Total Depravity
A few posts ago I tried to tackle the issue of Limited Atonement. The "L" in "T.U.L.I.P." Today we'll tackle the "T."
I am going to try to go through the entire five points of Arminianism and Calvinism over the coming weeks. The Arminian points came first as a response to the overall Protestant doctrines of depravity and election during the Reformation. The first of these five points of Arminianism defined "Free Will."
An overly elementary summary of the first point by Arminians is that, although humans were seriously affected by the Fall, have not been left spiritually helpless but are left a remnant of spiritual light capable of understanding the Gospel and choosing to embrace it of our own Free Will.
Protestants from throughout Europe got together at the Synod of Dort and answered this and the other four points and reaffirmed the belief that we are totally depraved.
My favorite book on the subject, The Five Points of Calvinism: Defined, Defended, and Documented, defines total depravity this way:
"Because of the Fall, man is unable of himself to savingly believe the gospel. The sinner is dead, blind, and deaf to the things of God; his heart is deceitful and desperately corrupt. His will is not free; it is in bondage to his evil nature. Therefore, he will not - indeed he cannot - choose good over evil in the spiritual realm. Consequently, it takes much more than the Spirit's assistance to bring a sinner to Christ. It takes regeneration, by which the Spirit makes the sinner alive and gives him a new nature. Faith is not something man contributes to salvation, but is itself a part of God's gift of salvation. It is God's gift to the sinner, not the sinner's gift to God."
Frankly, when I took off the lenses of modern evangelicalism and started to read the Scriptures with purpose in my heart to be as objective as possible and let the Scriptures speak for itself, I could no longer see where I got off track with Arminian Doctrine. Depravity and Election is so clear in Ephesians 1, throughout Romans, in the Gospels...
One hang-up some have with "total"depravity is that they don't believe that people are incapable of doing any good. I don't disagree. Evil and lost people do 'good' things. But the "total" in Total Depravity is more of a holistic totality. The totality of the individual is lost and incapable of choosing salvation. We are not, under the Curse, given the power to reach out to God without Him choosing us first.
I also believe that man was not created depraved initially but it is solely a consequence of sin through Adam (Eve's role is another story and one that will get me smacked by my wife). And who are we to arrogantly tell God that the punishment for sin (depravity) is too great?
We are spiritually dead from the beginning:
Psalm 51:5 - "Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me."
Psalm 58:3 - "The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray from birth, speaking lies."
We have dark minds and corrupt/depraved hearts:
Genesis 8:21 - "The intention of man's heart is evil from his youth."
Romans 8:7-8 - "For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God."
Job 15:14-16 - "What is man, that he can be pure? Or he who is born of a woman, that he can be righteous? Behold, God puts no trust in his holy ones, and the heavens are not pure in his sight; how much less one who is abominable and corrupt, a man who drinks injustice like water!"
We cannot change by ourselves:
Job 14:4 - "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? There is not one."
John 6:65 - "And he said, 'This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.'"
1 Corinthians 4:7 - "For who sees anything different in you? what do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?"
2 Corinthians 3:5 - "Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God."
One hang-up some have with "total"depravity is that they don't believe that people are incapable of doing any good. I don't disagree. Evil and lost people do 'good' things. But the "total" in Total Depravity is more of a holistic totality. The totality of the individual is lost and incapable of choosing salvation. We are not, under the Curse, given the power to reach out to God without Him choosing us first.
I also believe that man was not created depraved initially but it is solely a consequence of sin through Adam (Eve's role is another story and one that will get me smacked by my wife). And who are we to arrogantly tell God that the punishment for sin (depravity) is too great?
We are spiritually dead from the beginning:
Psalm 51:5 - "Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me."
Psalm 58:3 - "The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray from birth, speaking lies."
We have dark minds and corrupt/depraved hearts:
Genesis 8:21 - "The intention of man's heart is evil from his youth."
Romans 8:7-8 - "For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God."
Job 15:14-16 - "What is man, that he can be pure? Or he who is born of a woman, that he can be righteous? Behold, God puts no trust in his holy ones, and the heavens are not pure in his sight; how much less one who is abominable and corrupt, a man who drinks injustice like water!"
We cannot change by ourselves:
Job 14:4 - "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? There is not one."
John 6:65 - "And he said, 'This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.'"
1 Corinthians 4:7 - "For who sees anything different in you? what do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?"
2 Corinthians 3:5 - "Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God."
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4 comments:
Total depravity – well I can see this doctrine needs to be addressed with some lenses on.
“We are spiritually dead from the beginning”
Psalm 51 and 58 are used here as proof texts – however - those are Judaic texts and need to be looked at from their perspective. Does the Jewish faith pick this same idea out from those texts? Answer is no. Both passages have good answers – but being born into ‘sin’ is not one of them.
“We have dark minds and corrupt/depraved hearts”
Who can really disagree here – this is true about humanity and all it really takes is a ‘click’ on the remote to see this (namely the news). I think humans have this capability but that’s not really saying we are ‘totally depraved’…but can be ‘totally depraved’.
“We cannot change by ourselves”
I slightly agree – I think God allows this change to occur in us. However, we are not aloof from the process either – we are required to repent and live charitably (that’s on us). So even if there is change – it is a from both sides – God (firstly) and then us (secondly) – but there is some weird partnership going on here.
Have you seen Princess Bride? Billy Crystal's character asks if someone (I don't remember who) if they knew someone was dead. Because there is a big difference between mostly dead and totally dead.
If we are totally dead, and I believe Scripture makes that abundantly clear, then election makes sense and we can see that is the only way any would come to Christ.
Great job tackling a hard subject.
Another scripture that should be mentioned with this subject is Ephesians 2:1-10.
Don't get mad at me for not reading this post, ok? I just had to stop by and say I loved your comment on my blog about song titles for pres. candidates! Sad but true about who has the balls in that party.
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