Erickson Original Sin Analysis

SIN The world is fallen and not the way if was intended to be. In the beginning, when God created the world it was good, this is seen in Genesis 1-2. Just a couple pages to the right, in chapter 3, sin enters the world. The crafty serpent enticed the woman, Eve, to eat from the tree that God commanded the man, Adam, not to eat from. After the woman took a bite she offered the man some of the forbidden fruit, thus sin entered the world. But how much effect did sin have on the world and humans, whom God created in his image? Looking at the views of Erickson and Grudem will help us understand this issue and come to a conclusion about the totality of sin and the idea of original sin as well.

Erickson’s View of Sin Erickson blatantly stated that sin is all encompassing (556). Erickson uses text from the Old Testament to support his idea. “The LORD saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time” (Gen. 6:5). Notice that the scripture says that the LORD saw
I agree with most scholars, Erickson and Grudem alike, about the nature and the totality of sin. But the question of original sin has always left me unable to make up my mind. According to Ephesians 2, we are by nature children of wrath. I take that to understand that our very nature is something that is deserving of God’s wrath. But when it come to infants and little ones and the age of accountability I get lost. Scripture is clear that all are sinners and fall short of the Glory of God (Rom. 3:23). The prophets in the OT testified to the fact that, like Isaiah said, “The heart is deceitful beyond all means, who can know it.” These and other scriptures allow me to come to the conclusion that we are all born into sin and the guilt of Adam. Romans 5 build a pretty good argument for this