Gathering at the bandstand this morning we opened our worship by taking advantage of the beautiful scenery that surrounds us in the park. The hills, the trees and flowers along with the birdsong and chatter of children playing happily, all helped us to glorify God.

As is our practise at Third Space – a question to think about and discuss.  

                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Images courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net.

So what do you think about original sin?

This is what Grayden said:

“From time to time over recent years I’ve been pondering over the Christian dogma of “original sin”.   I don’t have a problem with the idea that we live with the consequences of “Adam’s” sin, because clearly we live in a world of suffering and conflict and death.  But I do have a problem with the dogma of inherited sin and guilt from “Adam”.  I have come to the conclusion that I am a sinner because of the choices I have made and not because of inherited sin and guilt from “Adam”.

Then over the last couple of weeks when preparing this morning’s worship I discovered through searches on the internet that the Eastern Church (which includes the Orthodox Churches of Greece and Eastern Europe, and the indigenous, pre-colonial Churches of Africa, the Middle East and Asia.) believes that humanity inherited the consequences of “Adam’s” sin but not his guilt. In contrast the Western Church (which includes the Roman Catholic Church and all its Reformed Protestant offshoots such as the Anglican, Baptist, Lutheran, Methodist, Pentecostal, URC, etc.) believes that humanity inherits the sin and guilt of “Adam” and therefore every person is born a sinner.

The difference between the Western and Eastern Churches view of “original sin” stems from Augustine’s interpretation of Romans 5:12, his interpretation is that Paul is saying that all people inherit sin and guilt from “Adam” and therefore are born sinners, whereas the Eastern Church reading of the verse is that all humanity sins due to inheriting a flawed human nature from “Adam”.

It seems to me that the two interpretations lead to a very different focus both on God and humanity.  The Western Church model is judicial and focuses on humanity’s sin and God’s wrath, whereas the Eastern Church’s approach is more therapeutic and focuses on humanity’s suffering and death, and God’s compassion.  It presents a God who says come to me and I will help you to become the person you were always meant to be.”

So what do you think?

To be discussed over coffee (Fairtrade of course) later  ????????????

bandstand centre piece

After some time for thought we prayed for problems in the world and for people known to us in need before we shared bread and wine together.