Dr. Craig, can I ask you a question about the concept of original sin?
Alright.
To my understanding of Protestant Christian traditions, at least, one of the
philosophical frameworks is that since the event known as "The Fall" every human being is
come to existence is tarred of the mark of original sin from the point of of birth
or conception, some point, and I just I've always struggled to reconcile human
beings coming into existence already in the state of original sin and then
subsequently held accountable for it... kind of judgement...I just wondered if you have any thoughts.
Yes, I do have some thoughts. I teach a Sunday School class called
"Defenders" in which we have a survey of all of the major parts of Christian
doctrine from beginning to end. This is on our website. We're currently
in the third series of surveying Christian doctrine and apologetics and
you'll find my lectures on original sin in the section called "Doctrine of
Salvation." Now, Christians differ in their view of original sin, so if you have
reservations about this you will be in very good company. It's not as though
this is a cardinal doctrine of Christianity. The Catholic Church holds
to the doctrine of original sin but Eastern Orthodoxy, for example, does not.
In the Easter Orthodox Church it's believed that we all bear a corrupted
nature as a result of sin's entry through Adam into the human race but we don't
hold or bear original guilt. We're not condemned for something we
didn't do. In Protestant theology,
although Reformed theology holds to the doctrine of original sin, many
Arminians do not. Many would think that it was simply through the fall of man
that sin entered into the world but that we do not carry the guilt of Adam's
original sin. So, there is a diversity of opinion within Christendom on this and
this is one of the strengths of the Christian faith, I think, that it permits
this kind of diversity. Now if one is convinced of the doctrine of original
sin, what might be said in defense of it? Well, here would be my best shot. I would say
that Adam can be regarded as the federal head of the human race. That is to say, he
is our representative or proxy before God so that what he does he does as our
representative. For example, I will get every year a proxy form for
stockholders meetings in mutual funds that we invest in and if you cannot
attend the stockholders meeting yourself you sign the proxy form and somebody
else whom you've authorized will vote in your place. He doesn't vote for himself.
This is your vote, but he votes for you, and in the same way one can understand
Adam to be our proxy before God. He is the federal head of the human race. Now
someone might object, "Well fine, but who appointed him to act on my behalf? I
didn't authorize him to vote for me. Why should I be held responsible for what my
representative did? And here I think that the person who believes in original sin
might plausibly reply that if you had been in that situation then you would
have done exactly the same thing so that no one can complain that their
representative failed to act in a way that was
distant with their own will. And I think that that makes it reasonable to believe
in the doctrine of original sin. Adam was my proxy before God and what he did I
would have done had I been there myself. And therefore his guilt is imputed to me.
you