“The power of the atonement does not, through faith, take us to heaven in our sinful condition, but changes our condition from sinfulness to holiness in order that we may be prepared for heaven. “The atonement does not change the nature of sin, but proposes to change the nature at man. It does not take the deadliness out of sin, but takes sin out of man. Therefore we believe the following three facts essential to God’s plan of redemption: “1. Repentance which leads to saving faith is a condition of salvation, and the attitude of repentance—renunciation and hatred of all sin—must be retained if salvation is to be retained. “2. If at any time practice of sin is resumed, or the means of grace carelessly and continually neglected, or faith in Christ as personal Saviour cease to be active, such sin, either of commission or omission, will again separate the soul from God, and if unrepented of, will ultimately cause the loss of all the benefits once known, and the eternal damnation of the soul. “3. The pardon of all sin through faith and repentance, victory over outward sin, and purging of the nature of all sinfulness, in this life, are three privileges made possible by the blood, and constitute the absolute requirements for entrance into heaven.” (Richard S. Taylor) It is of extreme importance that all Christians have a correct conception of sin. Right living and right thinking will come only to the Christian who understands what the New Testament means by sin. Let this become cloudy, or let it become a matter of indifference, and Christianity will have received a grievous hurt.

This is a new release of the original 1945 edition.

"Plantinga's treatment of sin is comprehensive, articulate, and well written. It confirms the orthodox and neo-orthodox doctrine of sin, lavishly illustrates it from contemporary events, and plumbs depths in understanding sin's complexities and banalities...

Jacobs takes readers on a controversial cultural history of the idea of original sin, its origins, history, proponents, and opponents.

This is a collection of articles on divine sovereignty, human freedom, and the doctrines of grace. It provides a corrective to popular Calvinism. Chapters include: "The Author of Sin," "Why God Created Evil," "Compatibilist Freedom," "The Doctrine of Hell," "The Problem of Evil," and "The Preservation of the Saints."

This book traces the history of the interpretation of the disobedience of Adam and Eve in Genesis 3 through the biblical period and the church fathers until Augustine. It explains the emergence of the doctrine of original sin with the theology of Augustine in the late fourth century on the basis of a mistranslation of the Greek text of Romans 5:12. The book suggests that it is time to move past Augustine's theology of sin and embrace a different theology of sin that is both more biblical and makes more sense in the postmodern West and in the developing world.

According to Augustine's doctrine of original sin, Adam's progeny share a collective guilt which, like an infection, spreads through wayward sexual desires, passing from parent to child. But is it fair to blame sinners if they inherit evil like a disease? In Stricken by Sin, Cured by Christ Jesse Couenhoven clarifies the logic and illogic of Augustine's controversial views about human agency. The first half of the book examines why Augustine believed we are trapped by evil, and why only Christ can save us. Couenhoven examines overlooked texts Augustine wrote at the culmination of his career and offers a novel reading of his views about whether we control our personal identities, what we should be held culpable for, and whether freedom is compatible with necessity. The second half of the book develops a philosophically and scientifically astute theory of responsibility that makes it possible to retrieve some of Augustine's most divisive claims. Couenhoven makes a case for the surprising thesis that a carefully formulated doctrine of original sin is profoundly humane. The claim that sin is original takes seriously our dependence on one another for essential aspects of character and personality, our ownership of cognitive and volitional states that are not simply products of voluntary choices, and our status as personal agents of evil. Attending to these aspects of our lives challenges the idea that each individual's moral and spiritual standing is up to her or him, and drives us to ponder not only the nature of our responsibility and the shape of the freedom we seek, but also the need for grace we all share.