Summer Bible Institute # 2 - Humanity and Sin

The second topic of our "Basic Theology" course for the Summer Bible Institute is the Bible's teaching on nature of Humanity. Theologians call this subject "Anthropology" which comes from the Greek word for human.

Unlike the secular discipline called "Anthropology" the Bible's teaching is much more full. The reason is that the secular study only deals with the nature of human beings in the various cultures of this world, while the Bible deals with human nature in at least four states of existence:

• The human before sin entered the life and environment - we might call this human nature in its original holiness.
• The human in the present state of sin -- this can be subdivided into two categories: Humans under the domination of sin (the lost) and humans under the reign of grace (the saved).
• The human between death and resurrection - this is called 'the intermediate state.'
• The redeemed human in the eternal state - we might call this, human nature in confirmed holiness.

The readings I have chosen for this week focus on the nature of sin in the human being. Again I have chosen readings that are relatively easy, moderately difficult, and very difficult.

Relatively Easy: Chapters Five and Six from Basic Christianity by John Stott on "The Fact and Nature of Sin" and "The Consequences of Sin."

Somewhat Difficult: Chapter 29, "The Magnitude of Sin," from Christian Theology by Millard Erikson

Downright Difficult: Systematic Theology by Louis Berkof; "Man in the State of Sin: Chapter 4-Sin in the Life of the Human Race."