INHERITED GUILT?

I feel a bit intimidated by my choice of preaching passages for this coming Sunday, Romans 5:12-17.

The first part of that passage goes like this:

12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, so also death was passed on to all men, because all sinned. 13 For sin was in the world before the law was given; but sin is not taken into account when there is no law. 14 Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who did not sin in the way that Adam transgressed. He is a pattern of the One to come.

This gets us into the territory of "inherited guilt" and "sin nature" and "original sin". And it gets complicated because - like other theological terms - these get defined in different ways by different people. 

From what I can tell, a lot of theologians today hold beliefs shaped by Augustine of Hippo from way back when. (He lived from 354 to 430.) 

And Augustine's beliefs were shaped (or rather, misshaped) by the faulty Latin translation on which he depended for his reading of Romans 5:12. His Bible had verse 12 ending with "in him (meaning "in Adam") all sinned" instead of "because all sinned". 

And to this day you will hear preachers say that all of humanity was "in Adam's loins" when he sinned and so we all participated in that sin and so we all deserve God's punishment of sin, i.e. death. 

You will hear talk of "inherited guilt" as well, that "we all enter the world guilty before God" as Richard Phillips confidently asserts over on the The Gospel Coalition website. 

An opposing commenter says that the phrase "inherited guilt" makes as much sense as a "square circle" - and I am inclined to agree. 

Think about it: what sort of mechanism leaves you legitimately guilty for someone else's action? What sort of crazy world did God create ... or allow ... or predetermine (!) if every infant is born as guilty before God?

And thus deserving of the punishment of death?

So what made this idea of "inherited guilt" appealing to Augustine and others through the centuries? 

I think it caught on because it provided an answer (albeit a wrong answer) to a very good question raised by Romans 5:14 (see above): Why did humans from Adam to Moses die if there was no Law and thus no law-breaking to deserve the punishment of sin? 

Also, to be blunt, why do babies die if they have not sinned and have no guilt before God?

(I plan to wrestle with that subject tomorrow.)