TOTAL DEPRAVITY AND ITS SINISTER IMPLICATIONS
The Bible says that when Adam broke with God he took the whole human race with him. But we did not make him our representative! God did and presumably God knows what is best. God then is responsible rather than Adam for how are are naturally anti-God and prefer eternal Hell to God.
A prophet or a religion that needs to pretend that people are completely bad
is slinging mud against himself or itself in public for a person or group that
indulges in that kind of wishful thinking is certainly evil for we know that we
are not that terrible.
And Bible Protestantism is just that kind of religion.
Total depravity is the biblical and Protestant doctrine that the unsaved person
can do nothing really good or deserving of salvation. “The Bible teaches total
depravity, and I believe in total depravity. But that simply means that there is
nothing good in man to earn or deserve salvation” (page 4, Why I Disagree with
all Five Points of Calvinism). One sin in your heart defiles all you do until
you repent and are pardoned by God. The saved are those who ask Jesus to save
them and they are saved regardless of what they do after. Only the saved can do
real good. This is the point made in Job 14:4 that says someone clean cannot
come from someone unclean and the same holds true for works.
The apostle Paul in the Bible says at 2 Corinthians 3:7 that when Moses received
the ten commandments carved into two stone tablets from God that he received the
ministry of death. He means that God gave us the ten commandments on these
tablets and these commandments minister death to us. This is a clear denial of
the Roman Catholic doctrine that the ten commandments do not give us death but
life. Paul meant they were death to us because we couldn't keep them.
Total depravity does not say that the unsaved will be like demons and kill and
rape at every opportunity. Some supporters of the doctrine suggest they would if
it were not for God's power. God exercises some influence on them to help them
stop themselves from doing those things all the time. He helps control their
behaviour that way. But that is only outward help. In their hearts they yearn to
do evil. Total depravity states that people never ever do real good and even
their so-called good works are malign and pleasing to Satan. Total depravity
also suggests that if people don’t behave like complete monsters it is for their
own selfish reasons so they are complete devils inside. For example, a person
who would like to kill might not do it. His not doing it is not done for a noble
reason but out of selfishness – the fear of shame and punishment. He does not
refrain out of the love of God. Calvin (page 95, The Institutes of Christian
Religion) and Luther never taught that human beings were totally unrestrained in
their actions but only in their hearts – only in what they wish they could do
but dare not. (Incidentally, this is a good argument against the occult and
psychic powers for if people had them or believed they had them they would be
trying to do terrible things with them.)
The doctrine says we are rotten inside. We only act good at times because there
is something in it for us (meaning we only pretend to be good), or perhaps
because God has had to do things to stop us being as bad as we can be. Some
believers accept both of these. Others accept one of them. If we are as evil as
the doctrine says, clearly the only way God can stop us from becoming vileness
incarnate is not by changing us from the inside but by forcing us from the
outside. We would be like people willing to murder but who cannot for fear of
the law.
The doctrine says that each person cares mostly for himself and not for God
which is sin. This sin is the basic one from which all the others proceed. The
person has a bad attitude and wants to be independent of God and right and wrong
and determine for himself what right and wrong are. This attitude is at the root
of sin therefore it makes no sense to agree with the Catholics that there are
sins that do not imply a total rejection of God like venial sins and there are
sins that do that are called mortal sins and which deserve the eternal hell
unlike the former. Why? Because if the reason you commit a mortal sin is because
you want to be independent of God then it follows that the attitude that brought
the sin to birth is a mortal sin itself. If you steal John’s sweet because you
hate John’s guts that is a mortal sin though it does little harm to John – the
attitude expressed in the sin makes it mortal. When the attitude causes mortal
sin it cannot cause venial for then all sin would be mortal for the attitude is
seriously wrong. To have the attitude is saying: “I accept this attitude though
it will lead me to many sins even if it leads me to murder and apostasy”, so it
is very seriously hostile to God. It has to be mortal. Total depravity means
that eternal damnation is where you belong.
We know by experience that total depravity is true for we do not want to be
ruled by God - except we see that not as bad but as good. Yes we might like to
be ruled by a God we make in our own image for he suits us but we don’t want any
being telling us how to live. Even when I undergo some sacrifice it is because I
feel like doing it though there is another side that hates doing it. I am still
caring only for what I want. This in essence is what the doctrine of total
depravity is about, us exercising our self-will and having no reverence for the
will of God. Total depravity also implies that anybody who does not believe in
it is simply a hypocrite who will not admit the truth. It is impossible to see
how Christians could consider Roman Catholics who deny total depravity to be
Christians. Roman Catholicism would then be a diabolical superstitious hoax that
stands for a gospel that opposes the truth of total depravity and therefore
opposes Jesus Christ. Roman Catholicism would be refusing to accept Jesus as the
way to God via his atonement for sin which he made in our stead and which is
available only to those who deny salvation is by faith and good works but who
hold that salvations is by faith alone not by good works.
According to the doctrine of total depravity, the reason then people stay in
Hell forever is because nobody can manage to live up to the moral law of God
properly and it is because they cannot put things right that they need to suffer
forever in Hell.
For Rome to teach that not all sin deserves eternal punishment and that most sin
is venial, sin that doesn’t deserve all that, is to teach that we can do without
Jesus to some extent at least and many of us don’t need him at all. For example,
nine year olds would usually be too young to sin seriously for they are immature
in mind meaning they can be saved without even believing in Jesus in any real
way.
It is commonly objected that it is impossible to be a sinner if you cannot stop
sinning until God gives you the desire to stop for that implies that you are
forced to sin. The idea of being forced to sin is contradictory. Suppose a
person won’t repent of constant sin. That person is trapping themselves in sin
by their own freedom. They just won’t repent until they feel like it which will
be never for their sin will be a habit. There is no contradiction. If this seems
ridiculous then remember that sin is in the will.
Killing a person is not sin if you don’t mean to do it. If you mean it, it is murder. And if you intend to kill but cannot the act of will that makes it murder is the same meaning that you are a murderer. The Bible is right to say that a person who wants his neighbour dead is a murderer or the same as a murderer (1 John 3:15). It is possible for the “holy” nun to be as wicked as the thieving whore who spreads venereal diseases. It is possible for the kindly doctor to be as evil as Jack the Ripper inside. They may not seem evil but seeming good is no proof that they are virtuous (Matthew 23:28).
James observed that the person who breaks one of the divine Laws breaks all
of them (2:10). To steal for example is to break the commandment against
idolatry for it is putting a material thing before God and it is adultery for we
are to behave as if we are married to God and it is murder for it is killing the
relationship with God. Wilfully wanting to sin is a sin and it is this sin that
the Bible says we are committing the whole time.
Christians believe that though God cannot do evil and can only do good he is
still voluntarily and freely good so it is possible to be a sinner and incapable
of good and still be to blame for your sin (The Institutes of Christian
Religion, page 97). They say God does good because of his boundless goodness and
not because he is forced so we can do evil because of our boundless evil and not
because we are forced. It is certain then that belief in God opens up the way
for total depravity to be true for it denies that inability to do something
means you are not responsible for it. Those who hold that belief in God is bad
for humankind will have something else to go on.
Calvinists say that God does not command what cannot be done in one way and does
command what cannot be done in another. We cannot do good without God’s help and
we are responsible for we will not accept his help. It would be immoral if God
punished us for not being able to create the world when he did not give us the
power to create. But he has given us help to conquer sin and we will not take
it. A free person acts on the things he or she is aware of. For example, if
there are three options, A,B and C you can choose A and B freely if God stops
you thinking of C so if A and B are sins you are still a sinner though you could
not think of C. The Catholic Church holds that God cannot hold you accountable
for sin when you cannot do good without his grace. But it says that God’s main
command is, “Do not sin at all and keep your life pure from sin from birth to
death”. Yet it says we cannot keep this commandment and are blamed when we break
it. They might as well believe in the Calvinist God. It would be more honest if
they admitted their God was the same unsavoury character as Calvin worshipped.
While it is true that Calvin and Luther did not hold that the good works of the
unsaved person are sins they still believed that the works were destroyed by
other sins so it was not the acts that were bad in themselves but the sin that
polluted them (page 48, The Catholicity of Protestantism). In other words, when
an unsaved man tells the truth that is good but it is the attitude which is
separate from the work but which is still the cause of it, “I have sins for
which I am not sorry and I do this good deed because it suits me”, that creates
the problem and is the reason the man deserves no praise. So it is both a sin
and not a sin.
What are the implications if the doctrine of total depravity is true?
The doctrine of total sinfulness implies that we cannot be saved unless God does
something for us, unless he tries to pull us out of the cesspool. He has to
forgive us and to make us able to do good works. It does not mean that the only
way of salvation is by something suffering for our sins to expiate them in our
place for this teaching means there is no forgiveness at all.
Believers in the Bible teach that one must be convicted of being incapable of
doing anything to earn God's favour. It follows that our depravity should be
stressed to us by believers if we are not one of them. If we get upset that is
our problem for we don't want to know the truth about ourselves. We need the
conviction because it is according to the Bible, the thing that makes us feel
like total dirt and willing to turn to God to save us by faith alone. Every
moment we feel self-esteem that is when our sinful nature endangers our
salvation by making us feel in less need of it. We can't expect forgiveness from
them for the wrong we do for it would be wrong to expect them to forgive what
God still has against us.
If human beings are so evil and cunning and prefer evil then how do we know that
the saved person is not an evil person tricking us? If total depravity is true
then the apostles were more likely to be lying about Jesus and his return from
the grave than telling the truth. If sinners are so bad that they would prefer
to go to Hell forever than not sin then the apostles could have willingly died
for their lies. Theologians say that they could not have been lying because no
sinner would invent a religion that is so good and severe on sin. They would if
it was meant not to be practiced but for hypocrisy and to dishearten those who
believed that virtue was possible. Evil people need to preach good religion so
that people will know what sin is and become as evil as they are. The doctrine
of total depravity means that by no stretch of the imagination could the faith
of Christians be reasonable faith. It is sheer guesswork. Believers of a
different kind would see it as idolatry. If there is a God then we must believe
what he says not what people say about him, but if we believe the apostles we
are trusting that they were delivered from total depravity without any evidence
and on that basis agreeing with their religious doctrine. We are putting a guess
before God’s revelation if he has made one. The apostles are our real gods. How
terrible it is to preach a faith that has no evidence, because faith demands
suffering and dedication and commitment.
And if human beings are so terrible we dare trust nobody. The person who does
not seem to be stealing from us is only the person who has not got the chance or
the nerve to do it or has just not got caught. Should we assume that people
around us are saved from their sinfulness to be on the safe side? But we are
only assuming and there is no comfort or security in that unless there is
something wrong with us. And it is wrong to assume the best when the worst is
more likely.
It is easier to be happy to be a person who can do nothing to please God when
you do good works and insult him by these works. The works are making you happy
and charming and reluctant to do good according to his requirements which are
that you must be washed of your sins and do them by his grace before he will
accept them. Your works are advertising your brand of defiance of God and making
it more desirable and attractive to others. It follows then that it is better to
be openly hateful and evil. It does the divine cause less harm.
The total depravity doctrine slanders the entire human race. We all know that it
is impossible for us to sin all the time. It is impossible to sin when you are
distracted from morality or religion. The person who denies free will or the
possibly of wrongdoing cannot sin. The person who believes in sin but who denies
that we do it all the time when we are unsaved is branded a liar. If true the
doctrine proves the world’s biggest religions to be swindles. The Bible denies
that baptism in water ends total depravity. Look around you and you see no
spiritual difference between unbaptised children and baptised ones. So the
Bible is telling us that the Catholic Church which officially and infallibly
scorns the doctrine of total depravity and holds that the unregenerate person
can do real good (though not good that God likes or rewards) is being
fraudulent. Suppose we are anti-god. The person themselves knows fine well
that they are entirely godless because they cannot sin without knowing it.
If you believe in the Bible then you have to be as evil as you can manage –
inside your heart if you cannot manage to be totally evil outside - before you
can accept the salvation it offers in order to subscribe to the total depravity
doctrine. Telling prospective believers that they must be totally evil for they
cannot be saved until they see that they are which they refer to as the Holy
Spirit convicting you of sin. They are telling you to be evil to preserve the
integrity of the Bible.
The Church says we must love the sinner but hate the sin. The Bible counsels
that even when we are saved we are still frail creatures and the remains of the
former depravity are still in us especially in the early years after being
saved. So, assuming it is possible, how then can we love the sinner and hate the
sin which requires a very advanced level in spirituality and sanctification?
Very few Christians behave anything like saints. So born-again Christians are
being sanctimonious for they cannot really love sinners and enjoy thinking they
belong to the elite circle of the saved.
There is nothing to love in a sinner so how could you love them? How could they
feel loved by a person who sees no good in them so what good would the love do
them?
Total depravity is an evil doctrine that is inferred by Catholicism and openly
preached by the Bible’s religion. It is a misanthropist’s piece of wishful
thinking. It is the cynic’s dream. It is the thrill of the masochist and the
sadist who enjoys degrading his or her fellow person.
To us it is a reason for getting the Law to ban the Bible and pulpit pounding
preaching that incites to hatred.
