Does the Bible Teach the Doctrine of Original Sin?
1) Direct Answer
Yes. The Bible teaches original sin—that the whole human race was corrupted by the fall in Eden. But the original sin was not eating a literal apple; it was the breaking of God’s Word by a moral, sexual transgression. Eve was beguiled by the serpent, conception and birth were directly affected, and death passed upon all. That is why every person is born needing the new birth.
2) Scriptural Explanation
- The Garden account shows a moral fall, not a dietary mistake:
- “The serpent was more subtil…” and Eve was “beguiled” (Genesis 3:1; 2 Corinthians 11:2-3). Paul ties Eve’s beguiling to chastity language—showing moral seduction, not fruit tasting.
- Immediately they knew they were naked and sewed aprons to cover their loins (Genesis 3:7). If eating was the sin, why cover the reproductive parts?
- God’s judgments went straight to reproduction: “I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception” and “thy desire shall be to thy husband” (Genesis 3:16). The curse points to the domain of the act.
- God put enmity between the serpent’s seed and the woman’s Seed (Genesis 3:15). The serpent has a “seed,” and the woman would bring forth a Seed—Christ—who would crush the serpent. Two lines are in view.
- Cain was not a son of faith:
- “Cain was of that wicked one” (1 John 3:12). The Bible does not say “influenced by,” but “of.”
- Jesus said, “Ye are of your father the devil” (John 8:44). There are children of God and children of the wicked one.
- In the parable of the wheat and tares, “the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one… the enemy that sowed them is the devil” (Matthew 13:38-39). Two sowings; two offspring.
- Cain’s line is absent from Adam’s book of generations in Genesis 5. Adam’s son named there is Seth, not Cain.
- All are born under sin and death because of the fall:
- “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me” (Psalm 51:5).
- “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one” (Job 14:4).
- “By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men” (Romans 5:12; see 5:19). We are not sinners merely by imitation; we are born with a fallen nature.
- We are “by nature the children of wrath” (Ephesians 2:3).
- God’s remedy is a birth by the incorruptible Seed:
- “Ye must be born again” (John 3:3-6).
- “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God” (1 Peter 1:23).
- The blood of Jesus cleanses us (1 John 1:7), and we receive remission and the Holy Ghost (Acts 2:38).
3) Simple Clarifying Logic
- If the sin was eating fruit, why did Adam and Eve cover their loins, not their mouths?
- Why did God multiply conception and place headship and desire in the marriage union if the issue was diet?
- Why does Scripture speak of the serpent’s “seed” and of “children of the wicked one” if there were not two lines sown?
- The Bible never says “apple.” It shows a beguilement tied to nakedness, conception, and two seeds—then declares we are all born in that fallen condition. Sin came by mixture; life comes by the pure Seed, Jesus Christ.
Short Reinforcement
So yes—original sin is a Bible truth. The fall in Eden corrupted the human race through a moral transgression, and that nature passes by birth. Therefore we must be born again by the Word and Spirit to be restored to fellowship with God.
Ask a Follow-up Question
What did the Laodicean Church Age (our age) Angel (- messenger) Say about this?
Ranked passages from the local William Branham sermon and Church Age Book database. Relevance is relative, not a statement of doctrinal certainty.
An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages
CAB 5:E-81
Since the Bible does not deal in the histories of other nations in detail, it will be necessary to search the ancient profane records to find our answer as to how Pergamos became the seat of the Satanic religion of Babylon. The major sources of information will be in records of Egyptian and Grecian culture. The reason for this is that Egypt received her science and mathematics from the Chaldeans and in turn Greece received them from Egypt. Now since the priests were in charge of teaching these sciences, and since t...
An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages
CAB 3:E-28
The City Of Ephesus The city of Ephesus was one of the three greatest cities of Asia. It was often called the third city of Christian faith, with Jerusalem first, and Antioch second. It was a very rich city. The government was Roman but the language was Greek. Historians believe that John, Mary, Peter, Andrew and Philip were all buried in this beautiful city. Paul, who founded the true faith in this city, pastored here only about three years; but when he was absent from the flock he was continually, prayerfully, mi...
An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages
CAB 6:E-13
Though the messenger to the Thyatirean Age was Saint Columba, I want to dwell a little on the life of Saint Patrick as an example to us and also to give the lie to Rome's claim that Saint Patrick was any more one of her than was Joan of Arc. Patrick was born to the sister of Saint Martin in the little town of Bonavern on the banks of the river Clyde. One day while playing on the shoreline with his two sisters, pirates approached and kidnapped all three. Where the sisters went, no one knows, but Patrick (his name wa...
An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages
CAB 5:E-116
Once the Nicene Council had swung the power of political Rome to the church, it seemed that there were no limits to which this First Christian Church would go. The name, Christian, which originally brought persecution, now became the name of the persecutors. It was in this age that Augustine of Hippo (354-430) set forth the precept that the church ought and MUST use force if necessary to bring her children back into the fold, and that it was in harmony with the Word of God to kill the heretics and apostates. In his...
An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages
CAB 7:E-38
Now toward the end of the fourth age which would be the beginning of the fifth age also, the invasion of Constantinople by the Turks sent the learned scholars of the East with their Greek manuscripts to the West. The purity of the Word and the teachings of true believers were thus disseminated. And not only were these fine teachers of great importance but also the invention of what became the basis of our modern printing presses was discovered, facilitating the production of books. Thus we find the great hunger and...