Do Dogs Have Sin Natures?
I am trying to get more readers for this blog, and I thought that heading might bring in some viewers.
Bloggers either have to have a theme (mine is vague) or a big name (not me) or provocative posts.
Maybe the first question is whether people have sin natures?
In some respects, that is one of the most evidence-based theological concepts. Even people raised in the best of circumstances do terribly things (Hitler was from a middle-class family with a loving and indulgent mother). Babies start rebelling against authority pretty early. On the other hand, a lot of what we call sin is not sin, and I think people should feel a real sense of their own personal sinfulness for conversion, not just a general, ethereal "we're all sinners whether we feel like it or not" belief. It's too easy to pass them one off.
But traditional Christian theology says we are all born in sin and will transgress God in real life eventually, given the time.
So what does this have to do with dogs?
I asked my husband this question the other day because our dogs love to be given an inch and take a mile. If I let Nala the pit bull up on the bed when I am reading (she loves to be there with me!) I want her to stay on a blanket, not my good quilt I spent long, long hours making. And she will get on the blanket, almost all of her. She puts her head on the quilt, and not because of lack of room. She also will give me a coy look as if to say, "You're not going to forbid me to get on this quilt after all, are you? Look at how cute I am."
My husband said that since in the fall of man the natural world was affected, that means dogs. I refer to Romans 8:19 and following: The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. 22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.
I am, of course, kidding about the dogs having sin natures. They are dogs. We anthropomorphize them, attributing human behavior, personality, and wills to them when they are just being dogs, and any of their cute behaviors we find so fascinating just comes from their being conditioned from being around people. My dogs do very little but sleep, eat, fart, defecate, walk with me, bark at random noises, beg for more food, chew on bones, and play a continual game of "I've got your Nylar bone and I'm taking it away from you."
But I am not kidding about the physical world. If the physical world is subject to frustration and is waiting for redemption, does that mean we take care of it or let it continue to suffer? I don't think Genesis 2 was ever rescinded, for us to use our dominion for stewardship of the earth, not exploitation.
Bloggers either have to have a theme (mine is vague) or a big name (not me) or provocative posts.
Maybe the first question is whether people have sin natures?
In some respects, that is one of the most evidence-based theological concepts. Even people raised in the best of circumstances do terribly things (Hitler was from a middle-class family with a loving and indulgent mother). Babies start rebelling against authority pretty early. On the other hand, a lot of what we call sin is not sin, and I think people should feel a real sense of their own personal sinfulness for conversion, not just a general, ethereal "we're all sinners whether we feel like it or not" belief. It's too easy to pass them one off.
But traditional Christian theology says we are all born in sin and will transgress God in real life eventually, given the time.
So what does this have to do with dogs?
I asked my husband this question the other day because our dogs love to be given an inch and take a mile. If I let Nala the pit bull up on the bed when I am reading (she loves to be there with me!) I want her to stay on a blanket, not my good quilt I spent long, long hours making. And she will get on the blanket, almost all of her. She puts her head on the quilt, and not because of lack of room. She also will give me a coy look as if to say, "You're not going to forbid me to get on this quilt after all, are you? Look at how cute I am."
My husband said that since in the fall of man the natural world was affected, that means dogs. I refer to Romans 8:19 and following: The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. 22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.
I am, of course, kidding about the dogs having sin natures. They are dogs. We anthropomorphize them, attributing human behavior, personality, and wills to them when they are just being dogs, and any of their cute behaviors we find so fascinating just comes from their being conditioned from being around people. My dogs do very little but sleep, eat, fart, defecate, walk with me, bark at random noises, beg for more food, chew on bones, and play a continual game of "I've got your Nylar bone and I'm taking it away from you."
But I am not kidding about the physical world. If the physical world is subject to frustration and is waiting for redemption, does that mean we take care of it or let it continue to suffer? I don't think Genesis 2 was ever rescinded, for us to use our dominion for stewardship of the earth, not exploitation.
Comments