1. A Necessary Discussion of Sin

This would be the introduction: why sin must be discussed, why people tend to avoid it, and why recognizing sin is actually necessary before understanding salvation. Your existing “elephant in the room” opening belongs here.

2. What Is Sin?

This would gather all of the definitional material into one place.

Under this heading we could have subheadings such as:

• The World’s Understanding of Sin
• The Scriptural Definition of Sin
• Sins of Commission
• Sins of Omission
• Sin as Rebellion
• Sin as Rejection
• Sin as Adulteration

Your “adulterant” idea is especially worth preserving because it gives the article a consistent picture of what sin does to man’s relationship with God.

3. God Is Not the Author of Sin

This deserves its own major heading because it is foundational to everything that follows.

This section would deal with:

• God’s holiness and goodness
• James 1:13
• God allowing moral choices versus causing sinful choices
• Why temptation does not make God the author of sin
• Why genuine moral responsibility requires a meaningful choice

The present material already emphasizes very strongly that God neither caused nor tempted Adam and Eve to sin.

4. The Entrance of Sin into the World

This would be the Genesis 3 section.

Subheadings might be:

• The Serpent and Temptation
• Eve’s Deception
• Adam’s Responsibility
• Desire, Distrust and Disobedience
• What Adam and Eve Did—and Failed to Do

There is quite a lot of material here, but it needs to be greatly condensed. The present documents spend too much time repeating the same ideas about Eve’s deception, Adam’s failure to intervene, temptation and personal responsibility.

5. What Changed Because of the Fall?

This is where we move from the act of sin to its consequences.

This would include:

• spiritual separation from God
• physical death
• corruption of human nature
• a fallen creation
• damaged relationships
• the tendency toward sin
• conscience and moral awareness

Your drafts repeatedly describe sin as something that corrupted what had been good and brought consequences not merely upon Adam and Eve but upon the world.

6. What Did Humanity Inherit from Adam?

This should be one of the largest and most important sections.

This is where we deal carefully with the different doctrines of Original Sin.

Subheadings:

• Realism
• Federalism
• Mediated Imputation
• Conditional Imputation
• Inherited Consequence
• Early Church Views
• The Central Question: Inherited Guilt or Inherited Consequence?

The second document already contains a substantial comparison of these positions.

This is also where your own position would eventually be stated more carefully.

7. Personal Sin and Personal Guilt

This heading is important because it separates what we inherit from Adam from what we personally do.

This could include:

• all have sinned
• individual moral accountability
• personal guilt
• conscience
• knowledge of right and wrong
• children and moral accountability, if we decide to retain that discussion
• Ezekiel 18
• Romans 3
• Romans 5

This section would allow us to state your position much more clearly than the older wording that says, “we sin because we are born sinners.” The newer material distinguishes inherited corruption from personal condemnation much better.

8. The Deceitfulness and Progression of Sin

I think this deserves its own main heading because there is enough strong material for it.

This would cover:

• temptation
• desire
• sinful action
• repeated sin
• hardening
• suppression of conscience
• progressive corruption
• Romans 1
• James 1
• Hebrews 3
• Ephesians 4

The draft already has a good thread here about repeatedly resisting conscience and becoming increasingly hardened.

9. The Consequences and Judgment of Sin

This would bring together:

• death
• alienation from God
• judgment
• justice
• responsibility
• why God cannot simply ignore sin
• why sin requires a remedy

This is where some of the material presently scattered throughout both documents should be consolidated.

10. God’s Remedy for Sin

The article should not end with condemnation. It should end with Christ.

This final section could include:

• God’s grace
• Christ’s sinlessness
• the atonement
• reconciliation
• repentance
• confession
• faith
• the Gospel
• salvation from sin

Your Apollo 13 illustration could probably fit here if we decide to keep it: mankind has a problem it cannot fix for itself, and the answer is to trust and follow the provision that has been made.