30
Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.
Act 20:31
Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears.
Col 2:8
Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.
1Co 9:27 But
I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.
Why would Peter teach that we must add to our faith with diligence if there is no danger of falling away?
2Pe 1:10 Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for
if ye do these things, ye shall never fall:
2Pe 1:11 For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
You are the one who is deceiving people with an ear tickling "don't worry about it" message of complacency. You are the one who is making an allowance for continuing in sin and not surely dying. The Scripture is very clear.
Dig deep.