Original Sin and Star Wars

In the sermon this last Lord’s Day, I made brief mention of an article in Saturday’s Indianapolis Star, titled, “Stirring the Waters”. The writer was fairly objective in presenting various views on the mode and meaning of Christian baptism – as well as its recipients. As one would expect, he covered a number of erroneous view in the process. He quoted a Roman Catholic, a United Methodist, a Southern Baptist, a man from the Assembly of God, and a man from the Disciples of Christ.

One’s understanding of the nature of sin has much to do with what one believes about baptism, and thus it was quite interesting to read: “Among evangelical churches, original sin is not a commonly held point of view.” After reflecting on the truth of that sentence for a moment or two, that deeply theological expression “yikes” filled my mind and sent chills down my spine. These “evangelicals”, who are sometimes now referred to as “post-conservative evangelicals”, of course take the position that until children reach the ever-nebulous “age of accountability” they are welcomed into heaven by God because they have not “consciously rebelled against him”. Their hearts may well be in the right place, but their thinking needs to be corrected.

The biblical truth of the matter is well summarized in answer 18 of the Westminster Shorter Catechism: “The sinfulness of that estate whereinto man fell, consists in the guilt of Adam’s first sin, the want of original righteousness, and the corruption of his whole nature, which is commonly called Original Sin; together with all actual transgressions which proceed from it.” And question and answer 16 of the Westminster Shorter Catechism say this: "Did all mankind fall in Adam's first transgression? The covenant being made with Adam, not only for himself, but for his posterity; all mankind, descending from him by ordinary generation, sinned in him and fell with him, in his first transgression."

Romans 3:23 says: “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”. Certainly, we do need to be careful that we interpret seemingly universal words like “all” and “every” carefully, because they can mean less than every single person without exception in some cases. However, with regard to the extent of sin, God emphasizes that it affects all without exception [with the one clear exception of Jesus Christ!]. Many passages of Scripture make this truth clear. One example is Psalm 14:3 which says: “They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.” Not even one infant.

Let it be understood that those who deny original sin necessarily teach that deceased children come into the presence of God apart from Jesus Christ based on their own merit or at least lack of de-merit – they have no need of Jesus if they are not guilty of sin. What was his whole purpose in coming but to save his people from their sin (Matthew 1:21)! One would also have to question the justice of God in allowing a little one to receive the punishment of death given Adam for sin since the child is supposedly not guilty of sin. At any rate, teaching of this kind flies in the face of the plain teaching that no one comes to the Father except through Jesus Christ (John 14:6). How then could any child come into the presence of the Father? Only through his electing love made manifest in his Son. Praise be to God for his indescribable grace!

So let us hold with vigor the hard biblical truth of original sin so that the biblical truth of divine mercy and hope in Christ Jesus might shine rightly to the hopeless sinners of our day.

Regarding the comments I received about Star Warsin the last post, let me be clear in saying that I do not think it is wrong for people to see the movie or some other movies that may not agree with our worldview. However, we must understand that we are watching the “evangelistic” movies of pagans, not merely amoral entertainment. They do believe in a god, and it is their goal to see us believe in the same “god” or worldview - though they are content to have it slowly seep into our minds and lives over a matter of years while we count it as relaxing fun with seemingly harmless one-liners that stick for years. Unlike the Billy Graham movies, they don't mind if viewers don't have a conversion experienceat the end of the flick. So, the point is this, if you watch, watch carefully. On a related note, James Herrick has written a very thoughtful worldview book called The Making of the New Spirituality that discusses the effectiveness of pagans in using mass media to propagate their views. From what I understand of Tom Cruise’s forthcoming War of the Worlds, it will be another example of this kind of mass media pagan evangelism.

Finally, I recently read Ted Donnelly’s book Peter: Eyewitness of His Majesty. This short book was originally three lectures at a pastor’s conference, but it abounds with insights and applications for anyone wanting to study the life of Peter. In characteristic fashion, Donnelly uses the word of God that brings conviction of sin, but that also brings hope in Jesus Christ for the here and now as well as for the there and then.