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Biblical Basis of Original Sin Extensively
John Murray

John Murray (1898–1975). Born on October 14, 1898, in Badbea, Scotland, John Murray was a Presbyterian theologian and preacher renowned for his Reformed theology. Raised in a devout Free Presbyterian home, he served in World War I with the Black Watch, losing an eye at Arras in 1917. He studied at the University of Glasgow (MA, 1923) and Princeton Theological Seminary (ThB, ThM, 1927), later earning a ThM from New College, Edinburgh. Ordained in 1927, he briefly ministered in Scotland before joining Princeton’s faculty in 1929, then Westminster Theological Seminary in 1930, where he taught systematic theology until 1966. His preaching, marked by precision and reverence, was secondary to his scholarship, though he pastored congregations like First Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. Murray authored Redemption Accomplished and Applied and The Imputation of Adam’s Sin, shaping Reformed thought with clarity on justification and covenant theology. Married to Valerie Knowlton in 1937, he had no children and retired to Scotland, dying on May 8, 1975, in Dornoch. He said, “The fear of God is the soul of godliness.”
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In this sermon, the preacher begins by discussing the universal sinfulness of humanity. He quotes various passages from the Bible, such as Romans 3:23 and Ecclesiastes 7:20, to support his claim that all people have sinned and fallen short of God's glory. The preacher emphasizes that the heart of man is inherently evil and deceitful, and that this is the root of human sinfulness. He concludes by highlighting the need for repentance and the cleansing of the heart through prayer, referencing Psalm 51:10.
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Oh Lord our God, we are not worthy to take Thy name into our lips because of the defilement that characterizes us. He wants us out and open for sin and for uncleanness. The last hour of all types of variety, one time and another. There are various influences that are exerted by God. Cultivation and God places restraint on the exercise. Salutary influences emanating from the institutions which God has established in the world. Placing of men, the sinfulness of men on the same level, for heinous and the same, endless people, sin itself belongs to total depravity. This depravity, natural law, it is kūrpa and it is kena. These terms I define a very original sin or depravity. It is natural law, it is kūrpa and it is kena. And I always stand in the fact that the members of the human race did not come to force this by an act of voluntary decision on their part. That is to say, we were involved in this original sin because of the original sin. But the criteria for me, we were kūrpa, original sin to the fullest extent. Even though we are pūṣṭhas, we were, did not become involved in this voluntary personal choice on our part. Involved in it because of our relationship to Adam in his sanctuary. Because of the solidarity with him. That's my point. The members of the pūṣṭhas in the case, know how I made the point clear to you. Now, why everybody, now that's, see here, and intense meaning, before various, on 8 and 10, 1 John 5, 19, I don't think it's on the intensity, and it was on the evil, Now this very footy of man was great in the earth. The wickedness, the wickedness of every, you have the inwardness. And what, what is in view in this instance, is the way in which that these two texts, you have this most unusual combination of terms, every imagination of the thoughts of Isāra. Now in terms of morally, of manliness, clean heart, indiscriminate, and analysis, is almost unprecedented in the whole, but here as far as, but against the thoughts of Isāra. And not simply against the thoughts of Isāra, but against every imagination of the thoughts of Isāra. And imagination there, he said, imagination referred to the most original and fundamental shaping of thought. The most elemental shaping of thought. And there could be no deeper analysis of that which is determinative in the, in the personality of man. And this particular expression, which you have here in Genesis 6, 5, and shows that whenever any movement, any movement whatsoever, belongs to the moral and religious realm, which is capable of moral and religious predication, every movement belonging to that category, moral and religious predication, is evil from its very inception. The thought is not that man's thoughts, all man's thoughts, become defiled in the course of their onward movement, but that man's thoughts, man's thoughts are evil, that is defiled from the very start. Now what I'm simply trying to impress upon you is the penetrating analysis by the use of the very unusual expression, imagination of the thoughts of Isāra. The imagination of the thoughts of Isāra was only evil, only evil, but the evil imagination, or the certain imagination, that there is no other category of moral and religious predication to which the imagination of the thoughts of man's heart belong. The thoughts of man's heart belong. Only evil. Then five, you have the constant, one, only evil continually, and then six, and finally, you have the innateness of this. We come this way by association, by imagination of the evil punished youth. My mother conceived all of these things. Now here we begin, Psalm 51, 5. One avenue of escape, not one avenue of escape, but these three texts in themselves witness to the totality of human decursion. Absolutely no escape. Hemmed in at every conceivable, what might be any conceivable loophole. Genesis 8, 21, coming after the flood, is the witness to the fact this was not a feature of the period before the flood. Genesis 8, 21, this is what you find, that this is a near-remediable condition, and consequently, this is a near-remediable condition, and consequently, no external catastrophe can remedy it. No external catastrophe will eliminate the radical sin of the human heart. And if God is going to deal with it, savingly, He must use entirely different method. He will not, again, create these laws. Romans 3, 9 through 23. Now you will remember that the Apostle Paul, enumerating the end, in the earlier verse, I say, enumerating the end time, is leading up to the whole world, is brought in gifted before God, that all have such dealing with the universe. All understand the secret after God. There is no fear. Now, surely, there are no more relevant criteria There are no more relevant criteria than what is true of fear. Intellect, at least to that, or native intellect, and fearing, percepture, that which is the beginning of knowledge and the beginning of wisdom. The fear of God. None that understand it, no, not even one, there is none less secret than to God. There is no fear of God. Don't be afraid. Determinate it. It will come. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Peace. Their mouth, their mouth is full of ways and feet. And Romans 8, 5 through 9. In the Ephesians 2, The nature of children, by nature, is born of the flesh, is born of the flesh. He means, human nature, indwelt, actuated, and controlled by sin. Indwelt. Inevitably flesh. No forces. They who are Indians, that's no human being. No human being is, natively, statement, or in the flesh, exclusion. Those who are Indians, is flesh. They that are in that term, thought, are governed by the flesh. Means, able to be, again positive. They are at enmity. Enmity, is enmity against God. Not even simply, that the mind of sinfulness, is enmity. It is not simply, that men are enemies. Man is at enmity.
Biblical Basis of Original Sin Extensively
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John Murray (1898–1975). Born on October 14, 1898, in Badbea, Scotland, John Murray was a Presbyterian theologian and preacher renowned for his Reformed theology. Raised in a devout Free Presbyterian home, he served in World War I with the Black Watch, losing an eye at Arras in 1917. He studied at the University of Glasgow (MA, 1923) and Princeton Theological Seminary (ThB, ThM, 1927), later earning a ThM from New College, Edinburgh. Ordained in 1927, he briefly ministered in Scotland before joining Princeton’s faculty in 1929, then Westminster Theological Seminary in 1930, where he taught systematic theology until 1966. His preaching, marked by precision and reverence, was secondary to his scholarship, though he pastored congregations like First Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. Murray authored Redemption Accomplished and Applied and The Imputation of Adam’s Sin, shaping Reformed thought with clarity on justification and covenant theology. Married to Valerie Knowlton in 1937, he had no children and retired to Scotland, dying on May 8, 1975, in Dornoch. He said, “The fear of God is the soul of godliness.”