Heres part two of a video I made of a paraphrase of Topladys famous essay On Original Sin ... ==== These indications give an idea of the true moral picture of the fallen human, and such would all of humankind appear in their own eyes, and feel themselves to be if they saw themselves by the unflattering light of Gods most perfect law. As the statement says: Man, of his own nature, is fleshly and carnal, corrupt and naught, sinful and disobedient to God! without any spark of goodness in him, without any virtuous or godly motion, only given to evil thoughts and wicked deeds. As for the marks of the Spirit, the fruits of faith, charitable and godly motions, if he have any at all in him, they proceed only of the Holy Ghost, who is the only worker of our sanctification, and maketh us new men in Christ Jesus. As strong as this statement is, it does not paint a caricature: Not a single feature of our natural corruption is exaggerated or over-emphasized. Every single human individual alive today, or who shall be born must plead guilty to the whole indictment of sin, confessing: We are all as an unclean thing, and all our good and right ways, our strongest and best characteristics, are filthy, like rags. I have read of an English painter who, after only once meeting any stranger in the streets, could go home and paint that persons picture to a high likeness. Let us suppose that someone, painted in this manner, should happen to unexpectedly see his own picture. He would likely be startled: the exactness of shape, of air, and features, and complexion would convince him that the representation was designed for himself, even though the picture does not explicitly list his name, and even though he knows that he never sat for the piece. In the Scriptures of truth we have a striking picture of human depravity through original sin. Though we have not personally sat before the inspired painters, the likeness suits us all. When the Spirit of God holds up the mirror and shows us to ourselves, we desperately see, feel, and deplore our fallen form, and our inability to recover our original right and proper image. Experience proves the horrid likeness true; and we need no further arguments to convince us that in and of ourselves we are spiritually wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked. One may ask How did humankind enter into a state so different from our creation?. Few questions are so important, and its a topic of much inquiry. Different ideas have been advanced, and many volumes have been written about it. That evil exists is undeniable. Both moral and natural evils do actually abound all over the world, but while their existence is not disputed, what causes them are. Some philosophers from long ago supposed that the human spirit was like a fallen angel, once of high rank, but imprisoned in a physical human body for some previous offence. They considered life on this earth a place of exile, and the human body a prison. By paying a penalty and being in this physical body, they would be cleansed and purified, and eventually restored to the happiness they fell from. Plato, for example, chose to derive the greek word for body from the word that means a tomb; he supposed that the body is to the soul what the grave is to the body; that the soul leaves the body by death as a bird flies from a broken cage, or as a prisoner escapes jail from a shameful and painful sentence. Other philosophers went further, and presupposed that not only humans, but also animals, insects and other brutes are also animated by fallen spirits. They thought that the lower the body that their spirit inhabited the proportionally worse was the crime they committed, and that their spirits progressed in stages by going (for example) from insects to birds, or from beasts to human, until finally arriving back at their original high and grand condition. https://youtube/watch?v=BK1XOZquSW0
Posted on: Fri, 22 Aug 2014 01:48:15 +0000
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