What if some of the basic precepts by which we have been introduced to divinity are flawed?
What if they are entirely false? What it if is all wrong? What if it is a fabrication of insecure man? Unfounded, inaccurate and untruthful?
The particular 'foundational belief' is something called Original Sin. It certainly is the groundwork for needing a higher power, yes?
ORIGINAL SIN
Sometimes referred to as Ancestral Sin, it goes basically like this:
Christianity teaches that all of humanity is born in a state of sin, or "apartness from God". This is where such ideas as "The Fall of Mankind", come from. Although there are many interpretations about original sin, the idea goes that all of mankind, with the exception of Adam and Eve, are born with an internal flaw. This flaw is called Sin and sometimes Imperfection.
It is blamed for the tendency of mankind toward sinning, or desiring to sin. The sin part of this is that which God disapproves and therefore can remove one from "his favor".
Surprisingly, this is not a Christ-taught concept. It is the one called, "Paul the Apostle", who fomented this idea. It certainly is not discusses in the Jewish texts or in the Psalms and Proverbs or in the prophet's writings.
Islam and Hinduism likewise do not teach this concept.
Whether it is represented as the absence of holiness or simply the state where god in "his righteousness" cannot accept you as you are born, the idea is fertile for a litany of methods to come back "into the grace of god".
IMPACT
The one thing that is most certainly does is to, in effect, condemn mankind. And in that condemned state, clearly mankind needs god. It's a classic play on circular reasoning but its impact is quite devastating.
It basically says the following:
1. You Are Born Sinful therefore...
2. You Are Rejected & Unacceptable to God
3. Therefore you are lost and need to be "found"
4. You are "dead" and need to be "born again"
So now what?
When one is taught that they are intrinsically flawed and corrupt, rendering them ultimately unacceptable by the creator, they naturally feel left out, rejected and unworthy of love and life.
This flies in the face of the concept that God is Love and that God Loves Everyone. It puts a contingency on these two concepts. That contingency is... as varied as each version of Christianity is.
You are on the "outs" with God and to be on the "ins" with God you must...
1. Confess Your Sins & Accept Jesus Christ as Your Personal Savior
or
2. Reject Your Sinful Life & Adorn the Teachings of Jesus Christ & Follow Him
or
3. Repent Therefore & Leave Your Sinful Ways
and so on, and so on, and so on...
The way back "in" with God is as varied as you want to make it. Some faiths teach proselytizing, others teach a passive acceptance of the given church's tenets, while others require enduring great pain and suffering to please God.
WHY IT WORKS
A thinking person would rather quickly see the key to obeying the tenets of a given Christian faith is the complete acceptance that God can't love you because you are in debit column of the great ledger of God from the get-go.
It's a hugely manipulated concept to declare all of mankind is unworthy of God's love and acceptance unless they worship God as you do. This whole idea was created by a man, according to the Bible, names Saul, who killed Christians until, one day, on the way to Damascus, was cast into blindness by Jesus (in heaven at the time), and asked, 'why do you persecute my followers'. Then Saul went into Damascus, found a certain man and had his physical vision restored, transformed his own values to believe in Jesus as the son of God, and then changed his name to Paul.
Then, in a letter to some Roman Christians, this is what "Paul" told them about the concept of "Original Sin" at Romans 5:12-21:
12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in
this way death came to all people, because all sinned— 13 To be sure, sin was in the world
before the law was given, but sin is not charged against anyone’s account where there is no
law. 14 Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over
those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who is a pattern of the one to
come. 15 But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one
man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man,
Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! 16 Nor can the gift of God be compared with the result
of one man’s sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift
followed many trespasses and brought justification. 17 For if, by the trespass of the one
man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s
abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one
man, Jesus Christ! 18 Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all
people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people. 19 For just
as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through
the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous. 20 The law was brought in
so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more,
21 so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to
bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
I have to apologize for the length of this quotation from the New International Version of the Bible, but to understand how Saul (Paul) argues for this original sin idea, one must look at his whole argument.
Let's examine his logic:
1. Sin entered the world through Adam ("one man")
2. Death is the result of sin
This is all in the first verse. And it is rife with the assumption that through the sinning Adam (remember he ate the forbidden fruit that his wife gave him), all of his progeny (you have to accept that in fact God created Adam directly and that everyone else came from him and his wife, Eve (she came from one of his ribs). Because Adam sinned against God, Adam entered a state of sin (and what kicked out of Paradise, another gift from God).
Further, if you are a child of Adam, you are in sin. Now I am incorporating Paul's concepts in the whole passage here but it's the only way you can understand his logic.
Regarding verse 13, it is important to know that "the law" he keeps referring to is the law of the Jews given them by God. Far more than ten commandments, there are hundreds of laws relating to how they live, and every other aspect of life. This whole concept that these certain 'holy men' worked with Moses who worked directly with God has repetition throughout Christianity.
So in verse 13, he says that sin was in the world (through Adam's sin) "before the law". Why they obsession of "the law"? Because he was trying to convince Jews who were attracted to Jesus that the whole Jewish Law had application in Christianity... kind of.
He adds a loophole by saying that if you don't know the law, you can't be held responsible and therefore, "sin is not charged against anyone's account".
This suggests:
3. Before the Law, sinning did not count with God
4. After the Law, sinning did count with God
5. We all have an account
6. We can have charges or marks against us that God counts
Well, I should continue but as this is quite lengthy, I would like to invite you to read Part II.
No comments:
Post a Comment