JW notion of sin and perfection is no different from Christendon's view. A
person may sometimes get swelling on his leg and may have limped a few
times—but he is never called lame. Similarly, a person may at times slip into
selfishness and use his free-will to his own harm or to the harm of others—but
this does not make him a sinner because the ability to perform virtuous acts
also exists in him. If one’s occasional sinning does not make him a sinner, sin
of another person such as his parents (immediate or distant) can also never
make him a sinner.
But an
insightful one would not agree because he finds an avalanche of proofs against
this. We find variety of people acting/reacting differently in same situation: Some
do more righteous acts, some do more sinful acts, and others mix them in varying degrees, one-time sinners changing
into saints, one-time saints changing into sinners, some very poor people who
refuse to steal, and some very wealthy people who steal in various ways… etc. This
shows people choose to act the way they like which means they are not sinners
from birth—resulting in all sorts of people from sinless to the sinful
ones. Interestingly,
even Bible makes many references to some sinless persons who lived in the
ancient times (Genesis 5:24; Job 1:8; Psalm 18:23; Ezekiel 14:14; Luke 1:6
…etc.) and human capacity to perform righteousness. (Habakkuk 2:4; Hebrews
10:38).
If we are not sinners
from birth, when does sin arise?
Our experience shows that beliefs and attitudes are linked. For example,
if one truly believes in the principle “one reaps what he sows”, he would not
display a casual attitude towards life, but he would think before acting and be
alert to do good to others and to avoid doing harm to others as far as possible.
That means from beliefs, attitudes are formed; and from attitudes, thoughts are
formed; from thoughts, action is produced; from repeated action, tendency and habit are produced which
in turn determine one’s destiny. For example, a person steals for first time and
he was not caught; then he goes on repeating it and a tendency to steal comes
into existence. Similarly, a person chooses to give joy to others and stop
giving sorrow to others, and he reaps accordingly which in turn makes him repeat
the same and a tendency to do good comes into existence.
