My beloved brothers and sisters in Christ Our Only True Lord, God, and Savior,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, ANE EVER SHALL BE.
THE ANCESTRAL SIN {"Original Sin")
By "original sin" is meant the sin of Adam, which was transmitted to his descendants and weighs upon them. The expressio "original sin" has become traditional in Roman Catholic (Latin) theology since the time of Blessed Augustine. Contemporary Orthodox writers generally prefer the expression "ancestral sin" [Gk. promatorikon amartima], which is common among the Holy Fathers of the Church. When such writers do speak of "original sin," they are usually careful to distinguish the Orthodox conception from the Roman Catholic conception.
The word of God teaches us that through Adam "all have sinned"; By "one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned" (Romans 5:12). "For), who will be clean of defilement? No one, if he have lived even a single day upon earth" (Job 14:4-5, Septuagint). "For behold, I was conceived in iniquities, and in sins did my mother bear me" (Psalm 50[51]:5); "The seed of corruption is in me" [Evening Prayers].
The common faith of the ancient Christian Church in the existence of original sin may be seen in the Church’s ancient custom of baptizing infants. The Local Council of Carthage in 252 A.D., composed of 66 bishops under the presidency of Saint Cyprian, decreed the following against heretics: "Not to forbid (the Baptism) of an infant who, scarcely born, has sinned in nothing apart from that which proceeds from the flesh of Adam. He has received "the contagion of the ancient death" through his very birth, and he comes, therefore, the more easily to the reception of the remission of sins in that it is not his own but the sins of another that are remitted.
The Orthodox Holy Fathers often affirm that all of Adam’s descendents inherit his sin, in accordance with the words of Saint Paul: "By one man’s disobedience, many were made sinners" [Romans 5:19]. However, in saying this THEY DO NOT MEAN THAT THE GUILT OF ADAM’S SIN WAS IMPUTED TO HIS DESCENDANTS RATHER, IT WAS THE "CONSEQUENCES" OF THAT SIN THAT WERE TRANSMITTED. These consequences include SUFFERING, DEATH, AND PHYSICAL CORRUPTION, A CORRUPTION OF HUMAN NATURE; AND A CONSEQUENT LOSS OF THE INDWELLING GRACE OF GOD. The corruption of human nature ENTAILS AN INCLINATION OR TENDENCY TOWARD SIN.
According to the teaching of the Orthodox Church (from the first centuries and up to our days), all men are subject to ancestral sin – all, INCLUDING ALSO THE MOTHER OF GOD. And all have TO BE REDEEMED BY THE SACRIFICE OF THE SON OF GOD. The Most Holy Virgin herself numbers herself among the saved, calling God her Savior, "and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior" (Luke 1:47). Sacred Scripture knows only one man who did not partake of the ancestral sin – the God-Man Christ Jesus, Who was conceived in a supernatural manner – BY THE HOLY SPIRIT.
The Roman Catholic view on ‘original sin’ and on it consequences contradicts the clear testimonies of the word of God that point out the damage [caused] to man’s very nature through the sin of our progenitors and the consequences of this sin, which show the violation of the natural order of human life. The Apostle Paul says: "For the good that I will do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. Now if I I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good" [Romans 7:19-21]. The Roman Catholic teaching on inherited GUILT is based on the words of Blessed Augustine who said, "The fault of our nature remains in our offspring so deeply impressed as to make it [our offspring] guilty" ["On Original Sin," chap. 44]. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, "Original sin is the privation of sanctifying grace."
One must NOT see the essence of sin–including original sin–only in the dominance of the fleshly over the spiritual, as Roman Catholic theology teaches. Many sinful inclinations, even very serious ones, have to do with qualities of a SPIRITUAL order: such, for example, is PRIDE, which, according to the words of Apostle, is the source, together with lust, of the general sinfulness of the world [1 John 2:15-16). "Original sin is understood by Orthodox theology AS A SINFUL INCLINATION WHICH HAS ENTERED INTO MANKIND AND BECOME ITS SPIRITUAL DISEASE."
The infinite grandeur of the redeeming Sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ is demeaned by the Roman Catholic teaching on the Fall, and too great a significance is attributed to the participation of man himself in the work of salvation. Here the juridical approach characteristic of Roman Catholics is again expressed: man not only receives salvation as something due and earned, but he can even perform more good works than he needs for acquiring eternal salvation.
Protestantism, in its teaching on original sin, as in many other points, fell into the opposite extreme. In its notion, man’s Fall perverted human nature to such an extent that not even a trace of the power and abilities bestowed by the Creator remained in him, and all his desires are directed solely toward what is evil and sinful. Man, according to Luther’s expression, was turned, as it were, into a pillar of salt, like Lot’s wife; he became a soulless block and even worse, because a block does not act and does not oppose, while man opposes the action of Divine Grace. It is true that many Protestants later acknowledged their extremeness in this teaching and some drew near even to the Orthodox view, but others, unfortunately, fell into rationalism and went as far as a complete rejection of original sin and even the very historical fact of the Fall of our progenitors.
The consequences of ancestral sin ("original sin") are accepted by Orthodox theology differently. After the Fall, man HIMSELF departed in soul from God and became unreceptive to the Grace of God which was opened to him; he ceased to listen to the Divine voice addressed to him, and this led to the further deepening of sin in him.
However, God has NEVER DEPRIVED MANKIND OF HIS MERCY, HELP, GRACE, AND ESPECIALLY HIS CHOSEN PEOPLE; AND FROM THIS PEOPLE THERE CAME FORTH GREAT RIGHTEOUS MEN SUCH AS Moses, Elijah, Elisha, and the later Prophets. The Apostle Paul, in the eleventh chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews, lists a whole choir of Old Testament righteous ones, saying that they are those "of whom the world was not worthy" (Hebrews 11:38). All of them were perfected not without a gift from above, not without the Grace of God. But the Old Testament righteous ones could not escape the general lot of fallen mankind after death, remaining in the darkness of hell, until the founding of the Heavenly Church–that is, until the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ destroyed the gates of hell and opened the way into the Kingdom of Heaven. (Resources: Orthodox Dogmatic Theology)
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"Glory Be To GOD
For
All Things!"
– Saint John Chrysostomos
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With sincere agape in His Divine and Glorious Diakonia (Ministry),
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
+ Father George
The Eastern Orthodox Christian Ethos 