WCF 6.1
Westminster Confession of Faith
6.1. Of the Fall of Man, of Sin, and of the Punishment thereof
Our first parents, being seduced by the subtilty and temptation of Satan, sinned, in eating the forbidden fruit. This their sin God was pleased, according to His wise and holy counsel, to permit, having purposed to order it to His own glory.
Proof texts
- Gen. 3:13 — [13] Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
- 2 Cor. 11:3 — [3] But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.
- Rom. 11:32 — [32] For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all.
For discussion
- The Assembly cited Gen. 3:13 in support of this answer. Read it in context — how does it bear on what is claimed here?
- 3 passages are cited here. Which does the most work, and is anything claimed that the proofs do not obviously carry?
- WSC Q13 treats the same ground. What does it add, and why might it put things differently?
- WSC Q15 treats the same ground. What does it add, and why might it put things differently?
Read alongside
WSC Q13 · WSC Q15 · WLC Q21 · HC Q3 · BC 4.1 · BC 4.2
Leader's notes
A Commentary on the Confession of Faith (A.A. Hodge): this Section proceeds to teach : 1st. That they sinned. 2d. That the particular sin they committed was their eating the forbidden fruit. 3d. That they were seduced thereto by the subtlety and temptation of Satan. 4th. That this sin was permissively embraced in the sovereign purpose of God. 6th. That in so doing God designed to order it to his own glory. 1st. Our first parents sinned. 2d. The particular sin they committed was their eating the forbidden fruit. It appears to be God^s general plan, and one eminently wise and righteous, to introduce all the newcreated subje(;ts of moral government into a state of probation for a time, in which he makes their permanent character and destiny depend…
An Exposition of the Confession of Faith (Robert Shaw): That man is now in a very corrupt and sinful state, universal experience and observation attest. That he was not originally formed in this degraded state might be inferred from the character of his Maker ; and the Scriptures explicitly affirm that he was at first created in the image of God — in a state of perfect rectitude. The question then arises, How was moral evil introduced into the world ? To this important question reason can give no satisfactory answer. Pagan philosophers could not fail to observe the degeneracy of human nature ; mournful experience taught them that evil had come into the world ; but to assign the source of evil, was knowledge too wonderful for them…