Tuesday, February 4, 2020

Herbert Haag's Summary Points Relating to the Original Sin Debate


In his Is Original Sin in Scripture? Herbart Haag gives a good overview of the historic Roman Catholic dogma of Original Sin and why Rom 5 does not teach the doctrine (see here). Here are some of the points from his summary at the end of the book (while the book is hard to find, it is worth tracking down):

(1) The idea that Adam’s descendants are automatically sinners because of the sin of their ancestor, and that they are already sinners when they enter the world, is foreign to Holy Scripture. The well known verse from the psalms, “Behold I was born in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me” (Ps. 51:7, 50:7), merely means that everyone born of woman becomes a sinner in this world, without fail. The Bible often uses the device of attributing a man’s later deeds or achievements to join him from the time of his conception and birth. (Cf. for example Jeremiah 1:5, where Jeremiah is made a prophet in his mother’s womb.)

(2) The “inheritance” of Adam’s sin means rather that sin, after its entrance into the world, so spread that consequently all men are born into a sinful world and in this sinful world become themselves sinners.

(3) When the Holy Scriptures speak of the sin of “Adam,” this is the expression folklore uses to describe the entrance of sin into the world. Scripture in no way teaches the descent of the human race from a single human couple when it uses such an expression. Whether mankind originated in monogenism or polygenism is a question which only science can answer; it is not a theological question. The thesis of polygenism cannot be rejected on the basis of original sin.

(4) No man enters the world a sinner. As the creature and image of God he is from his first hour surrounded by God’s fatherly love. Consequently, he is not at birth, as is often maintained, an enemy of God and a child of God’s wrath. A man becomes a sinner only through his own individual and responsible action.

(5) However, the man who is born in the New Covenant time does not automatically share in the life of the risen Christ. All men are called to this life, but they receive it only when they become united to Christ, become one with him as the branches with the vine (Cf. John 15:2-7).

(6) This union with the risen Christ is based on faith and becomes effective through baptism. Holy Scripture calls baptism a second birth (Cf. John 3:3-7). After birth according to the flesh man needs for salvation birth according to the Spirit of God (Cf. John 1:13 and 3:6).

(7) Thus baptism does not bring about the removal of “original sin,” but rather rebirth as a child of God; it makes man a member of Christ. Through it he participates in Christ’s life; he is taken up into the community of salvation, into the People of God, into the church. But participation in the life of Christ cannot be reconciled with sin. Consequently, baptism also becomes, for those who personally have committed sins, a sacrament which takes away sins. (Herbert Haag, Is Original Sin in Scripture? [trans. Dorothy Thompson; New York: Sheed and Ward, 1969], 106-8; note nos. 5-7 and the affirmation of baptismal regeneration)