Original Sin

The UPCI affirms the reality of original sin: Adam's disobedience introduced sin and death into the human race, and all human beings are now born with a fallen nature inclined toward sin. Every person stands in need of the new birth — repentance, water baptism in Jesus' name, and Spirit baptism — to be delivered from sin's power and penalty.

The UPCI's understanding of original sin is broadly Arminian rather than Augustinian: the emphasis is on the universal reality of human sinfulness and the universal availability of grace, rather than on the imputation of Adamic guilt or the doctrine of total depravity in its Calvinist form. All people sin, and all need salvation; the UPCI's gospel is presented as the remedy that God has provided through the new birth.

The UPCI does not extensively systematize its doctrine of original sin in the manner of Reformed theology. The practical focus is on the reality of sin as the human problem and the new birth as God's solution. The Articles of Faith affirm repentance as the appropriate human response to the recognition of personal sinfulness and the need for divine forgiveness.