Total Depravity

Total depravity (also called total inability and total corruption) is a theological doctrine that derives from the Augustinian concept of original sin. It is the teaching that, as a consequence of the Fall of Man, every person born into the world is enslaved to the service of sin and, apart from the efficacious or prevenient grace of God, is utterly unable to choose to follow God or choose to accept salvation as it is freely offered. (Wikipedia)

As controversial as this topic is I thought I might take a stab at it. My overall problem with this heretic doctrine is that it implies a bondage of man's free will, thereby taking the blame off the individual. In fact Martin Luther wrote a book by that name. Total depravity ascertains that because of Adam's sin, man was depraved in every aspect of his being, somehow rendering his will inoperative. A question I would have is, why did Adam sin and was he also totally depraved? The idea is that because of the tendency of man to follow after the lusts of his flesh, that that would indicate that the will is kaput (broken).

No simple person reading the bible for the first time would ever come to that conclusion. If any person reading the bible does not feel personally convicted of sin, there is something deeply wrong. If I thought that I was born with the inability to do the right thing, then God would be to blame for my sin. If, like the bible says, we will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ and answer for the deeds done in our bodies, how can we be to blame for those bad deeds we did, if our will was in bondage? We would never be blameworthy at anytime if we were unable to chose to do right.

Say I went up to an unsaved person and asked them how to get to heaven, and they said, "Well, you just do the best you can", and I said, "Have you done the best you can? This week have you sinned when you knew you shouldn't, and if you did sin, could you have not sinned?" They would of course say, "yes". You would then have to admit that they deserve to be damned. They are blameworthy because they knew to do right, they had the ability to do right, and that is why they are blameworthy. Sin is in the intentions. Without the intention to sin, it would no longer be sin. To explain my point, if a blind man came along and stumbled over your baby, you wouldn't be angry with him. He did not intend to kick your baby so he cannot be blamed. But if along came a man that hated your baby because it was crying and came over and kicked your baby, you would probably grab a stick and beat him. Why? Because of his intention. His will was not in bondage. His total depravity was not a sufficient excuse for you, to not impute blame to him. The same it is with us. We intentionally turned our backs to God and intentionally, with our will present, disobeyed the truth that we held.

This bondage of the will leads directly to election and predestination. The conclusion one comes to is, if man does not have the ability to do right and chose to accept the free gift of salvation, then God must have elected and predestinated us according to his sovereign grace. Therefore God, before the foundations of the world elected some to go to heaven and some to go to hell. This is what Calvinist's say. Let's run with this doctrine for a bit. Say for instance, God elected and predestinated thirteen people out of a hundred. Wouldn't a loving God, if He so willed, elect fifteen? Why leave that little old lady out? Why not fifty? I know! Why... If I were God I would elect all one hundred! Call me crazy. I am so loving I would overcome everyone's will with my irresistible grace and save everyone!

What do I believe? I believe that man was created to be in fellowship (relationship) with God. When Adam sinned, he broke that fellowship, through his deliberate intention to disobey God and go his own way. Without the a relationship of faith with God, man is incomplete and unable to overcome the natural desires of our bodies of flesh. The bible states it this way...

Romans 8:3 FOR WHAT THE LAW COULD NOT DO, IN THAT IT WAS WEAK THROUGH THE FLESH, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:

The law could not accomplish the desired end (which was eternal life) because the natural drives of the flesh were too powerful for the law to continuously overcome. The law did not supply sufficient motivation for us to overcome these natural drives (to eat, procreate, sleep etc.) that are inherent in our mortal bodies. I believe that we are morally depraved, in that without being rightly related to God (born again), our will or motivation is insufficient. Only through the new birth can (and do) we overcome. Only overcomers will eat from the tree of life and only those that believe on the Lord Jesus with all their hearts, will overcome.

As pertain in to election and predestination, it was according to the foreknowledge of God. God knew whom he would be able to convince and persuade to repent towards Him, and believe the gospel. Those that He foreknew, those He elected and predestined. It's not rocket science. That is as far as I am willing to take that. To try to think like God and put Him in a box, I am not willing to do. Bottom line... God's sovereignty works in conjunction with our free will. If it didn't, God could just have created robots and got the same effect.