Mormon Dilemma 101

19 November

Are men born into sin?

Mosiah 3:19 says yes;For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.

 

But…

James Talmadge says no and explains the viewpoint of the Church in Articles of Faith, pg. 63;It has become a common practice with mankind to heap reproaches upon the progenitors of the family, and to picture the supposedly blessed state in which we would be living but for the fall; whereas our first parents are entitled to our deepest gratitude for their legacy to posterity—the means of winning title to glory, exaltation, and eternal lives. But for the opportunity thus given, the spirits of God’s offspring would have remained forever in a state of innocent childhood, sinless through no effort of their own…

And then of course we have our Bibles!  God’s word is always faithful and tells us that sin is an inherited attribute of man!

Romans 3:23;For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.

Romans 5:12;Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.

Why would we ever hold deep gratitude towards Adam and Eve?  Because of their poor choices I inherited a sin nature and fight it every single day of my life.  I can’t think of any other thing I hate most in life as my sin nature is what separates me from God whom I love and want to please. 

Tags: , , , , , , ,

3 Responses to “Mormon Dilemma 101”

  1. shematwater November 21, 2011 at 6:21 pm #

    We have a deep gratitude towards Adam and Eve because they made it possible for us to have any kind of life. Without them we would never have been born, but would have remained spirits without the ability to progress to a higher, or better state.

    None of the quotes given contradict the others.
    All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. This does not mean they were born with sin, but that their nature is such that they have chosen sin at some point in their lives. By the sin of Adam death (both spiritual and physical) entered the world because all have sinned.
    This is what is known as the natural man, which nature is an enemy to God. In order to reverse this, and thus not be an enemy to God, we must surrender ourselves to his will, as a child submits to the will of his father.
    Speaking of Adam and Eve, they existed in a state of complete innocence, not having a understanding of good and evil. If they had not partaken of the fruit they would have remained in the state, being perfectly innocent because they could make no conscious choice to rebel, as they had no understanding of what rebellion was.

    Everything is in perfect harmony.

  2. CamdenC November 23, 2011 at 12:29 am #

    We are born with sin…

    Do you have to teach your children to be bad, or do you have to teach them to be good?

  3. shematwater November 23, 2011 at 5:45 pm #

    Neither, actually. They actively choose both at times. What has to be taught is not the making of the choice, but how to distinguish the better choice.

    Yes, I have to teach them to pray, because prayer is not an obvious choice. But I do not have to teach them to share, or to help each other. They do this on their own. I don’t have to teach the older children to be nice to the younger ones, especially the babies, as it is instinctive in them to do this.

    We are born into a world with opposition, in which we are presented with many choices. The instinct of man is to choose the easiest and most rewarding choice. This does not always mean the wrong, or bad choice, and so we see that in the nature of man there is both good and evil.

    In other words, all children are able to make the simple choices without being taught, and can choose either the good or the bad. They must be taught the harder and more complex choices; some are taught to choice the good in these cases, while others are taught to choose the bad.
    No one is born a saints, but then no one is born a murderer either.

Leave a Reply