This is more or less what the Church has taught about man since Saint Augustine (354-430 AD):
God created Adam and Eve, the first human beings. They sinned against God because first Eve and then Adam, seduced by Satan, ate the forbidden fruit. As punishment, God drove them out of paradise and sentenced them to death. If we die today, it is because Eve and Adam sinned. Moreover, the spirit from which the first couple benefited was taken from them. From that moment on, every human being is born fallen, with a soul – it's true – but spiritually dead to go, at the moment of physical death, to hell. The only way to escape is to believe in Jesus. If there is conversion and faith, the black heart becomes white, the person concerned receives the Holy Spirit, becomes a child of God and can go to heaven.
This is obviously a bit of a simplification, and each ecclesiastical movement would qualify the above in one way or another. But basically, that's the idea.
God created Adam and Eve, the first human beings. They sinned against God because first Eve and then Adam, seduced by Satan, ate the forbidden fruit. As punishment, God drove them out of paradise and sentenced them to death. If we die today, it is because Eve and Adam sinned. Moreover, the spirit from which the first couple benefited was taken from them. From that moment on, every human being is born fallen, with a soul – it's true – but spiritually dead to go, at the moment of physical death, to hell. The only way to escape is to believe in Jesus. If there is conversion and faith, the black heart becomes white, the person concerned receives the Holy Spirit, becomes a child of God and can go to heaven.
This is obviously a bit of a simplification, and each ecclesiastical movement would qualify the above in one way or another. But basically, that's the idea.
By Chris Zürcher. Page updated on 18 May 2025
