What is the New Theology Part 5: Sin: Is It Choice or Nature?
The New Theology teaches that the primary problem that the gospel is meant to deal with is not human choice but human nature. “Sin” is made firstly a matter of our nature. For example, one way this is sometimes said is that, “You are not a sinner because you sin; you sin because you are a sinner.” The problem, according to the New Theology, is not what we end with, but what we begin with. The character at last developed in one’s life, here stands the least in significance, the equipment we are born with, concerning which we have exercised no personal will, is made most significant. Built into the core of the New Theology is an antipathy to issues concerning freewill, and an exalting of the significance of aspects of the human situation concerning which we can do nothing. In sharp contrast, the messenger of the Lord says, Pure religion has to do with the will. The will is the governing power in the nature of man, bringing all the other faculties under its sway. The will is not the taste
