Many of the household names in popular Christianity today are the likes of John Piper, John Macarthur, Alister Begg, R.C. Sproul and D.A. Carson. These are all Pastors and teachers that dominate the radio waves and internet on a popular level and all of which are committed adherents to Calvinism. And one such doctrine they espouse to and preach regularly is, mankind’s “Total Depravity”. This doctrine states that after the fall of Adam and Eve, mankind became “completely” corrupt and incapable of making a decision to follow God by their own volition. For example, in his work, T.U.L.I.P. What We Believe About the Five Points of Calvinism, Pastor Piper stated: “We do not think faith precedes and causes new birth. Faith is the evidence that God has begotten us anew.” R.C. Sproul said, “Regeneration precedes faith.” To put those quotes in as simplistic terminology as possible, you are NOT born again because you believe and made a choice, rather you believe because you are born again. So, while most people whom have never heard of Calvinism upon hearing the good news of the gospel preached; receive it and believe it-- because of its power. Then proceed to place their faith in Christ, thus becoming born again. In Calvinism this is incorrect as that is not how things operate in a Calvinistic worldview. The Calvinist later comes along and says, no, you were not saved because of what you heard and believed, rather you were born again and then believed. Somehow God was working behind the scenes in secret to make you believe as opposed to you choosing on your own; and the Calvinist believes that while it “seems” like we are making the decision to choose we really are not (I’m not sure how one could ever prove or disprove that).
As a non-Calvinist or someone that believes that while mankind is marred and fallen, that doesn’t necessarily mean that we are therefore incapable of freely following God or that as unregenerate humans people only resort to sin and evil. I should preface that last statement by stating that I do not think mankind can just come to God at any old time he or she pleases. Scripture is unequivocal that at times, man can and will harden his heart. It is certainly possible that someone may have heard the gospel preached with the opportunity to repent, but they made such a habit of resisting the gospel and God’s offer for them that they can’t repent and come to Him. In other words, there are times when the gospel is preached over and over to the point where your heart becomes so callous you are no longer responsive to the gospel. So the non-Calvinist doesn’t believe you can just come to God whenever it’s convenient for you. So how does the Calvinist come along and say, God must regenerate you before you can be born again, when Scripture seems to suggest otherwise. There is an interesting parallel in the parable of the Prodigal Son where the sinner has rebelled from God only to later come to his senses and return to his father. If you recall the parable doesn’t say that the father wooed him back or that his father sent out troops to arrest and retrieve his son. Rather, the parable states that the son came to his senses after squandering his wealth to a point where he was living with pigs only to realize things were much better in his previous state (See Luke 16). So in a sense, this prodigal got smart and came to his senses. Of course, the Calvinist hates the term “got smart” because that insinuates that some aren’t smart. For example, two sinners are at an evangelistic meeting and one repents but the other doesn’t. Of course, the Calvinist says one was chosen or elected and the other wasn’t that way no one can take credit for coming to Jesus on his or her own merit. But again, the Prodigal Son got smart and came to his senses recognizing his wrong and repenting. Now Jesus did say, “No one can come to Me unless the Father draws him.” But does that mean that it’s irresistible, I don’t think so. Why can’t someone recognize that he or she has done wrong and that God is a good and loving God. Another quick example would be found in the parable of the Sower. Here you have Jesus stating that there is seed that falls on good ground where there are people with good and modest hearts that respond positively to the gospel. But I thought there everyone was totally depraved? However, here we have Jesus stating otherwise (See Mark 4). So it does seem that there is something in the person that does contribute to salvation, not that they earn it, but that they are not totally depraved and can have good and modest hearts. Now to be sure, Calvinists do have verses that seem to provide evidence that humanity is totally depraved, and the verses used to support that which appear in little clusters. So there is something that the Calvinist sees which leads them to believe that man is totally depraved. This means that since the fall there has been no man or woman that has ever by their own volition chose God. So the Calvinist will turn to places like Genesis 6:5 where it says, “Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” Or Jeremiah 13:23 where it says, “Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Then you also can do good who are accustomed to doing evil. And Jeremiah 17:9, “The heart is desperately wicked and deceitful; who can know it.” So the Calvinist will ask, how can someone like this who is wicked and deceitful turn to God? And my answer is simple, that type of person probably can’t turn to God! But why does the Calvinist believe all people are this way? These are NOT descriptions of ALL humanity. You see, we have such a knack of lumping people together so that when something bad is done we blame the group, and we do that for just about everyone but ourselves. So if a black person robs a store many will say that black people are thieves. Or being some Mexicans come to America illegally, we say all Mexicans are illegals or at least we stereotype them with that stigma. So what are these verses saying then? I remember witnessing at the Mall of America on one occasion and quoting Jeremiah 17 when this specific person tried justifying their goodness of the heart that they were generally good. I specifically remember saying the Bible says the heart is wicked and deceitful, but not even knowing the context. It was such a mistake on my behalf because what I was doing was generalizing or lumping everyone together as wicked and deceitful at all times. Later on, however, I came to discover that Jeremiah was talking to the people of Judah just before the Babylonian exile and not to all people throughout history. Sorry if the conversation is drifting towards hermeneutics, but people have to stop using proof texts out of context. The last passage I’ll appeal to comes from the Romans 1:18-32 where Paul talks about God giving them over to their lusts and degrading passions etc. Calvinists ALWAYS appeal to this passage as a proof text for total depravity, but where does it say this is describing all people throughout time? Well, it seems to me that this is describing people that suppress the truth and God is angry at those who do so, thus giving them over to their passions and desires. Paul also states in the passage that some of them are homosexual or that they gave up the natural state for the unnatural. I don think everyone falls into this category, because I know plenty of people that aren’t Christians that don’t lust for the same sex, so Paul must be talking about another class of people that have habitually rejected the truth and not all people through history. In closing, not every single unregenerate person is hateful towards God. But within a Calvinistic paradigm everyone that is not saved has to be like that, because everyone is totally depraved. Even in a post-Christian society there are plenty of parents that think they should raise their children to be honest upright citizens or God fearers, much like Cornelius in Acts of the Apostles. Even ancient philosophers like Seneca, Aristotle or Socrates sought after good and virtuous things. So the Bible isn’t describing all people throughout history who are unregenerate as those who only do evil.
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