How Does Dispensationalism Account for Every Man's Fall in Adam?

[smhbbag]

Well, the title pretty much says it all.

I've been pondering it for a while, and I just can't think of any coherent way to account for it without Adam's "federal headship" in the Covenant of Works.

I've heard many, whom I know to be Dispensationalists, refer to our sinful nature being 'hereditary' in the sense that it is passed down through procreation itself.

Not only does this seem like pure conjecture (leading me to think that 'better' dispensationalists have better answers) - but also pulls the rug out from under a perfect Christ. If He was born of a physical woman, who herself was born of flesh and was sinful - how then was Christ perfect?

Surely there has to be more on this than I have found. Any help appreciated

 

[Texas Aggie]

Christ was born under the law which demanded his death... this was part of his human nature. Through Mary the inheritance of the penalty of sin was placed upon him. He was slain from the foundation of the world and reckoned guilty before God. Sin was placed upon him via Mary.

Christ was conceived to bare the penalty of the law.... yet committed no transgression of the law. He was absolutely sinless which made him a worthy sacrifice to God. If he were not perfectly sinless, his sacrifice was completely useless.

Not sure why hereditary means are not acceptable. We are all "in" Adam. Some of us have been placed "in" Christ.

 

[Preach]

"They being the root of all mankind, the guilt of this sin was imputed; and the same death in sin, and corrupted nature, conveyed to all their posterity descending from them by ordinary generation."
WCF VI.3

 

[BlackCalvinist]

Head over to BibleCentre.net and look it up in the Moody Handbook of Theology. The author (Paul Enns) is a 4-point Calvinist (*lol*) and a dispensationalist.

I know my old pastor (who studied under Ryrie) held to federal headship.

[Edited on 5-30-2005 by OS_X]

 

[Rich Barcellos]

Matt said, "Christ was born under the law which demanded his death... this was part of his human nature. Through Mary the inheritance of the penalty of sin was placed upon him. He was slain from the foundation of the world and reckoned guilty before God. Sin was placed upon him via Mary."

I don't think this reflects the traditional Reformed doctrine of the imputation of the guilt of sin to Christ. Maybe I am misunderstanding you. You statement does not appear to compensate for the imputation of guilt by God the Father to Christ as a declrative act. It seems that your statement means that Christ received the guilt of sin due to His relationship to Mary - i.e., original sin was passed on to Christ through Mary. This would mean that Christ was a sinner - because guilt itself is sin - Rom. 5:12; WCF VI. Am I misunderstanding you?

 

[Texas Aggie]

Sorry, let me clarify. The penalty of sin was placed upon Him via Mary. Christ´s imputed sin and the declarative act occurred before the creation of Adam (probably by some eternal covenant amongst the Godhead). Christ was slain from before the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8). The practice of imputation was given to Moses to be carried out by the sacrificial system (all with the foreknowledge of God and the eternal decree so we might understand His methods).

The source of the "œatonement" or satisfaction of Christ is God Himself (only God can produce that which satisfies Himself). Acts 2:23 plainly declares that the death of Christ had its source in the will of God... I have no idea when in eternity past this was declared.

Christ was made of a woman, made under the law (Gal 4:4). This happened so that He would be subject to the penalty of the law which is death.

For us, the legal requirement to God´s curse can arise from one or both of two aspects. You can either be born under the law (curse) via original sin; or via personal breach of the law´s requirement for perfect obedience. Infants fall via original sin, adults by both original sin as well as willful sin. Jesus Christ was neither since He was never under the Adamic covenant. He was supernaturally born of a virgin; therefore, sin never entered His body.

 

[Wannabee]

Seminal Headship
A typical dispensational position would be that we were all "in Adam" seminally, and therefore guilty as he is guilty, rather than see Adam as the Federal representative of man. This would be more consistent with the Dispensational hermeneutic, giving the ability to see all men, literally and physically, in Adam, and thus guilty of the Fall "in him."

Personal Sin View
Another view, although rare, would be that since Adam and Eve constituted the entire human race, the curse from the Fall changed the nature of man from "able to sin or not sin" to "not able to not sin." The immediate result was spiritual death, with the eventual curse being physical death. Therefore the curse of sin, death, passes on to all men. The immediate result of salvation is spiritual life, with the eventual result being eternal physical life as well.

Hope that helps

 

[WrittenFromUtopia]

How does dispensationalism account for Genesis - Revelation?

Sorry, I had to.

 

[BlackCalvinist]

 

[turmeric]

Wannabe, or anyone else for that matter;

How does the Personal Sin view differ from Federal view?

 

[Wannabee]

I think it would be considered a modified form of the Federal view.

The main difference would be similar to what smhbbag alluded to. It's a long explanation, but the gist of it would be that, while all are sinners because of the Fall, we are guilty of our own personal sin. Guilt for sin is not imputed, however the consequences are inherent in the human race. It follows along the line that we sin because we are sinners, rather than we are sinners because we sin. So I guess is sort of a cross-breed between the seminal and Federal views.