¨
Chapter 12
THE ORIGIN OF
MAN
A Confession of Faith
“In the beginning it pleased God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, for
the manifestation of the glory of His eternal power, wisdom, and goodness, to
create or make the world, and all things therein, whether visible or invisible,
in the space of six days, and all very good.”
(The
Confession Of Faith Of 1689, Chapter 4, Section 1; study John 1:2,3;
Heb. 1:2; Job 26:13; Rom. 1:20; Col. 1:16; Gen. 1:31).
The
soul did not emanate from the substance of God for two reasons. First, emanation implies that the substance
of God can become disturbed or changed, and this is unworthy of the character of God. God cannot become less than Himself. Second, substance is that in which attributes
inhere. If men were able to partake of
God’s essential substance they would possess the attributes of God, such as
omniscience, infinity, omnipotence, etc.
That is not possible. God will
not give His intrinsic glory to anyone.
(Isa. 48:11)
The soul is not a form
of God for that would be Pantheism. God
and man are separate beings and are not to be confounded or blended.
The soul is not the
product of spontaneous generation.
Science knows nothing of spontaneous generation except as a theory. Elaborate experiments and the most
painstaking efforts and observation have ruled out spontaneous generation for
this reason: "Research sponsored in
part by NASA (for the purpose of enabling astronauts to recognize even the most
rudimentary forms of life on other planets) has shown that the simplest type of
protein molecule that could be said to be "living" is composed of a
chain of at least 400 linked amino acids, and each amino acid is a specific
combination of four or five basic chemical elements, and each chemical element
is a unique assemblage of protons, electrons, and neutrons. It is thus inconceivable (to anyone but a doctrinaire
evolutionist) that a living system could ever be formed by chance. (Scientific Creationism, edited by Henry
M. Morris)
What the Soul Is
According to the Old
Testament usage of the word nepes,
the soul is the essence of man in the totality of his being. The breath of God blown into the body of Adam
created "a living nepes" (Gen.
1:20; 2:7; Ex. 1:5). The soul is
something that can hunger and thirst (Psa. 107:5) and can be distressed (Gen.
42:21). It is often used for the essence
of self (Job 16:4; Psa. 124:7). In the New Testament, the soul (psyche) is the
life principle (Acts
Rational Objections to
Evolution
Ø
The Great Gaps. Science shows great gaps between different species
and that each came without known antecedents in the lineal decent. One evolutionist, former Professor Joseph Le
Conte,
Ø The Insufficiency of Time. When
evolutionists assign millions and millions of years for the process of
producing man, they do so without evidence.
The Question may be justified whether the earth has been habitable
millions of years. The oldest written records with verifiable chronology only dates back to the
first dynasty in
Ø The Sterility of Birds. Equally opposed
to the theory of evolution is the idea of the crossing of the species. Nature herself has closed the door to this
possibility (note Gen. 1:24).
Ø The Remains of Men. The earliest remains of man are
of high development, showing that man like the other species came upon the
scene in the maturity of his being.
There may be evidence for devolution or man going from a higher state of
existence to a lower state as per Genesis 1-2, but there no is evidence that
any man has going from a lower state to a higher form of existence. Radiocarbon dating methods have proven to be
unreliable for establishing dates of antiquity, and evening more damaging is
that lack of fossil evidence when population statistics are considered. From all the people that would have lived on
earth in the last million years, even with a slow population growth rate, there
is little evidence of the preservation of ancient man. If evolution is true, why there so little
evidence in the fossil records? In the
past, some extraordinary hoaxes have been offered by evolutionists to fool the
public.
q
Neanderthal Man. In 1856 in the Neander Valley, near Dusseldorf,
Germany a creature was found that was believed to be semi-erect and sub-human. "It is now known that Neanderthal man
was fully erect and in most details was indistinguishable from modern man, his
cranial capacity even exceeding that of modern man." (Evolution?
The Fossils Say No, Duane
T. Gish)
q
Java Man (Pithecanthropus erectus, "erect ape man"). It was in 1891
that Eugene Dubois, a Dutch physician made his discover of Pithecanthropus erectus in Trinil,
Java. There was a single skull cap
found. The next year, still digging in
the same area but fifty feet away, Dubois discovered a thigh bone, along with
two molar teeth. Assuming all the pieces
belonged together, Dubois dated the find as a half million years old, and told
the world. What he did not tell the
world until thirty-one years later is that he had also found two obviously
human skulls at the same time and on the same level as the digs. Just before his death, Dubois conceded that
Java man was rally the remains of a large gibbon.
q
Piltdown Man (Eanthropus dawsoni, "Dawn Man"). Charles Dawson is credited with the discovery
of "Dawn Man" in Piltdown, England in 1912. From a skull part and a few teeth, the little
chap was dated to be from 500 to 750 thousand years old! In 1950, the bones of "Dawn Man"
were put under the spotlight of truth: fluoride tests were done and a grand hoax
was revealed. The skull portion
unearthed had been stained with iron salts and the teeth had been deliberately filed down to give it the
appearance of age.
q
Peking Man. Unearthed near Peking, China in 1912 by Davidson Bolack, this find consisted of the fragments of thirty
skulls and 147 teeth. Today, Piltdown
man is believed to be the remains of some large monkeys or baboons which were
killed and eaten by those working in an ancient lime-burning quarry.
q
Nebraska Man ("Western Ape
Man). Harold Cook informed the world
that he had made a wonderful discovery in western Nebraska in 1922. What did he find? One tooth!
ONE tooth! The world was made to wonder
as an imagine artist drew a mouth around the ape-man that was declared to be
six thousand years old. In 1927 the
tooth was discovered to have really belong to an extinct pig.
q
East Africa Ape (zinjathropus).
In
1959, National Geographic Magazine was all to happy to tell the world that
Louis S.B. Leakey have made a marvelous discovery in Olduvia,
Tanzania. A skull cap and a few bone
fragments were produced and dated to be 2-4 million years old. Here at last was a real missing link. Or was it?
Just prior to his death, Leakey admitted that he felt his find was
nothing more than a variety of australopithecus (Southern ape) found in 1924.
Ø
The Discrepancies Between
Kingdoms. Nature today, and the fossil records of the
past continue to testify against evolution by demonstrating that some kingdoms
in nature are vastly superiority to others.
This would not be the case if evolution were true. Rather, there would be some sort of
connection between the kingdoms to form a unified ecosystem. However, there cannot be found in the
vegetable kingdom anything from which the characteristic features of animal
life could be developed or vice versa.
So too there is a vast gulf between the animal and man, despite the
attempts of modern science since 1859 to show how similar man and animal
are. Some dramatic differences may be
noted.
q
Man alone is a rational
creature. Animals may solve problems based on a
biological urge but only man sits down to think, the way that a philosopher,
professor, theologian, or someone in love does.
q
Man alone makes things by reason and free will,
not according to instinct. "The instincts of animals remain the
same from age to age. The bird still
builds her nest and the bee her cell as they did at the Gate of Eden. There has been no progress in their mental
development." (David Clark)
q
Only men build machines
which are in themselves productive. Animals may
use tool, but no animal makes a pattern or die press to stamp out other tools
for mass production.
q
Man alone communicates
thoughts based upon words and reasons. Animals
communicate with sounds and grunts. They
communicate emotions and impulses but nothing that can be asserted to be true
or false.
Ø
The Law of Entropy. There is a universal law of degeneration,
which argues against the evolutionary model.
The law of entropy says that everything goes from order to disorder. There is a natural breakdown of all
things. Physically, modern men are
believed to be inferior to the ante-diluvian civilization (and mentally we may
not be above the ancient Egyptians either; their inventions rival ours. It will
be interesting to see if modern buildings will stand the test of time like the
pyramids.) Rather than ascend ever
upward, the body of man is wearing down just like all the things he builds and
the universe itself. One day, the sun
will stop shining, the earth will rotate no longer, and the starlights
shall disappear. The universe is winding
down, not up.
·
The Lack of Visual Evidence. If evolution is a cosmic process, it should
be everywhere apparent and in actual operation before our eyes. Why is there no discernable evolutionary
processes going on? Has everything in
the evolutionary model reached such a stage of perfection that no advance is
possible? Evolutionary science is
strangely silence before such questions.
·
The Logical Impossibility of
the Evolutionary Process. If intelligent cross breeding has failed to produce a single new
species in ideal laboratory conditions, what probability is there that blind chance or natural selection could
do so? Natural selection will not be
able to do what intelligent selection cannot do.
A Theory Of Recapitulation
The
Embryological Recapitulation Theory argues that the unborn child passes through
the various forms which the race is supposed to have traversed. It is argued that each person in the womb
moves from the protoplasmic cell, through invertebrate life, to fish,
quadrupeds, and finally to man. This theory was once held to be the most
convincing demonstration of the evolutionary claims. In response, it is
admitted that there is a cursory resemblance between the fetus of a human and
that of some animal forms. But the
resemblances are only superficial for one can see life similarities in other
things such as unusual cloud formation, rain puddles, and rock formations. King Ahab said that he saw, "a little cloud out of the sea, like
a man's hand." (1 Kings 18:44)
The following points are worthy of consideration.
· It is only a
pre-suppositional thought that says
that the human embryo in its early stages is an actual representation of a mass of protoplasm that is the same as
the lower form of life, which is little more than a globule of protoplasm.
· It is only a
pre-suppositional thought that say
that the elongation into the form of an infant must necessarily reflect the
shape of a fish.
· It is only a
pre-suppositional thought which
supposes that as the as legs and arms develop, they have the same likeness to a
quadruped.
· It is only a
pre-suppositional thought that sees
the folds in the skin of the neck resembling the gills of a fish. In reality, all these things are
superficial and prove nothing as to the background of the human race. Besides, the real differences in fetal
development lies in that which is not physical but spiritual.
The Recapitulation Theory
Does Not Matter
Even if somehow the recapitulation
theory of evolution could be proven true, “what
has been accomplished in building the long stairway from the ameba to man if
every man must begin for himself at the lowest point, a cell of protoplasm? If man
could begin where the animal development left off, there might be some purpose
discerned in the evolutionary process.
But how absurd it is to suppose that it took the cosmic forces millions
and millions of years to do what the human embryo does in nine months! “
(David Clark)
The Harm of Change
The
truth of the matter is that the whole science of reproduction demonstrates that
cross breeding small hereditary changes do not accumulate to the making of a
species. In addition, both macro and micro-mutations have been proven to be
essentially harmful to a species over a period of time. Macro mutation refers to the sudden change in
a organism such as an arm, eye, or leg suddenly appearing. Micro-mutation refers to small incremental
differences from in a species over a prolonged period.
The Fossils Say No!
Evolutionists
have always suspected that nature has destroyed millions of life forms. If these discarded life forms could be
recovered, they would prove the evolutionary theory to be correct. (Perhaps nature has a sense of humor in that
it destroys the very forms needed by its advocates while preserving the
rest.) The truth of the matter is that
the fossil record bears witness against evolution. In some fossil sites with a continuous
deposit being made of nearly two thousand species, all of them appeared
suddenly. No fossil has ever been shown as having passed away to be superseded
by other forms. Though embarrassing to the evolutionist, some geological sites
in the world reverse the order in which life was supposed to appear on the
globe. Pre-Cambrian strata (alleged to
be the earliest of geological history) and fossils supposedly old lie in complacent conformity to underlying cretaceous (chalky) strata (of the Mesozoic era) and fossils
supposedly young. Why is this? The answer is simple: there are
no credible signs of the most infinitesimal, let alone intermediate, variations
in the fossil records between one species and another. In the beginning, God created all the animals
and all forms of life within a six literal day period. Therefore, the Creationist (Christian) would
expect to find things together. As far
as the rock formations being mixed up, this too is explained by the Bible
better than by evolutionist. The Biblical answer is that there was a flood
which churned up the earth. (Gen. 6-7)
The Genesis model of reveals the Catastrophism of the Flood and is more
consistent with the known facts than the evolutionary model of Uniformtarianism
which teaches that the earth was formed by layers of rock upon layers.
Questions Raised By The
Theory Of Evolution
The
theory of evolution raises a number of religious questions that are not easily
dismissed by conscientious Christians. (proposed by David Clark)
·
“Is there a beginning as
recorded in Genesis 1:1, or is there only an eternal becoming?”
·
“Is God infinite and
eternal, according to the Scriptures, or only a finite and developing deity, a
figment of the minds of men who are themselves only the product of time plus
space plus chance?”
·
“Does God reign supreme over
His universe, or does He even exist?”
·
“Is God subject to a higher
power or a community of powers?”
·
“Was man, in his entirety,
created in the image of God, or has his body and soul developed from the
beast?”
·
“Did man fall from the image
of God, or did he arise from animalism and savagery?”
·
“Is sin contrary to God’s
will, or is sin merely the lack of full spiritual development?”
·
“Are the doctrines of
Judaism and Christianity a divine revelation, or only the outgrowth of innate
human tendencies?”
·
“Did man begin to worship
God with fetishes and grew to monotheism, or did man begin worship with monotheism
and fell into fetishism and animism?”
·
“Did the Bible produce
civilization, or did civilization produce the Bible?”
·
“Are the Scriptures inerrant
and infallible, a revelation from God, or are the Scriptures merely the record
of progressive religious experience?”
·
“Is salvation a supernatural
intervention into the affairs of sinful men, or just the outgrowth of inherent
natural forces seeking to feel sorrow?”
·
“Does prophecy maintains its
predictive element, and miracles their supernatural power or. are do these
things that have a natural explanation?”
Chapter 13
THE ORIGIN OF
THE SOUL
How Does the
Soul Come Into Existence?
While people
are very careless with their souls, the Bible teaches us its immortal value. Jesus
said, "For what shall it profit a
man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his
soul?" (Mark 8:36,37) Because the soul is of utmost importance, it
is good to consider the basics such as the origin of the soul. Concerning this issue, various positions have
been advocated.
·
Man being a single entity, consisting of soul and body, must be one; so
that he may not be both older and younger than himself--"that in him which is bodily being first, and the other coming after" (Eastern
Church father, Gregory of Nyssa, c. AD 331-c. 396 )
·
The fact of hereditary traits in a person’s mental and moral make up.
·
The sinful nature passed on from Adam to his posterity. Special Note: Apart from
Traducianism, it is hard to maintain the justice of God in the punishment of
inherited sin. It is difficult for
Creationism's position (i.e., that each soul is created individually) to
explain how each soul is created sinful.
Traducianism best accounts for the universality of sin.
·
Special Note. Among the angels, some fell
(Rev. 12:4) and some did not (Psa. 148:2) because there was no racial
connection and no transmission of sinful nature from one to another in the act
of procreation.
Arguments From Scripture for
Traducianism
One of the strongest arguments from Scripture for Traducianism is the
fact that as all animals were derived from the first parents, so all men are
derived from Adam (Gen. 1:27). Only once is the spark of life said to be
breathed into man, and he became a living soul (Gen. 2:7, cf. 2:22; 1 Cor.
11:8; Gen. 4:1; 5:3; 46:26; cf. Acts 17:21-26; Heb. 7:10). After God created man, He is said to have
ceased from His creative work (Gen. 2:2) though His sustaining work continues
for it is "in Him we live, and move,
and have our being." (Acts 17:28)
Then there is the matter
of heredity whereby the sin nature is passed on and even judged in the third
and fourth generation (Ex. 20:5; 34:7; Num. 14:18; Deut. 5:9). Jonathan Edwards understood this principle
and prayed for his children and his children's children to the end of
time. He believed that the
superintending of all things were under the hands of Divine Providence.
¨ John 1:13 "Which
were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man,
but of God." This verse
contrasts spiritual birth with natural birth, implying that natural birth is
traducian.
¨ John 3:6 "That
which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is
spirit." In this citation the
word “flesh” is understood to mean the whole man is unregenerate.
¨ Romans 1:3. "Concerning
his Son who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh."
¨ Romans 5:12 "By
one man sin entered into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon
all men for that all sinned."
¨ 1 Corinthians 15:22 "As in Adam al die."
¨ Ephesians 2:3 "By
nature the children of wrath even as others."
¨ Hebrews 7:10 "For
he [Levi] was yet in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him."
¨ Isaiah 57:16 “The
souls that I have made.”
¨ Ecclesiastes 12:7 “Then
shall the dust return to the earth as it was, and the spirit to God who gave
it.”
¨ Hebrews 12:9 “Furthermore
we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them
reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of
spirits, and live?”
¨ Zechariah 12:1 “The
Lord who formeth the spirit of man within him.”
Critics of Creationism
In
addition to the Scriptures, Individuality is often urged as an argument for
Creationism. It is argued that there are
dramatic distinction between the parents and the child that cannot be explained
by mere reproduction. Those who oppose Creationism note that the dramatic
distinctions between parent and children exist for a logical reason: every
child has two parents, four grandparents, eight great grandparents etc. This
mixed heritage provides a sufficient
cause for the great variety of personalities and individuality between parents
and children.
Concerning
the passages of Scripture speaking of God as creator, they may be regarded as
expressing God's mediate agency in the origin of the soul. God is also said to be the Creator of the
body (cp. Psa. 139:13,14; Jer. 1:5).
Also,
in opposition to Creationism, there is the matter of man being better than the
animals. If man produces the body
through procreation and God creates the soul, then man is not better than the
animals for they produce body and spirit after their own image.
Finally,
God is not the direct author of moral evil which Creationism would have to
advocate.
Summary Evaluation
Concerning Creationism and
Traducianism, it can be noted that each view faces a difficulty. Creationism must explain the sinful nature of
each created soul while. Traducianism must explain how an indivisible spiritual
substance transmits itself.
Chapter 14
THE NATURE OF MAN
Dichotomy: A Division
between Soul and Body
According to Genesis 2:7 man is composed of two substances, and only two, body and
soul. Genesis 2:7 declares that, “The
Lord God formed man out of the dust of the ground and breathed into his
nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.” The body is material substance; the soul is
spiritual substance. Substance may be
defined as that which has being, properties, and potency (power); substance is
that in which attributes inhere.
The attributes or properties of matter are: bulk,
weight, hardness, form, etc. The attributes of spirit are: thought, volition
(choice), affections, and conscience.
These substances, body and spirit, are different because their properties
or attributes are different and opposite.
The properties of matter do not belong to spirit, and the attributes of
spirit do not belong to matter and yet these two substances do unite to
constitute man. There is the body, which
is matter; there is the soul, which is spirit.
There are no other substances to man.
Of the two, the soul is the more important for it is the soul which
gives life to the body. When the soul is
withdrawn, the body is dead for the soul is the seat of the personality. Consciousness of these things can lead to a
favorable view of the dichotomy: individuals know themselves to be body and
soul.
Scriptural Evidence Of
Dichotomy
In
the creation record mention is made of man's body and soul, but nothing
more. Elsewhere, the Scriptures
frequently mention body and soul together, but nothing more.
¨
1 Kings 17:21 "Let the child’s soul come to him
again."
¨
Ecclesiastes 12:7 "The dust returneth to the earth as it
was, and the spirit unto God who gave it."
¨
James 2:26 "The body apart from the spirit is dead."
¨
Matthew 10:28 "Able to destroy both body and soul in hell.”
¨
1 Corinthians 5:3 “For I being absent in body but present in
spirit.”
The relation of the soul and body to each other is mysterious and almost incomprehensible. How the body acts on the mind, and how the mind acts on the body, cannot be fully comprehended though the experience is known each day. The mind compels the body to act and it acts. The body conveys impressions of the external world to the mind and the mind receives the same. Emotions of the mind affect the body so that their is blushing, or confusion. Diseases of the body, especially of the brain, affect and disorder the mind. Back and forth the interaction of body and mind moves to produce a great mystery.
The Trichotomy Theory: Body, Soul, And Spirit
Trichotomy (from tricha,
'in three parts' and temno, "to cut", composed of three
parts) is the view that man is composed of three substances: body, soul, and spirit. The Eastern Orthodox Church has generally
held to Trichotomy. Their belief is best
articulated by the Greek Orthodox priest John of Damascus (c. 675-749) who
speaks of the soul as the sensuous life-principle which takes up the
spirit--the spirit being an emanation from God.
The Western church, on the other hand, has generally held to
dichotomy. An appeal for Trichotomy is
made from the Scriptures.
¨
1 Thessalonians 5:23 "And the very God of peace sanctify you
wholly; and I pray God your spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless
unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."
¨
Hebrews 4:12 "For the word of God is quick, and
powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing
asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and a discerner of
the thoughts and intents of the heart."
Arguments against the
Trichotomous Theory
Those who advocate the Trichotomous Theory are not
united as to what constitutes the substance of soul and spirit independently.
Therefore, the following arguments are used against the Trichotomous Theory.
·
The Scriptures use the terms
soul (psyche) and spirit (pneuma) interchangeably.
¨ Genesis 41:8 "His spirit was troubled.”
¨ Psalms 42:6 “O my
God my soul is cast down within me.”
¨ John 13:21 "He was troubled in spirit.”
To state the
matter simply: the soul is the same as the spirit. The term for soul (psyche) speaks of man's immaterial part in its inferior powers and
activities. Man is a conscious individual.
He has a basic form of life along with appetites, imagination, memory,
and understanding. However, there is a
need to bring attention to the higher capacities which resides within man's
faculties. The term spirit (pneuma) does this by bringing the
individual into the presence of God. In
the presence of his Makes, created in His image, man manifests powers of
reason, conscience, and will. (A.H. Strong)
In summary, “The distinction
between psyche and pneuma is a functional, and not a substantial distinction.”—W.W.
Goodwin
·
The terms spirit and soul
are used of the animal creation.
¨ Ecclesiastes 3:21 "Who
knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that
goeth downward to the earth?"
¨ Revelation 16:3 "And
the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood
of a dead man; and every living soul [i.e., fish] died in the sea."
·
The soul is ascribed to the
Lord.
¨ Amos 6:8 "The
Lord God hath sworn by Himself" (lit. "by his soul")
¨ Isaiah 42:1 "Behold
my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth."
¨ Jeremiah 9:9 "Shall
I not visit them for these things? Saith the Lord: shall not my soul be avenged
on such a nation as this?"
¨ Hebrews 10:38 "Now
the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no
pleasure in him."
·
Those who are dead are
called souls.
¨ Revelation 6:9 "And
when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that
were slain for the Word of God, and for the testimony which they held."
·
The highest expressions of
religion are ascribes to the soul.
¨ Matthew 22:27 “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all
thy soul."
¨ Mark 12:30 "And
thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy
soul."
¨ Luke 1:46 "And
Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord."
¨ Hebrews 6:19 "Which
hope we have as an anchor of the soul."
¨ James 1:21 "Wherefore
lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with
meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls."
·
To lose one's soul is to
lose everything.
¨
Mark 8:36 "Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?"
·
Those passages expressing a three fold division may be explained.
q
In 1 Thessalonians 5:23, Paul does use the expression “spirit and soul and body,” but only to
express man in his totality; his spiritual nature, his bodily nature, and the
functional life due to their union.
q
In like manner, Hebrews 4:12 speaks of dividing "the soul and spirit"; however, the sense is not that
of separating one from the other, but
cutting, or smashing through, as you might cut a steak into two pieces. The words are not meant to two things per se,
but the cutting in two of a single thing.
q
In the account of man’s creation and death mention is made of only two
substances, the one matter, the other spirit.
Therefore, Ecclesiastes 12:7 is right to speak of the spirit going back
to God. “Then shall the dust return to
the earth as it was and the spirit to God who gave it.”
The conclusion is this: the
spirit of man is not something higher than the soul of man, nor different from
the soul. The soul and spirit are one and
the same. "As to the distinction between “soul” and “spirit” perhaps it is best to
say that soul refers to the immaterial part of man regarded as a human
personality, while spirit refers to that same immaterial part with reference to
its substance, or as to its divine origin." (David Clark)
Three Main Theories As To
Free Agency
Within the soul of man is the capacity to make choices. The question arises, "Is man a free agent?"
Ø Fatalism. This doctrine teaches that all
events are determined by a blind necessity.
There is no freedom of the individual, no liberty of choice, and no
self-determination. All things must be
as they are with no possibility of being different. In this view there is no free agency. The cause of this necessity may be in the
nature of things, or the uniformity of natural laws over which there is no
intelligent control, or even in the decree of God. Fatalism destroys all
responsibility and therefore destroys all morality.
Ø Self-determination. This doctrine teaches that man’s
will is independent of his other faculties.
Man decides, or may decide, something irrespective of his knowledge,
feelings, conscience, desires, inclinations, or inducements. If this is true, it means that man is free to
act irrationally.
Self-determinism is partially true: man is free to
choose. However, the will does not act
regardless of all considerations, but is determined by the contents of the
other faculties. The will is always influenced by character or nature and by
external inducements. The will is always
bound by God and subject to the laws of the universe in which man live's including the laws of his own being. Properly speaking, it is not the will that
acts, but the whole man that wills.
Ø Free Agency. The doctrine of Free Agency
teaches that a man acts free from compulsion by some external power. Man acts in accordance with his own nature
and under the influence of his knowledge, desires, feelings, inclinations and
character.
No one denies that man has a
will, that is, a faculty of choosing what he wishes to say, do and think. “God has indued the will of man, by nature,
with liberty and the power to choose and to act upon his choice. This free will
is neither forced, nor destined by any necessity of nature to do good or evil.” (The Baptist Confession Of Faith Of 1689, Chapter 1, Section 1; study Matt.
17;12; James 1:14; Deut. 30:19)
q
Observation. While the will of man is not forced, neither is it
neutral. The Bible teaches that the will
of man in Adam is weak. This is easily
proved by circumstances (Gen. 50:20 cp. Prov. 16:9; Jer. 10:23; Luke 12:18-20),
and by wrong moral choices (Gen. 6:5; Rom. 3:12; 1:21; 3:11; Jer. 13:23). What man must openly confess is that he is not independent of God, nor of the
laws of the universe, nor of his own nature.
The Bible teaches that a man is a free agent, bids
him choose, and holds him responsible for his choice. If man were not a free agent, he would have
no responsibility. On the whole, man
acts as he thinks and feels and in accordance with his character or
nature. Free agency, however, has its
limitations. The limitations are severe
due to the fall into sin. “Man, in his state of innocency, had freedom
and power to will and to do that which was good and well-pleasing to God, but
he was unstable, so that he might fall from this condition.” (The Baptist Confession Of Faith Of 1689,
Chapter 9, Section 2; study Eccles. 7:29; Gen. 3:6)
“Man, by his fall into a
state of sin, has completely lost all ability of will to perform any of the spiritual
good which accompanies salvation. As a natural man, he is altogether averse to
spiritual good, and dead in sin. He is not able by his own strength to convert
himself, or to prepare himself for conversion.” (The Baptist Confession Of Faith Of 1689,
Chapter 9, Section 2; study Rom. 5:6; 8:7; Eph. 2:1,5; Tit. 3:3-5; John 6:44).
q
Because of the Fall there are many things in which man’s free agency
plays no part. No man has ever had a
chance to say whether he would initially exist or not. His consent is never asked in the
matter. When existence was given to man,
he never had a chance to say either yes, or no.
Existence has been thrust upon man, and a heavy hand impels him through
a series of experiences, of joys and sorrows, of tears and fears, of wants and
woes, of triumphs and tragedies, without pause, without stop, without retreat,
or even the possibility of them. Because "Someone" is making a lot of
choices on behalf of every person on planet earth, the power of Free Agency should not be overemphasized.
q
“We must recognize the limits of
free agency; that we are bounded by God and His absolute sovereignty; and by
certain laws and conditions which God hath impressed upon our being and the
universe in which we live. We are free agents within certain limits, and beyond
these limits we are absolutely dependent on the God who made us, and whose
providence controls the arrow’s flight and the sparrow’s fall.” (David
Clark)
Charles
Gore, formerly Bishop of Oxford wrote, “No doubt the free will of men has been
absurdly exaggerated. As a fact it is
strictly limited. There is no such thing
as human independence. All the forces
which any man employs, in choosing or carrying out his choice, are drawn from
beyond himself. His conditions determine
the channels along which he must use the powers which are available. Nevertheless, in the heart of this world of
determinate and determinated forces and laws there
lies this mysterious and unique thing free choice.”
C.
H. Spurgeon stated forcefully that,
"Free will has carried many souls to hell but never a soul to
heaven."
The Relation Of Free Will To
Regeneration
It is to be remembered
that regeneration comes by divine intervention to change the nature and
determine the life. No free agent is
above God. This is proven by the fact
that no man is an agent in his regeneration.
While the new creation or new birth is not a violation of free agency
any more than man’s initial creation at birth violates free agency, the truth
is this: “When God converts a sinner, and
translates him into a state of grace, He frees him from his natural bondage to
sin, and by grace alone He enables him freely to will and to do that which is
spiritually good. But because of his remaining corruptions he does not only (or
perfectly) will that which is good, but also wills that which is evil.” (The Baptist Confession Of Faith Of 1689,
Chapter 9, Section 4; study Col. 1:13; John 8:36; Phil. 2:13; Rom.
7:15,18,19,21,23).
If God does not
regenerate man, if God does free individuals, then they are certain to remain
in bondage to sin and, consistent with "free"
will, they will continue to act according to a depraved nature. The choices will always be sinful (Rom.
6:16-17; John 8:34). A sinner can do
nothing but sin (Rom. 8:7-8) until grace sets the soul free (Rom. 6:14-15,18,22
cp. 2 Cor. 5:17).
Chapter 15
THE ORIGINAL STATE OF MAN
From The Hand Of God
The Soul Was Created In The
Image Of God
This includes
knowledge, holiness, moral nature, rational nature, free agency, dominion,
etc. Man was created capable of
communion with God. The implications in
this fact are many and important; bearing on the being of God, the nature of
God, the a priori certainty of a revelation etc.
How Did God Create Man?
God created man male
and female after his own image in knowledge, righteousness and holiness with
dominion over the creatures.
Selected Views
Of Man's Original State
Observation
The teachings of Pelagius arose because of a desire
to make man responsible for his acts.
Unfortunately, nothing is really said about the character out of which
the acts proceed which need to be turned away from and that is the heart of the
issue. The Scriptures show that acts
proceed from character. In the final
analysis, Pelagianism is nothing more than rationalized moralism. It knows nothing of redemption.
A covenant is an agreement or
promise between two or more persons based upon specific conditions. God being infinitely superior to Adam might
impose a covenant with or without consent; but there is every believe that Adam
acquiesced in it.
¨
Genesis 2:17. "But of the tree of knowledge of good and
evil, thou shalt not eat of it, for in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou
shalt surely die."
· Genesis 2:16,17 “And
the Lord commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest
freely eat: but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat
of it, for in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die.”
· The parties of the First
Covenant were Adam and God.
· The conditions of the First
Covenant demanded perfect obedience on the part of man.
· The penalty of this First
Covenant was spiritual and physical death.
· The promise of the First
Covenant went beyond natural life for Adam already had that. The promise is not stated in the narrative
but implied in the alternative of death according to Scripture.
¨ Romans 10:5 “For
Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, that the man which
doeth those things shall live by them.”
¨ Galatians 3:12, “And the law is not of faith; but, the man
that doeth them shall live in them.”
· All the plan of redemption
is presented as a covenant: to Noah, to Abraham, and to Israel. The old and new dispensations are
covenants. So evidently here. Here are all the signs and parts of a
covenant.
The observance of this covenant for a certain time
constituted a fair probation because Adam was fortified by his holy nature, a
happy environment, fellowship with God, and positive warnings and
promises. Tragically, Adam’s holiness
was not established by a long continuance in a state of innocence. Because he was not indefectible and because
of a capacity to sin, Adam yielded to the insinuations and persuasion of Satan
and fell as did all of his posterity with him.
Had Adam stood the test his character would have become fixed and
immutable like the elect angels in heaven.
Chapter 17
When
man was first created by God, he was not confirmed in holiness. Confirmation was to come in the form of a
test after a period of probation. If
Adam was tempted to sin and resisted, not only would the elect angels rejoice,
but Satan was to have been removed from Eden as righteousness reigned on
Earth. The day of testing came. The conditions were clear. Man was not to eat of a particular tree in
the garden. It was as simple and as
serious as that.
“Besides the
law written in their hearts, they [Adam and Eve] received a command not to eat
of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, which whilst they kept, they were
happy in their communion with God, and had dominion over the creatures.” (The Baptist Confession Of Faith Of 1689,
Chapter 4, Section 3; study Gen. 2:17; Gen. 1:26,28).
The
Bible records what happened. Ignoring
the specific commandment of the Sovereign, Adam ate of the forbidden fruit and
immediately fell from an exalted state to an inferior position. Though a fall is denied by evolutionist,
pantheists, and others, it remains a historical fact taught in Scripture and
supported by the Saviour.
·
A psychological difficulty. How could a holy creation such as Adam
entertain a desire to sin? How could a
sinful volition originate in a holy will?
If volition is determined by desire and character, how can a holy
character have a sinful volition?
· A moral difficulty. Why did a holy God permit sin?
God
could have prevented sin but He chose to allow sin for reasons not known. The only thing that is certain is that God
made man a free agent to choose for himself-- and man chose to do wrong. That is the bad news. The good news is that God can still over-rule
acts of sin for eventual good. The best
news is that He does. The love of God is
more evident in redemption than if man had never sinned. Still, after all is said, the origin of sin
must ever remain a mystery and the reason for it inscrutable.
The beginning of sin
and apostasy is usually in some slight defection that does not shock the moral
sense. But the first step having been
taken, the descent to greater iniquity follows with increasing rapidity. Adam, having disobeyed, and corrupted his
nature, gave a bias to his posterity.
Quickly did the fruits appear. The first man born killed the second, and
the degeneracy of the race went on by leaps and bounds till it culminated in
destruction by the deluge (Gen. 6-7).
The Fall was more than
a mere misfortune, it corrupted the spiritual nature of the human race. “That
which is born of the flesh is flesh.” (John 3:6) All mankind inherited a sinful nature, which
in itself is sin. Sinfulness is sin; and
all sin and sinfulness is condemned by the law of God. “We are
by nature the children of wrath even as others.”
(Eph. 2:3) The human race was
lost in the fall.
According to Scripture, the relation of Adam to posterity is set forth as being a federal representative.
¨
Romans 5:12 “By one man sin entered into the world and
death by sin, and so death passed upon all men for that all [have] sinned.”
¨
Romans 5:14 “Death reigned from Adam to
Moses even over those that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s
transgression.”
¨
Romans 5:17 “By the offence of one death reigned by one.”
¨
Romans 5:19 “As by one man’s disobedience many were made
sinners.”
¨
1 Corinthians 15:22 “For as in Adam all die.”
There has been much
debate over whether there was a mediate or an immediate imputation of Adam’s
sin to the human race. A mediate imputation means that sin is
passed on through the medium of natural generation or heredity. An
immediate imputation means that there is a direct imputation of sin without
any medium whatsoever. Did the penalty of sin fall on the human race directly,
or indirectly through the medium of an inherited corrupt nature?
The evidence indicates
that there is an element of immediate imputation of Adam's sin to the human race
for death is the direct and immediate consequence of sin in every
generation. The conclusion seems
obvious. The human race was
prospectively dead the moment that Adam sinned. But there is an element of mediateness in the fact that the corruption of nature and
the penalty on the individual took actual effect through a natural generation
or transmission of nature.
The existence of sin is pointedly set forth
in Scripture.
¨
Jeremiah 17:9. “The heart of man is deceitful above things
and desperately wicked.”
¨
Psalms 14:3. “There is none that doeth good no not one.”
¨
Isaiah 53:6. “All we like sheep have gone astray.”
¨
Romans 3:9. “We have before proved both Jew and Gentiles,
that they are all under sin.”
¨
1 John 1:8. “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive
ourselves and the truth is not in us.”
¨
1 John 1:10. “If we say that we have not sinned we make
him a liar, and the truth is not in us.”
Consciousness distinguishes
between pleasure and pain; between happiness and misery; between perceptions
and intuitions. So it also distinguishes
between right and wrong. It thus bears
testimony to the fact of evil. The fact of sin is universal
conviction. All nations under all forms
of religion are conscious of sin, and that sin is a specific thing different
from all other affections of the soul.
The heathen religions are so many witnesses to the facts of human nature,
and all display a consciousness of sin and need of reconciliation with a
Supreme Being. Every babe that was ever
thrown into the fires of Moloch, or into the pit of a heathen temple or cat
into the Ganges to feed the crocodiles, and every act of asceticism, or
flagellation, or bodily humiliation, every altar that ever ran red with the
blood of a victim is an outstanding confession of the consciousness of
sin. The heathen religions are but the
mighty efforts of the human spirit to express its religious convictions and
solve the age long Question propounded by Job, “How shall a man be just with God?”
Man everywhere feels himself subject to a law of right and knows that he
ought to do the right and refrain from the wrong. He knows also that he has not done the right
and has done the wrong.
The testimony of consciousness goes
farther, it leads to a personal God. The
universal human heart feels responsible to a being higher than man and over all
men, who commends or condemns him in conduct and character. The sense of obligation in men always relates
itself to a being who may be pleased or displeased, and that being and his will
constitute the law of right and wrong.
Thus man’s innate being bears witness to sin.
Sin is one of the most
obvious and persistent facts in the history of the human race. It has filled the world with misery from
Adam’s day till now. No one can escape
the evidence of it. Every broken heart,
every blasted home, every scene of carnage on the battle field, every reeling
drunkard, every felon behind the grated door of a prison presents the sad
evidence of sin. It confronts us every
day in every scene we look upon. No man
can shut his eyes to it, nor shut the consciousness of it out of his
heart. If any man denies his own
sinfulness it will be quite sufficient to ask his neighbors. Mr. Moody said, “If any man claims sinlessness, I should like to ask his wife.”
A missionary relates
that he was once telling a company of heathen that “the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin,” when a heathen
man arose and said, “I deny your premise;
I am not a sinner; I have no sin.” The missionary was disturbed for a
moment, he had never heard any one so categorically deny the fact of sin. He paused a moment to form an answer; but he
had no need. A voice arose from the
assembled crowd: “HO! he cheated me trading horses.” Promptly
another voice shouted, “HA! he defrauded
a widow out of her inheritance.” the
boaster dropped his head, disappeared and never came back. It is not easy to deny the fact of sin.
A Biblical Definition Of Sin
The Bible says that sin is failure to conform to the
will of the Lord; it is the transgression of the moral law of God.
¨ 1 John 3:4. "Sin is the transgression of the
law."
¨ 1 John 5:17. "All
righteousness is sin."
The true nature of sin is that it is contrary to God. “This
is what makes sin to be sin—not limitation, nor selfishness, nor sensuousness,
but discord with God. If there were no
law of God there would be no sin, neither would there be any moral good.”
(David Clark) The intent of sin is to
live supremely for oneself at all costs.
There is no ignorance involved in sin.
¨ John 9:41 "Jesus
said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We
see; therefore your sin remaineth."
¨ James 4:17 "Therefore
to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin."
¨ John 15:22 "If
I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no
cloak for their sin."
¨ John 15:24
"If I had not done among them the works which none other man did,
they had not sin: but now have they both
seen and hated both me and my Father."
· Sin is not a slip. Sin is premeditated, deliberate, and treacherous
(1 Tim. 2:4).
· Sin is not a corruption of
the substance of the soul.
·
Sin is not the mixture of some other substance with the soul. After the fall the soul of man was still a
spiritual substance, or a spiritual substance inhabiting a body.
· Sin is a corruption of the
faculties and especially of the moral character of the soul.
· Sin has relation to the law
of God in that it is a departure from God and from His law.
·
Sin includes pollution and guilt.
Guilt embraces the two ideas of blameworthiness and liability to
punishment. Christ in assuming our guilt
took our liability but not our blameworthiness.
An Indulgence In Sin
Individuals will pay a high price to indulge themselves in sin if only
for a moment.
1. Adam and Eve, for one bit of
luscious fruit when they were not even hungry, brought sin, suffering, shame,
and death upon themselves and the human race (Gen. 3).
2. Lot's wife, revealing her
longing for the things that pertain to earth, took one look back at Sodom and
became a pillar of salt (Gen. 19).
3. Esau, to satisfy one hour of
fleshly appetite, lightly esteemed his birthright and forfeited his right to the ancestry of Christ (Gen. 25).
4. Achan, for a garment he
could not wear, and silver and gold he could not spend, paid with all his
possessions, his family, and his life the spoils of sin (Josh. 7).
5. Samson, for the caress of a
careless woman, lost his eyes, and finally his life (Judg. 16).
6. David, wanting the wife of
another man, left a legacy of adultery, shame, and tears (2 Sam. 11).
7. Ahab, coveting another's
vineyard, claimed it for his own after killing for it and heard his own funeral
oration, "In the place where the
dogs licked the blood of Naboth, shall the dogs lick thy blood, even thine"
(1 Kings 21).
The doctrine of Original Sin
may be established.
Ø
Baptist. “Although
God created man upright and perfect, and gave him a righteous law, which had
been unto life had he kept it, and threatened death upon the breach thereof,
yet he did not long abide in this honor, Satan using subtlety of the serpent to
subdue Eve, then by her seducing Adam, who, without any compulsion, did
willfully transgress the law of their creation, and the command given unto
them, in eating the forbidden fruit, which God was pleased, according to His
wise and holy counsel to permit, having purposed to order it to his own glory.”
(The
Baptist Confession Of Faith Of 1689, Chapter 6, Section 1; study Gen.
2:16,17; 3:12; 2 Cor. 11:3).
The Scriptures And Original
Sin
¨
Psalm 51:1. "Behold I was shapen
in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me."
¨
Genesis 8:21. "The imagination of man’s heart is evil from
his youth."
¨
Matthew 7:16-19. "Do grapes of thorns or figs of thistles?"
¨
Job 14:4. "Who can bring a clean thing out of an
unclean?"
¨
Job 15:14. "What is man that he should be clean and he
that is born of woman that he should be righteous?"
¨
John 3:6. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh."
¨
Ephesians 2:3. "We were by nature the children of wrath even
as others."
¨
Psalm 58:3. "The wicked are estranged from the womb; they
go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies."
The Universality Of Sin
If Adam’s sin were nothing but a bad example, as the
Pelagians hold, there would naturally be many who would escape that
example. A sense of sin and guilt has
always attended the human race. There is
a consciousness of sin as innate and this consciousness as well as the practice
of sin is universal. It can be explained
on the ground of inborn depravity. There
is proof of Original Sin in its early manifestation. Before observation, training, or example
become effective the child manifests an evil nature. Psalm 58:3.
Personal Experience With Sin
An honest evaluation
of personal experience and consciousness
in regard to sin leads the heart to conclude that the beginnings of sin cannot
be limited, or ultimately traced, to a definite volition; but goes back to an
internal bias in the nature that prompts the volition. There is in the soul
what is termed an “immanent preference” for evil. This preference or bias constitutes character
out of which choices spring. And, more
often than not, the choices bring
bondage. Every person has discovered
the hard way that, "The chains of
habit are generally too small to be felt until they are too strong to be broken."
A. W. Tozer called upon people to be honest when he wrote, "All
our heartaches and a great many of our physical ills spring directly out of our
sins. Pride, arrogance, resentfulness,
evil imaginings, malice, greed: these are the sources of more human pain than
all the diseases that ever afflicted mortal flesh."
The Nature And Effect of
Original Sin
“Is Original Sin part of the nature of sin?” Also,
“Does Original Sin condemn the soul to an eternal death?” The answer to both questions is, “Yes.” Original Sin is indeed of the nature of sin
and it does condemn the soul to an eternal death. John Calvin wrote, “We are on account of this very corruption, considered as convicted and
justly condemned in the sight of God, to whom nothing is acceptable but
righteousness, innocence, and purity.”
The Consequences And
Characterization Of Sin
Because of sin fellowship with God is lost. The souls is the object of His holy wrath and
curse (Rom. 1:32; 2:14-15; Ex. 34:6-7).
Sin has left souls susceptible to all the miseries of this life, to
death itself, and to the pains of hell forever.
"You have heard,"
said C. H. Spurgeon, "of the Spartan
youth who concealed a stolen fox under his garment, and although it was eating
into his bowels, he would not show it, and therefore died through the
creature's bites; you are of that sort sinner, you are carrying sin in your
bosom, and it is eating out your heart.
God knows what it is, and you know what it is; now you cannot keep it
there and be unbitten, undestroyed. Why
keep it there? O cry to God with a
vehement cry, God save me from my sin!"
Salvation is needed because sin constitutes the natural character as
evil and leaves the soul in a state
of spiritual death. Sin is the root out
of which actual sin springs. The root
cannot be better than the fruit which it bears. “Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murder, adulteries,
fornications, thefts, false witness.” But
here is the problem.
"The nature of sin, as
sin, is not only to be vile, but to hide its vileness from the soul. Hence many think they do well when they
sin. Jonah thought he did well to be
angry with God (John 4:9). The Pharisees
thought they did well when they said, Christ had a devil (John 8:48). And Paul thought verily, that he ought to do
many things against, or contrary to, the name of Jesus; which he also did with
great madness (Acts 26:9,10). (John Bunyan)
¨
Romans 6:6. "Our old man is crucified that the body of
sin might be destroyed."
¨
Romans 7:5. "When we were in the flesh, sinful passions
wrought in our members."
¨
Galatians 5:24. "They that are Christ’s have crucified the
flesh its affections and lusts."
¨
James 3:11-12. "The fountain and the tree produce according
to their nature."
¨
1 Corinthians 15:22. "In Adam all die."
¨
Romans 5:14. "Death reigned from Adam to Moses even over
them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s first transgression."
¨
Romans 5:16. "The judgment was by one to condemnation."
¨
Romans 5:18. "By the offence of one judgment came
upon all men to condemnation."
The penalty of spiritual death falls on all including infants who have
not actually transgressed. If one part
of the penalty of Original Sin takes effect on all, it is logical to conclude
that the other part does also.
Total Depravity
The
doctrine of total depravity does not teach that any man is as bad as can be,
but that the whole person is depraved by sin.
This depravity affects the totality of the faculties of man with two
distinct effects: sin cripples the will and weakens the mind.
Opposed to the doctrine of total
depravity is the Pelagian view which teaches that sin consists in voluntary
acts or deliberate choices of evil by individuals. However, there is no "original sin"
imputed to others because of Adam's transgression. Adam may have set a bad example but that is
all. All are born as pure and holy as
Adam at his original creation which means that all, by nature can do what is
required by God to live a virtuous life.
Individuals may live without sin, and often do. Salvation is man’s own act of choosing the
right. In essence, man saves himself.
This modified position of the
Pelagian view argues that individuals are not dead in sin though they are
"sick" with it having been weakened by the fall. What is needed is
the help of divine grace in salvation to complete and perfect the work of
redemption. No, man cannot save himself but he can begin the moral movement
towards reformation and then God will assist his efforts in the final work of
salvation.
The Dutch theologian Jacob Hermann
(Latin, Arminius, 1560-1609), gave
the world a system of theology known as Arminianism. The following positions are commonly held by
Arminians.
· Sin consists in acts of the
will.
· Adam’s guilt was individual
and was not imputed to his posterity.
· Man's depravity as a result
of the Fall is not total for man has not lost the faculty of self-determination
or the ability to choose the good.
· The human will is to be
viewed as one of the causes of regeneration (synergism).
· Faith and good works are a
ground of acceptance with God.
· There is no imputation of
Christ's righteousness to the believer.
Remarks On Arminianism
Arminianism in general
embraces much evangelical truth, but many things cannot be supported by
Scripture such as an alternative understanding of the nature of Original Sin.
Arminianism And The Nature
Of Original Sin
The Scriptures teach
that man’s moral inheritance from Adam is of the nature of sin, and that all
men are under penalty of eternal death.
Man is by nature the children of wrath.
Man is condemnable for what he is as well as for what he does. The depravity of nature is as truly heinous
in the sight of God as the actual transgression that springs from it. Arminianism does not fully recognize the evil
inherent in human nature. Arminianism
does not appreciate the fact that there are no small sins because there is no
small God.
Synergism And Salvation
In the end, the Arminian doctrine of salvation
divides the effectiveness of salvation between the divine and human will. This mode of salvation is called
synergism. The doctrine of sovereign
grace assigns the efficiency to God’s will alone, and makes human co-operation
the effect of Divine grace. “The dependence upon grace in the Arminian
system is partial; in the Calvinistic system it is total” --William G.T. Shedd.
Chapter 19
Total Inability
“Our First parents, by this sin, fell from their original righteousness
and communion with God, and we in them whereby death came upon all: all
becoming dead in sin, and wholly defiled in all the faculties and parts of soul
and body.”
(The
Baptist Confession Of Faith Of 1689, Chapter 6, Section 2; study Rom.
8:23; Rom. 5:12ff; Tit. 1:15; Gen. 6:5; Jer. 17:9; Rom. 3:10-19).
Ø
The Pelagian View. Man has no inability but has full ability to
do all that God requires. There is no
need of regeneration, or any divine grace in sanctification or spiritual
growth.
Ø
The Semi-Pelagian View. Man was weakened by the fall, but not all
ability was lost. He needs divine grace
to assist his personal efforts.
Ø
The Augustinian (Reformed)
View
teaches that man, in Adam, was totally disabled by the fall, and so became
wholly dependent on the Spirit of God for the inception and development of
spiritual life. “They [Adam and Eve] being the root, and by God’s appointment,
standing in the room and stead of all mankind, the guilt of the sin was
imputed, and corrupted nature conveyed, to all their posterity descending from
them by ordinary generation, being now conceived in sin, and by nature children
of wrath, the servants of sin, the subjects of death, and all other miseries,
spiritual, temporal, and eternal, unless the Lord Jesus set them free” (The
Baptist Confession Of Faith Of 1689, Chapter 6, Section 3; study Rom.
5:12-19b; 1 Cor. 15:21, 22, 45, 49; Psa.
51:5; Job 14:4; Eph. 2:3;
Rom. 6:20; 5:12; Heb.
2:14,15; 1 Thess. 1:10).
Summary
The Pelagian says man is well; the Semi-Pelagian
says that man is sick; the Reformed view says that man is spiritually dead
before God. “From this original corruption, whereby we are utterly indisposed,
disabled, and made opposite to all good, and wholly inclined to all evil, do
proceed all actual transgressions.” (The
Baptist Confession Of Faith Of 1689, Chapter 6, Section 4; study Rom.
8:7; Col. 1:21; James 1:14,15; Matt. 15:19).
· Inability is not the loss of
any faculty of the soul: intellect, feeling, will or conscience.
· Inability is not the loss of
free agency.
· Inability does not mean that
fallen man possesses no virtues. Fallen
and unregenerate men often display many qualities that are admirable.
· Inability does not mean lack
of capacity to know God and to receive grace.
· Inability does mean that
fallen man is unable to keep God’s law and merit life by good works.
· Inability means that man is
unable to reinstate himself in God’s favor.
· Inability means that man is
unable to change his nature, regenerate himself or become holy.
· Inability means that man is
unable to exercise right affection or inclination toward God.
¨
John 3:3. "Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily,
verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom
of God."
¨
John 3:6. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh;
and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit."
¨
John 6:44. "No man can come to me, except the Father
which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day."
¨
John 15:4. "Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch
cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye,
except ye abide in me."
¨
John 15:5. "I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that
abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me
ye can do nothing."
¨
Romans 8:7. "Because the carnal mind is enmity against
God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be."
¨
1 Corinthians 15:10. "But by the grace of God I am what I am: and
his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I labored more
abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with
me."
¨
2 Corinthians 3:5. "Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to
think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God."
¨
1 Corinthians 4:7 "For who maketh thee to differ from
another? and what hast thou that thou
didst not receive? now if thou didst
receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?"
¨
Ephesians 2:8. “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and
that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:”
·
A person can prepare the heart to receive the King of glory. The people of Israel were told by John, "Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make
his paths straight." (Mark 1:3)
·
A person can listen to the gospel, learn of the sinfulness of sin and
the soul's inability to save itself, and remember that confessing sins is no
substitute for forsaking them.
·
A person can examine the perfection of God’s Law and discover how far
he falls short of it.
·
A person can try to obey that Law, which will serve to convince the
soul of how impossible it is to keep the Law and earn salvation. "Here
it again! The Law was never given to
save us, but to show us the exceeding sinfulness of sin and our far distance
from a thrice Holy God. Romans 3:23
tells us the truth: "all have sinned, and come short of the glory of
God." We have come short of God's
glory as revealed in Christ, short of His holiness, short of all that He is in
His perfection and therefore abide beneath the curse of His Law. For we read in Galatians 3:10: "Cursed
is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of
the law to do them." And what says
the whole Law of God? "Thou shalt
love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all
thy mind and with all thy strength and to love thy neighbor as thyself.'"
(Mark 12:30-31) (L. R. Shelton, Jr)
·
A person can learn that there is no hope for without divine grace.
·
A person can call on God to do the work that cannot be done
oneself. The soul can say plead with
David: “Create in me a clean heart O God, and renew a right spirit within me.”
(Psa. 51:10) Even this implies that
God’s grace has been active in awakening him to a sense of danger and
guilt. It is all of God’s grace that the
means are furnished to instruct, and warn, and point the way of safety and
life.
·
A person can receive the love of God by grace through faith and say in
the day of salvation:
Loved, when a wretch defiled
with sin,
At war with heaven, in
league with hell,
A slave to every lust
obscene,
Who, living, lived but to
rebel.
Ø
Argument. “If man does
not have a free will, then he is not under any moral obligation to keep God’s
Law.”
q
Answer. That depends on how the inability arose. If it is a created inability then there can
be no obligation. But if the inability
is acquired, the obligation remains. The
Bible teaches in Genesis 2 that man acquired the inability through sin,
therefore he is still responsible.
Ø
Argument. “If man is
unable to obey the divine law then he is not free.”
q
Answer. This Objection grows out of a confused idea
of freedom. A man is a slave to sin but
acts out of his own inherent proclivities and so is free. If the Question is asked, “Can a sinner repent if he will?” the
response is, “That depends on the meaning
of “will.” If by “will” it is meant that thee is an
inclination or being willing on the whole, then the answer is, “Yes.”
But that is itself repentance and so all that is meant is, ”Can a sinner repent if he repents?”
Pharaoh seemed willing to repent each time the hand of Divine discipline fell
on him. However, he could not change his
nature and close with the Lord in genuine conversion. If by “will”
volition is meant, the answer is, “No!,”
for a man cannot change his nature by a mere volition.
Ø
Argument. “If there is no ability,
then there is nothing for man to do.”
q
Answer. While a person cannot heal himself, he can
apply to the physician. Man can go to
the Savior and ask for salvation.
Ø
Argument. “If man has
ability to repent in and of himself, then God will wait upon him.”
q
Answer. God’s time is now. If man feels his own ability is the issue,
then man will take his own time.
Ø
Argument. “Why
would God command a man to do what he cannot do?”
q
Answer. Because God bids us to do so. And further God supplies the needed grace, “My grace is sufficient.”