Sin was not ingrained in human nature.
Wrong. We are all the children of our first father.
Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous." -- Romans 5:17-19"For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.)
Yet the possibility to sin was rooted in the free will given to humans.
So it's merely a "possibility" that we will sin? Thus, there must be people around here who haven't sinned? Do you know any offhand?
It was indeed freedom that rendered the human being as an image of the Maker; but it was also freedom that from the very beginning contained within itself the possibility to fall away from God.
That sentence makes no sense at all to me.
Out of His love for humans God did not want to interfere in their freedom and forcibly avert sin.
So LOVE compels God to permit us to sin and be damned to eternal darkness?
Very peculiar. Do you have any Scripture that supports the notion that the freedom to sin constitutes God's love?
I would like to ask our Protestant participants to simply copy this and keep it for future discussions.
LOL. I don't ask others to do my homework and keep a copy of the Westminster Confession on hand. When I want to refer to it, I post it. You probably can do the same.
The Catechism actually mentions this verse and how it is (mis)interpreted in the West. When you start on a wrong foot, no matter how much you wlak you will never get it right.
I didn't post it for you to agree with it. I didn't expect you would. I posted it to put an end to mischaracterizations of Orthodox doctrine. Those of you who in the past made incorrect comments regarding Orthodox teaching of hell and original sin should refer to this source before making similar comments in the future.