Total Depravity (Part 1)

One of RC Sproul's gifts is clarity of his lectures and sermons; may the Lord God bless him with more strength and longevity in his ministry.

Hmm....6,666 views.

Total Depravity flows from the Augustinian view of Original Sin. Without Augustine you would not have a lot of the doctrines of the Reformation. The central Problem surrounding the Reformation starts with the doctrine of sin. That is why I don't believe Reformed theology. It seems to me that the Reformed Faith is an echo chamber to itself. It is simply nothing more than an Augustinian fan fest.

Here is an alternative view to the Augustinian view of Original Sin. Once you get rid of this doctrine then you will understand the nature of sin.

The Idea of Original Sin came from Augustine. No one before him who wrote in the early church used the term Original Sin nor do you find any reference to the idea of imputed guilt to the whole human race in their writings. The early church saw death as the problem or disease, not sin. The text that Augustine used to justify his doctrine of Original Sin was Romans 5:12. Augustine formulated that Romans 5:12 taught that we all sinned "in" Adam. All of western Christianity is built on this one idea that we all sinned "in" Adam. The church before Augustine taught that Romans 5:12 should be interpreted that we sinned "because" Adam sinned. The reason they maintained this was because of the two verses that follow Romans 5:12.

From Romans 5:13-14 It seems strange that Augustine formulated a doctrine that implies Imputed guilt to the whole human race. In these verses Paul the Apostle says that all the people who lived from Adam to Moses were struggling with sin. However, that sin and guilt was NOT imputed or reckoned to them since the Torah had not been given. How can this be? Did Augustine read vs 13 and 14? It seems he missed the point of these verses. If Augustine did read vs 13 &14 how could he interpret vs 12 to mean that all men universally have guilt accounted to them on the basis of Adams sin? Romans 5:13 &14 teach the very opposite of what Augustine taught in vs 12. But in verse 14 Paul says, "Yet death exercised dominion from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sins were not like the transgression of Adam, who is a type of the one who was to come". The people who lived from Adam to Moses the overriding emphasis is on the fact that these people were under the dominion of death. They were under the mortality that Adams sin had brought upon them. "Sin reigned through death." (Romans 5:21). It is not imputed guilt in verses 13 &14 that men receive from Adam. It is the curse and slavery of death.

The following observations can be made here. Paul defines death as the problem that ruled over these men who lived from Adam to Moses. They had no imputed guilt. The Torah had not been given yet. Also this passage Identifies Adam as a Type of the one who is to come. This is universally interpreted to mean that Adam was a TYPE of Christ, The one who is to come or the second Adam. The next observation here is that Adam is a TYPE who sets up a PATTERN of the one who is to come.

Adam is set apart here from other men in three ways. He was the first man. Secondly, He was the first man to sin. Thirdly his first sin brought other men after him under the dominion of death. They had no guilt reckoned to them. This pattern is confirmed by Paul the Apostle in 1 Corinthians 15:21 “For since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a human being”; Christ who is the second Adam. The fulfillment of the pattern between the first and second Adam here is obvious. Adams sin brings death. Christ brings life.

The early church believed that sin comes from the curse and slavery of death. For Adam the wages of sin was death. Adams first sin brought death into creation, but for us the "sting of death is sin" 1 Cor 15:56. This is the two dimensional aspect of sin. So we sin because the condition of creation was cursed by the first sin of Adam. This is why the Bible teaches " that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until the present time". Romans 8:21,22. Our nature, teaches Cyril of Alexandria, became "diseased...through the sin of one". It is not guilt that is passed on, for the church fathers; it is a condition, a disease". The creation itself has been warped now that death is here, and since we are part of creation our relation to it is not the same. We are not in Eden any longer.

So the early church taught that Adams and Eve were guilty for their own sins. We in turn are guilty for ours. The story of Adam and Eve is the story of every man and woman.

This early church view of sin is not taught in the western churches today. It is because of the doctrines of Original Sin that the western churches teach doctrines that have been invented such as forensic Justification and Penal Substitutionary Atonement. The cross has become about God punishing the Son instead of God in Jesus Christ conquering death, sin and Satan. Hebrews 2:14,15 says, "Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death". Here we see the purpose of Christ death, He was in fact bringing justice to our oppressor Satan himself. Satan was more than a tempter. Satan had brought mankind under the power and slavery of death thus holding that power over us. Christ by defeating death. defeats sin providing forgiveness of sins. Death, sin and Satan as the unholy trinity were defeated. ,Thus salvation is provided for all who believe. The Augustinian view of Original Sin is false doctrine.

The doctrine of "total depravity" or "total inability" is false. Scripture is clear that the most vile and wicked can still respond and humble themselves before God. Here are 2 Biblical examples:

In the OT, King Ahab was the king of Samaria was more evil and Scripture says there was no one like him when it came to evil - 1 Kings 21:25

1 Kings 21:25-26 - 25 (There was never anyone like Ahab, who sold himself to do evil in the eyes of the Lord, urged on by Jezebel his wife. 26 He behaved in the VILEST MANNER by going after idols, like the Amorites the Lord drove out before Israel.)

King Ahab was persuaded by his wife Jezebel to kill Naboth so he could acquire his vineyard in 1 Kings 21. Jezebel set up a conspiracy to have Naboth killed so that Ahab could acquire the vineyard which Naboth refused to sell to Ahab. God then declared disaster on Ahab in 1 Kings21:19, and 1 Kings 21:21 for the murder of Naboth.

 It says in 1 Kings 21:27-29 - 27 When Ahab heard these words, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and fasted. He lay in sackcloth and went around MEEKLY.

28 Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite: 29 “Have you noticed how Ahab HAS HUMBLED HIMSELF BEFORE ME? Because HE HAS HUMBLED HIMSELF, I will not bring this disaster in his day, but I will bring it on his house in the days of his son.”

Here is clearly a man who is depraved and behaved in the vilest manner, but he HUMBLED himself before the Lord. It is also clear that Ahab's humbling himself before God was a genuine act because God responded to it by postponing the disaster that He was going to bring upon him. God brought it about later in 1 Kings 22:34-38.


King Manasseh of Judah in 2 Chronicles 33 was very evil. He erected altars to
the Baals, made Asherah Poles, bowed down to the starry hosts and worshiped
them. He sacrificed his sons in the fire, and practiced sorcery, divination, witchcraft
and consulted with mediums and spiritists. As a result of Manasseh's grievous sins,
God gave him and his people into the hands of the Assyrian army commanders.

In 2 Chronicles 33:12-13, Manasseh came to his senses and sought and HUMBLED
himself greatly before God. Manasseh's seeking and humbling were genuine because 
God responded to it as indicated in 33:13 and God brought him back to Jerusalem and 
to his kingdom. Scripture then says that "Manasseh" knew that the Lord is God."

This is another account in addition to the account of King Ahab who HUMBLED him
self greatly before God which shows that an utterly depraved person can still seek
after God. These 2 accounts of King Manasseh and King Ahab refutes Calvinism's 
false doctrine of "total depravity" or "total inability".

Excellent teaching reminds me of my days at Bible College.