How did we come to be so bad? Some folks don’t seem to be so bad, some are more consistently bad, and still others appear to be ”rotten to the core.” As the saying goes, “Nobody’s perfect.” Why is that? Is badness contagious? Does the Devil always make us do it? Or do all of us have varying quantities of bad genes?
In the religious circles we’re taught that we can’t help being bad, that we’re born that way. Ironically, they also teach us that our badness destines us for destruction — even though it wasn’t our fault. We were born that way, right? Add in the concept of eternal torment, and something seems terribly wrong. All of this is based upon the assumption that nobody was born perfect.
Well, a couple of folks were. Adam and Eve were born perfect. Born, created, whatever. Still they were perfect. They even had rules, but were still perfect. Enter the negative influence: a wild animal, serpent creature (Genesis 3) whom the clergy will later call Satan. He saw Eve as a clear target, and he counted on the fact that she would have a similar negative influence on her husband.
As the story goes, the two thus became sinful (rule breakers). It became a permanent part of their being (biological or spiritual trait, I’m not sure), such that it would be passed down to every one of their children. So we can be good on our own sometimes, but we can never be perfect. We’re taught to repent (turn from bad to good) but nothing can redeem us except the blood of Jesus Christ, provided that we believe that he died for us and we accept him as our personal savior.
You see, somewhere along the line they threw in a Jewish tradition of sacrificing animals to entice God to forgive their sins. They did it religiously, but it just wasn’t good enough. God had to send his son (or himself, depending on where you are on the trinity) to be that ultimate, one-time sacrifice. Not just for the Jews, though — now we get to include everybody.
Do we still break the rules after this life-changing experience? You betcha. Not only do we still break rules, but we develop a keen sense of observing how other Christians are breaking worse rules than us, or aren’t as holy as us. So long as we’re praying, reading our Bibles and witnessing (and going to church, of course), we’re still part of the body of Christ, and our continued “unintentional” sins will be covered by that blood. What’s up with that?
Which brings me back to the positive/negative influences. The entire sum of our God-given experience centers on our relationship with others, and the progression thereof, what I like to call the journey. Jesus taught little-to-nothing about the doctrines summarized in the previous paragraphs. He did, however, have plenty to say about how we should live. Stop being bad. Start being good. End of story.
And yes, it cost him his life to give us three years of hardcore teaching on the subject. His Father could have kept him from being killed, but he didn’t. The final proof of his love and sonship was his resurrection from the dead.
While it’s true that we’re not likely to prove perfection within a controlled environment, using perfect parents, it’s more reasonable to believe that God would achieve ultimate perfection by perfecting those who have been soiled along the way.
Love is the nucleus of the atom we call life. God is at the center of that love. The outer circles burn with his discipline, the process that purifies and refines us from the ugliness that has attached to us on our journey. Sometimes we can actually see that process in people. Sometimes not. That’s what the journey is for. Death just kicks it up a notch.
Read more about: obedience, sin, the journey
December 8th, 2008 at 5:39 am
I haven’t found the age of accountability directly referred to in the Bible. The Jewish custom was that a child, particularly male, became an adult at age 13, able to then make adult decisions. The rationale follows that people reach a point in their lives, different age per individual, when they are “accountable” for their decision for Christ. I don’t think God has a cutoff point. He has unending patience.
I wouldn’t be quick to dismiss all ideas of men, because it is thru men and women that God speaks today. We are, however, responsible for giving their teaching a “test of reasonableness.” That’s the greatest trait that Godhas endowed us with.
I don’t believe that anyone perishes to the point of non-existence. God’s perfect love reconciles all things to himself, using whatever disciplinary measures are necessary.
December 7th, 2008 at 6:18 pm
It is clear that we are all sinners (rule breakers). A newborn child before he or she disobeys is not sinful. Is the age of accountability found in the Bible? Or, is the age of accountability just an idea that men thought up? And, if it is, how many other ideas are thought up to help give credibility to certain doctrines? I do not think that newborns would perish, because God is a God of love, and the idea that they would perish is absurd.
December 6th, 2008 at 9:11 am
When you refer to the Bible, I assume you mean the bound volume consisting of the completed Jewish writings from the Septuagint plus the canonized books of the New Testament. Does it concern you that a single bishop in 315 AD decided that 27 books were the right ones for the NT, then convinced the organized Church to go along with it? Was he inspired? And what about the Apocrypha? They were in every Bible until 1880. Were they inspired, or did they lose their inspirational status? You said that “we are sinful creatures.” There’s the rub. What makes us sinful creatures?
December 5th, 2008 at 6:40 pm
I can believe the Bible is inspired by God, but be skeptical of many of the intepretations of it. I don’t think it matters if you’re born sinful because whether it happens at conception or birth or the first time we ignore our parents who have told us for the sixteenth time not to pull the cat’s tail, we are sinful creatures who struggle to do what’s right by any standard.
December 4th, 2008 at 7:43 pm
Now I’m confused. How can you believe the Bible and be at odds with many of the basic tenets when the proponents of those tenets say they come from the Bible? Does it matter if you’re born sinful? Of course not — if you don’t believe the Bible. If you take both Testaments as a whole, then you can see the sacrificial thread (possibly man-made) between the two. I personally believe that God spoke to a lot of people. Some wrote it down. Some put their own spin on it. And some got it wrong.
December 3rd, 2008 at 8:14 am
I’m not sure what your response means. I do believe the Bible. I am probably at odds with many of the basic tenets of what is considered Christianity these days, but I am still thinking through the major doctrines.
Does it matter if we’re born sinful? Also, you said ” they threw in a Jewish tradition of sacrificing animals to entice God to forgive their sins.” What does that mean? Do you believe the majority of the Old Testament, especially the communication between God and the Jews, is a fabrication?
December 1st, 2008 at 7:47 pm
If you believe the Bible and the basic tenets of Christianity, you’re bound to give weight to sinful natures, freedom thru salvation, and the like. And elusive theological concepts have pretty much been nailed down by Biblical scholars the world over. If you’re referring to MY elusive concepts, well, they haven’t left me yet.
December 1st, 2008 at 7:12 am
I’m not sure it matters whether or not we’re born sinful. I think that God created Adam and Eve to be like him, which means they always had the possibility to know good and evil. Eating from the forbidden tree didn’t magically transform them into sinful people that doomed the entire world, it was just the first moment that they used their freedom to do something that was against God.
I agree with you that following Jesus simplifies the process. I think we have to worry far less about elusive theological concepts and more about exercising the freedom that God gave us to do what is good and right.