Darius, it was Sister White who made the truth regarding sinful nature easier to understand.

John, we become aware of the unholy lusts and affections, which our fallen nature produces, when they appear as sinful thoughts and feelings. The body generates innocent and legitimate needs, the carnal mind of sinful flesh intercepts and perverts them, and the brain converts them into conscious thoughts and feelings.

MM, is "that part of us" (the carnal mind of sinful flesh) a physical aspect of the body, or is it of the spiritual (thinking/governing) aspect?

John, it is akin to instincts. It is neither a higher or lower power, neither physical nor spiritual. It is a separate, independent, intangible power or force. Like instincts, it is not reason, intellect, or conscience, or appetite or passion. The mind and voice of sinful flesh nature remains with us until Jesus restores it to its original, pre-fall state, which is not until He returns.

Why do you keep asking?

MM, did you say "easier?" Please demonstrate how.

Darius, please do a word search on sinful nature and you'll see what I mean. Let me know what you think. Thank you. PS - there are dozens of quotes on this thread.

John, we definitely see things differently. I believe the carnal mind of sinful flesh nature generates lusts and affections, and communicates them to our conscious mind as unholy ideas and suggestions, sinful thoughts and feelings. "Flesh" in this sense is not physical. Nor is it spiritual. It is simply the mind and voice of our fallen instincts.

If I understand your position correctly, you believe our internally generated temptations, our unholy thoughts and feelings, are the byproduct of the flesh ruling the spirit, and that once this relationship is reversed, at rebirth, internally generated temptations cease to happen.

If I'm reading you right, and I think I am, then, according to your view, our nature is restored to its pre-fall Adamic state. Which means the lusts and affections that are generated by our flesh nature are no longer at war with the Holy Spirit, that they are in perfect harmony with the will of God. Every impulse, every thought, every feeling would be naturally pure and holy and sinless. Do you agree with my observations and conclusions?

Do you believe that the following insights cease to happen when we are born again? That is, that our flesh stops warring against our soul and against the Holy Spirit?

Galatians
5:17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.

1 Peter
2:11 Dearly beloved, I beseech [you] as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;

In the following quote, what do you think is the origin of "our own impulses"?

DA 668
All true obedience comes from the heart. It was heart work with Christ. And if we consent, He will so identify Himself with our thoughts and aims, so blend our hearts and minds into conformity to His will, that when obeying Him we shall be but carrying out our own impulses. The will, refined and sanctified, will find its highest delight in doing His service. When we know God as it is our privilege to know Him, our life will be a life of continual obedience. Through an appreciation of the character of Christ, through communion with God, sin will become hateful to us. {DA 668.3}

MM, what is tha advantage of doing a word seach on "sinful nature?" It will only bring up all the flawed understanding that has permeated our teachings. The term has been blessed and sanctified by consistent use but it makes no sense. Nature is eternal; it cannot be changed. If I were to change your nature you would become a different species.

A "different species"? I like it. Paul put it this way - a "new creature", a "new man". I realize you mean it in an entirely different way, but spiritually speaking my way fits, don't you think? Yes, we still inhabit the same old body, subject to decay and death and disease, always tempting us from within to sin, but spititually we are totally different people. When we are born again we become a Christian, as it were - a new species!

Humans were created as physical beings. They were never spirit beings. I don't have a spirit. It does not matter how much fancy language you use, it won't change the fact of our existence.