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something purely negative, and is not limited to the sensuous nature of man. At the time of the
Reformation the Socinians followed the Pelagians in the denial of original sin, and in the
seventeenth century the Arminians broke with the Reformed faith, and accepted the Semi-
Pelagian view of original sin. Since that time various shades of opinion were advocated in the
Protestant Churches both in Europe and in America.
2. THE TWO ELEMENTS OF ORIGINAL SIN.
Two elements must be distinguished in original sin,
namely:
a. Original guilt.
The word “guilt” expresses the relation which sin bears to justice or, as the
older theologians put it, to the penalty of the law. He who is guilty stands in a penal relation to
the law. We can speak of guilt in a twofold sense, namely, as reatus culpae and as reatus
poenae. The former, which Turretin calls “potential guilt,” is the intrinsic moral ill-desert of an
act or state. This is of the essence of sin and is an inseparable part of its sinfulness. It attaches
only to those who have themselves committed sinful deeds, and attaches to them permanently.
It cannot be removed by forgiveness, and is not removed by justification on the basis of the
merits of Jesus Christ, and much less by mere pardon. Man’s sins are inherently ill-deserving
even after he is justified. Guilt in this sense cannot be transferred from one person to another.
The usual sense, however, in which we speak of guilt in theology, is that of reatus poenae. By
this is meant desert of punishment, or obligation to render satisfaction to God’s justice for self-
determined violation of the law. Guilt in this sense is not of the essence of sin, but is rather a
relation to the penal sanction of the law. If there had been no sanction attached to the
disregard of moral relations, every departure from the law would have been sin, but would not
have involved liability to punishment. Guilt in this sense may be removed by the satisfaction of
justice, either personally or vicariously. It may be transferred from one person to another, or
assumed by one person for another. It is removed from believers by justification, so that their
sins, though inherently ill-deserving, do not make them liable to punishment. Semi-Pelagians
and the older Arminians or Remonstrants deny that original sin involves guilt. The guilt of
Adam’s sin, committed by him as the federal head of the human race, is imputed to all his
descendants. This is evident from the fact that, as the Bible teaches, death as the punishment
of sin passes on from Adam to all his descendants. Rom. 5:12-19; Eph. 2:3; I Cor. 15:22.
b. Original pollution.
Original pollution includes two things, namely, the absence of original
righteousness, and the presence of positive evil. It should be noted: (1) That original pollution is
not merely a disease, as some of the Greek Fathers and the Arminians represent it, but sin in
the real sense of the word. Guilt attaches to it; he who denies this does not have a Biblical
conception of original corruption. (2) That this pollution is not to be regarded as a substance
infused into the human soul, nor as a change of substance in the metaphysical sense of the