Teach Mormons about Catholicism (Home)
Table of Contents:
1. Prophets of God 7. Man
13. The Restoration
19. Baptism
2. One God 8. The Image of God
14. Tradition
20. Confirmation
3. Jesus Christ
9. The Fall of Adam
15. Catholic
21. Marriage
4. The Holy Spirit 10. Original Sin
16. The Church
22. Purgatory
5. The Holy Trinity 11. Faith and Grace
17. Apostle
23. Heaven and Hell
6. The Creation 12. Authority
18. The Priesthood
24. Eternal Life
10. Original Sin
Mormonism: Great Blessings Resulted from
Adam's Transgression
(GP Chapter 6)
Catholicism:
- Divine Revelation Clarifies The Reality Of Sin
- Adam's Sin Brought Death and Suffering
- The Universes was Created In A State of Journeying Toward Perfection
- Freedom Is A Force for Growth and Maturity
- Sin Is An Abuse Of The Freedom That God Gives
- Original Sin is Transmitted with Human Nature
- All Men Are Implicated in Adam's Sin
- Justification Merited For Us By Christ, It is Granted Through
Baptism
Only the light of divine Revelation clarifies the reality of sin and particularly of the sin committed at mankind's origins. Without the knowledge Revelation gives of God we cannot recognize sin clearly and are tempted to explain it as merely a developmental flaw, a psychological weakness, a mistake, or the necessary consequence of an inadequate social structure, etc. Only in the knowledge of God's plan for man can we grasp that sin is an abuse of the freedom that God gives to created persons so that they are capable of loving him and loving one another (CCC387). Revelation gives us the certainty of faith that the whole of human history is marked by the original fault freely committed by our first parents (CCC390).
We believe all that which is contained in the word of God, written or handed down, and which the Church proposes for belief as divinely revealed (CCC182). Revelation makes known to us the state of original holiness and justice of man and woman before sin: from their friendship with God flowed the happiness of their existence in paradise (CCC384). The Church, interpreting the symbolism of biblical language in an authentic way, in the light of the New Testament and Tradition, teaches that our first parents, Adam and Eve, were constituted in an original state of holiness and justice. This grace of original holiness was to share in...divine life (CCC375).
Adam's Sin Brought Death and Suffering
By his sin Adam, as the first man, lost the original holiness and justice he had received from God, not only for himself but for all human beings (CCC416). Scripture portrays the tragic consequences of this first disobedience. Adam and Eve immediately lose the grace of original holiness [Rom 3:23]. They become afraid of the God of whom they have conceived a distorted image - that of a God jealous of his prerogatives [Gen 3:5-10] (CCC399). Finally, the consequence explicitly foretold for this disobedience will come true: man will "return to the ground", [Gen 3:19; 2:17] for out of it he was taken. Death makes its entrance into human history [Rom 5:12] (CCC400). The beautiful vocation of man and woman to be fruitful, multiply, and subdue the earth was burdened by the pain of childbirth and the toil of work [Gen 1:28; 3:16-19] (CCC1607).
"God did not make death, and he does not delight in the death of the living... It was through the devil's envy that death entered the world" (Wis 1:13; 2:24) (CCC413). Death is a consequence of sin. Death entered the world on account of man's sin [Gen 2:17; 3:3; 3:19; Wis 1:13; Rom 5:12; 6:23]. Even though man's nature is mortal God had destined him not to die. Death was therefore contrary to the plans of God the Creator and entered the world as a consequence of sin [Wis 2:23-24]. "Bodily death, from which man would have been immune had he not sinned" is thus "the last enemy" of man left to be conquered [1Cor 15:26] (CCC1008). God put us in the world to know, to love, and to serve him, and so to come to paradise. Beatitude makes us "partakers of the divine nature" and of eternal life [2 Pet 1:4; Jn 17:3]. We firmly believe that God is master of the world and of its history. But the ways of his providence are often unknown to us. Only at the end, when our partial knowledge ceases, when we see God "face to face", [1 Cor 13:12] will we fully know the ways by which - even through the dramas of evil and sin - God has guided his creation to that definitive sabbath rest [Gen 2:2] for which he created heaven and earth (CCC314).
God is infinitely good and all his works are good. Yet no one can escape the experience of suffering or the evils in nature which seem to be linked to the limitations proper to creatures: and above all to the question of moral evil. Where does evil come from? The revelation of divine love in Christ manifested at the same time the extent of evil and the superabundance of grace [Rom 5:20]. We must therefore approach the question of the origin of evil by fixing the eyes of our faith on him who alone is its conqueror [Lk 11:21-22; Jn 16:11; 1Jn 3:8] (CCC385). "The whole world [which] is in the power of the evil one" [1Jn 5:19; 1Pt 5:8] makes man's life a battle (CCC409).
The universe was created "in a state of journeying" (in statu viae) toward an ultimate perfection yet to be attained, to which God has destined it. We call "divine providence" the dispositions by which God guides his creation toward this perfection: By his providence God protects and governs all things which he has made, "reaching mightily from one end of the earth to the other, and ordering all things well". For "all are open and laid bare to his eyes", even those things which are yet to come into existence through the free action of creatures [Wis 8:1; Heb 4:13] (CCC302). With infinite wisdom and goodness God freely willed to create a world "in a state of journeying" towards its ultimate perfection. In God's plan this process of becoming involves the appearance of certain beings and the disappearance of others, the existence of the more perfect alongside the less perfect, both constructive and destructive forces of nature. With physical good there exists also physical evil as long as creation has not reached perfection (CCC310). Christ's disciples are invited to live in the sight of the Father "who sees in secret," [Mt 6:6] in order to become "perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect" [Mt 5:48] (CCC1693).
Angels and men, as intelligent and free creatures, have to journey toward their ultimate destinies by their free choice and preferential love. They can therefore go astray. Indeed, they have sinned. Thus has moral evil, incommensurably more harmful than physical evil, entered the world. God is in no way, directly or indirectly, the cause of moral evil. He permits it, however, because he respects the freedom of his creatures and, mysteriously, knows how to derive good from it: For almighty God..., because he is supremely good, would never allow any evil whatsoever to exist in his works if he were not so all-powerful and good as to cause good to emerge from evil itself (CCC311). Why did God not prevent the first man from sinning? St. Leo the Great responds, "Christ's inexpressible grace gave us blessings better than those the demon's envy had taken away." And St. Thomas Aquinas wrote, "There is nothing to prevent human nature's being raised up to something greater, even after sin; God permits evil in order to draw forth some greater good. Thus St. Paul says, 'Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more' (CCC412).
Freedom Is A Force for Growth and Maturity
Freedom is the power, rooted in reason and will, to act or not to act, to do this or that, and so to perform deliberate actions on one's own responsibility. By free will one shapes one's own life. Human freedom is a force for growth and maturity in truth and goodness; it attains its perfection when directed toward God, our beatitude (CCC1731). As long as freedom has not bound itself definitively to its ultimate good which is God, there is the possibility of choosing between good and evil, and thus of growing in perfection or of failing and sinning (CCC1732). Freedom makes man responsible for his acts to the extent that they are voluntary. Progress in virtue, knowledge of the good, and ascesis enhance the mastery of the will over its acts (CCC1734).
Satan was at first a good angel, made by God: "The devil and the other demons were indeed created naturally good by God, but they became evil by their own doing" (CCC391). Satan is "the deceiver of the whole world" [Jn 8:44; Rev 12:9]. Through him sin and death entered the world and by his definitive defeat all creation will be "freed from the corruption of sin and death" (CCC2852). The power of Satan is, nonetheless, not infinite. He is only a creature, powerful from the fact that he is pure spirit, but still a creature. His action is permitted by divine providence which with strength and gentleness guides human and cosmic history. It is a great mystery that providence should permit diabolical activity, but "we know that in everything God works for good with those who love him" [Rom 8:28] (CCC395).
Man's freedom is limited and fallible. In fact, man failed. He freely sinned. By refusing God's plan of love, he deceived himself and became a slave to sin (CCC1739). Freedom characterizes properly human acts. It makes the human being responsible for acts of which he is the voluntary agent. His deliberate acts properly belong to him (CCC1745). Every act directly willed is imputable to its author: Thus the Lord asked Eve after the sin in the garden: "What is this that you have done?" [Gen 3:13]. An action can be indirectly voluntary when it results from negligence regarding something one should have known or done (CCC1736). The more one does what is good, the freer one becomes. There is no true freedom except in the service of what is good and just. The choice to disobey and do evil is an abuse of freedom and leads to "the slavery of sin" [Rom 6:17] (CCC1733).
Sin Is An Abuse Of The Freedom That God Gives
Sin is an abuse of the freedom that God gives to created persons so that they are capable of loving him and loving one another (CCC387). Sin is an offense against God: "Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done that which is evil in your sight" [Ps 51:4]. Sin sets itself against God's love for us and turns our hearts away from it. Like the first sin, it is disobedience, a revolt against God through the will to become "like gods," [Gen 3:5] knowing and determining good and evil. Sin is thus "love of oneself even to contempt of God." In this proud self- exaltation, sin is diametrically opposed to the obedience of Jesus, which achieves our salvation [Phil 2:6-9] (CCC1850).
Man, tempted by the devil, let his trust in his Creator die in his heart and, abusing his freedom, disobeyed God's command. This is what man's first sin consisted of [Gen 3:1-11; Rom 5:19]. All subsequent sin would be disobedience toward God and lack of trust in his goodness (CCC397). In that sin man preferred himself to God and by that very act scorned him. He chose himself over and against God, against the requirements of his creaturely status and therefore against his own good [Gen 3:5] (CCC398). The beginning of sin and of man's fall was due to a lie of the tempter who induced doubt of God's word, kindness and faithfulness (CCC215). Behind the disobedient choice of our first parents lurks a seductive voice, opposed to God, which makes them fall into death out of envy [Gen 3:1-5; Wis 2:24] (CCC391). "Man, enticed by the Evil One, abused his freedom at the very beginning of history." He succumbed to temptation and did what was evil. He still desires the good, but his nature bears the wound of original sin. He is now inclined to evil and subject to error (CCC1707).
Original Sin is Transmitted with Human Nature
Original sin is transmitted with human nature, "by propagation, not by imitation" and that it is... 'proper to each'" (CCC419). Man, having been wounded in his nature by original sin, is subject to error and inclined to evil in exercising his freedom (CCC1714). Adam and Eve transmitted to their descendants human nature wounded by their own first sin and hence deprived of original holiness and justice; this deprivation is called "original sin" (CCC417). As a result of original sin, human nature is weakened in its powers, subject to ignorance, suffering and the domination of death, and inclined to sin (this inclination is called "concupiscence") (CCC418).
The doctrine of original sin is, so to speak, the "reverse side" of the Good News that Jesus is the Saviour of all men, that all need salvation and that salvation is offered to all through Christ. The Church, which has the mind of Christ, [1Cor 2:16] knows very well that we cannot tamper with the revelation of original sin without undermining the mystery of Christ (CCC389). The doctrine of original sin, closely connected with that of redemption by Christ, provides lucid discernment of man's situation and activity in the world. By our first parents' sin, the devil has acquired a certain domination over man, even though man remains free. Original sin entails "captivity under the power of him who thenceforth had the power of death, that is, the devil" [Heb 2:14]. Ignorance of the fact that man has a wounded nature inclined to evil gives rise to serious errors in the areas of education, politics, social action and morals (CCC407). The consequences of original sin and of all men's personal sins put the world as a whole in the sinful condition aptly described in St. John's expression, "the sin of the world" [Jn 1:29] (CCC408).
The Church's teaching on the transmission of original sin was articulated more precisely in the fifth century, especially under the impulse of St. Augustine's reflections against Pelagianism, and in the sixteenth century, in opposition to the Protestant Reformation. Pelagius held that man could, by the natural power of free will and without the necessary help of God's grace, lead a morally good life; he thus reduced the influence of Adam's fault to bad example. The first Protestant reformers, on the contrary, taught that original sin has radically perverted man and destroyed his freedom; they identified the sin inherited by each man with the tendency to evil (concupiscentia), which would be insurmountable. The Church pronounced on the meaning of the data of Revelation on original sin especially at the second Council of Orange (529) (CCC406).
All Men Are Implicated in Adam's Sin
All men are implicated in Adam's sin, as St. Paul affirms: "By one man's disobedience many (that is, all men) were made sinners": "sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all men sinned" [Rom 5:12, 19]. The Apostle contrasts the universality of sin and death with the universality of salvation in Christ. "Then as one man's trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one man's act of righteousness leads to acquittal and life for all men" [Rom 5:18] (CCC402). By his obedience unto death, Jesus accomplished the substitution of the suffering Servant, who "makes himself an offering for sin", when "he bore the sin of many", and who "shall make many to be accounted righteous", for "he shall bear their iniquities" [Is 53:10-12]. Jesus atoned for our faults and made satisfaction for our sins to the Father (CCC615).
How did the sin of Adam become the sin of all his descendants? The whole human race is in Adam "as one body of one man". By this "unity of the human race" all men are implicated in Adam's sin, as all are implicated in Christ's justice. Still, the transmission of original sin is a mystery that we cannot fully understand. But we do know by Revelation that Adam had received original holiness and justice not for himself alone, but for all human nature. By yielding to the tempter, Adam and Eve committed a personal sin, but this sin affected the human nature that they would then transmit in a fallen state. It is a sin which will be transmitted by propagation to all mankind, that is, by the transmission of a human nature deprived of original holiness and justice. And that is why original sin is called "sin" only in an analogical sense: it is a sin "contracted" and not "committed" - a state and not an act (CCC404).
Following St. Paul, the Church has always taught that the overwhelming misery which oppresses men and their inclination towards evil and death cannot be understood apart from their connection with Adam's sin and the fact that he has transmitted to us a sin with which we are all born afflicted, a sin which is the "death of the soul." Because of this certainty of faith, the Church baptizes for the remission of sins even tiny infants who have not committed personal sin (CCC403). Although it is proper to each individual, original sin does not have the character of a personal fault in any of Adam's descendants. It is a deprivation of original holiness and justice, but human nature has not been totally corrupted: it is wounded in the natural powers proper to it, subject to ignorance, suffering and the dominion of death, and inclined to sin - an inclination to evil that is called concupiscence. Baptism, by imparting the life of Christ's grace, erases original sin and turns a man back towards God, but the consequences for nature, weakened and inclined to evil, persist in man and summon him to spiritual battle (CCC405). As a consequence of original sin, man must suffer bodily death, from which man would have been immune had he not sinned (CCC1018).
Justification Merited For Us By Christ, It is Granted Through Baptism
Jesus, the Son of God, freely suffered death for us in complete and free submission to the will of God, his Father. By his death he has conquered death, and so opened the possibility of salvation to all men (CCC1019). Finally, Christ's Resurrection - and the risen Christ himself is the principle and source of our future resurrection: "Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep... For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive" [1Cor 15:20-22] (CCC655). By his Passion, Christ delivered us from Satan and from sin. He merited for us the new life in the Holy Spirit. His grace restores what sin had damaged in us (CCC1708). We must know Christ as the source of grace in order to know Adam as the source of sin (CCC388).
Justification has been merited for us by the Passion of Christ. It is granted us through Baptism. It conforms us to the righteousness of God, who justifies us. It has for its goal the glory of God and of Christ, and the gift of eternal life. It is the most excellent work of God's mercy (CCC2020). Baptism not only purifies from all sins, but also makes the neophyte "a new creature," an adopted son of God, who has become a "partaker of the divine nature," [2 Cor 5:17; 2 Pet 1:4; Gal 4:5-7] member of Christ and co-heir with him, [l Cor 6:15; 12:27; Rom 8:17] and a temple of the Holy Spirit. [l Cor 6:19] (CCC1265). The Most Holy Trinity gives the baptized sanctifying grace, the grace of justification: enabling them to believe in God, to hope in him, and to love him through the theological virtues; giving them the power to live and act under the prompting of the Holy Spirit through the gifts of the Holy Spirit; allowing them to grow in goodness through the moral virtues. Thus the whole organism of the Christian's supernatural life has its roots in Baptism (CCC1266).
We can adore the Father because he has caused us to be reborn to his life by adopting us as his children in his only Son: by Baptism, he incorporates us into the Body of his Christ; through the anointing of his Spirit who flows from the head to the members, he makes us other "Christs." God, indeed, who has predestined us to adoption as his sons, has conformed us to the glorious Body of Christ. So then you who have become sharers in Christ are appropriately called "Christs." The new man, reborn and restored to his God by grace, says first of all, "Father!" because he has now begun to be a son (CCC2782). Baptism makes us members of the Body of Christ: "Therefore... we are members one of another" [Eph 4:25]. Baptism incorporates us into the Church (CCC1267).
By Baptism all sins are forgiven, original sin and all personal sins, as well as all punishment for sin. In those who have been reborn nothing remains that would impede their entry into the Kingdom of God, neither Adam's sin, nor personal sin, nor the consequences of sin, the gravest of which is separation from God (CCC1263). The fruit of Baptism, or baptismal grace, is a rich reality that includes forgiveness of original sin and all personal sins, birth into the new life by which man becomes an adoptive son of the Father, a member of Christ and a temple of the Holy Spirit. By this very fact the person baptized is incorporated into the Church, the Body of Christ, and made a sharer in the priesthood of Christ (CCC1279).
The Lord himself affirms that Baptism is necessary for salvation [Jn 3:5]. He also commands his disciples to proclaim the Gospel to all nations and to baptize them [Mt 28:19-20]. Baptism is necessary for salvation for those to whom the Gospel has been proclaimed and who have had the possibility of asking for this sacrament [Mk 16:16]. The Church does not know of any means other than Baptism that assures entry into eternal beatitude; this is why she takes care not to neglect the mission she has received from the Lord to see that all who can be baptized are "reborn of water and the Spirit." God has bound salvation to the sacrament of Baptism, but he himself is not bound by his sacraments (CCC1257).
As regards children who have died without Baptism, the Church can only entrust them to the mercy of God, as she does in her funeral rites for them. Indeed, the great mercy of God who desires that all men should be saved, and Jesus' tenderness toward children which caused him to say: "Let the children come to me, do not hinder them," [Mk 10 14; 1 Tim 2:4] allow us to hope that there is a way of salvation for children who have died without Baptism. All the more urgent is the Church's call not to prevent little children coming to Christ through the gift of holy Baptism (CCC1261). Since the earliest times, Baptism has been administered to children, for it is a grace and a gift of God that does not presuppose any human merit; children are baptized in the faith of the Church. Entry into Christian life gives access to true freedom (CCC1282).