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Is Man Born a Sinner?
Introduction In any discourse which seeks to establish some real, spiritual truth, one must adhere to certain ground rules. Principally, the scriptures of the Holy Bible must not be compromised in any way. That is to say, no dogma* may take precedence in any manner such that it places itself to be in any way equal, or superior, to Bible scripture. Secondly, the saying that "Man is born a sinner" must be resolved by appealing to the strategy given in the Bible, where one is told to consider
For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little: Isaiah 28:10
In other words, one is to rigorously involve the scriptures themselves in the process. Thirdly, and most importantly, one must not allow Tradition to go unchallenged whenever, and wherever, it opposes Holy Scripture. Applying these ground rules will enable us to separate fact from fiction, and, in the final analysis, allow us to clearly delineate the physical from the spiritual. It is this last point which has caused Christians to become confused where some writers, confused themselves, have propagated untruths which (they think) are truths to be believed by Christians. This is simply a short treatise on whether or not man is born a sinner.
What is Sin? Any disobedience to God by man is considered to be sin by God. And, even more specifically, the scripture tells us that
Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law. 1John 3:4
And furthermore, even one sin condemns man as breaking the whole law:
For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. James 2:10
From these two scriptures we can clearly determine that a person is a sinner if he/she breaks even one commandment.
What is the Punishment for Sin? Here are some scriptures that deal with this question
For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans 6:23
Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die. Ezekiel 18:4
And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. Genesis 2:16-17 (underlined for emphasis)
From the first scripture, and employing what we have already established above, we can conclude that death is the punishment (or wages) which Adam earned when he sinned. God tells Adam specifically what his punishment will be for his disobedience:
And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. Genesis 3:17-19
A person dying and returning to dust is clearly a physical, not spiritual, act. A soul cannot return to dust, for a soul has none of the properties of being physical. But we still have to resolve what God meant when He told Adam that he would "surely die in the day that thou eatest of it " (the forbidden fruit). We know for a fact that Adam did not die (return to dust) in that 24-hour day, so God must have meant some other category of "day" than that of the 24-hour variety. We find out what God meant when we consider
But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 2Peter 3:8
Note that God defines what He meant a day to be by repeating the definition by placing "one day" and "a thousand years" in the opposite order, just to drive home the point for emphasis! Of course, the definition of a day can vary, but it depends upon the context at hand, and we can easily determine this context by recalling that no one has ever lived to be a thousand years, on this earth. Therefore, and this is a very critical therefore, we can only conclude that Adam's death sentence was that of a physical death, and not a spiritual death. To erroneously conclude (without any scriptural backing) that Adam "lost his salvation" is absurd. In the lineage of Christ in the Book of Luke:
Which was the son of Enos, which was the son of Seth, which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God. Luke 3:38
Thus, we find Adam as a son of God. There are no lost sinners in the lineage of Christ! Secondly, even if Adam had "lost his salvation" (which is absurd) how did he make it back to salvation? Obviously, he would have had to "work" his way unto salvation, which clearly violates Ephesians 2:8,9. And even further, God continued to commune with Adam, for He made him clothes and taught him what blood sacrifices were about which Adam passed on to his sons (Cain, Abel, and Seth and others). The first man that God created has been vilified by zealous people who have not considered this matter of salvation. Before we leave this particular dialogue, I want to make it clear that anyone of the human race would have (eventually) disobeyed God just as Adam did. And Adam's fall was fully anticipated by God, for through the fall of Adam God wrought His magnificent Plan of Salvation wherein mankind would have to choose God or reject God. But this plan had a terrible price to pay for man's redemption, the death, burial, resurrection, and blood provided by His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ.
So far we have principally dealt with physical death, or what the scripture refers to (by implication) as the First Death:
And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. Revelation 20:14
But before we leave this aspect of salvation, it should be noted that Salvation consists of the salvation of both body and soul. All believers already have the salvation of their soul which was purchased by the Blood of Christ (please read Sin, the Law, and the Blood). The Lord Jesus has already accomplished the salvation of our soul, but the redemption of our physical body awaits the Rapture of the Church, the next Great Event to come. And it is only because Jesus resurrected from the grave and obtained a new, glorified, eternal body, that we also will be resurrected in like manner and with like body.
Man's physical blood has never had, nor ever will have, anything whatsoever to do with the salvation of a soul. Blood was designed by God to provide physical life to His creatures, including that of Man. Time and time again, God reminds us that "life is in the blood", and in all those contexts, it is clear that He means physical life. All throughout the Bible there are references to both physical and spiritual life, and one needs to be careful in considering the context at hand in order to properly discern which one is meant.
Note on the Blood In the old testament, innocent animals were sacrificed in order to attain temporary atonement for the people's sins. But, before the sacrificial animal was slain, the sinner had to place his hands on its head, thereby symbolically transferring his sins onto the animal. Now, what exactly took place at that moment? Did the sinner's sin leave his blood and get transferred to the beast's blood so that the sinner's blood would now be clean from sin, or what? Of course not, no physical transaction of blood took place. This act was symbolic in nature, and demonstrated that the sinner acknowledged his sin and was doing what God required to be done - that of offering a blood sacrifice for his sin. It was in God's sovereign power to temporarily forgive the guilty party's offering of blood - it had nothing whatsoever to do with any physical cleansing of any sort or manner. To infer that there is any physical involvement of our sin into our blood is simply sheer fabrication, an outright lie.
Here is the scripture regarding our conception
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. John 1:1-9
The last verse tells us that it is God who gives us the "spark" of physical life - it clearly does not say that He gives us the Holy Spirit, or salvation, at conception. Therefore, the light in this context is clearly that of physical life, just as God breathed into Adam and Adam became a living soul (not a word about blood). There is no question that our blood is a vastly complicated and wonderful substance that provides us with our physical life, but it does not enter into any of God's judgments in any way. For example, God has determined the life span of man to be 1) less that 1,000 years (Genesis 2:16,17 and 2Peter 3:8), 2) 120 years (Genesis 6:3), and 3) 70-80 years (Psalm 90:10). Therefore, these life spans were sovereignly determined by God and have nothing whatsoever to do with the composition of our blood.
The Will of Man Sin operates within the will of man (which is itself spirit), and has absolutely nothing to do with the blood of man (which is itself physical, or natural). Salvation is a spiritual event, as the Lord Jesus explained to Nicodemus, who confused the physical (going back into his mother's womb) with the spiritual (being born from above via the Holy Spirit and not through any physical blood transfusion). This is precisely what Pastor M.R. Dehaan, M.D. implies in his sermons regarding The Chemistry of the Blood, a book which he authored.
DeHaan contends that "there is sin in the blood of man", and in order to try and convince the reader of this, he uses the terms "sinful blood" and "sinless blood" a total of eight times. There is absolutely no reference in the bible to either of these two terms, they are figments of DeHaan's imagination and is tantamount to adding to the truth of the Word of God which Christians are warned not to do. Stating that there is sin in the blood of man is patently absurd. Blood has no capability to commit sin because it is not designed to do so. Our blood is a vastly wonderful medium which makes our physical life possible ( that is what is meant by "the life is in the blood" ), but it has absolutely nothing to do with spiritual matters.
Concerning Adam DeHaan states that "Adam lost his salvation". In what follows, I will show the nonsense and absurdity of this statement. In the first place, God did not impart salvation to Adam when He breathed into him the breath of life such that Adam became a "living soul". But God does that for everyone, for even the lost at the end of time have souls as well. Therefore, we conclude that Adam received from God the breath of physical life, just as He does for everyone else. With the exception of John the Baptist and possibly the prophet Samuel (who may have been born saved), no one is born saved or lost.
We know from the scriptures that we are "once saved, always saved". I will not expand on this because it is so simple and elementary (read what the Apostle Paul states concerning separating him, Paul, from the love of God in Romans 8:35-39). But, suppose Adam was created "saved" and then "lost" his salvation - how did he gain it back again? How could this situation be reconciled with Ephesians 2:8? And we know from the scriptures in Luke 3:38 that Adam is listed as the son of God. There are no lost sinners in the lineage of Christ!! Adam's punishment for disobeying God is clearly given in Genesis 3:17-9. Going beyond this to say that "Adam lost his salvation" is adding to the scriptures, has no scriptural foundation, contradicts other scripture (such as Ephesians 2:8 and especially Hebrews 6:4-6), thus bordering on both heresy and blasphemy!
Concerning Death DeHaan claims that man dies because "there is death in man's blood". But, what about death which results, not from the blood, but from a blow to the temple, or a blow to the solar plexus, or, a car wreck, or, a drowning, etc. and etc. See how fallacious that statement is? No - man dies upon his appointed time - and after that, the judgment (Hebrews 9:27). Therefore, to claim that man dies "because there is death in his blood" is absurd, nonsensical, and unworthy of any kind of consideration by Christians.
There is an overwhelming flood of biblical evidence to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the blood of man has nothing whatsoever to do with neither the salvation of the soul nor being the determinant of a person's life span. DeHaan also makes reference to "innocent blood", but his conclusions concerning this are a non sequitur. All references in the Old Testament relating to "innocent blood" refer to the fact that there were, from time to time, instances where someone was killed but was "innocent" of the crime they were accused as having committed. It had absolutely nothing to do with sin in their blood.
Secondly, Judas Iscariot told the Priests that he had betrayed the "innocent blood", a connotation which was the same as the usage in the Old Testament. Jesus was innocent of all the charges brought against Him, and His blood was worthy for the sin atonement for all time for all peoples because He fulfilled the Law, something that man could not do, and thus satisfied His own judgment for the eradication of all sin. More specifically, it was His act of fulfilling the Law by virtue of His Mind, and not of His Blood.
To focus more on the expression "innocent blood" one need only consider that such a state is determined, not by the blood itself, but by the actions of the party involved. And such actions emanate from the will of man, which is spiritual in nature. Aside from the reference to Christ by Judas Iscariot, there is no other mention of "innocent blood" in the New Testament.
The Blood of Christ The role of blood is to provide the means of supporting life by giving the flesh nourishment and disposing of bodily waste. But, blood is not life, and while it provides the means whereby life is sustained, it is God's spirit that is the life of all creation. For man, Christ provides the "spark of life" which provides life to an otherwise lifeless being (John 1:9) and thus the spirit of God is the "prime-mover" of our physical blood - blood is not the "prime-mover" of life! God breathed into Adam the spirit of life which activated his physical body and blood. For example, when a blood transfusion takes place, the blood donor does not transfer part of his life to the blood recipient - the blood of the donor provides nourishment to an already living being, thus life is independent of the blood. No life is transferred - only an enabling substance that helps sustain the recipient's life. Therefore, blood is completely neutral - it can neither give nor receive sin - it is not capable of harboring sin in any way, shape, or manner.
What about the blood of Christ? Is it sinless? The answer to this is a non sequitur because of what is written immediately above, for it did not, and could not, harbor sin. When our Lord Jesus resurrected from the tomb and first met Mary,
Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God. John 20:17
This He said, not because of His blood (which was still in Him), but because had Mary touched His body, His body would have been defiled regarding His upcoming role of High Priest in the Heavenly Temple later that day. In the old testament, only the High Priest was allowed to enter into the Most Holy Place with a blood sacrifice for himself and for the people's sin. Had the High Priest not been ritually clean, God would have killed him instantly. For other details regarding our Lord Jesus taking His blood into Heaven on our behalf, please read Sin, the Law, and the Blood.
Jesus' physical blood is precious
Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: 1Peter 1:18,19
not because it is sinless (for it cannot be by definition), but because His blood represents (for all time), His great love for mankind by virtue of His laying down His life for us
For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many. Mark 10:45
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. John 15:13
Jesus' blood had sustained His physical life while He fulfilled the Law
For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: Romans 8:3
Therefore, in fulfilling the Law, our Lord Jesus fulfilled the Law for us!!
For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. Romans 10:4
On Salvation The whole crux of the matter is concerned with one central, all important, point, which is salvation itself. The scriptures admonish us "to have the mind of Christ", which is where all righteousness and sin reside 1 Corinthians 2:16. Salvation comes to a soul when he/she acknowledges that they are a sinner and that the Lord Jesus has paid the price of their redemption through His blood for the saving of their soul and that He arose from the grave after three days and three nights with a glorified, eternal body so that they too would someday resurrect with a like body. This is what is meant by being born again by "calling on the name of the Lord"
Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: 1Corinthians 15:1-4
Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. John 3:5-7
That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Romans 10:9
For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Romans 10:13
Notice the complete lack of any reference whatsoever to man's blood regarding the salvation of our soul. Albert Einstein once said that everything should be made as simple as possible, but not more so. This discourse has reached that explanation that, contrary to popular belief, man is not born a sinner. The reader should be wary to consider that the definition of blasphemy is the act of subsuming the role of God by declaring such an absurd statement when only God can declare a person to be a sinner, and does so when He considers a person's age of accountability. Finally, don't condemn all the babies of the world to the Lake of Fire upon their death - it is not in your place to do so and thereby contradict God and is certainly not in your power to do so. Please don't be guilty of blasphemy by believing - and encouraging others to believe - that "man is born a sinner".
Finally, a popular TV teacher has stated, many times over, that "man is not a sinner because he sins, he sins because he is a sinner". Coupled with the other erroneous dogma above, we can see that man seeks to blame God for his sin, since God created him a sinner (this must needs be the case for it is Christ who conceives all men unto physical life (John 1:6-9) and unto salvation (John 1:10-13). Moreover, this dogma also accuses God of committing sin, for if God creates a sinner, then God must be creating sin. This is sheer madness - God can neither sin nor create sin.
An extensive explanation of most of the foregoing points are found in several articles in http://www.thechristianlight.org. Pastor J.C. Settlemoir presents an excellent exposé of Dr. M. R. Dehaan's dogma concerning the chemistry of the blood in his book An Examination of the Chemistry of the Blood. The reader is encouraged to consider what has been presented here in the light of biblical knowledge, and not in light of tradition or in any dogma, such as that written by Pastor M.R. Dehaan, M.D.
* Dogma is any man-made, non-spiritual writing which purports to have Godly authority. Examples of dogma are everywhere: in the Roman Catholic church there are the popes' encyclicals, concordats, missals, etc. Among the Jews, dogma illustrates what the Mishna and Gemara writings are. Practically all cults operate under their own set of rules, which is their dogma. In all these cases, the obedient follower is commanded to abide by the dogma which the cult has fabricated.
Questions/Comments? Email: comment@thechristianlight.org
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