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Heidelberg Catechism, Question 7

Question 7

Whence then proceeds this depravity of human nature?

From the fall and disobedience of our first parents, Adam and Eve, in Paradise (Rom. 5;12); hence our nature is become so corrupt, that we are all conceived and born in sin (John 3;6).

Scripture references for paragraph 1

Berean Standard Bible. Public domain text and source credits.

Romans 5:12

12Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, so also death was passed on to all men, because all sinned.

1 Corinthians 15:22

22For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.

Matthew 7:18

18A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.

Genesis 3:1-6

1Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field that the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden?’”

2The woman answered the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden,

3but about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You must not eat of it or touch it, or you will die.’”

4“You will not surely die,” the serpent told her.

5“For God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

6When the woman saw that the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eyes, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom, she took the fruit and ate it. She also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate it.

John 3:6

6Flesh is born of flesh, but spirit is born of the Spirit.

Psalms 51:5

5Surely I was brought forth in iniquity; I was sinful when my mother conceived me.

Psalms 53:1

1The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt; their ways are vile. There is no one who does good.

Romans 3:9-12

9What then? Are we any better? Not at all. For we have already made the charge that Jews and Greeks alike are all under sin.

10As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one.

11There is no one who understands, no one who seeks God.

12All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.”

Job 14:4

4Who can bring out clean from unclean? No one!

Genesis 8:21

21When the LORD smelled the pleasing aroma, He said in His heart, “Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from his youth. And never again will I destroy all living creatures as I have done.

Source and edition

Heidelberg Catechism. RCA English, E. R. Good & Bro., Tiffin, 1879. RCA English, E. R. Good & Bro., Tiffin, 1879

Public Domain (historic text); CC BY-SA 4.0 (Wikisource transcription). Source transcription.

Transcription licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0.

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