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On at least two occasions, a local denomination has left material at our door. We appreciate
the zeal with which men try to spread their religion and we are always ready to read any
religious material left with us. But, in reading that material, we do so in light of what the
Bible teaches. John said, "Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether
they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world" (1 John 4:1).
All religious teaching must be tried Ð tested — by what God has revealed in the Bible.
While most of the world does not believe there are such things as right and wrong any more, the Bible — God's final revelation to man — still says there are. So, for that reason, we want our salvation and lives to be according to the teaching of the Bible. With that in mind, we read the 8-page tract left on our door by a local Assembly of God Church. On the front cover it says, "Experience What Jesus Can Do For You!!!" and has John 3:16 printed there as well. One needs only to read the first sentence of the tract on page 6 under the heading of "Salvation" to find error. It states, "Although we all are born sinners, there is a basic need we all possess — A Need For God!" Notice the bold, undocumented assertion that, "we all are born sinners." That statement is right out of John Calvin's doctrines and has no foundation in the word of God. Born in Noyon, France, July 10, 1509, John Calvin devoted his life to theological pursuits. In 1536 he published his views on man's redemption in a work entitled, The Institutes of The Christian Religion. Calvin's entire religious system rests upon the error that all men are born inherently depraved. While Calvin achieved great distinction in promoting his false theories, he wasn't the first to do so. With a few modifications, he borrowed Augustine's error on the depravity of man and went beyond it. Calvin's doctrine asserts that, "All men are conceived in sin and born the children of wrath, indisposed (inepti) to all saving good, propense to evil, dead in sin, and the slaves of sin..." ("Calvinism," "Doctrines of Dort," McClintock & Strong's Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature, Vol. II, pp. 39-46). But the Bible nowhere teaches that sin is inherent in man or that, "we all are born sinners." Sin is not inherited, as one inherits the color of his eyes or hair. If sin is inherited from Adam, then God must be the source of sin, for Adam was the son of God (Luke 3:38). In order to bolster the false notion that "we all are born sinners," Calvinists often cite these words of David: "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me" (Psalms 51:5). But notice: The iniquity existed when David was shapen, and the sin existed when he was conceived. There is a vast difference between being born in sin and being born with sin. A consideration of a passage in Acts 2 will illustrate what David meant. Astonished that unlearned Galileans could speak their native languages, the mixed crowd on Pentecost Day asked, "How hear we every man in our own tongue wherein we were born" (Acts 2:8). They said they were born in — "wherein we were born" — their native tongues. They were not born speaking those languages. They learned them after they were born. They simply meant that they were born into an environment and culture where those tongues were spoken. The same principle applies to David's words. He wasn't born with sin, but was conceived and born in a world polluted by sin. Contrasting our Heavenly Father with our earthly fathers, the Hebrews writer wrote that God is the "Father of spirits" (Hebrews 12:9). If we all are born sinners, that means God is the Father of a depraved spirit. Moreover, of our demise, Solomon says the body returns to the earth from whence it came, while the "spirit shall return unto God who gave it" (Ecclesiastes 12:7). If we are born sinners, then God gives a depraved spirit. But when Jesus sought an example of simplistic purity and innocence for His followers to emulate, he chose a little child. "Except ye be converted and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 18:3). If we are all born sinners, that means we must become sinners to enter the kingdom of heaven, for that is the example Jesus sets forth in this passage. That sin is an acquired spiritual characteristic is a truth taught throughout the Bible. Man is not born astray, but goes astray of his own free will. "The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray as soon as they be born; speaking lies" (Psalms 58:3). The wicked "go astray" by "speaking lies." They aren't born that way. Ezekiel declares that sin is not passed from generation to generation as an inherited trait from our parents. "The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him" (Ezekiel 18:20). Like its physical type leprosy, sin is an acquired characteristic, not something with which we are born. We acquire sin when we come to an accountable state before God by our knowledge of good and evil. Illustrating the absurdity of Calvinistic arguments for inherent depravity, or being born with sin, Foy E. Wallace, Jr. says the doctrine is self-destructive. "The dictum of this doctrine, which results in its self-destruction, is that acquired characteristics cannot be transmitted to the offspring, and that is the reason, they say, that the righteousness of the parents cannot be transmitted to their children... This principle must work both ways, and utterly destroys the theory of inherited depravity. Here is why. Whatever depravity or sinfulness Adam and Eve had was an acquired characteristic. If that is not true, then their sinfulness would have been inherited, which would mean that Adam and Eve inherited sin from God! Therefore, there was no depravity, and no sinfulness in Adam and Eve until they acquired that characteristic by disobedience. But since acquired characteristics of parents cannot be transmitted to their children, Adam and Eve did not, could not, transmit their depravity to their posterity" (Bulwarks of The Faith, Foy E. Wallace, Jr. Publications, Oklahoma City, 1951, p. 377). The notion of "original sin," or "inherent depravity," expressed in the statement that, "We all were born sinners," has no basis whatsoever in God's revealed Truth. Augustine borrowed it from heathen philosophy and passed it from century to century until John Calvin plagiarized it for the Protestant world. It is the fundamental error of Catholics and Protestants alike; is false to the core and a corruption of plain Bible teaching. |