Are Infants Sinners?
In a previous article, we considered the doctrine of original sin. Does
the Bible teach that babies enter the world bearing upon their souls the guilt of Adam’s transgression? Here
are further reasons original sin is not a Bible idea or doctrine.
First,
the Bible teaches that God is the Father of our spirits (Heb. 12:9). Man does not inherit the soul, but
God creates each one directly. From the beginning, God “breathed into his nostrils the breath of
life; and man became a living soul (Gen. 2:7).” At the end man’s “spirit returns unto
God who gave it (Eccl. 12:7).” God speaks of “the souls that I have made (Isa. 57:16).”
Also, “Thus says Jehovah, who . . . forms the spirit of man within him (Zech. 12:1).”
Could or would God create a depraved soul? The soul is as pure as the Father who made it.
James said, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with
whom can be no variation, neither shadow that is cast by turning (James 1:17).”
Second, when teaching original sin, some claim that Psalms 51;5 teaches that infants are born in sin.
The passage reads, “I was brought forth in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me (Psalms 51:5).”
However, Acts 2:4 speaks of being born in a language: “And how hear we, every man in our own language wherein
we were born (Acts 2:8)?” Being born in a language does not mean that an infant is born speaking
a language. It means that they are born where the people speak the language. Infants
are not born with original sin attached to their souls.. They are born where people commit sin.
Third, teachers of this doctrine also use Psalms 58:3: “The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray
as soon as they are born, speaking lies (Psalms 58:3).” This passage does not say that infants are
born astray; but it says that they go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies. Infants
certainly cannot speak at birth.
Fourth, infants cannot be sinners or born in sin. Infants do not inherit sin, because sin is lawlessness
(1 John 3:4). Paul wrote in Eph. 2:3 that the Ephesians “were by nature children of wrath.”
By nature does not mean by birth, for verse 5 says that we were “dead through our trespasses.”
They were not dead because they had inherited Adam’s sin and guilt, but because they had “walked according
to the course of this world,” and “lived in the lust of our flesh (Eph. 2:2-3).”
The gospel is for the whole creation. “He that believes and is baptized shall be saved (Mark
16:15-16).” Infants cannot yet believe.
