Original Sin and Infant Baptism, Romans 5:12

This post concerns original sin and infant baptism.

‘Original Sin and Infant Baptism’ discusses what the Bible teaches on these subjects. The concept of original sin applying to everyone at birth began to be taught in the second century.  Gradually it encompassed a substantial portion of what resulted in the Roman Catholic church.

This means that the belief grew that babies were born with original sin. Thus, if a baby dies they would go to hell.

To ‘save’ babies from hell, the Roman Catholic church began baptizing infants, believed that baptism washed away original sin, and added the baby to the church. Confirmation would occur later.

So, the Bible shows that original sin—sin assigned to each person at birth due to Adam’s sin—cannot be true, Ezekiel 18:20. “The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.”

This verse shows that sins of the father do not accrue to the son. Likewise, the good things done by either father or son are credited only to the person who does the good things. Thus, Adam’s sin cannot accrue to babies.

The Apostle Paul helps us understand the consequence of Adam’s sin, Romans 5:12-13. “… just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— for sin…in the world before the law…given, but sin… not counted where…no law.”

Paul here points out that everyone dies physically because of the consequences of Adam’s sin, not because we inherit Adam’s sin.

Thus, babies do not have any original sin at birth and do not need baptism to remove original sin.

So, what did we learn?

1.Ezekiel 18 teaches that no one inherits the sin or sins of their forebearers.

2.Romans 5 teaches that the consequences of Adam’s sin comprise only natural death.

3.Babies do not have imputed sin at birth.

For more on the Bible, click tdroberts.org or https://justchristian.com or https://podcastjustchristian.com

#father’sSinNotChildren #peopleDieAdam’sSin #babiesFreeSin