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-100
In this Pergamean Age the Lord denounces two doctrines which He hates: 1. The doctrine of Balaam which brought idolatry and sinful excesses to Israel at Baal-Peor, and 2. The doctrine of the Nicolaitanes, which had been but deeds in the Ephesian Age. Combine this denouncement with the fact that He has been emphasizing Pergamos as the seat of Satan, and it is very easy and proper to conclude that somehow the religion of Babylon has become intermingled with Christianity.
Marriage and Divorce
65-0221M §74
Now we find out death was caused ... death is the cause of sin of the woman, come through the woman and not the man. By her way of living her life, and by her, all death comes. Her way of giving life is death. How many knows that? Job 14, if you want to put down the Scripture. If you question this, I got scriptures wrote down for every bit of this. You want to read Job 14 now. It says, "Man that is borned of woman is of a few days and full of trouble." Is that right? "He cometh up like the flower, he's cut down and...
A Greater than Solomon is here
62-0628 §24
The most horrible thing that there is, friends, is unbelief. That's the only sin that there is. There is no other sin but unbelief. I was preaching on that some years ago in a Methodist church. It was a nice big Methodist church, and they ... most of them, or some of them, believe in holiness, the southern Methodists. And they were ... I was preaching about... I said, "Committing adultery is not a sin." I said, "Telling lies is not a sin. Taking the Lord's name is not a sin." That was just too much for some dear ol...
Confirmation and Evidence
62-0621E §39
And now, today, after two thousand years, we still can look back, and we can see where we once were: down in the muck of sin. And sin is unbelief. That's the original and only sin. A man said not long ago ... I beg your pardon, it was a woman. I was preaching in a Methodist church. And I said, "Drinking is not a sin, committing adultery is not a sin, lying and stealing is not a sin." And it was just too much for one precious old sister. And she raised up and said, "I pray you, tell me what is sin?" I said, "Unbelie...
From the beginning it wasn't so
59-1125 §18
...white man first come to the west here, when he found the Indian out here living on his buffalo. The white man shot the buffalo just for a target. Just let a man get a hold of something or another, and he will pervert it. Just let God do something, then man comes around and perverts what God does. God set up a church once; man perverts it. What is sin? Sin is truth... Sin is unrighteousness ... is righteousness perverted. Just take anything that's sin and you'll notice it's a righteousness perverted. Anything that...