Holy Scripture teaches very emphatically that all descendants of Adam are corrupted by original sin, so that not a single human being after the Fall is uncorrupt or without the taint and pollution of sin, Rom. 5, 12; 3, 23; John 3, 5. 6. For this reason our dogmaticians say that the subiectum quod of original sin are all men born in the course of nature (naturaliter nati). Christ was not subject to original sin because He was conceived through the miraculous operation of the Holy Ghost, Matt. 1, 20; Luke 1, 35. The anti-Scriptural decree of Pope Pius IX (1854), which in the interest of Mariolatry ascribed to the mother of Christ an immaculate conception, proves the antichristian character of the Papacy.
The doctrine of the universality of original sin is of the greatest importance for the right understanding of the doctrine of the means of grace. In particular, it is the foundation of the doctrine of Baptism; for since all children are "flesh born of the flesh," John 3, 6, and Baptism is the divinely ordained washing of regeneration, Titus 3, 5, regarding which Christ commanded that "all nations" should be baptized, Matt. 28, 19, it is obvious that children, whom God desires to be saved through the means of grace, Matt. 19, 14. 15, should receive Holy Baptism. The opinion that children born of Christian parents are unspotted by sin is opposed to the clear teaching of Scripture, Ps. 51, 5; John 3, 6.