NO, WE DIDN'T INHERIT THE "GUILT" OF ADAM'S SIN

A strange thing happened in the early 5th Century AD. A theologian who did NOT understand Greek misunderstood a Latin translation of Romans 5:12 and began to teach that "Original Sin" meant that mankind was born GUILTY of Adam's sin. This was NOT the teaching of the early church. It was novelty. A theological innovation. The universal teaching of the early church was that we became 'guilty' of sin when we ourselves sinned. No one was born "guilty" of sin. 

Instead of the earlier belief that physical death entered the world due to Adam's sin, this theologian also taught that SPIRITUAL DEATH was also something that we inherited as sons and daughters of Adam. Another novelty; theological innovation.

The theologian in question was none other than St. Augustine.

The influence of these "novelties" cannot be underestimated. Both the Roman Catholic Church and the Protestant Reformers were Augustinians. His theology left an imprint on these churches which exists to this day. 

Any student of early church history knows that Augustine invented these peculiar doctrines. Responsible scholarship will note that St. Augustine was influenced by both Gnostic and pagan ideas. His concept of mankind being born spiritually dead came directly from his Manichaean Gnostic background. 

These ideas and concepts are taught today by Reformed Christians and specifically by Calvinists. I know that classic Reformed Arminians will also echo these ideas.

I am grateful that these were not taught by the earlier Christian theologians and apologists of the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th centuries as this was clearly NOT what the Apostles had taught their disciples.

The irony of course is that Augustine's concepts were around from the 2nd century onwards but it wasn't the Christian church that taught them. Rather they were found in heretical groups, most notably Gnostic groups. 

Yes, Adam's sin affected mankind. Physical death entered the world through Adam and Eve. And a propensity towards sin was also passed onto to us as the sons and daughters of Adam. We were born into a fallen world. A broken world. But the extent of the Fall of Adam did/does not extend to our damnation by our being spiritually dead having inherited the guilt of Adam's sin. 

We are born into the world with the ability to respond to God. While our free will was/is affected by Adam's sin, it is not in "total bondage" as Luther taught (who was an Augustinian monk). Whatever depravity means, it doesn't mean total inability! Our ability to respond to God's initiative in salvation was not taken away in the Fall. This is where Augustine and subsequently the Protestant Reformers got it wrong. 

All of the aforementioned concepts known today as "Total Depravity" are theological ideas that came from Gnostic and/or pagan religious/philosophical groups.

Let us return to the position of the early Church, a position also held by radical Reformers such as the Anabaptists and by many modern Protestants such as most Pentecostals and Charismatics, and also by so-called Provisionists such as Leighton Flowers.

The earliest Christians called these ideas heretical. And so should we.