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It is written:
1 Corinthians 14:20 (NLT)-Dear brothers and sisters, don’t be childish in your understanding of these things. Be innocent as babies when it comes to evil, but be mature in understanding matters of this kind.
One of the foundational teachings of the Bible is that children are conceived and born innocent and sin-free into this world. For example, Paul clearly affirmed this in the above reference passage from 1 Corinthians 14:20. Notice the clear declaration of how children are “innocent.” Speaking of this passage, one third century Christian noted:
“To be a babe in evil is not even to know what evil is.” (Chrysostom, Homilies On The Epistles Of Paul To The Corinthians 36:1).
Despite the teaching of the Bible regarding the fact that children are born innocent and free of sin (cf. Deuteronomy 1:39; Ezekiel 18:20; 28:15; Romans 7:9), many in the religious world teach that children are born as sinners. It is argued that they inherit the sin of Adam. One ancient man who proclaimed this is named Augustine. He was a member of an ancient pagans sect called the Manichaeans. One of the things which they taught was that all physical matter is evil and defiled, and therefore children are born as depraved and wicked little sinners. He “converted” to Catholicism, and helped introduced this into Christianity. The early church this teaching. It was a common doctrine taught among the pagans and often called “Fate.” However, with the influence of Augustine, some began to teach this doctrine that children are born with “original sin.” Some even began to teach (along with Augustine) that children are naturally bound for Hell!
How could people have gotten this confused over the subject which is so powerfully and directly addressed in the Bible?
One student has noted:
“The hard case that challenged St. Augustine had to do with babies who die before they are baptized. If they are guilty of Adam’s sin even before birth, do they go to Hell? St. Augustine had the courage of his convictions, and said yes, such children were condemned and excluded from Heaven (though, he said, they would experience “the mildest condemnation of all.”)[ 13] Eastern Christians have never believed that we are born already guilty of the sin of Adam and Eve, so where did the idea come from? This is one of those odd moments in history, where big things turned on a single word. As St. Augustine read his Bible in Latin translation (as we noted before, he didn’t read Greek well), he came to a verse that contained an ambiguous preposition. The verse is Romans 5: 12, and in the Greek original St. Paul says, “Sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin; and so death spread to all men, because all men sinned.” The syntax is a bit convoluted, but in short it says: sin came into the world through Adam; sin produces death; so death has spread to everyone, because everyone sins. But as St. Augustine read his Latin Bible he saw, not “because all men sinned,” but “in whom [that is, in Adam] all men sinned”. He read this passage as stating that all the members of the human race sinned “in Adam;” we all participate in Adam’s sin. Augustine reasoned that we must therefore also share in his guilt. As the New England Primer of 1690 put it, “In Adam’s Fall we sinned all.” Orthodox value St. Augustine’s devotional writings, but are more selective when it comes to his theology. (And not his alone; there’s a saying: “100% of the Church Fathers are right 80% of the time.”) We recognize that every person, in fact all Creation, has been damaged by the Fall. (We don’t call this by St. Augustine’s term, “Original Sin,” but speak instead of “Ancestral Sin.”) Still, we are all born in innocence. We don’t bear guilt for our sins until we are mature enough to take responsibility for our moral decisions. Children eventually begin going to confession along with their parents, but the Church doesn’t assign an expiration date for childhood innocence. Though East and West have historically disagreed on whether all humanity inherits Adam’s guilt, we do agree that we receive and pass on a brokenness that inclines us to sin, and through sin to death. But did you ever wonder how it is passed on? St. Augustine, considering the problem with some literalness, thought that it was transmitted in the act of reproduction, as evidenced by lust. “Insofar as [Christians] are the children of God, they do not beget in a carnal manner. . . . [Christians who do] become parents, beget children because they have not yet put off the entirety of their old nature.” He could not have foreseen children conceived in vitro, without sex, but their passionless conception probably does not render them incapable of sin. There hasn’t been a sense of urgency among Orthodox to specify the mechanism by which this susceptibility to sin and death is passed on, but rather a general perception that we share some things simply because we are all part of the same human family. We are one in a common life, so the disease of sin runs through us all. When Adam and Eve broke God’s law, they simultaneously broke his Creation, and we inherit that condition and pass it on, rolling from one generation to the next. But you know what’s odd about that, to me? That we have never gotten used to this. Everybody knows that something is wrong. Every religion recognizes that something is wrecked, in the world and in our lives. You don’t have to be a professional philosopher to notice this; a shepherd on a hillside could compose a psalm that expresses it poignantly. Yet we don’t just accept it, as we do so many other regrettables in life. Some days it’s going to rain; some little league teams are going to lose. I have to stand on a kitchen chair to reach the top shelf, but I don’t really grieve over being five feet tall. We don’t wage futile, tearful battle in our thoughts over the injustice of not being able to fly, or to leap about in time, or to turn into a graceful giraffe. We simply accept the great majority of limiting or uncomfortable conditions we find within and around us. But the sickness of sin, which causes evil people to do heinous things, and even the less evil to gravely damage themselves and other people—that is something we never quite get used to. Once after I’d given a talk on Orthodox spirituality, an audience member asked me why Christians put so much emphasis on sin and repentance. Why not do as she’d learned at a Buddhist retreat, and simply accept that this is the way we are? Why not drop the word sin and practice “radical acceptance”? In reply, I didn’t have to say, “Because sin offends God.” It’s more than sufficient to note that sin offends us. We couldn’t bear to just accept the evil in the world. We somehow know we were made for more than this. It’s like we’re born with a memory of something we’ve never seen. We yearn to return to a place we’ve never been. We mourn that loss and seek it every day, no matter what our religion, or none.” (Frederica Mathewes-Green, Two Views of the Cross: Orthodoxy and the West, 69-72 (Kindle Edition): Johnson City, TN: Felicity Press)
Please notice some things with me.
First, Augustine clearly taught that children are going to be naturally bound for Hell. This was his belief and teaching, and sadly many followed him in that error. Many in our time have adopted the same teaching, claiming that babies are going to be held accountable for the guilt of their father, Adam. This simply is not true.
Second, Augustine’s teaching regarding children being in Hell is completely the opposite of what Jesus Himself taught.
Matthew 18:14-Even so it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.
Jesus is clear in this passage regarding the destiny of “little ones,” who are identified in context as “young children” (Matthew 18:2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10). It is not the will of God that these “little ones” will perish in “Hell fire” (Matthew 18:9).
I choose to believe Jesus, and call Augustine’s teaching a gross and terrible blend of paganism with a spattering of Scripture taken out of context.
Finally, we need to oppose this doctrine for many reasons, one of the chief being that it makes a mockery of God’s Word and makes Him look like a tyrant. We can rightly object to the type of god that would send babies and children to Hell, because Jesus Himself objected to this and shows that our Father in Heaven does not endorse it!
Even Augustine’s misunderstand of Romans 5 bears this out. Notice that those who are condemned in Romans 5:12-21 are those who personally “sinned.” The death in this passage is talking about spiritual death, not physical death.
Romans 5:12-Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned—
Notice the contrast between spiritual life and death:
Romans 5:15-16-But the free gift is not like the offense. For if by the one man’s offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many. 16. And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned. For the judgment which came from one offense resulted in condemnation, but the free gift which came from many offenses resulted in justification.
Jesus does not offer physical life for following Him. Indeed, He makes it clear that those who follow Him must be willing to embrace death by taking up their cross daily and following Him (Luke 9:23). However, when we choose to sin, we earn God’s wrath (Romans 6:23). The passage is talking about spiritual life and spiritual death. When I choose to sin against God, I enter into a state of spiritual death (separation) from Him. Yet thanks to God’s work in Christ, I am able to be saved and redeemed through what Jesus did at Calvary!
Children do not need to be saved, because they are not condemned.
This gift of salvation is for those who will walk according to the footsteps of faith like Abraham did.
Romans 4:11-12-And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while still uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all those who believe, though they are uncircumcised, that righteousness might be imputed to them also, 12 and the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also walk in the steps of the faith which our father Abraham had while still uncircumcised.
We have to be willing to walk “in the steps of the faith” like our father Abraham did. In the same way, those who continue to walk In the footsteps of Adam (i.e., choosing to live in sin) will not be able to access that gift of salvation through Christ Jesus.
Romans 6:3-4-Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, be with you all. Amen.