Views of Original Sin

Originally contained in Dr. James Mook's unpublished class notes on Anthropology and Hamartiology, 1992.

The Pelagian Theory

(Pelagius -400's)

  1. Adam's sin was imputed to him alone.
  2. Every soul is immediately created by God--created innocent, free of sinful tendencies.
  3. All people are as able to obey God as Adam was.
  4. God imputes sins only personally and consciously performed.
  5. The only effect of Adam's sin was that it left a bad example.
  6. Man can be saved by Law as well as by Gospel.

The Arminian Theory

(Jacob Arminius--not Wesleyan)

  1. Due to Adam's sin, man is by nature without original righteousness and ability to attain it.
  2. But this inability is only physical and intellectual--not volitional.
  3. In accord with His justice, at the person's first consciousness God gives prevenient grace by the Holy Spirit to counteract depravity and make obedience possible, if the person cooperates.
  4. A person is not held guilty for Adam's sin.
  5. A person still inherits a tendency to evil, but this does not in itself incur guild and punishment.
  6. Sin is imputed only for voluntary sins--sins committed personally, consciously, and voluntarily.
  7. Rom 5:12 means all people suffer consequences of Adam's sin by personally consenting to their inborn evil inclination by sinful actions.

The Mediate Imputation Theory

(Wesley and later Arminians)

  1. Everyone is born morally depraved. God imputes this depravity as sin. And it is sin and the source of sin.
  2. The soul is immediately created by God, but is corrupted upon uniting with the body.
  3. The sin nature is a consequence of, but not the penalty of Adam's sin.
  4. Depravity is the cause of imputation--not its result. (Note: By contrast, in the Federal Theory, man's soul is created corrupt because of the condemnation of all Adam's descendants due to his sin)

The Federal Theory

(held by Louis Berkhof, Charles Hodge, John Murray)

  1. God made Adam the representative of the race (the federal head)
  2. God entered into a "covenant of works" with Adam: If Adam obeyed, God would give permanent holiness and eternal life to Adam and his posterity. If Adam disobeyed, God would give Adam and his posterity a corrupt nature and death.
  3. Adam sinned, so God reckons all his descendants as sinners and condemns them because of Adam's sin.
  4. Adam's sin and guilt are imputed to his posterity, because they are united with him by federal representation.
  5. Rom 5:12 means we all sinned in Adam as our representative. In other words, because Adam was our legally constituted representative, his sin was legally imputed to us.

The Realistic Theory

(Augustine? Luther? Calvin?)
Note: This view depends on the Traducian theory of the origin of the soul.

  1. Adam is the natural head of the race. All people are in organic union with Adam. Adam was the entire human race.
  2. The total life of each person was in Adam. Adam's will was the will of the race.
  3. In Adam's sin all people actually sinned.
  4. God imputed Adam's sin and guilt to all propel immediately, directly, because the sin was really committed by every person, since all people existed in Adam.

Theological FAQ

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