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Q16. Did all mankind fall in Adam's first transgression?

The covenant being made with Adam, not only for himself, but for his posterity; all mankind, descending from him by ordinary generation, sinned in him, and fell with him, in his first transgression.

Proof texts

• Gen. 2:16-17 — [16] And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, [17] but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
• Rom. 5:12 — [12] Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned —
• 1 Cor. 15:21-22 — [21] For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. [22] For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.

For discussion

1. The Assembly cited Gen. 2:16-17 in support of this answer. Read it in context — how does it bear on what is claimed here?
2. 3 passages are cited here. Which does the most work, and is anything claimed that the proofs do not obviously carry?
3. WLC Q21 treats the same ground. What does it add, and why might it put things differently?
4. WLC Q22 treats the same ground. What does it add, and why might it put things differently?

Read alongside

WLC Q21 · WLC Q22 · WCF 6.1 · HC Q3 · BC 4.1 · BC 4.2 · 1689 6.1 · 1689 6.2 · 1689 6.3 · 1689 6.4 · 1689 6.5