Right now I will be looking at the first point of Calvinism
which is Total Depravity. I have been heavily influenced in this and many of
the upcoming posts by R.C. Sproul’s book “What Is Reformed Theology?” Although
it covers Reformed Theology it has an entire portion dedicated to the doctrines
of grace. The name can be misleading in some ways because it suggests the idea
of utter depravity that we as humans are as evil as we can possible be. This is
not what total depravity means, Sproul suggests that Radically Corrupt might be
a more accurate title. What this doctrine really means is that sin has
radically corrupted human kind that there is no part of our being that has not
been completely and utterly effected by sin, the body, mind, will and more. Sin
has invaded every aspect of our lives. Sin has not affected us in a small way but
sin itself arises from the very center of our being. We are not sinners because
we sin; we sin because we are sinners. We are born with a sinful nature and all
our acts flow from this.
Paul I think gets at the heart of our sinful nature in
Romans 3:9-18:
“9 What then? Are we Jews[a] any better off? [b] No, not at
all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin,
10 as it is written:
“None is righteous, no, not one;
11 no one
understands;
no one seeks for
God.
12 All have turned aside; together they have become
worthless;
no one does good,
not even one.”
13 “Their throat is an open grave;
they use their
tongues to deceive.”
“The venom of asps is under their lips.”
14 “Their mouth is
full of curses and bitterness.”
15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood;
16 in their paths
are ruin and misery,
17 and the way of peace they have not known.”
18 “There is no
fear of God before their eyes.”
Our day to day experience would say however that pagan
people can perform good deeds, this is what has long been called Civil virtue.
Civil virtue refers to deeds that conform outwardly to the law of God. When God
evaluates the actions of people, he considers not only the outward deeds, but
also the motives behind these acts. The supreme motive for everything we do
needs to be love of God.
Most Arminians would agree with the doctrine of Total
Depravity, I personally feel that they must partially rewrite the bible and
this doctrine to do so. Within Calvinism, man is lost to his sin unable to
choose what is right unable to choose God; we are only saved by the complete
action of God. Arminian thought would say that we are depraved except for a
small part of our will that can choose God. I find the Arminian revision of the
doctrine to really be a rejection of it. I think at the heart of the debate
over this teaching is the idea of Free Will. People would ask do you believe in
free will. I would answer yes, however in a much different way than most people
would assume. Most people would define free will to be the ability to choose,
the ability to choose right or wrong, the ability to choose God or to reject
him. This I do not believe, nor does the Bible. I believe we were created with
free will and in that perfect state our desire was to do what was good. The
fall did something in that our will became slaves to sin. In the present we
have been created with the ability to choose good or evil but our desires are
to do only that which is sin. It’s like if you have a bird who can fly around,
it was created to do so, but it breaks its wing. Can it fly? Yes it certainly
can it was created too, but it’s unable to because it has a broken wing At its
core it was designed to fly but something has happened that changes its ability
to fly. If given the choice between accepting or rejecting salvation left to
our own will we always choose to reject it. Can we choose God, certainly, do we
desire to, most certainly not.
Total depravity is really the lynch pin that Calvinism is
built on. If you reject this than you cannot really hold to the other points,
and if you hold to this point but reject the others your being inconsistent.
Below are a few verses that I think teach the doctrine of Total Depravity.
Please feel free to leave comments or ask questions. Genesis 6:5, 8:21; Numbers
15:37-39; 1 Kings 8:46; Job 15:14-16; Psalm 14:1-3, 51:5, 94:11, 130:3;
Proverbs 4:23, 20:9; Ecclesiastes 7:20, 8:11; Isaiah 6:5, 53:6, 64:6; Jeremiah
10:14, 13:23, 17:9; Matthew 7:11, 15:19; Mark 10:18; Luke 17:10; John 2:24,
3:36, 6:44, 15:5, 16; Acts 3:16, 16:14; Romans 1:18-2:16, 3:9-20, 23, 5:12,
7:18-20, 8:7; 1 Corinthians 2:14, 12:3; 2 Corinthians 3:5, 4:3, 11:3; Ephesians
2:1-6, 4:17-19; Colossians 2:13; 1 Timothy 2:25, 6:5; 2 Timothy 3:8; Titus 1:5;
James 2:10, 3:2, 8; Revelation 9:20, 16:9.
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