Found here. Our comments in bold.
------------------
This is a rather convoluted explanation. One of the theological debates of the centuries is the problem of sin, and that debate deserves more than the author's speculations and bare assertions.
The author believes that sin was not created, that it exists as a possibility until it is actualized. This fundamental premise is not documented from Scripture.
-------------------
Sin exists. That much should be obvious. We see it manifested in the world all around us; we see evidence of it within ourselves as well. Violence and hatred go virtually unchecked. Selfishness and pride run amok in so much of what we do and in so many of the decisions we make. Anger and frustration so often lurk beneath the surface, just waiting for the right circumstances to call them up. And storms and diseases frequently wreak havoc on our lives and our livelihoods. These things we all know to be part and parcel of the world in which we live. The question is, why? Why are they part of our reality? Where did they come from? Better yet, if these things are all manifestations of sin, the real question we must answer is, where did sin come from?
The problem gets more complicated, however. If God created everything in the universe and declared it to be “very good” (Gen. 1:31), and if sin is, at its root, not good—i.e., it is unrighteousness and ungodliness, as I argued in my last article—then God couldn’t have created it. But if God didn’t create it, then where did sin come from? Has it always existed? Is it some kind of cosmic opposite to God? Or is there some “sinful” being that is responsible for bringing it into the world and sustaining its influence in every generation down through the ages? And, if that is true, then where did this being come from? These are just some of the things that we will be exploring in this article. Let’s start “in the beginning” with what happened at creation.
Sin didn’t need to be created
If, as I argued in my last article, sin is ungodliness or unrighteousness or, even, lawlessness, then this means that sin is not a substance that needs to be created in order for it to exist. (There are many things that are not "substances" and yet they are created and exist.)
It is an attitude or a posture—an anti-God attitude or posture—that leads in turn to anti-God thoughts, words, and deeds. (Attitudes and postures are created.)
Sin is the privation (We had to look up this word. And having done so, we are still not sure why the author employed it since it is not everyday language people use. He uses it four times, and doing so does nothing but obscure his explanation.)
or absence of godliness or righteousness or lawfulness, much in the same way that darkness is the privation or absence of light. God didn’t need to create ungodliness; it already existed as an “opposite” to His own character and will. (The author tells us that ungodliness already existed, and God didn't create it. This makes ungodliness co-eternal with God. Further, if it already existed as an "opposite" to God it pre-dates creation. This means that ungodliness existed before the creation of Lucifer.
Nonsense.
So far, the author has done nothing but make summary statements. Where in the Bible do we find these things?)
In addition to the passages I cited in my last article, (The author keeps mentioning his last article, but in it there are no passages he cites which even discuss the idea of ungodliness already existing.)
Titus 2:11-14 clearly supports this line of reasoning. Significantly, according to the apostle Paul, we are told in these verses that Jesus “gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness” (v. 14). Sin is necessarily, therefore, the opposite of law-keeping; it is the privation or absence of lawfulness. (We do not concede this, simply because the author has not demonstrated it. We might be willing to accept the idea, but not based on the superficial explanation he has provided.)
And because God’s character and will are the only bases for the law, this means that sin is nothing more or less than ungodliness. Paul confirms this interpretation by placing “lawlessness” in v. 14 in parallel with “ungodliness” in vv. 11-12. The work of Christ not only redeems us from our lawlessness; it also transforms us more and more to reflect God’s character and will over the course of our lives. (Perhaps. But we would be more inclined to assert that the Holy Spirit is transformative agent in the sanctifying process.)
This, in turn, confirms that sin didn’t need to be created. It is the privation or absence of God, His character, and His will. (He repeats himself after further discussion which did not add to his case.
While it is true that the absence of God's holy influence is the breeding ground for sin and is the default state of the dead man, Christians sin despite the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit.)
All that is needed for it to come into existence is for creatures to exist who have the ability to choose to embrace God/godliness or to reject it. (Whoops. The author previously asserted that ungodliness didn't need to be created, but now he contradicts himself. Now he tells us that the free will of created beings is the necessary agent for sin to exist.
Importantly, Paul gives a different answer as to how sin came about:
Ro. 7:8-9 ...For apart from law, sin is dead. Once I was alive apart from law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died.
Here Paul was discussing the "commandment," i.e., the Law of Moses. Paul measured his spiritual death by the advent of the righteous standard of the Law. Generically speaking, the possibility of committing sin is contingent upon a law of God being broken.
But first comes the revelation of that law.
This means the timing of this revelation is a pivotal factor. However, we would want to resist the idea that the existence God's law [or our death as a result of it] came at a specific point in human history. That is, the law is not something that simply arose when Moses met God on the mountain. God has always been righteous, and as an eternal being His nature is not constrained by time.
Therefore, His law is also eternal:
Ps. 119:160 All your words are true; all your righteous laws are eternal.
However, if unrighteousness first appeared at the choice of a free-will creature, then the author is really saying that God's righteousness was contingent on that event. Which means that He was neither righteous nor unrighteous until he created beings with free will. But this is also false, because his righteousness is part of His eternal nature:
Ps. 119:142 Your righteousness is everlasting and your law is true.
The eternal God and His eternal law revealed what was righteous, which by definition means everything else is unrighteous. Thus neither the existence of free will nor the commission of actual unrighteousness are necessary antecedents.)
Therefore, when God created the angels with the ability to choose “for God” or “not for Him,” sin—which is simply ungodliness—became a distinct possibility for the first time in the history of the universe. (The potential to commit sin did indeed occur at the creation of beings with free will. This is not what the author was previously discussing, however.)
Sin has an army of advocates
What is only a distinct possibility, however, becomes a reality when one of the angels God created actually chooses to reject godliness and to lead other angels to follow suit in rebelling against God’s authority (2 Pet. 2:4; Jude 6). This angel is given the name “Satan” or “the devil” in the Bible (Rev. 12:9) and is variously described as “the prince of demons” (Matt. 12:24), the “ancient serpent” from the Garden of Eden, “the deceiver of the whole world” (Rev. 12:9), and “the prince of the power of the air” (Eph. 2:2). As a result of this rebellion, Satan is “thrown down” to earth from heaven, along with all those who followed his lead (Rev. 12:7, 9; 2 Pet. 2:4; Jude 6). Together, they devote themselves to making war against God’s people on earth until the last day when Jesus returns in power and glory (Rev. 12:17; Matt. 8:28-29).
John 8:44 and 1 John 3:8 both suggest that Satan is the first creature to choose ungodliness in the history of the world and, when he did, he actualized sin out of the realm of the merely possible. (We would request the Scripture that tells us that there is a distinction between actualized and unactualized sin.)
But, what is more, he initiated a campaign to persuade as many others—angels and, then later, humans—to follow him in choosing ungodliness. That is why he is also referred to as the “tempter” (Matt. 4:3), the “accuser” (Rev. 12:10), and “the father of lies” (John 8:44). Even now, he and his compatriots are “prowl[ing] around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Pet. 5:8).
While Satan may not have created sin, he is most certainly responsible for actualizing it by way of his decision to choose ungodliness and lawlessness. (This is rhetorical nonsense. What, if any difference is there between creation of sin and actualization of sin? Where in the Bible is there this distinction?
Does the author remember telling us this:
Therefore, when God created the angels with the ability to choose “for God” or “not for Him,” sin—which is simply ungodliness—became a distinct possibility for the first time in the history of the universe.
Most Christians would agree that Satan was the first entity in the universe to sin. We know God did not create sin. So it seems to us the first sin was created by Satan.)
Since there is no possibility of salvation for any of the angels (Hebrews 1:14-2:18), this decision is permanent. (We will not quote this long passage for it does not contain the author's claim. We would tend to agree with him, but he would need to provide a verse that tells us the fate of the unholy angels is irrevocably sealed.)
For as long as the present world endures, Satan and his demons are only and always ambassadors of ungodliness. (Of course. But this is an undocumented claim.)
Knowing that their time is limited, they devote themselves, while they can, to championing the cause of sin in every generation. (Of course. But this is an undocumented claim.)
They are an army of advocates who seek to wage war on its behalf. (Of course. But this is an undocumented claim.)
And, although they didn’t create it, they certainly give themselves with every fiber of their being to seeing it proliferated in the world at large.
Sin is something we are and something we do
Satan’s battle strategy finds its initial outlet in his well-known encounter in the Garden of Eden with the first two human beings created by God (see Gen. 3:1ff). Taking the form of a serpent—a creature that John Calvin says is particularly suited for his nefarious purposes—Satan gains access to Adam and Eve in the garden and persuades them to follow him in embracing ungodliness, unrighteousness, and lawlessness (see my article Where Did Satan Come From? that was published by The Gospel Coalition a few years ago). As a result of their decision to reject God and His will, they and all their descendants are made subject to physical and spiritual death and consigned to live at enmity with God, with the rest of creation, and with themselves. (Of course. But this is an undocumented claim.)
Every single human being is born into the world with this enmity already in his or her heart and mind. (Of course. But this is an undocumented claim.)
That is why no one has to teach a newborn to lie, cheat, steal, or even to be apathetic toward God. The necessary ungodliness is already within each of us to do all of these things and far more, long before we actually do any of them. (Of course. But this is an undocumented claim.)
What this means is that sin isn’t just something we do; it is also something we are. (Undocumented claim. Again, we would tend to agree with these claims, but they are what the author is supposed to be explaining.)
The result of Adam and Eve’s first sin is that we are all born in a “natural” condition or posture of ungodliness. (Actually, we are born into death as a result of Adam's sin:
Ro. 5:12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned...
So our nature is death, and sin is simply what dead people do.)
As St. Augustine once said so long ago, the seeds of every sin are in each of our hearts from birth. The apostle Paul puts it this way:
None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one. Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes (Rom. 3:10-18).
What is the take away from all this?
Quite simply, the take away from all of this is that sin is not something that needed to be created in order to exist. It became a possibility when God created the angels who were capable of choosing godliness or ungodliness, and it was actualized when one of those angels chose the latter over the former. This angel, along with his army of demons who joined him in rebelling against God, are responsible for promoting and proliferating sin in every generation. And, under their influence, sin has become the natural bent of every human being’s heart, mind, will, and affections.
There is, therefore, no ground for any of us to boast or to look down our noses at others. We are all sinners, and we all sin. The one who lies is a sinner, just as the one who murders. Satan and his horde of fallen angels would like nothing better than to keep us enslaved to our sins, biting and devouring ourselves and the world around us. But praise God, from whom all blessings flow: the Lord has provided a way out. Before we get to that, however, we need to spend some time exploring why it is that we all aren’t as bad as we possibly could be.
No comments:
Post a Comment