Expedition 44 Expedition 44

In this episode Dr. Ryan and Dr. Matt interview Dr. John Walton on his new book The Lost World of the Prophets.



Dr. John Walton is an emeritus professor of Old Testament at Wheaton College in Illinois and an editor and writer of Old Testament comparative studies and commentaries. Throughout his research, Walton has focused his attention on comparing the culture and literature of the Bible and the ancient Near East. He has published dozens of books, articles and translations, both as writer and editor, including his Lost World book series (6 books). Today we are going to be talking about his latest book The Lost World of the Prophets. 



Buy the book: https://a.co/d/faPu90D

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Check out www.expedition44.com for posted articles and more! If you have any questions or comments please email us at ryan@expedition44.com or matt@expedition44.com


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Today Dr. Ryan and Dr. Matt interview Steve Gregg on his updated edition of the book Why Hell?: 3 Christian Views Critically Examined.

Steve Gregg is a teacher, author, and international lecturer on the Bible, theology, and discipleship. He is the author of “Revelation: Four Views: A Parallel Commentary”(1997, 2013) and “All You Want to Know About Hell: Three Christian Views” (2013) and most recently his series on the kingdom of God “The Empire of the Risen Son. His talk show, “The Narrow Path,” broadcasts on stations across the USA and  you can find his teachings on the website and mobile app: thenarrowpath.com. 



Buy the book: https://a.co/d/gaU0G26



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Check out www.expedition44.com for posted articles and more. If you have any comments or questions please email ryan@expedition44.com and/or matt@expedition44.com


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In this series, we have looked at the doctrine of Original Sin. We believe there was an original sin but disagree with the doctrine of Original Sin. We observed that Augustine introduced this doctrine into the church over 400 years after Jesus and none of the earliest church writers (or the Bible) affirm this doctrine. It’s actually more closely linked to Pagan and Gnostic ideas than Biblical Ideas.

Recap: What is Original Sin?
The doctrine of Original Sin teaches that because of Adam and Eve’s sin we are all born guilty before God and that we inherit their guilt from birth (Original Guilt). Augustine defined this through concupiscence which he believed that original sin was passed on sexually.

Total Depravity
Not only are we born with Original Sin, the guilt of Adam’s offense, but this also totally depraved and unable to respond to God according to this Doctrine. Total Depravity states that all mankind is born spiritually dead, possessing both Adam’s guilt and his sin nature and that man’s intellect, will, body, and spirit are so corrupt they cannot seek God or cry out for his help unless they are first saved and regenerated, given the gift of faith with a new heart and new mind.

Infant Depravity
According to John Calvin we are born “doomed from the womb”, and Voddie Baucham says all babies are “vipers in diapers”, born in the guilt of Adam and totally depraved. So in this view Jesus comes to save us from Original Sin (God’s wrath)… Or just save “the elect” (if you are consistent).
We have shown in this series how all of this is a distortion of what the Bible says and we’re going to get into some of the theological implications of this view today in our conclusion, showing how those who hold to original Sin are building on the wrong foundation and bad readings of scripture.

Theological Implications
Distortion God’s Character

Distortion of the view and nature of Humanity

Penal Substitutionary Atonement

The cross is not about satisfying wrath. It is actually about the liberation from the hostile Powers of Sin, Death, and the Devil and therefore the cross is a rescue. In this, there is still room for the wrath that is being stored up for the ungodly on the "Day of Wrath".

Eternal Conscious Torment
the notion of retributive punishment flows from original sin and what we have show earlier about Anselm’s medieval feudal views and Calvin’s retributive views of God.


The Better Way
There’s a better way to look at all of this.
· In the garden Humans were made in God’s image to rule with him and keep creation
· The humans sinned wanting to define good and evil on their own terms
· God separated them from the tree of life so that they might not live forever in their sinful state
· Adam did not transfer his guilt to all of humanity but transferred mortality to all (this is what Romans 5:12 says!)
· We are not born guilty but born mortal and into an environment of death and sin and because of this we become sinners when we sin.
· We are born with desires and they are neutral (yetzer). We can choose the good or the evil (tov/ra)- Choose life!
· The world was held captive by the Powers (D32) , Sin, and Death and Jesus came to release us from that futility of slavery and death. He didn’t need to pay off the Father but rather was on a rescue mission.
· We now are to walk by the Spirit and conform ourselves to the image of the Son and the Divine nature by walking in His Tov way of Life to return to our original purpose in Eden.
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Visit www.expedition44.com for posted articles and more.

If you have comments or questions please email us at: ryan@expedition44.com, matt@expedition44.com


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Romans 5 is the central Original Sin prooftext so today we’re going to dig in and look at what it says. As we mentioned in our first episode Augustine used Romans 5:12 as the cornerstone text for his doctrine of concupiscence, original sin, and infant depravity. First we need to set the context of Romans before we exegete the text. 



Context of Romans

Romans is a pastoral (Shepherding) letter that does contain theology. The theology in the letter is to service Paul’s purpose in the Roman church (Lived theology and a lived gospel). 



Summary and connections to Original Sin in Romans 1-4

As we have seen the narrative is that Jesus is the truly faithful Human and Jew. Because of his faithfulness and our faith in him we are reconciled to God and to our vocation as Imagers. (All have sinned and missed that Mark). 

·      There are a lot of connections and allusions to Adam and the image of God but it never says anything about transferred guilt but Romans 1 actually shows how God’s wrath (“handing over”) leads to death just like in Eden. 

·      Romans 2 says that pagan gentiles can do the things of the Law instinctively though they do not have it. This goes against total depravity. 

·      All HAVE sinned (become sinners) they are not born sinners. But a better way to take this is that both Jews and Gentiles have gone off course from God’s original plan in the garden. 

·      All of these arguments are to show how Jews and Gentiles are on an equal plain and need to come to unity in Jesus to truly live out the kingdom in their church. 

 



Romans 5:12-21



All of Romans 5:12-21 is a contrast of 2 ways- Adam or Jesus… the way of life or the way of death:

o   We saw that the thing Adam brought was death through his sin

o   We do not inherit Adam’s sin but we are born into mortality

o   We become sinners when we sin and Adam introduced these systems of sin into the world by our expulsion from Eden

o   Sin and Death are seen as Powers that enslave us. We all need saving from death and from sin

o   Jesus defeats these Powers as the 2nd Adam and brings life. 

o   The entire narrative of Romans up to Romans 5 is about “glory”- the image of God. The purpose of this life is for the purpose of being conformed to his image (Romans 8)

o   We can walk this way through the life of the Spirit

 

Original sin?

o   Where is original sin and total depravity here? It is completely absent! 

o   The only way you can get there is through reading Romans out of context.

o   We see that death is the focus and the thing that needs to be dealt with in order to get to the restoration of glory!

 

Original Context: 

o   The pastoral context of Romans is not just about some abstract theologies of original sin and total depravity, or a road to individual salvation (Romans road). 

o   Paul exhorting the Roman house churches to live out the way of Jesus in unity instead of the divisions of the Weak and the Strong. He wants them to be conformed into Christ’s image and live out the gospel under Jesus’ kingship- GLORY and GLORIFICATION. 

o   This message is also for us today- Choose the Life and Way of Christ and live in it (the Truth)!

 

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Visit www.expedition44.com for posted articles and more.



If you have comments or questions please email us at: ryan@expedition44.com, matt@expedition44.com  






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Today Dr. Will Ryan and Dr. Matt consider the incarnation of Jesus and the ramifications regarding Original Sin.

We want to give a Shout out to Warren McGrew of Idol Killer and Will and Brian of The Church Split for their series’ on Original sin and for helping us articulate some of the content in this episode.



• The immaculate conception of Mary is a late dogma created to prop up original sin. But not only this a “preservative redemption” is also needed for Mary to remain sinless
• The Virgin birth in both Protestant and Catholic circles is used incorrectly to promote the doctrine of Original Sin.
o For Catholics it deals with the issue of concupiscence
o For Protestants it actually does nothing as Mary was born of human parents and still would transmit Original Sin
o We affirm the virgin birth but in Isaiah 7 it is called a sign pointing to the miracle of the messiah and has nothing to do with original sin.
• The way Protestants try to get around this is the hypostatic union, which we also affirm, but Protestants use it incorrectly to support this Doctrine.

• 3 points of the incarnation:
o Jesus came in flesh- he was fully human like us (yet fully God). He experienced what we do.
o Jesus had no sin in him (he wasn’t born with it)
o And Jesus never sinned

• Thus, no Original sin if Jesus assumed exactly what we are and partook of the same nature yet did not sin.
• If Original Sin is true and Jesus was spared it through the immaculate conception then Jesus was not like us in every way and cannot sympathize with our weaknesses and Hebrews 4:15 is a lie and Jesus is an unfit High Priest.
o This is what the Doctrine of Original Sin gets us into.

Conclusion/ The Better Way

Jesus was fully God and Fully Man. He assumed all that we are so that he could make us all that he is and heal us.

The Incarnation
o We saw that Jesus came in the flesh just like us (but also fully God)
o We saw that there was no sin in Jesus (no original sin)
o We saw that Jesus did not sin

We also looked at Mary and all the gymnastics that needed to happen with her to hold up this unbiblical doctrine.

We looked at how Calvinists have no foundation to stand on with Original sin in the Virgin Birth (we affirm it!), the Hypostatic Union (in which they downplay Jesus’ humanity), and they come dangerously close to many Gnostic heresies.

The Better Way
As humans it is comforting to know that Jesus went through all that we did and was still sinless. He has redeemed us and comes beside us to conform us into his image.

So rather than focusing on the negative theology of Augustinianism and Calvinism look at the beauty that is in Jesus becoming just like us in every way to heal us and make us whole!

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Visit www.expedition44.com for posted articles and more.

If you have comments or questions please email us at: ryan@expedition44.com, matt@expedition44.com


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Today we are going to look at 2 main things: 1) Does the Bible say sin is transferable or inheritable? And  2) What does the Bible say about the state of infants and children (are they doomed from the womb?). Do they inherit Adam’s guilt.  

 

Does the Bible say Sin and Guilt are Transferable/Inheritable?

Deut 1:39



Sons punished for a Father’s sin?

Ezekiel 18:19-23

Deut 24:16 

2 Kings 14:6 

Exodus 32

John 9:1-3 

Exodus 34:6-7 



What about the nature of Infants and Children?

As we said in the first episode of this series; the Reformers who inherited their doctrine from Augustine believed in the depravity of infants and their damnation from birth without baptism to wash off Original Sin. 

 

Johnathan Edwards (famous Reformed Puritan) sums up their beliefs saying: 

 “It is most just, exceedingly just, that God should take the soul of a new-born infant and cast it into eternal torments [due to Adam’s sin]”



Isaiah 7:14-15

Psalms 22:9-10 



Jeremiah and Innocent Babies

Jer 19:4-6, 7:30-33, and 32:32-38 basically say the same thing: The burning of INNOCENT babies never entered God’s mind. 

Notice: Babies are declared innocent (not sinful) by God. They are not born guilty of Original Sin but become sinners when they sin and can be held accountable for it. This has major ramifications on the abortion debate, as we mentioned in the first episode. If babies are born in Original Sin then why advocate for human life? They are born under the hatred  and wrath of God anyways!



Infant Depravity Proof texts

Psalm 58:3

Go astray means they weren’t already astray at birth. It was something they had to leave to become astray. They become this way “FROM” (or after) birth. Not IN birth. 



Psalm 51:5 

What is the context of the psalm? David’s sin with Bathsheba. David is putting his sin with Bathsheba in parallel with his mother’s sin in his conception. He is not talking about infant depravity.



What about Job?

Job 15:14-16; Job 25:4-6; Job 14:4

Two of these are the false words of Job’s friends (See Job 42:7-9) and the 3rd is about ritual uncleanness and not about the nature of man. 

Jesus and the Children 

Matt 18:3-6

Mark 10:13-16

Children are equated with innocence, purity, and trust. They are the example of the Kingdom.



Conclusion/The Better Way 

Inherited Guilt

o   We saw that the Bible says that sins cannot be transferred. 

o   Each will be accountable for their own sins

o   Thus when Original Sin says we inherit Adam’s guilt it goes against God’s Law and all of the scriptures

Infant Depravity

As we can see in scripture babies and children are innocent before the Lord. God does not hold them accountable until they can truly know good from evil. 

o   Some call this the age of accountability or as the Jews call it Bar mizpah (becoming a son of the commandments- age 13)

o   We are born with desires and we must learn how to act upon them because they can be used for good or evil. 

o   We are not born doomed from the womb or as sinners but rather become sinners when we sin knowingly. 

Jesus invites us into the kingdom to become innocent like children and renewed into the state we were at the beginning in order to bear his name in this world. 

 

The Take Aways

o   We need to be formed in Christlikeness from our youth 

o   God has placed life in front of us and we must choose it

o   He guides us by the Spirit to be able to walk in this way

o   The discipleship of children is so important!

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Visit www.expedition44.com for posted articles and more.

If you have comments or questions please email us at: ryan@expedition44.com, matt@expedition44.com  


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Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/expedition44/support