Original sin?

Original sin?

Judaism says man is a sinner because he sins.

Christianity says man sins because he is a sinner.

Jews believe that one is born into the world with original purity, and not with original sin. Jews do not believe in original sin. We know that Human Beings can choose to do evil, but Judaism does not dwell on that fact. Rather, Judaism rejoices when Human Beings choose to do Good.

IN SHORT... Jews do not believe in the existence of Original Sin. The concept of Original Sin simply states that because Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, they brought Death into the world. Every human being dies because Adam and Eve committed a sin, and for their sin, all humans bear guilt of that sin, and are punished with death. However, the Bible describes something entirely different. Adam and Eve were kicked out of the Garden of Eden because if they remained, they could eat the fruit of the Tree of Life, which would make them IMmortal. If Adam and Eve had to eat the fruit of the Tree of Life to become IMmortal, then they were created mortal. They did not bring Death into the world, and we don't die because they sinned. As a matter of Biblical fact, the first essay on this website shows that one person cannot die as the punishment for the sins committed by another. We die because Death is a natural part of existence, and has been from the moment the first human beings were created. That is why Gd told the animals, before Adam and Eve ate the fruit from The Tree Of The Knowledge Of Good And Evil, to be fruitful and to multiply, since they needed to replace themselves. Gd also told the same thing to Adam and Eve before they ate that fruit as well.


"We were not created as mindless drones and we can not please HaShem by acting as such today. “



A MORE COMPLETE EXPLANATION...


Vayyitzer
The Dual Nature
“In Genesis 2:7, the Bible states that God formed (vayyitzer) man. The spelling of this word is unusual: it uses two consecutive Yods instead of the one you would expect. The rabbis inferred that these Yods stand for the word "yetzer," which means impulse, and the existence of two Yods here indicates that humanity was formed with two impulses: a good impulse (the yetzer tov) and an evil impulse (the yetzer ra).
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The yetzer tov is the moral conscience, the inner voice that reminds you of G-d's law when you consider doing something that is forbidden. According to some views, it does not enter a person until his 13th birthday, when he becomes responsible for following the commandments. See Bar Mitzvah.
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The yetzer ra is more difficult to define, because there are many different ideas about it. It is not a desire to do evil in the way we normally think of it in Western society: a desire to cause senseless harm. Rather, it is usually conceived as the selfish nature, the desire to satisfy personal needs (food, shelter, sex, etc.) without regard for the moral consequences of fulfilling those desires.
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The yetzer ra is not a bad thing. It was created by God, and all things created by God are good. The Talmud notes that without the yetzer ra (the desire to satisfy personal needs), man would not build a house, marry a wife, beget children or conduct business affairs. But the yetzer ra can lead to wrongdoing when it is not controlled by the yetzer tov. There is nothing inherently wrong with hunger, but it can lead you to steal food. There is nothing inherently wrong with sexual desire, but it can lead you to commit rape, adultery, incest or other sexual perversion.
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The yetzer ra is generally seen as something internal to a person, not as an external force acting on a person. The idea that "the devil made me do it" is not in line with the majority of thought in Judaism. Although it has been said that Satan and the yetzer ra are one and the same, this is more often understood as meaning that Satan is merely a personification of our own selfish desires, rather than that our selfish desires are caused by some external force.
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People have the ability to choose which impulse to follow: the yetzer tov or the yetzer ra. That is the heart of the Jewish understanding of free will. The Talmud notes that all people are descended from Adam, so no one can blame his own wickedness on his ancestry. On the contrary, we all have the ability to make our own choices, and we will all be held responsible for the choices we make.” http://www.jewfaq.org/human.htm
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“This understanding negates the Christian doctrine of "original sin" theorized originally by Augustine of Hippo ("Saint Augustine" -- November 13, 354 – August 28, 430) because it shows that HaShem created us with two impulses: one good (the yetzer tov) and the other negative (the yetzer ra). Which impulse we submit to is up to us. We were not created as mindless drones and we can not please HaShem by acting as such today. “


Augustine (354-430)
Original Sin
Augustine was the author of the disastrous Church doctrine of original sin that would become orthodox dogma for more than a thousand years.
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Reinterpreting Jewish scripture, Augustine said that the disobedience of Adam was an inherited human trait, a sin transmitted in the act of procreation. He thus arrived at the conclusion that all people are sinners from birth. No longer was sin solely the result of conscious individual choice.
With pitiless fanaticism, Augustine extended the guilt of Adam's transgression to every new born baby.
"Unconscious infants dying without baptism are damned by virtue of their inherited guilt."
– St Augustine (Newman,Manual of Church History, Vol. I, p. 366).
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New born babes were sinners like the rest of us! There was no escape. Unbaptised babies would burn in torment forever,  said the wise bishop. Moreover, the individual could not remove sin by himself no matter how "righteous" he might be; only within the embrace of Holy Mother Church could he be "saved."
"It was just, that after our nature had sinned ... we should be born animal and carnal."
– Augustine (R. Seeburg,History of Doctrine, I, p338)

Judaism says man is a sinner because he sins.
Christianity says man sins because he is a sinner.



The Christian concept of Original Sin is that since Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, all human beings are born not only with a tendency to sin, but they are also born with the guilt of Adam and Eve, and for this guilt, all human beings die (see I Corinthians 15:21-22 where it states, ‘For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive’). In other words, Adam and Eve brought death into the world as a result of their sin, and because of this sin, all human beings die.


This is simply UnBiblical. The Biblical text tells us that Adam and Eve were not removed from the Garden of Eden because they sinned. (Please note that the first time the Bible uses the term, "sin," it is NOT in reference to Adam and Eve, it is in reference to the jealousy of Cain against Abel in Genesis 4:7.) Rather, Adam and Eve were removed from the Garden of Eden because there was another tree in the Garden from which Gd did not want them to eat. That tree was the Tree Of Life.


But think about this logically! If Adam and Eve had to eat the fruit of the Tree Of Life to become IMmortal, then Gd made them mortal to begin with. Adam and Eve were created in such a way that Death was a natural part of their existence, from the moment of their Creation!


The Biblical text of Genesis 3:22-24 tells us that Adam and Eve were almost like Gd and the Angels. They were almost like Gd and the Angels because they knew the difference between Good and Evil. Both Gd and the Angels know the difference between Good and Evil, but both Gd and the Angels are IMmortal as well. Because Adam and Eve had eaten the fruit of The Tree Of the Knowledge Of Good And Evil, they, like Gd and the Angels, instantly knew the difference between Good and Evil. However, Adam and Eve were not yet IMmortal because they had not yet eaten from the Tree Of Life. Therefore Gd separated Adam and Eve from the Tree Of Life by kicking them out of the Garden Of Eden. This means that Adam and Eve did not bring Death into the world!


And the Etrnl Gd said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the Tree Of Life, and eat, and live for ever: Therefore the Etrnl Gd sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the Garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the Tree Of Life. [Genesis 3:22-24]


The verses above make it abundantly clear. Why were Adam and Eve kicked out of the Garden Of Eden? “Lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the Tree Of Life, and eat and live for ever, THEREFORE THE ETRNL SENT HIM FORTH” Gd kicked out Adam and Eve so that they could not become IMmortal by eating from the Tree Of Life. Just as Adam and Eve and their descendants became responsible for their choices between Good and Evil because they ate that first time from that tree, so would they and their descendants become IMmortal the first time Adam and Eve ate from the Tree Of Life as well. Additionally, to insure Adam and Eve and their descendants were to be forever separated from the Tree Of Life, Gd placed the Cherubims and the flaming sword ‘to keep the way of the Tree Of Life.’


We Human Beings do not die because of their sin, we die because Gd made Death a part of life from the moment of Creation. There is no such thing as Original Sin!
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What are the implications of the Christian doctrine of original sin?

Answer: According to the Christian doctrine of original sin, until Jesus, atonement for sins could only be received through a blood atonement offering at the altar of the Jerusalem Temple. Those (Jews and all Gentiles) who could not avail themselves of the atonement granted at the Jerusalem Temple's altar died by this sin, consigned to eternal punishment with no means of achieving atonement and heavenly blessings. Following Jesus' death, it is claimed, neither Jew nor Gentile could receive forgiveness of their sins without belief in him as savior from sin. Indeed, if what Christianity says is true billions of people since then have also suffered the same fate, unaware of Jesus as their "savior" or that there was even a need to be "saved." According to this rationalization, God created humankind with free will and the ability to sin then demanded superlative perfection from this imperfect being that He created. Then God took on the guise of humanity in the form of Jesus in order to rescue His imperfect creation. But, in the process consigned billions of lost souls before and after the advent of Jesus to eternal punishment for not knowing of Jesus and accepting the "grace" he allegedly provided. Billions of people, Christian doctrine teaches, have gone to eternal damnation for not accepting what they did not know about!

Some Christian commentators explain, "he [Jesus] went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison" (1 Peter 3:19) as meaning that Jesus, between his death and supposed resurrection, descended into Hell and offered to those who lived before Noah (verse 20) a second chance for salvation. But, this is a doctrine that is without even New Testament support. The eternal damnation of billions of men, women, and children who whether living before or after Jesus never heard of the claim that there is no forgiveness of sin outside of belief in Jesus is the summation of the Christian doctrines of original sin. Is this the Christian understanding of a just and righteous God who is also compassionate?
© Gerald Sigal