Definition

Since the fall of Adam all men begotten in the natural way are born with sin, that is, without the fear of God, without trust in God, and with concupiscence; and that this disease, or vice of origin, is truly sin, even now condemning and bringing eternal death upon those not born again.

Condemned are the Pelagians and others who deny that original depravity is sin, and who, to obscure the glory of Christ's merit and benefits, argue that man can be justified before God by his own strength and reason.

The Original State of Mankind

In his original state, man was not only sound in body and soul, without a germ of disease or death, or a taint of sin, but endowed with actual spiritual wisdom and knowledge, and with perfect natural righteousness, goodness, and holiness, in the image and likeness of the Triune God.

The Fall of Man

Before the conception of their first offspring, our first parents, Eve tempted by Satan,’ I and Adam, voluntarily transgressed a commandment of God, and by this sin they fell from their primeval state,‘ lost the image of God, became entirely depraved in spiritual death and obnoxious to temporal death and eternal damnation.

Hereditary Guilt

Not only was the guilt of Adam imputed to his descendants, but his children and children’s children have inherited from their first ancestor his corrupt nature being flesh born of the flesh, wholly depraved,‘ totally blind of understanding in spiritual things,“ of perverse appetites,‘their will opposed to the will of God and only prone to evil,’ all their faculties enslaved in the service of sin, without any ability in any measure to work their own spiritual restoration.

Actual Sins

Original sin, or the natural depravity of man, is productive of manifold actual sins, both of commission of that which God forbids, and of omission of that which God demands, internal and external sins, voluntary and involuntary sins, dominant sins, sins committed directly against God, and sins committed indirectly against God and directly against the sinner’s self or against his neighbor, sins committed by ourselves and sins of others in which we participate.*

Biblical Texts

Gen. 1:26–27 “Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”

Gen. 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.

Gen. 2:25 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

Gen. 2:15   The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

Gen 3:6-7 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. 

Rom. 5:12   Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.

Rom. 5:18 Therefore, one trespass led to condemnation for all men

Rom 5:19 For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners

Rom 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Eph. 2:1-3   And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

Rom. 3:9-18 For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.” “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.” “Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known.” “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

Luke 18:19 Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.”

Rom. 8:7-8 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

Psalm 51:5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.

Ecclesiastes 7:20 Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.

1 John 1:8-10 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

*Definitions are taken from the Book of Concord and Graebner’s Outlines of Doctrinal Theology

Here’s a big compilation article with a lot more information about Pelagianism and the teaching of Charles Finney: The Charles Finney Cornucopia of False Doctrine, Pelagianism & Evangelical Manipulation

Here’s a teaching video that goes along with this article: