If someone’s mother is an alcoholic, and they said, ‘in drunkenness did my mother conceive me’, does that mean the baby was born guilty of drunkenness?
No.
And the other psalm verse cannot be taken literally, unless there are newborns who start speaking in the delivery room, instead of just starting to say a few words at 18 months old. Thus none of them are speaking lies at birth.
Yes, it is to be taken literally. Infants are guilty of lying before they can even talk. They start manipulating their parents with crying and persisting anger, put on for a show until they get their way. The parents get annoyed by their persistence and in order to stop the baby from crying, they give in and let them have their way. Manipulation is just another way of lying, creating a false premise, an impression on others to influence their behavior in your favor. You give the crying baby what they want and immediately they stop crying. They got you, they have learned how to control their parents through lies. Later on, they brake a lamp. The parent comes in, "Did you do that, did you brake this lamp?" They lie to their face and say, "NO!" They point to their innocent brother, who can't talk yet and say, "He did it!" The brother can't defend himself and so he gets off the hook. Lies, deception, bearing false witness, it's all a sinful nature. Later on you see that your son has not played with a toy for months ... until his younger brother picks it up. All of a sudden, he cries and pouts, "He took my toy, that's mine, I want it ..." He opens up the flood gates, in anger and persistence and demands his toy back!" Selfishness 101. Did the parents teach these kids that? NO! It's is inbred in them. We are born with it!
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.
True, we will be judged for our specific sins that we made or not if we have been forgiven and washed of them.
We are born with the curse of death that has been not only passed onto humanity from Adam but to the whole earth, all animals, plants and even non-living things have suffered from this curse. All diseases, bacteria and viruses became corrupted on that day. Imperfections, mutations in the genetic code began. Death of the cells began. We can look closely at every living person, animal, plant and see flaws. This was inherited through that original sin.
The earth suffered and actually is groaning for the redemption.
The punishment for sin is death (Genesis 2:17; 3:19, Romans 5:12)
Tertullian claimed each individual's soul was derived from the soul of their two parents, and therefore, because everyone is ultimately a descendant of Adam through sexual reproduction, the souls of humanity are partly derived from Adam's own soul - the only one directly created by God, and as a sinful soul, the derived souls of humanity, too, are sinful. Cyprian, on the other hand, believed that individuals were born already guilty of sin, and he was the first to link his notion of original guilt with infant baptism. Cyprian writes that the infant is "born has not sinned at all, except that carnally born according to Adam, he has contracted the contagion of the first death from the first nativity."
It is interesting and one must wonder, if the soul has this sinful nature at birth, regardless of when it arrived, did God create the soul defective, bent towards evil? Death and corruption is part of the curse that effects everything. It must be part of this whole dysfunctional cursed earth, humankind, animals and plants. Animals, for instance, have souls: mind, will, emotions, personality. They have this fear of man, they portray evil, anger, hate, selfishness and so their natures were changed. They became predators and the weaker, their prey. So their nature has also been passed down. Their natures will someday be different, peaceful, when the curse is lifted.
John MacArthur says, “Even before birth, your baby’s little heart was already programmed for sin and selfishness. The inclination toward depravity is such that, given free reign, every baby has the potential to become a monster.
Original sin is a biblical doctrine that explains your child’s sinful proclivity. It means children do not come into the world seeking God and righteousness, They do not even come into the world with a neutral innocence. They come into the world seeking the fulfillment of sinful and selfish desires. Although the outworking of the sin nature does not necessarily attain full expression in everyone's behavior, it is nonetheless call total depravity because there is no aspect of the human personality, character, mind, emotions, or will that is free from the corruption of sin or immune to sin’s enticements.
Sin is not learned, it is an inbred their disposition. Your kids got their sinful nature from you, you got it from your parents, your parents got it from their parents, and so on all the way back to Adam. Adam’s fall tainted the entire human race with sin. Both the guilt and corruption of sin was universal, inherited from Adam."
Paul wrote,
“Through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned.” Rom. 5:12 No one is born innocent. Left to themselves, your children will pursue a course of sin. And left entirely to themselves, there is no evil of which they are incapable.”
This was the condition of the world when God destroyed it the first time, totally evil all the time.
And the only remedy for people, for that depravity is the new birth!
“Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’:
“Cursed
is the ground for your sake;
In toil you shall eat
of it
All the days of your life.” Gen. 3;17
Gen. 4 Cain murders Abel. Did he learn that from his parents? No. He was jealous and envious of his brother.
Gen. 6: 5 Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man
was great in the earth, and
that every intent of the thoughts of his heart
was only evil continually.
“The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. So God looked upon the earth, and indeed it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.
And God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth.” Gen. 6:11-13
So because the original sin was passed down from Adam (and we see evidence everywhere of that), that would explain why Jesus was born without sin. He had physical imperfections as they were inherited through Mary, but His nature, His soul, was not. His soul preexisted with His Father.
