A.Suarez's Treatment on a Pope's Formulation for Original Sin's Transmission!

[AntoineSuarez]

@Randy

Thanks. I think that @Kathryn_Applegate’s article was wonderfully kind and insightful.

Your writings are, as well.

However, please clarify where you think God would assume responsibility for sin. I’m not sure I understand.

@Bill_II

Let me see if I understand your position. If we are free not to sin then it is possible we would have no need for Redemption. Since God created Redemption for all people that means God would force all people to sin in order to participate in Redemption. This is what would make God the author of sin. Do I have your position down correctly now?

Thanks Randy and Bill for your interest and your query. I try to formulate my position more clearly:

God created Adam free either to love or reject Him.

At creation Adam didn’t need Redemption.

Adam rejected to love God and transgressed His commandment: This transgression is referred to as the first sin in human history.

Because of this first sin all people are created by God in need of Redemption. This is the very foundation of the faith that Jesus Christ (God’s Son) is the Redeemer of humankind.

There are two alternative Positions for justifying this need of Jesus Christ’s Redemption:

1. I am created in need of Redemption because I will sin like Adam.

2. I am created in need of Redemption because “Adam’s sin became my sin”, but I will also need Redemption in case I myself sin i.e.: “I sin like Adam”.

Position 1 amounts to state that “God would force all people to sin in order to participate in Redemption”. And this would make God the author of sin.

Position 2 is my position and apparently the position @Kathryn_Applegate takes in her article as well.

By the way, Position 2 is also the position of the Council of Trent, in this respect the only declaration to date that is necessary to belong to the Catholic Church.

@Bill_II

So my question then becomes, Do we sin because of our own free will choice to sin? Does the existence of this free will choice also imply that there is a free will choice not to sin?

YES: We sin because of our own free will choice to sin.

YES: The existence of this free will choice also implies that there is a free will choice not to sin.

To grant maximal “free will choice not to sin” God created Adam and Eve (the first Image Bearers) in the state of Original Grace, that is, capable of mastering selfish evolutionary tendencies (lust, greed, trickery) so that they could be led into temptation to reject God’s love only by pride without any “frailty of the flesh”.

In summary, the transmission of the “state of Original Sin” or “lack of Original Grace” is a consequence of the following three Axioms:

• God never violates the freedom of His Creatures.

• God never is the author of the sin.

• God wants to redeem the sinners.

And also a consequence of these three Axioms is God’s genial way to perform Redemption: The “suffering of love of His Son” (Pope Benedict XVI) or “the beautiful, bloodied head of Jesus” (@Kathryn_Applegate).

I will enjoy receiving further possible comments or queries.