Concise Refutations of Common Errors in Calvinism:
II. Total Depravity
As with the first letter / error that was discussed previously (L – Limited Atonement), and as is the case with every one of the Calvinistic positions represented by T.U.L.I.P. , the Calvinistic notion of total depravity is, quite simply, a private interpretation regarding a biblical truth that stands in direct and clear contrast to what the scriptures teach on that subject. Much like the private interpretation of limited atonement that serves to help God out with His sovereignty and explain the conundrum of Christ dying for all and yet not all being saved, Calvinism takes the biblical truth of man’s sinfulness and twists it into something that scripture does not support. The Calvinist position is that man’s depravity is so complete that an unregenerate man cannot understand nor respond to God, not even in regard to what God commands that unregenerate and lost man to do in order to be regenerated. This feeds into the other Calvinistic positions, particularly in regard to unconditional election, irresistible grace.
Every point in T.U.L.I.P. is based on a scriptural precept that is in the biblical sense true – in this case, the Calvinist is in agreement with scripture about man’s natural condition (How much more abominable and filthy is man, which drinketh iniquity like water? – Job 15:16; The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? – Jeremiah 17:9; But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. – 1 Cor. 4:16). The scriptures are as clear on man’s sinfulness as can be (Psalms 14:3, Psalms 53:3, Romans 3:23). The problem arises when one decides to mesh scripture on this topic via their own private interpretation rather than by comparing scripture with scripture. Man IS totally depraved, in the sense that even man’s “goodness” is not good, is corrupt and tainted. In such a state man is not capable of receiving or understanding the things of God. However, that same man in that same state is commanded by God to believe on Jesus Christ crucified for his sins and risen in order for God to work salvation upon him (He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. – Mark 16:16; That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. – Romans 10:9). There is no justification in scripture for the idea that a lost man cannot believe on Jesus Christ unto salvation, in fact, the confrontation regarding sin and the sinner’s need is directed to lost men as a gift already provided them that they may and actually MUST receive as they are (But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. – Romans 5:8; And Jesus answering said unto them, They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. – Luke 5:31-32). The Calvinistic tenant that a man cannot respond to the gospel or to the conviction of the Holy Ghost UNTIL God has already saved that man is simply a fabrication that situates itself in contradiction of plain scripture.
In fairness, scripture does contain several examples of lost men who could not respond affirmatively to God’s word to them, these being most notably Pharaoh (Exodus 4-14 – in relation to Moses and the freeing of the Israelites) and corporate Israel in regard to their rejection of their Messiah (Isaiah 6, John 12:37-31). However, these examples are not simply run-of-the-mill lost men unable to respond affirmatively; they are both examples of people who had hardened their own hearts in decisiveness against God of their own volition and who were subsequently hardened by God Himself so as to ensure they could not respond. In fairness, many (though not all) Calvinist preachers and teachers rightly explain these examples in terms of “would not” eventually became “could not” by God’s own purpose and for God’s glory. However, what no Calvinist theologian seems able (maybe they cannot because they would not?) to do is to deal honestly with the fact that God views the average lost man as, though completely sinful and utterly without righteousness, able to come to Him when drawn by the preaching of the cross and the Holy Ghost who, among other tasks, works at large in the world convicting those who believe not towards the end of their believing on Jesus Christ (So the people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them. – Jonah 3:5; Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. And this is the verdict: The Light has come into the world, but men loved the darkness rather than the Light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come into the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. – John 3:18-20; How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? Romans 10:14).
Is man in his own natural state totally sinful and without goodness before God? Yes. Does that prevent said sinful man from obeying the gospel and receiving God’s work of salvation upon him? Not according to the scriptures:
Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. Jesus cried and said, He that believeth on me, believeth not on me, but on him that sent me. And he that seeth me seeth him that sent me. I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness. And if any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day. For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak. And I know that his commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak. – John 12:31-32, 44-50.
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