Sin is an unpopular subject. However, God has put the word sin (sin, sins, sinner, sinners) in the bible some 642 times. From these numbers it is obvious God is concerned about sin.

I would like to attempt answering the following questions about sin.

1. What is sin?
2. Is there more then one type of sin?
3. Are there different consequences for different types of sins?
4. What is the punishment for sin?
5. Can sins be forgiven?

We must look in the Bible for the answers to these questions. Only in the Bible can we find the truth. In Romans3:4 ” let God be true, but every man a liar”

The first indication we find in the Bible of what a sin might be and what the penalty is for committing a sin is in the book of Genesis the second chapter. God tells Adam that he may eat of all the trees in the garden except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen 2:16-17). This is the first indication of God giving any type of command to man. Some time after God gave his first command to man, we find man disobeying that command.

Adam was in the garden with his wife. The serpent playing off the pride of the woman (a picture of the pride of all mankind) convinced her to eat of the tree, and the woman gave some to her husband. They knew they had sinned and attempted to hide themselves from the LORD (Gen 3:1-8).

Form the above example we can see several things that will help us understand sin.

1. God gave Adam a command.
2. When God gave the command He said, “for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”
3. Adam disobeyed that command.
4. Adam did not immediately die physically; he lived to be 930 years old (Gen 5:5).

Are we to believe that God lied to Adam when he said, “For in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die”? God forbid, Adam and Eve died immediately, but not death as we usually think of it. The immediate death was their relationship with God, a spiritual death. (a subject for another time) The Bible speaks of three types of death.

1. Death as we know it; death of the flesh.
2. Spiritual death; caused by Adam and suffered by all mankind.
3. The second death, hell, eternal damnation, or eternal torment.

Can we be certain that what Adam did was sin? We can look in Romans chapter 5, verses 12-14. Here we read that sin came into the world by one man (Adam) and has continued to reign since that day.

In the above example, Adam disobeyed God’s command by action. However, God tells us, we can sin by what we think as well. In Matthew chapter 5 we read “That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.” (Mat 5:27-28)

Although the verses mentioned above do not say thought per se, the meaning is clear. God, many times uses the word heart to depict what we might call the mind, and speaks of the thoughts of the heart. For example in Genesis 6:5 we read: “And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”

Now we have an idea of what sin is. Nevertheless, what about types of sin, or degrees of sin? Early church fathers wrote extensively on the subject of sin, and taught that there are mortal, and vienial sins. However, these writings are not baked up by biblical truth, but rather church doctrine; which is at odds with the Bible in many cases.

The Bible teaches that all sin is the same to God. We see this in verses that speak of what seem to us to be a minor infraction of God’s law; yet hold the same punishment as what we might perceive a more grievous sin. We read a story of a man who broke the forth commandment by picking up a few sticks on the Sabbath day. For what we may see as a minor infraction of God’s law, the LORD commanded that Moses have the congregation stone the man to death (Num 15:32-36).

Another example of God treating all sin the same comes out of Deuteronomy. The Fifth commandment is: Honor thy father and thy mother (Exo 20:12 ). We have to admit that our children break this commandment quite frequently. Many parents have children that are thieves, drug addicts, and worse. What does God direct us to do with a stubborn and rebellious child? “And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones, that he die: so shalt thou put evil away from among you; and all Israel shall hear, and fear” (Deu 21:18 – 21). Again, God is telling us that what we might perceive as a minor infraction of the rules is a grievous act of rebellion against His law.

God also tells us in James 2:10-11:

For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For he that said, do not commit adultery, said also, do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law.

The above verses tell us that if we break any of God’s laws, it is the same to God no matter which of His laws we break.

God does however differentiate between sins, but only as to what sins may be forgiven vs what sins are not forgiven. In Matthew 12:21 God tells us that all sins can be forgiven except for the sin of blasphemy against the Holy Sprit.
Therefore, by now, what sin is, and how God looks at sin (note I said how GOD looks at sin; not how man would like God to look at sin) has been fairly well explained for a short study.

However, what about the punishment for sin? This too should be apparent from the scriptures offered. The punishment for sin is death. We read in Roman “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Ultimately, if not saved by the faith of Jesus Christ (a subject for deeper study) we will go to hell. We find these words in Romans 5:19:

“For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous”.

When we are saved, we want to follow the commands of God. James 1:12 “Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. Those that love God follow his commands. John 14:15: If ye love me, keep my commandments.

May God Bless You.

There have been many findings demonstrating that Homo sapiens dates back even earlier than 800,000 years. One of them is a discovery by Louis Leakey in the early 1970s in Olduvai Gorge. Here, in the Bed II layer, Leakey discovered that Australopithecus, Homo habilis and Homo erectus species had co-existed at the same time. What is even more interesting was a structure Leakey found in the same layer (Bed II). Here, he found the remains of a stone hut. The unusual aspect of the event was that this construction, which is still used in some parts of Africa, could only have been built by Homo sapiens! So, according to Leakey’s findings, Australopithecus, Homo habilis, Homo erectus and modern man must have co-existed approximately 1.7 million years ago.219 This discovery must surely invalidate the evolutionary theory that claims that modern man evolved from ape-like species such as Australopithecus.

Indeed, some other discoveries trace the origins of modern man back to 1.7 million years ago. One of these important finds is the footprints found in Laetoli, Tanzania, by Mary Leakey in 1977. These footprints were found in a layer that was calculated to be 3.6 million years old, and more importantly, they were no different from the footprints that a contemporary man would leave.

3.6-million-year-old human footprints in Laetoli, in Tanzania.

The footprints found by Mary Leakey were later examined by a number of famous paleoanthropologists, such as Donald Johanson and Tim White. The results were the same. White wrote:

Make no mistake about it,… They are like modern human footprints. If one were left in the sand of a California beach today, and a four-year old were asked what it was, he would instantly say that somebody had walked there. He wouldn’t be able to tell it from a hundred other prints on the beach, nor would you.220

After examining the footprints, Louis Robbins from the University of North Carolina made the following comments:

The arch is raised – the smaller individual had a higher arch than I do – and the big toe is large and aligned with the second toe … The toes grip the ground like human toes. You do not see this in other animal forms.221

AL 666-1: A 2.3-MILLION-YEAR-OLD HUMAN JAW Fossil AL 666-1 was found in Hadar in Ethiopia, together with A. afarensis fossils. This 2.3-million-year-old jaw bone had features identical to those of Homo sapiens. AL 666-1 resembled neither the A. afarensis jawbones that were found with it, nor a 1.75-million-year-old Homo habilis jaw. The jaws of these two species, with their narrow and rectangular shapes, resembled those of present-day apes. Although there is no doubt that AL 666-1 belonged to a “Homo” (human) species, evolutionary paleontologists do not accept this fact. They refrain from making any comment on this, because the jaw is calculated to be 2.3 million years old-in other words, much older than the age they allow for the Homo, or human, race. The AL 666-1, 2.3-million-year-old Homo sapiens (human) jaw. Side view of AL 666-1 AL 222-1 fossil, an A. afarensis jaw from the same period as AL 666-1. AL 222-1- a side view. The side views of the two jaws make the difference between the two fossils clearer. The AL 222-1 jaw protrudes forwards. This is an ape-like feature. But the AL 666-1 jaw on the top is a completely human one.

Examinations of the morphological form of the footprints showed time and again that they had to be accepted as the prints of a human, and moreover, a modern human (Homo sapiens). Russell Tuttle, who also examined the footprints, wrote:

A small barefoot Homo sapiens could have made them… In all discernible morphological features, the feet of the individuals that made the trails are indistinguishable from those of modern humans.222

Impartial examinations of the footprints revealed their real owners. In reality, these footprints consisted of 20 fossilized footprints of a 10-year-old modern human and 27 footprints of an even younger one. They were certainly modern people like us.

SKELETAL VARIATION AMONG ODERN HUMAN RACES Evolutionary paleontologists portray different Homo erectus, Homo sapiens neanderthalensis, and archaic Homo sapiens human fossils as indicating different species or subspecies on the evolutionary path. They base this on the differences between these fossil skulls. However, these differences actually consist of variations among different human races that have existed, some of which have become extinct or have been assimilated. These differences have grown less pronounced as human races have intermixed over time. Despite this, quite striking differences can still be observed between human races living today. The skulls in these pages, all belonging to modern human beings (Homo sapiens sapiens), are all examples of these differences. To show similar structural differences between races that lived in the past as evidence for evolution is quite simply bias. Native Peruvian from the fifteenth century. Middle-aged Bengali. Male from the Solomon Islands (Melanesia) who died in 1893. German male aged 25-30. Male Congolese aged 35-40. Male Inuit aged 35-40.

This situation put the Laetoli footprints at the center of discussions for years. Evolutionary paleoanthropologists desperately tried to come up with an explanation, as it was hard for them to accept the fact that a modern man had been walking on the earth 3.6 million years ago. During the 1990s, the following “explanation” started to take shape: The evolutionists decided that these footprints must have been left by an Australopithecus, because according to their theory, it was impossible for a Homo species to have existed 3.6 million years ago. However, Russell H. Tuttle wrote the following in an article in 1990:

In sum, the 3.5-million-year-old footprint traits at Laetoli site G resemble those of habitually unshod modern humans. None of their features suggest that the Laetoli hominids were less capable bipeds than we are. If the G footprints were not known to be so old, we would readily conclude that there had been made by a member of our genus, Homo… In any case, we should shelve the loose assumption that the Laetoli footprints were made by Lucy’s kind, Australopithecus afarensis.223

To put it briefly, these footprints that were supposed to be 3.6 million years old could not have belonged to Australopithecus. The only reason why the footprints were thought to have been left by members of Australopithecus was the 3.6-million-year-old volcanic layer in which the footprints were found. The prints were ascribed to Australopithecus purely on the assumption that humans could not have lived so long ago.

These interpretations of the Laetoli footprints demonstrate one important fact. Evolutionists support their theory not based on scientific findings, but in spite of them. Here we have a theory that is blindly defended no matter what, with all new findings that cast the theory into doubt being either ignored or distorted to support the theory.

Briefly, the theory of evolution is not science, but a dogma kept alive despite science.

http://www.darwinismrefuted.com/origin_of_man_11.html

219 A. J. Kelso, Physical Anthropology, 1.b., 1970, ss. 221; M.D. Leakey, Olduvai Gorge, volume 3, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1971, s. 272
220 Donald C. Johanson & M. A. Edey, Lucy, The Beginnings of Humankind, Simon & Schuster, New York, 1981, p. 250. (emphasis added)
221 “The Leakey Footprints: An Uncertain Path,” Science News, vol. 115, 1979, p. 196.
222 Ian Anderson, “Who made the Laetoli footprints?” New Scientist, vol. 98, 12 May 1983, p. 373. (emphasis added)
223 Russell H. Tuttle, “The Pitted Pattern of Laetoli Feet,” Natural History, vol. 99, March 1990, p. 64. (emphasis added)

This is a hotly debate topic that needs more then ever to be settled. Let me start with saying that I being a male ,love our counter parts in this life and where would the world be with out women?

I hold no hostility toward women and believe that The Word teaches that we are co equal in Christ.

Can a woman hold a leadership position in the church biblical?

We all have our own opinions on this and I have heard some very good arguments about this,but what does the Bible teach? Because after all if your not letting The Inerrant Word of God lead you thru life, your only a ship wreak in the making.(I hope you do believe that His Word is ALL Truth ….)

The Apostle Paul moved by The Holy Spirit wrote of how to conduct ourselves in the Church in many epistles one of them being his letter to Timothy. The problems that were cropping up in the infant church were being address…

In chapter 2 of 1 Timothy we find one such problem:

1Tim 2:12-14 But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression

I believe this to be in the context of “how to conduct public worship(church)” and the next chapter is still talking about the qualifying of bishops, deacons, ect..

The word authority (authenteo)is a most different, but telling word.”one acting by his own authority or power.- to use or exercise authority over as an autocrat, to domineer.”The antonym is to be a subordinate. (Spiros Zodhiates TH.D. Wordstudy. Dr. Vine Expository Dictionary )

In Greek: authenteo contracted from authentes ,murder, absolute master, which is from autos, himself, and entea which is arms, armor. A self-appointed killer with ones own hand. Hence one acting by his own authority or power.

Someone who takes his own life is standing in the place that is Gods. He is the giver and taker of life not ourselves, and if by man, then strict guidelines are given for man to follow.

Someone, man or woman, that stands up to teach, preach, or became a deacon that has not Gods leading is one who stands by their OWN AUTHORITY. This is the meaning of the word authority. God calls those whom He chooses,not whom man likes.( Remember David being selected over all his brothers that were more pleasing to the eye?)

Paul says I will not suffer (allow)a woman to teach nor to usurp authenteo over the man.(by the way the word usurp is the same as the word authority given above) This is about plain as it But we are co equal,but have differant places (jobs ) and works for Christ.

Why is this?

Paul thru the Holy Spirit address that in the next verses:

1Tim 2:13 For Adam was first formed, then Eve.

V.14 And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.

Adam walk into sin seeing and knowing what the fruits would be, but Eve was just flat out deceived.Women are not still being punished for Eves sin as its all under the Blood now.

But it shows that the woman can be deceived easier than the man. This in no way makes her less than the man, but being different is given a place of honor too. Just as honorable as the mans, but different, as there are differences in the man and woman.

– We are not the same we are differant as stated in the creation story of Gen

–The reason they cannot (the women) is stated as they “were deceived” and “Adam was formed 1st” (this is Gods doing not mans)

For a better explanation of this Kingdom of God vs. Women Preachersby aymon de albatrus.He does a much better job of laying out before you to see,if you are reallu seeking truth.

What about Deborah and the other prophetess of the Bible, did not they teach and preach too?
No you must not read into the account of Deborah more than what is there.It was Barak ,not Debroah that is listed in the “hall of Faith” in the book of Hebrews .Seems to me that if she had done as some modernists think and claim she did ,she would have made the list too.This is not a slam at Deborah whom is mention and honor by God in His book for being a light in dark times.

What does church history tell us of women preachers?
Hereticks?Troubles?
Most of the cults have had a woman leader and founder.