A More Beautiful Life Collective

What is sin? What is evil? Do those things even exist? How can a good God have created a world where sin and evil exist? Who is Satan? What does he do? Hamartiology, or the doctrine of sin and evil, answers all of these questions and more. Listen in today to our next installment of Building Your Foundations: Core Doctrines for the Christian Life.

S2E15 – What You Need to Know about the Christian Creeds – A More Beautiful Life Collective Podcast

In this episode, we are talking about the high-church confessional documents and why you should engage with them. No matter what denomination you belong to, these confessional texts – like Christian creeds, confessions of faith, catechisms, and liturgies – have been incredibly influential in the history of the Church. We need to wrestle with what they say and determine how it fits in with our own personal statement of faith. Today, we are going to talk about why you should read these texts, and then, turn our focus to the Christian creeds in particular.  Read more on the blog: https://amorebeautifullifecollective.com/what-you-need-to-know-about-the-christian-creeds/  Get a PDF copy of the Christian Creeds here: https://a-more-beautiful-life-collective.kit.com/d080819cc1  Get the Doctrine and Theology Cheat Sheet Here: https://a-more-beautiful-life-collective.ck.page/bd897d28d0  Get a list of the names of God here:  https://a-more-beautiful-life-collective.ck.page/43d2d5cf6b  Get a copy of our personal statement of faith creation guide here:  https://amorebeautifullifecollective.com/product/we-believe-your-personal-statement-of-faith-workbook-pdf-download/  Get “Building Our Foundations: 10 Week Study” here:  https://amorebeautifullifecollective.com/product/building-our-foundations-11-week-systematic-theology-book-bible-study/  Visit our Shop to get a copy of any of the resources mentioned in this episode:  I’m your host, Cayce Fletcher, and you can ​learn a little bit more about me here​.  While you’re here, would you consider leaving a comment, rating, or review? You can find our podcast, ​A More Beautiful Life Collective Podcast​, wherever you listen to podcasts. Listen on ​Spotify​ or ​Apple Podcasts​, or watch on ​YouTube​.  Subscribe to the blog for access to our latest content and some freebies.  I love creating and sharing resources with you. You can find all of our resources at ​A More Beautiful Life Collective Shop​. Keep creating a life you love, and cultivating your heart for God. 

1. S2E15 – What You Need to Know about the Christian Creeds 50:38
2. S2E14 – Three Ways to Cultivate Gratitude in Your Life Today 32:17
3. S2E13 – How Routines Calm the Chaos of Life (+ My Stay at Home Mom Schedule) 55:53
4. S2E12 – Christology: Jesus as Prophet, Priest, and King 53:15
5. S2E11 – 5 Hobbies Everyone Should Have to Create a Life You Love 41:18

Hey everyone, and welcome to Season 2 Episode 8! I’m your host Cayce Fletcher, and today, we will continue our series on Systematic Theology. As you have been listening to these episodes, I hope they inspired you to create your personal statement of faith. Knowing what you believe is so important. For most of us, we just need a little nudge to begin to think deeply about all of these key core doctrines. 

If you would like to dive deeper into any of the doctrines we’ve talked about in this podcast, you can get our “Building Your Foundations” Workbook. This 11-week study guide will walk you through each of these core doctrines and encourage you to determine what you believe. You can also get our “We Believe: Creating Your Personal Statement of Faith” How-To Guide as part of our method of Christian living bundle. 

Let’s dive in. 

So far in this series, we’ve talked about Theology Proper, Bibliology, Angelology, and Theological Anthropology. Today’s episode marks the halfway point through our discussion of these 10 core doctrines. Interestingly, today’s topic also is the one that introduces conflict into God’s relationship with man. We’ve seen how God is a good God, and in our episode on theological anthropology, we saw how everything God created was good – including man. 

But, if we look out our window today, we know that the world is not good. Our news is filled with stories of broken people doing terrible things. There is death and decay in the world. People die of cancer and diseases. Families are torn apart because of selfishness and broken promises. 

Why is the world this way? Why do we not live in the good garden of Eden that God made for us? 

Hamartiology tackles these questions. Hamartiology is the doctrine of sin and evil. Sometimes these doctrines are separated with the doctrine of evil being described as ponerology. These topics encompass at least three different subjects: 

1. Questions about how evil can exist 
2. Questions about what sin is
3. Questions about Satan and demons

Each of these three different subjects falls under the umbrella of Hamartiology but focuses on a different aspect of sin and evil. The first question focuses on a broader understanding of theodicy. It focuses on how a belief in a good sovereign God can coexist in a broken evil world. The next question turns the focus on us personally. We have to understand what sin is, why we sin, and how sin affects our relationship with God. The last question focuses on supernatural aspects of evil. As I mentioned in our episode on Angelology, we don’t know as much about the last question as we do about the first two. 

Hamartiology Question #1: The Problem of Evil 

Hamartiology deals with both the doctrine of sin and evil. Before we understand how we are fallen creatures ourselves, we have to look at evil in a broader context. The first question we have to answer is: “Why does evil exist?” 

In the realm of apologetics, this is a question that atheists and agnostics often turn to. They say, “How could a good loving God exist and make a world that is so bad and broken?” They don’t have a better answer to the question themselves, but they still reject God because of it. It is easier for them to stomach everything happening by chance as we nihilistically march toward our deaths rather than believe that a God could sanction or even ordain evil. 

Greg Welty summarizes this tension in the following way, “The problem of evil” appeals to the phenomenon of evil (significant cases of pain and suffering) as evidence against the existence of God. For many, this evidence appears decisive, because if God existed, he would be powerful enough to prevent such evil, and good enough to want to prevent such evil. Since there is evil, no such powerful and good being exists.” 

Because this question dominates apologetic discourse, we need to have a thought-out answer in response. Fortunately, we stand on the shoulders of giants when it comes to our understanding of the problem of evil. For the past 2,000 years, Christians have been wrestling with this problem as well. Generally, they have come up with two responses: 

• Inscrutability: No one knows the reasons for why God allows evil to exist 
• Theodicy: Attempts to develop arguments for why God allows evil to exist. 

Inscrutability 

One way to approach the problem of evil is to rest in the sovereignty of God and the truth that the Bible preaches. William Kynes says, “Well, surprisingly, as Os Guinness observed, 1 the biblical response to this challenge to faith is not to minimize the premises underlying the apparent contraction that this argument poses, but to reinforce them while also seeing how the Bible provides reassurances.” 

The Bible condemns evil – denouncing it and showing it will be defeated – while also praising a loving God, who is more good, loving, and awesome than we can fathom. Inscrutability teaches that yes we may not know why God allows bad things to happen, but that’s okay. We have faith in the coming age when everything that is wrong with the world will be made right. 

Inscrutability will probably not be the argument that convinces someone to believe in God if they are wrestling with the problem of evil. At the same time, we see this aspect of Hamartiology throughout the scriptures. Many of the psalms, books of prophecy, and epistles call out the evil in the world and choose to rest in the goodness of God. As 1 Peter 4:13 says, “But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.” 

That is inscrutability in action: Recognition of suffering, commitment to follow God, and trust in Christ’s coming future kingdom. 

Theodicy 

Inscrutability may be a very biblical response to the problem of evil, but it requires a solid understanding of scripture and great faith. The other way to approach the problem of evil is through theodicy. Theodicy attempts to determine the reasons why a good, righteous God allows evil to occur. Theodicy is a crucial part of our understanding of Hamartiology.

Different types of theodicy have been created over the ages. Some of these theodicies are biblical and mesh with each other. Some are more results of philosophizing without a biblical basis. As always, the Bible is our home base for studying theology, so we have to put up any of these ideas against what the Bible says. 

• Free Will Theodicy/Human Determinism: Evil exists because of the abuses of free will. Humans have autonomy and so they may choose to do evil things. (St. Augustine was a proponent of this theory.)
• Natural Law Theodicy: Natural laws create the conditions for evil things to occur (like diseases, natural disasters, etc). (Note: This goes against the pronouncement that pre-fall Eden was very good, though Eden was never declared perfect.) 
• Punishment/Retribution Theodicy: Suffering is a result of God’s just punishment of evildoers.
• Soul-building/Educative Theodicy: Suffering leads us from self-centeredness to other-centeredness.
• Communion/“Pain as God’s Megaphone” Theodicy: Pain is God’s way of getting the attention of unbelievers in a noncoercive way so that they might forget the vanities of earth, consider spiritual things instead, and perhaps even repent of sin. Through suffering we are brought closer to God. 
• Higher-order Goods Theodicy: Some goods can’t exist apart from the evils to which they are a response (e.g. courage without danger).
• Greater Good Theodicy: Pain and suffering in God’s world play a necessary role in bringing about greater goods that could not be brought about otherwise. 
• Eschatological Theodicy: God is justified in allowing evil because of the reward of the righteous in the afterlife and the judgment of the wicked to come. 

Source: TGC’s The Problem of Evil, Theodicy: An Overview

Ultimately, the theodicy that you choose to believe needs to be supported by scripture. Many of these theodicies are true to some extent, but it is only when you combine all of them together (except maybe natural law theodicy) that you get a full picture of what is true about evil and God. 

The stories of Joseph, Job, and Jesus (among others) show that sometimes suffering is part of the Christian life, but ultimately, God works through the suffering and uses it for good. 

A combination of both theodicy and inscrutability is useful for responding to the problem of evil in our world now. With a thought-out theodicy, you should be able to answer why a good, sovereign God allows evil in the present world. But, a crucial part that we’ve not considered yet is how we go from a very good world to a very broken world. 

Why is evil in the world at all? Why isn’t it still very good as it was in the beginning? 

Hamartiology Question #2: What is sin? 

The next question we have to turn to in our understanding of Hamartiology is where sin comes from. Sin has effects on the world at large, but it also profoundly affects each one of us individually. We need a solid understanding of sin to have a complete view of Hamartiology.

In the episode on Theological Anthropology, we looked at our beginnings to understand how we were made. Our beginnings shed light on so many different parts of ourselves. However, in Genesis 3, we see a defacement of a good beginning. 

Genesis 3:1-13 states, “Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”

4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”

10 He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”

11 And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”

12 The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”

13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”

The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

Nancy Guthrie describes Eden when she says, “Rather than thinking of Eden in terms of perfection, we should think of it in terms of potential. Eden was unspoiled, but it was also unfinished; it was unsullied, but it was also incomplete.” In the beginning, the world was never described as completely perfect. Instead, it was full of potential for growth. It was just very good. 

There was the potential for an expanding good kingdom ruled by Adam, but instead of meeting this potential, sin entered the picture. Innocence isn’t the same thing as righteousness, and as the serpent tempted Eve, she caved rather willingly. 

I’ve been using this term, sin, here that warrants a definition. Evil is a common term that we all understand. Sin is probably just as common but is not as clearly understood. Sin comes from the word hamartia (hence, Hamartiology means the study of the doctrines of evil and sin). It means “to be without a share in, to miss the mark, to err, be mistaken, to miss or wander from the path of uprightness and honor, to do or go wrong, to wander from the law of God, to violate God’s law, sin.” We see this picture of wandering again and again throughout scripture, with God establishing his law and covenants and the people continually breaking them to ‘do what is right in their own eyes.’

As I’ve mentioned before, the Bible is a book about God and our relationship with him. We don’t get a clear picture of theodicy from the first few chapters of the Bible; the Bible never explains why that serpent was in the garden. But, we do get a clear picture of Hamartiology. We recognize what sin is. Sin is a transgression of the law and commands of God and a rebellion against God. 

Eve sinned when she disobeyed God. She was commanded ‘not to eat of the fruit’, but instead she saw and desired that fruit. That want overtook her and caused her to veer off the clear path that God had established. 

As a child, I always thought of the fruit, always depicted as an apple in storybooks, as the thing that caused sin to enter into the world. The apple was a sin because it was the knowledge of good and evil. But, now that I’m older, I recognize that the sin was the eating of the fruit. God commanded something, and Eve disobeyed that. The choice to disobey was a choice to sin. 

What did the knowledge of good and evil do? Perhaps it did make it easier to sin. But, I think it just stripped away the innocence of the man and woman. Instead of being comfortable in their own skin, they were ashamed. They hid. They realized how far they had fallen, and they despaired. 

The serpent had promised that the apple would make them like God, but what they had never realized was that perhaps they were better off being the created beings God had made them. We were made in the image of God, but that wasn’t enough for Adam and Eve. When they got the full knowledge of good and evil, it just left them broken. 

This is the origin of sin in the world – where it all began. This is foundational to our understanding of Hamartiology.

Effects of Sin

To have a full understanding of the doctrine of sin – Hamartiology – we don’t just look at the origin of sin. We also have to look at the effects of the sin.

The curse in Genesis 3:14-19 shows some of the effects of sin. The serpent was punished and enmity was put between the man and snake for all of time. Women were promised pain in childbirth (a fact that I recognize and honestly face head-on when it comes time to give birth) and a certain amount of tension and fighting between her and her husband. Men were promised to labor ‘by the sweat of their brow’ for food. And, ultimately, there is a reminder of man’s mortality. We would all return to dust. 

The picture of the Edenic state in which we were created in Genesis 1 & 2 is defaced, but not destroyed. Broken, but not irreparable. 

What other effects of sin exist? As we trace the sin’s effect throughout scripture, we see hearts that are turned away from God. Because of sin, there is pride, violence, and murder. Man’s compacity for evil grows so great that a flood is unleashed upon all people, with only a handful rescued. Brother turns against brother. Women are left to die with their children in the desert. People are sold into slavery, thrown unjustly in prison, and subjected to pain and suffering. And that’s only what happens in the rest of Genesis! 

Sin at its heart is something that removes us from God. Because of sin, we can’t be in a relationship with God – because he is holy and we are not. This vertical aspect of Hamartiology also spills into our horizontal relationships with other people. God has ordained a path for how we should treat him and others. When we step off this path, it’s a sin. The key is that what he has ordained is truly good. 

We’ve all seen the effects of divorce on families. Though it may have been inevitable and outside of your control, it’s still painful when you split up. That sin hurts you. Anyone who has ever had something stolen from them recognizes the pain that comes through theft. Coveting, jealousy, and envy can be a gateway drug to stealing, but they also can destroy relationships even if you never truly act on them. 

Sin leads to brokenness in our lives – our homes, feelings, relationships, dreams, and even possessions. 

Does original sin exist?

Now, we see how a good God can exist despite an evil world. And, we also see where sin came from to begin with. But, one question that we haven’t answered is why we keep sinning. In terms of Hamartiology, why didn’t sin just stop with Adam? Can we be perfect now without God’s help?

Yes, Adam sinned in the very beginning. But, Romans 3:10-12 says, “As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. 12 All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.” Psalm 51:5 says, “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.” 

Sin doesn’t seem to be a choice for mankind. We are born with a tendency to drift into sin. Modern, romantic ideas of childhood go directly against this statement. But, I often wonder if those transcendental poets had their children that they were chasing around. I have to say the words, “Be gentle, share, care about your sibling, be respectful, be obedient,” about 1,506 times a day. And, my kids are still in their preschool years! As they say, bigger kids have even bigger problems. 

We have to order our loves rightly, and the human condition is to desire all the wrong things. We desire sin, but we have to rule over it. 

So, in practice, sin seems to be just a part of the human condition. But, what is this in theological terms? In terms of Hamartiology?

Original Sin is the theological term for the inherited sin that we all share. Because of original sin, we all have a fallen human nature that leaves us predisposed to sin. We are dead in our trespasses until we are made alive in Christ. Romans 5:12 states, “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people because all sinned.”

This doctrine of original sin was developed over time in the early years of the church. Augustine describes it as being caused by ‘hurtful desire’ (or concupiscence) that is part of human nature. Because of this desire, we are incapable of not sinning. We have to sin. (Augustine also believed this was passed through the generations literally through the reproductive act – which is why Jesus was born without this fallen nature.) 

In addition to original sin, there is also imputed sin. This means that the guilt of Adam’s sin is imputed to us. Meaning, we all have sinned in God’s sight because of the sin of Adam. In court, God would judge us the same as Adam regardless of our personal actions. 

The doctrine of original sin was really fleshed out in response to Pelagianism. This view “holds that the fall did not taint human nature and that humans by divine grace have free will to achieve human perfection. Pelagius (c. 355 – c. 420 AD), an ascetic and philosopher from the British Isles, taught that God could not command believers to do the impossible, and therefore it must be possible to satisfy all divine commandments. He also taught that it was unjust to punish one person for the sins of another; therefore, infants are born blameless.”

My response to Pelagius would be that his understanding of justice seems to be just that: his. God states that he would punish those who sinned to the third and fourth generation (Deut. 5:9), aka he does punish one person for the sins of another. And, on Jesus was placed the sin of the whole world. The whole Christian faith is based on the fact that God punished one person for the sins of another. 

We do have a fallen nature, but that doesn’t mean that it is impossible to follow God’s commandments. This is what the work of salvation is. Through the power of the Holy Spirit (and imperfectly done through the law before that), people were able to live righteous lives despite the stranglehold of sin. Through the Spirit, we can step outside the effects of sin and walk into freedom. 

This is done in one of two ways according to various doctrines of the church. Some believe that (1) humans are totally corrupt. The depravity of mankind can only be fixed in the redeemed state of the kingdom. Baptism shows an outward commitment to Christ, but original sin persists. Others (like the Catholic Church) believe that (2) with baptism, original sin is erased. We have the capability to be sinless because of the work of the Spirit and the sacrament of baptism. In your study of Hamartiology, you have to decide if you believe that original sin is perpetuated in this life now.

Modern theologians are increasingly rejecting original sin, choosing instead to believe that it is a choice of each person whether they would follow God or not. I don’t see how this view lines up with scripture. They also emphasize human free will as an explanation for why there is sin in the world. But, if free will leads to sin, then wouldn’t that just support the fact that people are bent toward sin and evil without God? That fact would support the existence of original sin.

Hamartiology Question #3: Who is Satan? 

So far, we’ve looked at a general view of evil in our discussion of Hamartiology. Then, we turned to a more individual view as we looked at the doctrine of sin. Finally, we have to look at the supernatural aspects of Hamartiology. Is there a spiritual battle between good and evil happening now? The answer is yes.

In our podcast on Angelology, we covered the basics of Fallen Angels. The existence of Fallen Angels is summed up in Jude 1:6 when it says, “And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their proper dwelling—these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day.”

Fallen Angels are those who tried to ‘step outside their lane’ and exist in ways they were not supposed to. Much like the fall of man, the fall of angels occurred when angels chose to be their own gods and pursue something not was not ordained for them. 

As I mentioned before when we looked at angels more broadly, we don’t necessarily know all there is to know about Satan and his origins. The Bible is a book about God and his relationship with his chosen people. We only know what is revealed in the Bible about Satan, and much of that has to do with his interactions with people. 

So, who is Satan? Satan is the leader of the Fallen Angels. In other places, he is referred to as the ruler or god of this world (2 Cor. 4:4, John 12:31) and prince of the power of the air (Eph. 2:2). Isaiah 14:12-14 and Ezekiel 28:11-19 give some backstory to the origins of Satan. In these verses, there is someone who is beautiful, but their pride leads them to be cast out of heaven. 

This story is then reiterated in Revelation 12:4 & 9 where it says, “Its tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth so that it might devour her child the moment he was born. The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.”

According to this passage in Revelation, the ancient serpent is the devil. It is harkening back to the story of the Garden of Eden which we have already read. The serpent deceived Eve and really never stopped deceiving. Throughout the Bible, Satan, a name that means adversary or accuser in Hebrew, is referred to as Lucifer (morning star), the Prince of Darkness or Beelzebub, and Father of Lies. The name devil is the Greek equivalent of Satan meaning adversary, accuser, or slanderer. 

Satan does not really appear in the Old Testament except for a notable feature in Job and a few other passages like 1 Chron. 21:1. The Hebraic idea of Satan was a being subordinate to God who existed to test the loyalty of God’s followers. There was a lot of development in the understanding of Satan occurred in the intertestamental period. The New Testament shows this development in the fact that Satan features a much more prominent role. 

Still, the role of Satan has been the same since the beginning of time. In the gospels, Satan tempts Jesus with promises of food, power, and invincibility. In all of the parables of Jesus, Satan or the enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy the message of the kingdom. The purpose of Satan is to choke out the fruit of the loyal followers of God by nurturing doubt and tempting them into sin and disobedience. 

In our understanding of Hamartiology, we have to clarify how Satan, sin, and evil work. God permits or allows evil up to a certain extent. He never causes it. Sin is the active choice of a person to disobey God and break his laws. No one but yourself is responsible for that sin. Satan attempts to lead you astray through deception and temptation. Satan doesn’t make you sin. He’s working to get you (and everyone else) to sin, but ultimately, the responsibility for sin is your own.

In the gospels and epistles, there is much instruction given about the devil. The following is just a snippet of many more verses that talk about how we should stand guard against the devil. The end all be all of Hamartiology is that we must stand guard against sin and evil and flee it. We have to always be actively choosing God and righteousness.

• 1 Peter 5:8 – Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
• 1 John 3:8 – Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.
• John 8:44 – You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
• 2 Corinthians 4:4 – In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
• 2 Corinthians 11:3 – But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.
• Ephesians 6:11 – Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.
• John 10:10 ESV – The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

These verses describe how we have two different choices of leaders in this life. We can follow after the god of this world and choose our fleshly desires, or we can choose to follow after the prince of peace, Christ. Those who choose the devil are choosing to blind their eyes to the truth. They are led astray by him and devoured by him. 

Importantly, one of the main purposes of Christ was to fight against the devil and ultimately defeat him. We are living in the already but not yet. Christ is victorious, but Satan has not yet been crushed. Romans 16:20 says, “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.” That is our hope for the future. 

My Personal Statement of Faith: Hamartiology 

Evil exists in the world because of various reasons. We can grow closer to God through suffering, build our testimony through suffering, and trust in the future hope of redemption in the Kingdom when evil is completely destroyed. We don’t know all the reasons that suffering exists now, but we can trust God despite this. We do know why evil exists in our hearts. In the beginning, sin entered the world in the Garden of Eden. Every subsequent generation has borne the effects of that sin. One of the roles of Christ was to give us a way to redeem ourselves from sin through the Holy Spirit. Through the Spirit, we are conformed back to the original image of God we once had. Satan tries to thwart this through deceiving and accusing. Ultimately, Satan will be crushed by Christ in the last days. 

What do you think about Hamartiology?

Here are some questions to get you thinking about your understanding of the doctrine of Hamartiology: 

1. How can evil exist in a world created by a good God? 
2. What is sin? 
3. How did sin enter the world? 
4. Why are humans sinful today? Does original, imputed sin exist? 
5. Who is Satan, and what is his purpose? 

I hope these questions have got you thinking more deeply about what you believe about God and the purpose of Christ. Next week, we are going to be talking about 5 ways to create a life you love now. Then, in two weeks, we’ll be looking at our next core doctrine: Christology, or the doctrine of Christ. 

If you’ve enjoyed what we’ve been talking about today, be sure to check out our “Building Your Foundations” Workbook. This 11-week study guide will help you dive deeper into what you believe. You can also get our Create Your Own Personal Statement of Faith workbook among other resources at our shop. 

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Until next time, keep creating a life you love and cultivating your heart for God.