Are All Babies Born Sinners? Live Q&A for August 8, 2024
Are Babies Born Sinners?
Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned— (For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come. (Romans 5:12-14)
- Sin entered the world through one man
- Death came into the world through sin
- Death has spread to all men, showing all sinned (in Adam)
The line of thinking from Paul (and the Holy Spirit) seems to be that we are only subject to death if we are under sin. The fact that babies can die show that they are, in some sense, under sin. They are not sinlessly perfect or, theologically speaking, innocent. There is some kind of inherited sin nature, received from Adam.
There is another piece of evidence that we are born sinners – it is the simple observation that children don’t need to be “taught” to sin – it’s already in them. Parents already know this. Children are relatively innocent, but not truly or completely innocent.
Augustine’s example of the baby who would strangle his mother if he was able to speaks to this.
Children who go to heaven do so not because they are innocent, but because of God’s great mercy. We must avoid the error of Pelagius. Pelagius (late 4th, early 5th century) is sad to have made the error of saying that Adam sinned only for himself, and that we receive no sinful nature from Adam. This is a dangerous error.
It is true that we are born with an Adamic nature, and that we sin because we are fundamentally sinners. Nevertheless, there is reason to believe that God does not condemn individuals on the basis of having the Adamic nature alone – guilt under their own sins is also a basis for judgment:
The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. (Revelation 20:13)
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, (Romans 3:23)
[Paul did not write, “Everyone born with a sinful nature falls short of the glory of God]
Several passages lay our guilt to our own trespasses and sins, and not to our inherited Adamic nature alone. These passages mention our guilt, without any reference to inherited sin.
And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1)
Even when we were dead in trespasses (Ephesians 2:5)
And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh (Colossians 2:13)
Some people suggest that the sinful, Adamic nature lies dormant in a child until at some indeterminate age it is activated. That’s something interesting to think about, but the Bible doesn’t clearly state this.
Conclusions
- Yes, people are born sinners – including babies!
- All who are subject to death are under sin, and our “under sin” status was inherited from Adam.
- Children don’t need to be “taught” to sin – it’s already in them.
- In the passages that speak of God’s eternal judgment on sinners, the emphasis is never on this inherited sin or sinful nature – the emphasis is on the sins, trespasses, actually committed (all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, Romans 3:23).
- Babies that go to heaven go because of God’s mercy provided through the work of Jesus Christ, not because they are inherently sinless or innocent.
What should discipleship look like in a church? If it doesn’t exist in our current fellowship, how can we encourage it to happen (from a non-leader perspective)?
Scripturally speaking, discipleship means learning about being a follower of Jesus Christ. The original disciples of Jesus were following a very customary form in that day. Certain people would gather around a prominent rabbi, live with him, follow him, and learn everything that they could from him. In an analogous way, Jesus calls us to be His disciples. We follow Jesus, and we learn how to live and do the things that Jesus wants us to do.
What does Jesus want us to do? Well, if you’re talking about the individual Christian life, Jesus wants us to put our faith in Him, and teach others how to trust Christ on a daily basis. Jesus wants us to hear Him by reading, understanding, and receiving His Word, and to teach other people how to do that. We teach them how to pray, how to worship, and how to share their faith. We teach them how to do the things that disciples can and should do. We help people become learners and followers of Jesus Christ.
In a good, healthy church, a lot of this process happens through the work of the pulpit. But not every church has that good, healthy environment, and not all of discipleship will really happen through the ministry of the pulpit in the environment of the church. I think it’s very helpful for believers to carry out a lifestyle of discipling other people and teaching them about the Christian life. I would say to almost every Christian: you can and should be discipling somebody else, because you may not know much about the Christian life, but you probably know more than some people. You probably know more than some people about prayer, reading the Bible, worship, integrity in the Christian life, making godly decisions, understanding cultural controversies in light of the Scriptures and the integrity that God calls us to as believers. You can pass that knowledge on to other people in a one-on-one setting. Discipleship can and does work on a church-wide level, but individual and small-group discipleship is important and should not be neglected. You can encourage discipleship to happen in a spontaneous and very blessed way.
Was the sin of Sodom & Gomorrah so bad that they were unredeemable (Genesis 19)?
Was the sin of Sodom & Gomorrah so bad that they were unredeemable? In Genesis 19, is there evidence that they had been forewarned of their sin?
I would not use the term “unredeemable,” but I would say that they were ripe for judgment. We need to understand that God can bring His judgment not only to an individual soul regarding eternal salvation, but God can bring his judgment upon cities, cultures, nations. It’s possible that there were people in the city who were not individually guilty of the great sins for which Sodom and Gomorrah were judged. But God’s judgments don’t only come upon individuals, but also upon cities, cultures, and nations sometimes. That was the nature of the judgment which came upon Sodom and Gomorrah.
In theory, there could have been individuals who could have been redeemed by trusting in the covenant God of Abraham, yet their culture and their nation was still ripe for judgment. It’s important that we don’t forget this. God has the right to judge cities, communities, nations, and if God chooses to bring judgment in such a way, then the judgments of the Lord are true.
The Bible says in Peter that Lot was a preacher of righteousness among the people of Sodom. There may have been many other ways He spoke, but if nothing else, God gave a witness to the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah through the presence of righteous Lot.
Is it wrong to call unbelievers spiritually blind? Should we take spiritual advice from nonbelievers?
Well, in a word, no. Your thought is Biblically correct. Whether you’re expressing it in a respectful manner is between you and the Lord. We should be interested in what those who do not yet believe are interested in, and what they think about all sorts of spiritual things, because it reveals to us where they’re at spiritually. That why we should be interested. As Christians, we’re not interested in having them correct us. Somebody might say, “I reject Jesus Christ, Idon’t believe the Bible, Jesus was just another man, maybe God doesn’t exist.” If a person expresses all this unbelief, skepticism, and doubt to me, I’m not going to ask them to teach me about the Bible or the Christian life.
But I am interested in what they have to say, because it helps me learn something about them and maybe other people in general. So, I want to hear what they have to say respectfully. But I’m not there to learn spiritual knowledge from them. I’m there to learn from them in the sense that we can all learn something from every human being.
Can you explain Malachi 4:5-6, about Elijah turning the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers?
Malachi 4:5-6 – Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD. And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.”
God promised His people that He would send Elijah before the great and terrible day of the Lord, which we would regard as the powerful Second Coming of Jesus Christ in glory and power. I would say that the promise about turning the hearts of the fathers to their sons and the sons’ hearts to their fathers is a beautiful promise of reconciliation. He’s going to restore all things. This is more than just the reconciliation of families, although it includes that. What a beautiful and powerful thing for God to include that part of the Messiah’s ministry would be to reconcile families. But this promise goes beyond that. In talking about turning the hearts of the children to the fathers, it also has in mind a turning to the God of their fathers and the faith of the patriarchs.
This promise includes, in a very basic sense, that familial reconciliation. When Jesus comes into a family, families are reconciled and forgiveness, healing, and reconciliation takes place. But that is not always the case, which is why Jesus said at one point that He did not come to the earth to unite, but to divide; He came with a sword. One side effect of Jesus’ work would be to turn parents against children and brother against sister, because they would divide over who Jesus is. That is absolutely true at times. But in a greater and more general sense, one of the marvelous works of the Messiah is to bring healing and reconciliation to people.
What is the best way to be subject to/obedient to today’s government (Romans 13)?
We are subject to the government by obeying their laws. This Q&A goes out all over the world to people from a lot of different countries, so I apologize if I’m not speaking in a way that’s relevant to your direct political or legal environment. But in America, there are so many laws, and the legal system is so complicated, that it’s said that in any given moment, any citizen in the United States is guilty of four or five felonies without even knowing it. I don’t know if that’s literally true, but I think the spirit of that is true. To my knowledge, right now, I’m not in disobedience to any laws. I want to live in obedience to the laws of the land. I want to pay my taxes, and be supportive of my government, even when the government does wrong. I want to be supportive of bringing about nonviolent change which brings about real justice in our land. I think these are simple ways that we submit to government.
There is something additionally complicated for those of us who live in democracies. If you live in a democracy, that means that you have at least some share in the making of your government. You may have a very small voice, but at least potentially, you have a greater voice to be made available to you. And you can use that voice. I think using your voice in a democracy is another way of being subject to the government.
The quickest answer would be to obey the laws and pay your taxes. That’s how we show our obedience to the government. Now there is one additional requirement put upon Christians in this context. We are to pray for our leaders. I don’t know how many of you are praying for your political leaders, but you should be. I think that’s what God wants us to do.
How do we correctly interpret the Bible on how it applies to our lives, especially the OT?
First of all, we do that by reading the context. It’s important to ask, “Is this a promise specifically made to Israel? Is this a promise made to the people of God in general? Is this a promise made to people under the New Covenant?” That’s a good place to start.
Secondly, I do believe in the phenomenon of God making a verse come alive to us by the Holy Spirit. At certain times, He takes a passage of Scripture and says, “This is for you.” Maybe it was not originally written to you, and maybe it’s not yours in context directly. But I believe the Holy Spirit sometimes illuminates a particular verse and says, “This is for you.” Of course, that can be abused, but anything in the life of the Spirit can be abused. It’s a good primary practice to refer to the context, and also to be open to the very real phenomenon of the Holy Spirit taking a verse and quickening it, making that verse alive to us.
