A personal perspective
On the doctrine of total depravity
"I thank God that He early taught me the gospel, and I have been so
perfectly satisfied with it, that I do not want to know any other.
Why, if I believed what some preach about the temporary, trumpery
salvation which only lasts for a time, I would scarcely be at all grateful
for it; but when I know that those whom God saves He saves with an
everlasting salvation, when I know that He gives to them an everlasting
righteousness, when I know that He settles them on an everlasting foundation
of everlasting love, and that He will bring them to His everlasting kingdom,
oh, then I do wonder, and I am astonished that such a blessing as this
should ever have been given to me!
I suppose there are some persons whose minds naturally incline towards
the doctrine of free-will. I can only say that mine inclines as naturally
towards the doctrines of sovereign grace. Sometimes, when I see some of the
worst characters in the street, I feel as if my heart must burst forth in
tears of gratitude that if God had left me alone and had not touched me by
His grace, what a great sinner I should have been! I should have run to the
utmost lengths of sin, dived into the very depths of evil, nor should I have
stopped at any vice or folly, if God had not restrained me. I feel that I
should have been a very king of sinners, if God had let me alone.
I cannot understand the reason why I am saved, except upon the ground
that God would have it so. I cannot, if I look ever so earnestly, discover
any kind of reason in myself why I should be a partaker of Divine grace. If
I am not at this moment without Christ, it is only because Christ Jesus
would have His will with me, and that will was that I should be with Him
where He is, and should share His glory. I can put the crown nowhere but
upon the head of Him whose mighty grace has saved me from going down into
the pit. It was He who turned my heart, and brought me down on my knees
before Him.
Well can I remember the manner in which I learned the doctrines of grace
in a single instant. Born, as all of us are by nature, an Arminian, I still
believed the old things I had heard continually from the pulpit, and did not
see the grace of God. When I was coming to Christ, I thought I was doing it
all myself, and though I sought the Lord earnestly, I had no idea the Lord
was seeking me. I do not think the young convert is at first aware of this.
I can recall the very day and hour when first I received those truths in my
own soul when they were, as John Bunyan says, burnt into my heart as with a
hot iron, and I can recollect how I felt that I had grown on a sudden from a
babe into a man that had made progress in Scriptural knowledge, through
having found, once for all, the clue to the truth of God." - Charles Haddon
Spurgeon
"The LORD saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that
every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.
The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was
filled with pain. So the LORD said, "I will wipe mankind, whom I have
created, from the face of the earth--men and animals, and creatures that
move along the ground, and birds of the air--for I am grieved that I have
made them." Genesis 6: 5 - 7
"Again, the gift of God is not like the result of the one man's sin: The
judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed
many trespasses and brought justification. For if, by the trespass of the
one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who
receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness
reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. Consequently, just as the
result of one trespass was condemnation for
all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification
that brings life for all men. For just as through the disobedience of the
one man the many were made
sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made
righteous." -Romans 5: 16 - 19
"For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: "I raised you up for this very purpose,
that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in
all the earth." {[17] Exodus 9:16} Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants
to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden One of you will say
to me: "Then why does God still blame us? For who resists his will?" But
who are you, O man, to talk back to God? "Shall what is formed say to him
who formed it, `Why did you make me like this?'" {[20] Isaiah 29:16; 45:9}
Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some
pottery for noble purposes and some for common use? What if God, choosing
to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the
objects of his wrath--prepared for destruction? What if he did this to make
the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared
in advance for glory-- even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews
but also from the Gentiles?
" Romans 9: 17 - 24
"For God's gifts and his call are irrevocable." -Romans 11: 29
"Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your
bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your
spiritual {[1] Or <reasonable>} act of worship. Do not conform any longer
to the pattern of this world, but be
transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and
approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will. For by the
grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of
yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober
judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given
ou." -Romans 12: 1 - 3
"Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable
matters. One man's faith allows him to eat everything, but another man,
whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. The man who eats everything must
not look down on him who does not, and the man who does not eat everything
must not condemn the man who does,
for God has accepted him. Who are you to judge someone else's servant? To
his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able
to make him stand." -Romans 14: 1-4
Through the years I at least hope some degree of maturity has become part of
my personality. The Bible at least tells me that when one becomes an adult
one puts childish ways behind one's self. Out of my infancy I remember one
of the greatest challenges in life was the necessity of accepting the fact
that there are times when I simply am not going to get what I want.
I rather painfully remember one person from my past raised to believe they
were the center of the universe. This individual was remarkably gifted and
likely to be among the top, if not the valedictorian of the related high
school class. But one day, the person was told "to do something I don't
want to do" at work, stormed out in a tantrum, dropped out of school and
lives in poverty on welfare to this day. And unfortunately, this pattern is
repeated over and over in the upcoming generation. More and more people
these days simply can not accept that they and their desires are not the
center of the universe. And the "Church" is far, far from immune to this
cultural paradigm shift. We have raised a generation having known no work
or hardship, which has as little need for introspection as they have
physical wants.
And having pandered for so very long to the wants and needs of this
generation, the "church" has lost sight of the need for Biblical education
any further than the most basic of devotional material. A generation that
has no physical needs, no reason to question their own supremacy and has
never known even a hard day's work has also had no reason to have striven
mentally or physically. Who in the modern "Church" has found themselves
compromised in safety by necessity to the point they have seriously prayed
"Well, Lord, I have no clue how I am going to get out of this one. It's You
and me." On any but the rarest occasions. Many never face hardship until
near the death bed and some buy their way out of suffering even then.
Introduce then to such people a Bible that teaches that the "self" actually
is not the center of the universe, in favor of an Almighty God. Introduce
then to such people the concept that they are far from the privileged
individuals they suppose. Introduce them to the fact that in death all will
be equalized and the material possessions and ease of life has at best
failed to garner for them the esteem they desire and has at least possibly
sealed their fate. The harder teachings of the Bible are anathema to them.
So then for the sake of the pride of men and the god of mammon, the "Church"
feeds all pabulum. The teaching is perhaps, barely, enough to save without
the harder teachings that might separate the goats from the sheep and
deprive the "Church" of it's own very worldly lusts. And thence, the few in
the "Church" that might mature into something of value are deprived of the
meat of Scripture they need for growth and a few very hardy individuals must
strike out on their own and learn from the teachings of generations far less
privileged than their own and thus from the Bible those generations of
Christians so revered.
It is of course imprudent to assert all congregations and all believers have
fallen into this trap. God does retain his remnant both among His
followers and His Churches. The world is dotted with many such gems. But
all to often the Church is swain by it's culture than the reverse. IN the
Bible we find that the genuine followers of God are a select few. So
tipping one's sou'wester to the Bible, one must recognize that the Church is
no more likely to influence the tide of culture than it is to imbue the
buildings bearing it's name. It is better to be governed by the Bible and
sound exegesis thereof than to attempt to conform to the lost ways of the
world. "Do not be conformed any longer to the ways of the world..". Romans
12:2a. The Church rightly ought to keep it's own house in order. The
disposition of humanity is the perrogative of God, not men. One will plant,
one will water, but God will give the increase. The Church simply must stop
striving for the opiate of numbers in favor of the meat of scripture.
Something is very, very wrong. And solutions start with individuals.
So in an effort to pivot this journal from the melancholy prognostications
of doom for the greater church, personal incumbency demands that out of the
forecast flaming wreckage at least some effort at remedy be prepared. But
this turning to solutions demands a sober assessment of the individual
thusly assigning himself that work. Christ himself exhorted that one remove
the plank from one's eye to aid in the extrication of a splinter from the
eye of a neighbor. Finding one's self with Holy writ alone and fully
sufficient in one's data language, clarification of one's understanding of
one's self is primary to with any authority at all first expound on one's
actual nature. If one's finger is to be pointed at another for correction,
the Bible demands that the bearer of the finger first examine himself. For
failing to show the sober judgment demanded by scripture leaves the
individual prescribing change open to accusations of hypocrisy. And viewing
the intent of this journal, any possibility of that accusation must now be
fully expunged. So please forgive this rather hasty return to a negative
topic. But if any change is forthcoming, the truth regarding the nature of
the one who corrects must now be fully known.
And now begins the application of reformed Theology. Reckless though that
later term sounds, the "study of God" includes all things revealed by Him.
Man in his arrogance, even if born of necessity tends out of his limitations
to understand his surroundings in terms of structure. And one such
structure is reformed Theology. While the structure is of man, the
teachings are those of God. The structure is taken exegetically from the
whole of Scripture to aid in the understanding of points about which finite
man is curious. So when man approaches the Bible with the question "What is
the nature of man?", man receives an answer from multiple locations as the
Biblical narrative unfolds, and a structure is born. The answer is fully
Biblical and given from multiple sources. And thus, it stands the test of
time.
Once upon a time, roughly at the beginning of the fifth century A.D., a
celtic monk named Pelagius fancied himself spiffy and thusly taunted the
Church with a set of spurious teachings that failed to tickle their fancy.
He basically asserted that humans were morally good in nature and that no
intervention from God was necessary for them to produce good works. Being
educated and well spoken, he swayed many but over time his views became
understood as heresy and though properly dethroned, were also unfortunately
expunged from Church records except where argued against by his opponents.
But enough remains on record to reveal that he was a truly brilliant and
introspective man.
That very introspection was Pelagius downfall. By introspection and clever
thought he reached his conclusions using data obtained from the wrong
source, that is the human tendency toward vanity. As for why he did this,
who knows? But the Church has fought the heresies of Palagianism and semi -
Palagianism since that time. Seminary hallways, Church conferences and even
Bible quiz teams roared for centuries with the "I feel" vs. "the Bible says"
arguments in detriment to the Church's mission. So no argument will be made
either for or against this perspective. The intent is to apply the reformed
doctrine of total depravity to humanity only briefly and to one totally
depraved individual with some detail.
As stated in a previous entry, I was sought out by Christ through the
intervention of a school friend and a very Godly elderly woman from a
declining yet still quite effectual evangelical Church in the very beginning
of the 1980's. I was the last believer baptized outside of the current
facility. I had been at one time baptized in a separate denomination at the
age of ten years and very much against my will. It was quite the twist of
irony that those very parents and grandparents that forced that
uncomfortable confrontation upon me later prayed to receive Jesus Christ as
Savior and Lord in my presence two and three decades subsequently.
But from my earliest memories the burden of my own inadequacies, dare we say
sin, laden my conscience and my very soul. Through my childhood and early
teen years God was distant and foreboding in my mind. Judgment by the God
of my elders was very much feared since I knew myself as far less than
perfect. I hoped and even prayed that some day the good might outweigh the
bad in my life and secure my soul. I thought this out of no love for God,
but out of fear of His wrath.
When Salvation came quite irresistibly, I immediately noticed that I no
longer sought after just enough righteousness to placate God out of a
perceived threat of judgment. I no longer wondered how much I might satisfy
my own desires without offending God, but genuinely detested that in myself
that displeased the God I now loved.
I had surrendered to Christ as Savior and as Lord. But my concept of both
terms was immature at best. I still reserved for myself as did Spurgeon the
pride associated with making a good decision. My immature mind was puffed
up with pride as I clung to the semi palagian or Arminian perspective on my
own soul. I believed that though I was indeed laden with sin, god had
granted to me along with all other human beings sufficient general Grace
that the possibility of a free will decision remained. I then patted myself
on the back quaintly for having chosen wisely and thereby esteemed myself
holy. And for a brief time, I engaged in the spiritual one-upmanship so
popular among those who cling to themselves as a spiritual center. It was
neat, tidy and seemed right to a man. It was also dead wrong in light of
Holy Writ. I continued for years to struggle with sin. I sought God well
enough in resistance, but then either condemned myself for failure or
aggrandized myself for success.
But my conversion had changed my soul well enough that I sought out
Scripture and It's proper interpretation. Through the gentle guidance of a
more mature family of believers and eventually under the tutelage of
arguably the best Bible College then available and it's humbly tenured
faculty, I increasingly removed myself from the center, or rather was
dethroned by the proper assessment of myself and the proper Glory of God.
Decades of study later leave me with no other conclusion. I was saved out
of a condition of total depravity. And but for God's Grace alone, I remain
in that state today.
Briefly stated, total depravity is the doctrine that no human being is able
to do a single morally righteous act outside of God's Grace. Or from
another perspective, if there is any good in the world, God placed it there.
The good is not restricted to believers alone. Anyone will feed their child
bread rather than a rock. So even faith and surrender are gifts from god.
And those two traits lead to salvation.
This perspective leaves no room for self aggrandizement. Were it not for
the intervention of God, my soul would certainly be lost. Had I any free
will at all, I would have chosen to reject Christ and all that is involved
in following him. For any human being given a genuine free will choice will
always choose to reject God. That principle is demonstrated time and time
again in the Bible and in every day life.
So then, no Christian EVER has any right to boast in, assert themselves or
hold the self as superior to another believer. In fact, the Christian is in
and of himself no better than the most vial of offenders, for it is God's
Grace alone which saves their soul.
And here is the application. What right does any believer have to teach
another Christian in the ways of Christ since all are fully equal in and of
themselves. No one is better than another, for any individual is as totally
lost as another except in relation to the grace given to them by god?
Teaching is not a right, but a sacred responsibility. Just as the drunkard
might teach against drinking from experience, as the prostitute might
admonish a child not to follow in their footsteps, just as a thief, liar or
adulterer might have learned of the truly destructive nature of their
actions, so might one Christian exhort another to change. This exhortation
is not based on a perceived superiority through the position of teacher, but
as advice from one who with experience can say "sin is wrong."
And in that spirit I plow on. I do not assert myself as superior to any
other human being. Were it not for the grace of God, I would surely be
totally lost. I rest well at night not out of my own accomplishments, but
knowing that God is faithful. My hope, security, future and very life are
dependant on Him alone. And only by His faithfulness do I dare exhort
change. Any advice I or any other follower of Christ gives can and rightly
only be based on the fact that "I once was lost, but now am found. Was
blind, but now I see."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pelagius
http://www.leaderu.com/theology/augpelagius.html
http://www.internetmonk.com/archive/my-prediction-the-coming-evangelical-col
lapse-1
http://t4g.org/2010/04/fine-sounding-arguments-how-wrongly-engaging-the-cult
ure-adjusts-the-gospel-session-iv/
http://t4g.org/2010/04/how-does-it-happen-trajectories-toward-an-adjusted-g
ospel-session-iii/
