Snippet, part 6: TULIP's Totally-Depraved Doctrine
[Snippet to Ponder part 6, #23, is taken from an Alana L. post (but slightly updated here) that will be coming up later in the springtime. So technically, this is a foreshadow of what's coming. FYI: The Alana series will go all the way to "Z/Conclusion." The next in the series is "S," and so we still have a handful more to go until the end.]
Calvinism's TULIP petals are all built on each other, one after the next. And it all starts with "total depravity" (their bad definition of it):
R.C. Sproul (Total Depravity part 1): "... if a person really embraces the doctrine of total depravity, the other four points in this five-point system more or less fall in line. They become corollaries of this first point."
And so if they can get you to buy into their view of total depravity (as "total inability"), they can easily get you to buy into their whole TULIP, ensuring that you will become a Calvinist.
Because if we are "totally unable" to believe on our own, then God has to decide who believes (unconditional election)... which necessarily implies a "limited atonement" because Calvi-Jesus wouldn't die for those predestined to reject him... which then requires "irresistible grace" to cause the chosen ones to believe... and which ends with the idea that if God elected you then you will definitely make it to heaven because God will make you persevere in the faith to the end, "perseverance of the saints". (IF God truly elected you... and didn't give you evanescent grace, that is. And that's a big "IF" in Calvinism. And for the record, I do believe true believers cannot lose salvation, just not for the reason Calvinists say.)
[Note: Calvinists believe "total depravity" is about being so depraved that we can't think about God or believe in God unless He makes us do it. And they use the verse "no one seeks God" (Romans 3:11) to prove it, saying "See, no one can seek God unless God makes them do it."
But nowhere in that section does it say people cannot seek God, just that they don't. Romans 3:10-18 is taken from Psalms about wicked people who reject God and choose to be wicked. Even Romans 3:12 says "All have turned away..." This is why they do not seek God or understand... because they've chosen their wickedness over God... not because God prevents them from seeking/believing in Him.
Calvinists also use Romans 9:18: "Therefore, God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden" to try to prove total inability, saying "See, God causes some people to believe but He hardens others, preventing them from believing in Him because He predestined them to hell."
But "hardens" has nothing to do with God predestining who gets saved and who doesn't or with causing certain people to be unable to believe. In the concordance, "hardens" is retribution for first hardening your own heart, for resisting God. If we choose to reject Him, He can confirm our decision and harden us in it as punishment. That's what hardens means.
{Plus, and this is critical, Romans 9 is not about the salvation of individuals at all, but it's about Israel as a nation, about God handing them over to their hard-hearted rejection of Jesus and about Him giving the gospel/salvation/the job of spreading the gospel to the Gentiles instead - because the Jews didn't want it, but the Gentiles did. But then the Jews cried "not fair!" because they thought the Gentiles shouldn't get it and that the Jews shouldn't be punished because they are His special, chosen people. That's what Romans 9 is about. God is telling them that He can give the gospel/salvation/the job of spreading the gospel to whomever He wants to, to whomever is willing to receive it (and the Gentiles were), and that He can punish anyone who resists/rejects it (even Jews). But if you let Calvinists convince you that Romans 9 is about God choosing individual people for salvation or hardening individual people for hell, you will be a Calvinist.}
"Total depravity" has nothing to do with ability, with being born "totally unable" to seek God or understand or believe. But, biblically, "total depravity" simply has to do with mankind being so separated from God by sin that we can't save ourselves, and so we need a Savior. (A very different definition!) It's not about "inability to seek/believe," but it's about our inability to save ourselves, to earn our way to heaven, which is why Jesus had to die for us, to give all of us the option/opportunity to believe, be forgiven of our sins, and be saved. We have no ability to save ourselves, but we do have the ability to accept the gift of eternal life that Jesus offers to all people.]
But because Calvinism's TULIP petals are all intertwined so much, flowing one into the next, they seem to make a solid, cohesive, intelligent theology. (But - duh! - of course it's easy to appear cohesive when you build one bad idea on top of another, when all the points dovetail into the next.)
But it doesn't mean it's accurate - because if the first point is bad, the foundational one, then it's all bad after that. And so because all these points are intertwined so much - all founded on the previous point - they all rise and fall together. And so if you disprove one of them, you disprove them all.
And Calvinists know it:
Steven Lawson ("TULIP and the Doctrines of Grace"): "In reality, these five doctrines of grace form one comprehensive body... inseparably connected... [they] stand or fall together. To embrace any one of the five necessitates embracing all five. To deny one is to deny the others..."
Heidelberg Theological Seminary ("The Doctrine of Unconditional Election: Based on Total Depravity"): "... one of these doctrines cannot be left out without destroying them all. They are dependent on each other and are welded together as the links of one chain.... Those who claim to hold to only some of these doctrines will eventually have to admit that they hold to none of them...."
Do you know what those big Calvinist "Systematic Theology" books are for? To lead you systematically from one point to the next, to educate you into Calvinism, into accepting terrible things you never dreamed you'd accept when you were a "simple-minded" Christian just reading the Bible in a commonsense way and taking it at face-value.
Loraine Boettner ("The Five Points of Calvinism"): "These are technically known as 'The Five Points of Calvinism,' and they are the main pillars upon which the superstructure rests... Furthermore, these are not isolated and independent doctrines but are so inter-related that they form a simple, harmonious, self-consistent system; and the way in which they fit together as component parts of a well-ordered whole has won the admiration of thinking men of all creeds [and has deceived many into thinking it's "sound doctrine."]. Prove any one of them true and all the others will follow as logical and necessary parts of the system. Prove any one of them false and the whole system must be abandoned. They are found to dovetail perfectly one into the other."
This is why their theology appears rock-solid: Because it all seems to hold tightly together, with each point proving the others - and it all starts with their view of "total depravity" (and, I'd add, "sovereignty" and "spiritual death"). This makes it appear solid and consistent and logical. Because one point leads you to the next point which leads you to the next point, and so on and so forth... until you're a solid Calvinist.
But in reality - because of their bad redefinitions of words and out-of-context verses - Calvinism is really just a house of cards built on a foundation of Jell-O.
The Biblical View
Personally, I think Pastor Tony Evans' definition of "total depravity" (in The Tony Evans Bible Commentary , page 23; every Christian should have this) is accurate, makes sense, upholds God's character, and fits with a commonsense reading of the rest of the Bible. [Although I think it would be better still to throw out the phrase "total depravity" altogether and find a different way to word it, because that phrase reeks of Calvinism, giving it indirect and undeserved legitimacy. (Did you know the word "depravity" isn't even a biblical term, that it's not in the KJV anywhere?)]:
"Every facet of human nature has been polluted, defiled, contaminated by sin. This is the inborn corruption we inherited as children of Adam, which means there is nothing within us to commend us to a holy God. We are sold into sin - unable to save ourselves, and totally dependent on God's grace in Christ, which he offers to all mankind."
Evans is basically saying that sin has affected us all, separating us from God, and that we can't close that gap ourselves, which is why we need Jesus, and that God offers salvation to all.
Notice that there's no mention of us being so depraved that we're unable to want/seek/believe in God, unable to understand/respond to the gospel, unless He causes us to do it... as Calvinists would say.
Like my ex-pastor who said this in February of 2016: "All people...are universally evil, spiritually ignorant, rebellious...unable and unwilling to seek God... Theologians over the years have tagged this with the phrase 'total depravity'... Total depravity means sin has invaded our entire being and has poisoned our hearts and minds and cut us off from God and completely squelched any hunger for God... Because our human nature is corrupted by sin, because our depravity has permeated us to the core, unbelievers cannot grasp God's truth clearly. It is only the Holy Spirit who can give a person the ability to go 'I believe that. That's me. That is who I am." Or "That is who Christ is and that is the gospel.'... No one seeks God... [No one] is prompted by their own decision and interest to seek God. No one seeks God... Why does nobody seek God? Because no one is able to seek God on their own and the reason goes back to total depravity... We are born slaves to sin, wickedness, depravity... God doesn't open all blinded eyes. God hardens whom He wants to and has compassion on whom He wants to... but He has mercy on some.... According to Tim Keller in Romans for You: 'This means that anyone who is truly seeking God has been sought by God. We decided to put our faith in Him only because He had decided to give us faith.'"
Hogwash! Because depravity has nothing to do with ability or inability to want, seek, believe in God. It just has to do with the fact that sin has affected us all and separated us all from God, and so we all need help getting to heaven. We cannot earn or work our way there. All we can do - all we have to do - is accept Jesus's sacrificial death in our place. And if we don't, then we choose to remain separated from God forever, paying for our sin ourselves. (Another one of Calvinism's fatal errors is that it defines belief as a "working for salvation" thing, saying that we cannot do the one thing God said we need to do to be saved... unless and until Calvi-god makes us do it.😖)
And for more that's contrary to Calvinism, here's Dr. Evans' definition of "unlimited atonement" (same page as "total depravity"): "This refers to the universal extent of Christ's atoning death. The Bible teaches that Christ's sacrifice is sufficient for all mankind, even though not every person is saved. Sin has to be atoned for, because God is too holy to ignore sin, and too loving to let us plunge headlong into hell. Atonement is paying what must be paid - the penalty of death - to settle God's righteous claim against us. And the only death that satisfied this demand was that of Christ on the cross for all sin for all mankind without exception."
How different this is from Calvinism which says that Jesus died only for the elect, that the atonement is limited, that Jesus did not die for all people without exception but only without distinction - meaning that Calvi-Jesus died for all kinds of people from all nations, just not all individual people.😖
Jarvis Williams (Desiring God, "For Whom Did Christ Die?"): "... many interpreters assert that Jesus died for the entire world, and not for a predestined number of people... But what does the term “world” mean when used in association with Jesus’s death? Does it refer to everyone without distinction or to everyone without exception? There is a difference.
Everyone without distinction would mean that Jesus died for all kinds of people from every tongue, tribe, people, and nation. Everyone without exception would mean that he died for every single individual person without any exception....
I believe the Scripture teaches that Jesus died for all people in the world without distinction — meaning, Jesus died for all kinds of people from every tongue, tribe, people, and nation... to actually purchase and effect the final salvation of his elect."
John MacArthur (The Doctrine of Actual Atonement, part 1): "... the atonement is limited because God limited it. I’m much more comfortable with that than that...the atonement that Christ has provided is wasted on the vast majority of people.... I just can’t bring myself to believe that hell is full of millions of people whose sins were paid for in full by Christ on the cross... Well, I’ll tell you what. I don’t feel very special if you say to me, 'Christ died for you, He loves you just like He died for the millions in hell.' That doesn’t make me feel very special."
And about 1 John 2:2: "... [Jesus is] the atoning sacrifice...for our sins... [He] appeased God's just wrath against sin by his sacrificial death for the whole human race (i.e., unlimited atonement)."
And about 1 Timothy 2:5-6: "... [Jesus] paid the price for everyone (theologians call this unlimited atonement). The judgment of God against rebellious humanity has been completely satisfied through Christ's sin-bearing work. But to receive the benefits of this sacrifice, you must personally receive Christ's payment by faith..."
The penalty for our sin - all people's sin - has been paid for by Christ, but it is our responsibility, our choice, to accept it or not.
As he says about John 3:16-18: "... God loved the world of people... God the Father gave his one and only Son as a substitute for sinful human beings. He would die in their place, bearing their sins. But salvation from sin through the Son requires faith... When you trust in Jesus alone as your personal sin-bearer, divine judgment is removed and eternal life is freely given... Salvation from sin and judgment is free for the taking. But if you reject the miracle cure that the doctor offers you, don't blame him when you succumb to your fatal illness."
And about Romans 5:18 (highlighting not only the idea of Christ dying for all people and our freedom to choose, but also the idea of an age of accountability): "The sin we inherited from Adam - called original sin - is overridden by the death of Christ because 'through one righteous act there is justification leading to life for everyone.' By 'everyone,' Paul means everyone. Thus, even though we were all born sinners, Christ's blood covers us until we reach an age of accountability, that time when a person is capable of choosing to transgress and reject his revelation. So while there is condemnation for everyone, there is divine covering through Christ for those who have not yet chosen to rebel against God's law. This explains how babies or people born with mental handicaps are saved by Christ's death, since original sin is no longer the issue in those cases."
It comes down to Christ's death paying the price for all people's sins and our free-will decision/responsibility to reject or accept His sacrifice, to willfully continue in sin or to repent and turn to Him and be forgiven. (And since babies and mentally-handicapped people are unable to choose, their sin is not held against them, for they are not willfully ignoring or rejecting forgiveness/the offer of salvation.)
About John 1:29: "... Only the sacrifice of Jesus could truly address the sin 'of the whole world' (1 John 2:2). For unbelievers, the problem is not that their sin hasn't been atoned for; the problem is that they are unwilling to receive the atonement that Jesus already made. The sacrificial death of Jesus Christ removes the judicial barrier caused by sin so that all people are savable."
In the Bible, all people are savable. Everyone's sin has been paid for by Jesus. We are all able to seek God and believe in Him and be saved. And if we don't, it's not by God's choice, but by ours. He provided the way, but we decide whether or not to follow Him in it, to accept His free gift of eternal life.
Oh, how different this is from Calvinism!
(And, oh, how angry and sad Calvinism makes me!)
[Seriously, you all need The Tony Evans Bible Commentary and his Theology You Can Count On. It makes the Bible, the gospel, God's character, and our role in it all so much easier to understand than Calvinism's convoluted, contradictory, manipulative theology. It will resonate in your soul as Truth - not as confusing double-talk, disturbing "mysteries," and irreconcilable contradictions that you need to be manipulated into believing - because it fits so much with a plain, commonsense reading of the Bible.]
Calvinists themselves have issued the challenge: "Prove any one of them true and all the others will follow as logical and necessary parts of the system. Prove any one of them false and the whole system must be abandoned."
So why not test it?
Read "Is Calvinism's TULIP biblical?" to see if you think the petals are biblical. (Or read these smaller posts by other people: "Why I Disagree with All 5 Points of Calvinism" and "What's Wrong with Five-Point Calvinism".)
And remember - according to Calvinists themselves - if you disprove even one petal, you must abandon the whole TULIP.
Sidenote: Why "total depravity" totally backfires
I think a Calvinist's over-emphasis on total depravity (their incorrect understanding of it) - their insistence that we realize how terribly wretched we are before we can be saved - hurts more than helps in evangelism and that it exposes some fundamental flaws in Calvinism.
As my ex-pastor said in his July 2018 sermon on the doctrine of sovereign election: "Once you grasp the...wickedness, evil, corruption, rebellion of the human heart, the real question is not 'Why didn't God elect everybody?' The real question is 'Why does He elect anybody?'... And if you're unsure if you're saved, if you're elect, ask yourself some questions. [Here he lists some "signs" you're elect, but then he ends by saying to ask yourself this:] 'Am I the worst sinner I know?' If you're saved, the answer is 'Yes, you're the worst sinner you know.'"
And from a February 2016 sermon: "All people...are universally evil, spiritually ignorant, rebellious, wayward, worthless, morally corrupt, evil-mouthed, deceitful, full of bitterness, violent, miserable, and have no fear of God in their eyes... We are depraved down to the core... utterly saturated, permeated, and consumed by corruption... Why does nobody seek God? Because no one is able to seek God on their own, and the reason goes back to total depravity... We are born slaves to sin, wickedness, depravity.... You don't understand the gospel until you realize you're the worst sinner you know."
"You don't understand the gospel until you realize you're the worst sinner you know."
So in order to understand the gospel and be saved (which, in Calvinism, means that in order for elect people to wake up one day and realize that they've always been saved, that God injected them with faith to make them believe), they must first see themselves as the worst sinner they know - and they can't come to God until they do.
But here's what I think the biggest problem is with this (besides the obvious fact that Calvinists have reversed the order of belief in Jesus and being saved/born again and that they have misinterpreted depravity as "inability"):
Calvinists have taken a biblical truth and stretched it to such extremes that it's not biblical anymore. And so instead of the biblical truth that mankind is sinful and that we must admit that we're sinners in order to be saved, now it's "All people...are universally evil, spiritually ignorant, rebellious, wayward, worthless, morally corrupt, evil-mouthed, deceitful, full of bitterness, violent, miserable, and have no fear of God in their eyes... You don't understand the gospel until you realize you're the worst sinner you know."
And most critically and egregiously, this goes against Scripture's truth that all it takes is one sin to keep us out of heaven.
James 2:10: "For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it."
The point here is that all it takes is one sin to be a sinner, to become separated from God because of sin, to need a Savior. Because biblically it's not about being the worst sinner ever or about our level of badness, but it's about being imperfect. And all honest, normal people will admit that they are imperfect, that they sinned at least once. And if people can understand this - that even one sin makes you a sinner in need of Jesus, that it's not about how bad you are or about being extremely depraved, violent, wretched - then how easy it is to come to Jesus! How much more willing people will be to admit they need Him!
But Calvinism demands that people admit that they are at the worst level of violent, wretched depravity and that it's what earns them hell and makes them need a Savior. This raises the bar farther than God does, teaching that before we can come to God and be saved, we must admit that we are the most terrible, evil, violent, rebellious, potty-mouthed, God-hating, worthless, no-good, totally-wretched-from-the-top-of-our-heads-to-the-tip-of-our-toes, worst-of-the-worst sinner there ever was.
And no honest, decent person would - or should - admit to something as outrageous as this. No decent, honest person who evaluates themselves fairly would call themselves "the worst sinner they know, a totally wicked, purely evil, no-good, God-hating, wretched sinner." (And so, essentially, Calvinism convinces people that they have to lie about themselves - stretch the truth about themselves - in order to get into heaven, that it's what God expects from them.😕)
Can't you see how deceptive and evil it is to switch the condition for deserving hell and needing a Savior from committing one sin... to being the worst, most depraved sinner there is!?! How many people will this actually keep from heaven, from salvation, because they know they're not that bad, not "the worst sinner they know" - and so (according to Calvinism) they must not deserve hell or need a Savior, right?
Can you see how this actually works against evangelism, against God's Truth, against wooing people to Jesus? Because it's demanding more out of people than God does, going beyond what Scripture teaches, replacing Scripture with their own ridiculously-extreme ideas.
God asks that we admit that we're a sinner, that even one sin makes us a sinner in need of a Savior. But Calvinism raises the bar and demands that we admit how extremely wretched, depraved, evil, worthless, and God-hating we are before we can come to God and be saved. And this "raising the bar" actually makes more people resistant to Jesus than attracted to Jesus. It loses more people than it wins.
Though we are not all on the same extreme level of wickedness, rottenness, and depravity, we are all at the same level of being separated from God because of sin, at least one sin, regardless of how bad or how many our sins are - and so we all need a Savior.
How little God asks us to admit about ourselves in order to be saved!
But, oh, how much Calvinism does! Raising the bar, repelling more people than it wins.
[And I wonder who's behind a switch like this, who's behind raising and lowering the bars God sets, behind switching the goalposts and contradicting/twisting what God clearly said.]
