WARNING: I?m told that most bloggers will not read more than 1,000
words without beginning to skim the article. If you are one of these
people, you need to skip to the section below that states ONLY A
THOUSAND MORE WORDS TO
GO. If, on the other hand, you are someone who
doesn?t like long introductions, and just need to skip to the ?meat? of
the article, you?ll want to scroll to the section that starts THE POINT
WHERE THE ARTICLE ACTUALLY
BEGINS.
Great! Now that I?ve redirected those people, I can spend some time setting up the article with just a few personal comments.
First, many thanks to Rey for giving me the opportunity to guest
contribute on this blog. I consider it a privilege to be asked and hope
that I can at least fulfill some expectations.
Speaking of expectations, most people believe that they can
expect to pigeon hole just about any Protestant into one of two
categories: Calvinist or Arminian. I am not a Calvinist. And before my
Arminian friends get too excited, I am not an Arminian. To place me
into either camp is to say that I believe things that I don?t. For
better or worse, I try to avoid defining myself by a theology since I
find it to coral what God may be trying to reveal through Scripture. So
I promise not to try and label you something that you?re not and
hopefully that will be reciprocal and keep us from assigning guilt by
association.
And while we are on the topic of Scripture ? please use it as the basis
of your statements. I have read parts or all of the major works of
Calvin, Edwards, Spurgeon, Sproul, Piper, White and MacArthur. I
respect these men, their scholarship and their passion for believing
what they do. I don?t expect to see them in heaven since they will be
busy at work closer to the throne of God than I could ever in my
wildest dreams hope to be. That having been said, none of them are
either above or equal to Scripture. I am guessing that most of the
people who will be responding are intelligent enough to digest what
these men have said and rearticulate it in your own words. So, if you
are going to respond to these postings, please do so without long drawn
out quotes from some wonderful leader of the church to support the
claims you make.
By the way, I come from a school of thought that links the
sinfulness that I am all to well aware of with my finiteness and comes
up with a theological hermeneutic that states that there must be parts
of my theology that are wrong. I am very open to hearing where you
think I am wrong. However, because I am not looking for the writings
from past or present church leaders, I will have to ask that when you
are showing me that I am wrong, that you do so with Scripture which
both contextually and explicitly states what you are saying. At any
point that Scripture is not clear, I would rather say ?I don?t know?
than to try to interject my faulty theology to patch a ?hole? that God
has left. If this manner of taking Scripture as far as Scripture will
allow is not something you are comfortable with, then you?ll probably
not like what I am going to write.
And just so everyone is clear of my own material, let it be
known that I pilfer and pirate just about everything I think from
others far greater than I. For most of the material that you will find
on these postings, I am indebted to C. Gordon Olson?s book ?Beyond
Calvinism and Arminianism.? If you have even the vaguest interest in
what I?ve written (whether you agree or disagree), I would highly
recommend his extremely detailed yet very readable book. In spite of my
respect for him, I do not agree with everything that Dr. Olson writes
(and I am completely convinced that he disagrees with me on some points
as well). So, if you have some prior beef with Dr. Olson that you feel
is just waiting to burst forth, bring it to him, not me.
Furthermore, in sharing these thoughts in both classroom and blog
settings I have already been anathematized, condemned, and sent to
hell. If you feel the need to give your own personal support of these
past decisions, please take into consideration my lovely wife and four
beautiful children who look forward with great anticipation to spending
eternity with me (preferably in the heavenly realms). So, since I know
of no Protestant theology that guarantees a person is headed to eternal
damnation prior to physical death, please hold out hope that someday I
might be saved from whatever heresies you see in my writing and respond
in kind.
Oh ? and if we?re going to be dialoging together, let?s keep it
fun. Feel free to liberally use emoticons and anything else that will
help us understand that along with our Father in heaven, you have a
sense of humor (or at the very least, a sense of sarcasm ? Job 38:5,
19-21). Though the topics we discuss are serious, please let?s not take
ourselves so seriously that we forget that we are simply finite,
infants discussing the mind of God.
There, I?ve gotten that off my chest :). Now I can actually begin because you have reached
THE POINT WHERE THE ARTICLE ACTUALLY BEGINS.
How do I begin an article on a topic that is hotly debated and
has been written about by nearly every major theologian in the past 400
years?Well, let?s start with some history.
I was born into a Reformed family which for me means I was
eating TULIPS before I was nibbling on solid food. I went to a Reformed
church and was educated in a Reformed school K-12. So, needless to say,
I have some familiarity with Calvin and his teachings. I did not leave
the Reformed church I grew up in for doctrinal reasons. I left because
(though I didn?t know it at the time) God was preparing me for ministry
at another body of believers. Though in this article you are going to
hear about disagreements I have with Calvinism, please do not think
that I am stating that it is a defunct theology. I think the best way
I?d describe what I am trying to do in these articles is to help
redefine the parts of TULIP that I have difficulty aligning with
Scripture.
For a brief history of how TULIP developed, go to this
link.
I am actually going to be looking at TULIPS?I think the addition of the
S is essential since it underlies all the other thinking in Calvinism
and is a topic that must be included to understand the normal model of
TULIP. The acronym stands for a generally chronological understanding
of salvation (soteriology). Each letter stands for the following:
T = Total Depravity
U = Unconditional Election
L = Limited Atonement
I = Irresistible Grace
P = Perseverance (or Preservation) of the Saints
S = Sovereignty of God
The
?S? is not normally on most TULIP models, but I think by the end of our
series, you?ll see why it needs to be added. What I?ll do in this
article is give a brief support of Total Depravity from a Calvinist
perspective. Then I?ll show reasons why I don?t believe portions of it
align with Scripture.
Total Depravity from a Calvinist Perspective
Mankind sins. I think that part we all agree on. Calvinist theology
states that all mankind apart from salvation through Christ is totally
depraved. By this, they mean that each and every person is utterly
unable to do enough good things to warrant their salvation (Romans
3:21-28). In fact, because mankind is so stained with sin, even the
things that look good from a human perspective have been tainted by our
sin and so amount to nothing before God (in fact, God calls all our
good works menstrual rags ? Isaiah 64:6). Calvinism also means that
mankind is so enamored with their sinfulness that they will never, of
their own will, ever seek God or even care to think about anything that
is remotely close to Him (Romans 3:9-20). Though we may not do every
sin conceivable, sin stains every area of our lives (Psalm 51:7, Isaiah
1:18). We are in our sin, we are happy to be in our sin, we want to
stay in our sin. We are rebels. We are dead in sin (Ephesians 2:1-7).
This last statement is the summarizing statement of Total
Depravity ? we are dead in our sins. Many Calvinists will also use the
metaphor of Ezekiel 26:22-32 that our hearts are hearts of stone ?
?stone cold dead? as I?ve heard many Calvinists put it.
Because of this deadness, we are completely unable to do
anything to please God. Thus, we are even unable to place our faith in
God. God, in His grace and through the Holy Spirit, regenerates certain
hearts (which hearts are regenerated will be discussed in the next
posting) giving them the spiritual life that they need to have in order
to be in relationship to God. Once a person has been regenerated, God
can give them the gift of faith (Ephesians 2:8-9), which is the means
by which they are able to trust in God and thus be placed in Christ and
saved (Ephesians 1:13).
ONLY A THOUSAND MORE WORDS TO GO
Where I Think Calvinists Lack Scriptural Support
Actually,
I believe in most of what Total Depravity states. I agree with
everything in the first paragraph of the previous section. Mankind is
sinful, he is content with his sinfulness, and will not pursue God
ever.
I think Calvinists lack Biblical support in three areas. The
first area of disagreement is that regeneration precedes faith. I have
asked many Calvinists to give me one verse that explicitly states that
regeneration occurs prior to faith. None, to this day, have been given
to me (1 John 5:1, the most common one given, is insufficient because
it does not rule out that faith could have occurred prior to the
regeneration that is stated in that verse). I understand that if you
accept all that Calvinism teaches about death and faith, that
regeneration is a logical deduction from those definitions. However, I
can produce many verses that explicitly place faith prior to salvation
(Luke 8:12, John 1:12, 3:16, 4:14, 6:35, 6:40, 6:58, 20:31, Acts
2:37-38, 8:12-16, 13:39, over 18 verses in Romans where our
justification is by faith, all of Galatians 3, Ephesians 1:13, Hebrews
4:2-3, 1 Peter 1:23, and many more less explicit verses ). Some
Calvinists will argue that these verses implicitly state that we are
regenerated, given faith and then saved ? but that means that there is
a time where we have the life of God but no salvation? Moreover, there
are verses listed above that state we have faith prior to life (John
20:31 is the best of these) ? are we to say that we have life, faith
and then life again? In addition, Jesus in Mark 6:1-6 is amazed at
people?s lack of faith which makes no sense unless He expected faith to
be in the unregenerate. Not only that, but Jesus explicitly states that
the dead will hear Jesus? voice and will live (John 5:25). I would be
most indebted to any Calvinist that can give me any verse in Scripture
that explicitly states that regeneration occurs prior to faith. Apart
from that evidence and given the way that Scripture presents faith
prior to regeneration, I think it?s important to redefine our meanings
of death and faith to accommodate Scripture, not our theology.
So how are we to understand death as it is presented in
Scripture? We think of death as in-animation or the inability to act.
Dead people can?t do anything. Calvinists apply this idea to
Scripture?s statement that we are dead in sin and thus state a person
is incapable of exercising faith because they can?t do anything
spiritual. Is this, though, a Biblical understanding of death?
I think that a clearer Biblical picture of death is separation
from God rather than a sense of inability. Adam and Eve in the day that
they sinned died ? part of that death was not only spiritual but the
physical separation from the presence of God. The eternal punishment
which is called the second death often contains images of separation
(Matthew 8:12, 22:13, 25:30, Luke 16:26, Revelation 20:10-15). When
describing the life of eternity, Revelation 21 and 22 seem to focus
strongly on the presence of God. From these verses, we can state that a
person who is dead in their sins is separated from God (for now, simply
spiritually ? ultimately, in our whole being). When they exercise their
faith in God, they receive life and I believe we can Scripturally state
that life is precipitated by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit ? they
have life because they spiritually are in the presence of God through
the Holy Spirit. They will have the culmination of eternal life when
they live body and spirit in the presence of God forever.
Finally, I think the Calvinists lack Biblical support in their
contention that those dead in sin cannot exercise faith. Calvinists
support this for two reasons. First is that dead people can?t do
anything spiritually. But if we accept what was stated above, then this
reason is already dealt with. A second Calvinist argument is that if a
person dead in sin exercised faith, there would be a righteous act that
had been done on the part of the sinner that gained them salvation.
To this last point we must turn to Paul. In all of Paul?s writings
where he is speaking of faith and meritorious works (works that
supposedly gain us salvation-favor in the eyes of God), he always
places faith and works opposite each other (Romans 4 and Galatians 3 as
examples). Thus, faith cannot be a meritorious work. Jesus speaks of
faith being a work (John 6:29), but I know of no theologian that thinks
Jesus and Paul are speaking of the same kind of works. James sees works
as meritorious but clearly James is speaking of works that are produced
by the life of a person of faith (i.e. the physical representation of
the presence of faith in the believer?s life ? James 2:24) and thus one
who is already saved. So Scripture would not seem to support the
contention that faith can be a meritorious work. Instead, it is exactly
because it cannot be a meritorious work that it is the means of our
receiving our salvation.
So How Do We Understand Total Depravity Based on Scripture
Mankind
in sinfulness is incapable of desiring or pursuing God. However,
because of God?s love for mankind, God is able to pursue them (this
seems to be one of the main themes throughout Scripture). I believe He
does this through the conviction of the Holy Spirit who makes every
person aware of their position before God in their sin (John 6:7-11).
At this point, a person may or may not exercise faith in God. If they
do, they are regenerated by the life of the Holy Spirit which indwells
them and places them in Christ, whose perfect life and sacrifice covers
our own life. If a person does not exercise faith, they continue in
their sinfulness. I believe this takes into consideration all
Scriptural passages that pertain to man?s sinfulness and his/her
exercising faith in Jesus.
-Pastor Russ-
A message from Rey: Now brothers and sisters, Brother Russ
surely welcomes commentary. I merely ask that you offer the same grace and
patience that the brother has extended in posting this article. Like I said in
Sunday?s announcement, this is posted for discussion with a focus on the topic
at hand: Total Depravity. Be gracious and reflect Christ in You as speak to my
guest. Also, in the future I want to have a blogger of the Reformed perspective
offer his view on TULIP(S?) I will not invite just any blogger to do this. If
you post with the grace and focus on Scripture as the brother has done here, I
will likely ask you (to which you can than say ?no way, heretic!? 
)
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