[fortheDeclaration]

I believe that if we really do have free-will, it is either the punishment for original sin, or the sin itself.

Adam had free will when he was first created, so how could it be a 'sin' or the result of a sin.

It is a gift of a loving God. It is sin that enslaves us and Christ who frees us!

[stuartcr]

First of all, how do you know Adam had free-will at birth? He was supposedly the first human. Maybe God was experimenting with the concept of free-will, sort of a trial and error. Adam does what he was told not to do, uses free-will and eats the info fruit. God gets upset, sees how uniquely horrible this free-will stuff is, and punishes the rest of mankind for Adam's mistake. Now we have free-will and all it's attached misery. Perhaps animals are the lucky ones, they don't appear to have free-will, or sin.

[rwt60]

Adam did have a free will when he was created. He could choose to sin or choose not to sin. Once he fell, he had only one choice - sin. There is none righteous, no not one. No one seeks God. Jesus said, I am come to seek and to save that which was lost. It's not the other way around.