The Doctrine Of Primal Sin Essay

When talking about human nature many answers starts appearing depending on who you talk to. With many atheists claiming procreating and survival of oneself are part of human nature, but that should be considered our instincts. As many other species of animals are capable of demonstrating this trait and not considered human nature. The bible describes our nature of being good when God first created Adam in the beginning of genesis 1:31 “And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.“ It was not until the fall of man that created sin and lead to the corruption of the original design that God had created. The mystery of original sin by Shuster describes the fall as “What went wrong in the beginning marks everything that follows. Adam’s sin not only

In John Milton’s Paradise Lost, the parallelism between Satan and Eve’s fall is strong in that they were once both the highest before pure perfection. Lucifer is associated with evil, which stems from his free will leading to his rebellion against God and, ultimately, his great fall. He is known as the one who introduces sin to Adam and Eve – the first humans to ever exist. His plan to go against God is the beginning of a whole new world to the universe and a whole new significance of himself as the one known for human error and evil. Eve, “the mother of human race,” is Satan’s target to pull her down to his world of sin because she also wishes to become independent of Adam making her susceptible to anything that can separate her from

Jonathan Edwards's sermon, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" is moving and powerful. His effectiveness as an eighteenth century New England religious leader is rooted in his expansive knowledge of the Bible and human nature, as well as a genuine desire to "awaken" and save as many souls as possible. This sermon, delivered in 1741, exhibits Edwards's skillful use of these tools to persuade his congregation to join him in his Christian beliefs.

Edwards' creative choice of words that he uses describes the power of God and the terrible Hell awaiting sinners. These words easily infiltrate into the minds of his congregation and frighten them beyond belief. These choices of words and his use of such vivid images are mostly successful in their intent, to scare and put fear into his audience. Edwards held his audience locked up with his promises of eternal damnation if proper steps were not taken. The congregation felt the intense impact of his rhetorical strategies and lived on the fear of the power of God. In this way, he was able to keep his followers from sin and away from the fiery pits of Hell.

St. Augustine’s On Free Choice of the Will elaborates on the relationship between God, free will, and evil. During the very beginning of Book One, he asks the question, “isn’t God the cause of evil” (Cahn 357). From this question, it can be ascertained that he searches for a connection between God and evil (sins), which inferred in the writing to be connected though free will. He believes that God does not create evil, but rather that evil is simply the lack of good, since God is completely good and, therefore, cannot create evil. God not being the source of evil is then further elaborated through his explanation of a crime and how it is caused by inordinate desires and human abuse of good things (Cahn 360). By explaining

Both passages agree that everyone is full of sin and will one day face their judgements. Jonathan Edwards’s “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Ministers Black Veil” are effective in their own point of view. Edwards uses second person point of view to “point at” the reader that they’re being the ones read to. Hawthorne uses third person omniscient point of view to show the reader the different sides of what he is writing about. Edwards was more effective with his second person point of view because the reader will feel they’re the ones at fault for the sin when the passage was made 100s of years ago.

During the Puritan Era, much of the literature was written as a way to share the gospel of God’s word with others by interweaving some of the Puritan beliefs and doctrines in to the works. Jonathan Edwards uses many of these beliefs in his atypical sermon titled “from Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” in order to scare members of the church congregation into going through conversion and being “saved”. From the very beginning of his sermon, Edwards introduces the doctrine of Total Depravity, or the belief that all men are born tainted with sin, and uses it as a building block for setting up the imagery in his speech. When Edwards says, “They (sinners) have deserved the fiery pit, and are already sentenced to it; and God is dreadfully provoked…”,

“Satan as archangel, before his fall, is never shown by Milton, but this stage of existence is often alluded to, as is the fact that some of his archangelic powers remain”(Carey pg.162). Satan is a character within Milton’s “Paradise Lost” who exemplifies a being on a journey to achieve goodness for himself by getting back at the being who put him into eternal damnation. Satan is forced by his own mind to rebel against God for what he has done to him by ‘making him fall from the eternal kingdom’. Satan is allowing himself to take up a journey through hell, heaven, and earth for the sole reason of trying to gain the seat of heaven because of his yearning for revenge against God, “Th’ infernal Serpent; he it was, whose guile stirred up with envy and revenge.”(I.34-35). Satan tempts other beings by using a powerful technique known as pathos through his rhetoric seen in the passage, “Look on me, me who have touched and tasted, yet both live.”(IX.687-678) which shows Satan’s style of tempting Eve to eat of the forbidden tree through pathos. He offers himself up as the supernatural being who will take up an adventure which he is hoping will lead him to gain heaven for his own wants and cast God off his heavenly throne. Satan uses the demons in hell to help him achieve his goal of casting out those in power of heaven, which is shown in the quote “We may with more successful hope resolve to wage by force or guile eternal war irreconcilable, to our grand foe”(I.120-122) giving the

Even though this event is mentioned often within the Holy Bible Milton expounds upon it and dedicates the first two books of Paradise Lost entirely to a description of hell and Satans plan to tempt humanity. It can be assumed that Milton basses his arguments on one of the more detailed descriptions of Satan that can be found in the book of Isaiah, chapter 14:12. How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! 13 For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God 14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds: I will be like the most High.

Lucifer was God’s favorite angel. Lucifer once disobeyed God, and was demanded to get kicked out of heaven. He than descends into hell and becomes Satan. After this happened to Lucifer, evil in the word starts. This is where the “Lucifer Effect” comes from.

Lucifer was preordained to this condemnation of eternal fire so are his followers pre-ordained to this same condemnation and endanger of hell fire. The Luciferians defile the word They are the Apostate teachers The apostate teachers are the people voted in office by vote or belong to a corporation, These teachers will despise and dominion and pull down the gospel of God. This is Apostacy that Jude is trying to warn the Christian's about, not to be deceived and seduced by the god of forces that has gone out into the world, this is the way of Cain following after Balaam. They are a type of religious natural man following after the flesh only,they believe in God and religion but after his own will walking in danger of hell fireApostate explains

In Milton’s Paradise Lost, surely we have come to ponder upon the makeup of Satan’s attractable character—his rebellious, seductive, almost “bad-ass” attitude—a case of admirable evil. But let us not forget his ambition, his strive to weld the image of God. We have seen many moments throughout where we get Satan’s ground for imitating the image of God: “…In imitation of that Mount whereon / Messiah was declar’d…” (V 764-65). But why does Satan do this? What is it in Satan that causes him to “look up” to God? Is God a tyrant yet a role model to Satan? I propose that Satan’s drive is something more than just an act of pretending; maybe, it is rather a means of trying to grasp what he has been taken away from him. Or, we can say that Satan was more. Perhaps he came to existence not in the mold of angel, but as a divine tool. There must be a reason as to: why Satan was considered God’s “first and favorite angel”? This seems to suggest that Satan is, originally, at some level of divinity; an experiment of God’s that was put to the test (or is a test)—a divine prototype.

Furthermore, Nicholas Zeng from Cambridge University states, "Satan persuaded a third of the angels to rebel with him, and declared war on God...Evil is rather something chosen, acting through free will in conscious opposition to God's will" This ability to lead and inspire large armies of fallen angels demonstrates Lucifer is both admirable and charismatic even when he has lost the battle of Heaven. However, the admiration that these armies have for Lucifer aren't enough evidence to argue that he is a hero. On the other hand, Lucifer displays that he is also brave: "Of this our native Heav’n, Ethereal Sons./Our puissance is our own, our own right hand/Shall teach us highest deeds, by proof to try/Who is our equal: then thou shalt behold"(Book V. l. 831-835). Considering Lucifer's statement, Lucifer is mocking Abdiel and questioning the rule of Christ. This demonstrates bravery considering that Lucifer would stand up against his creator because he thinks that God is wrong. Lucifer would rather fight the whole armies of heaven for his cause then to condemn himself to the rule of Christ. In short, Lucifer has many admirable characteristics that are relatable to a hero, and he is one of the more emphasized characters described in Milton's

Through his work of Paradise Lost, Milton exposes his view that God allows suffering in order for a greater good of the human race to exist. Milton uses the Fall- both Satan’s and Adam and Eve’s- as a device to demonstrate human corruption, as each fall is “a step down from a higher being to a lower being”. Both the Fall of Satan and the Fall of Adam & Eve are falls away from a position of divine power to a position of chaos and disorder- something Milton illustrates as an undesirable event. Milton introduces Satan as a selfish, power-hungry character; similar to an individual of today’s society who believes they are the greatest- nobody can ‘one-up’ them. He inherently denies of the existence of a greater God, as that would discredit his own belief that he is the utmost being. Instead of blind denial, Satan instead builds up a power against God himself, in an effort to “contest the throne of Heaven” (slide). However, this in of itself is a hypocrisy on his own beliefs, as he cannot be autonomous in a search for autonomy, since he is unable to defeat God on his own. This is Satan’s first fall, because he has now relinquished his stance on denying a being greater than himself, and must maintain his uprising unless he wants to face what Milton would consider a second Fall. Milton uses Satan as a representation of disobedience within the human race; he is the ‘wrong direction’ in the two paths of moral decisions. He uses Satan to show that rebellion that stems from self-

In a way, Satan's rebellion is reminiscent of Plato's "The Allegory of the Cave." It can be argued that Satan has come to realize that he has other options and has the option of breaking free from ignorance. "The allure of free will is where the attractiveness and power of Satan's character lies" (Zeng). Satan is an individual who wants to break others from their ignorance and will do so by appealing to their reason and encouraging them to make their own decisions (Plato). Moreover, Satan did not force Eve to eat the Forbidden Fruit as Eve contends before eating it, "Our reason is our Law" (Milton Book IX line 654). Additionally, Satan is not described by Milton as someone that forceful, but rather is repeatedly referred to as "The Tempter" (Book IX, line 665).