T - Total Depravity

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, "'But we did not yield in subjection to them "'for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel "'would remain with you.'".

In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.

What Calvinism Means and Why the Term Matters

Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry. My name's Mike Abendroth. It's Tuesday, and that means we are always biblical, always provocative, and always Pastor Sheriff Steve Cooley. I'm just speechless.

Today, we're gonna talk about a topic that will goad you, prod you, prompt you. Shame you. Maybe shame you. What does Calvinism mean? What is Calvinism? Are we man-worshippers if we're Calvinisms? Calvinists?

I saw a new song, Steve, it came across my desk. It's called Arminian Grace. I love that song. How strange the sound. Salvation, salvation hinged on me. I once was lost, then turned around. Was blind, then chose to see.

Woo-hoo! If you had to describe for our listening audience what Calvinism is, how would you succinctly describe it? And then let's talk after that about some kind of caricatures about the term.

I would describe Calvinism as the sovereign grace of God in salvation. That is very succinct. Thank you.

That is pithy. Yeah. That is succinct. And I could tell your mind was working fastidiously to get such a succinct definition. Now listen, when people talk about Calvinism, the first thing they want to do is say, we don't follow a man.

And of course, we don't follow John Calvin. He was a created being, and we're not to give our worship to anyone except the triune God. God forbid that we would worship the creation instead of the creator.

But we use Calvinism as a word that is theological shorthand. What does theological shorthand even mean?

Well, it just means we use one word when we could use many to describe the entire system. But it just reminds me, this is going to really seem strange. But while you were talking about Calvinism, it just kind of reminded me an old Archie Bunker thing where he said, everyone who lives in a commune is a communist.

And sometimes I think that when people talk about Calvinism, they're just as ill-informed. It's like, everyone who lives in a Calvin is a Calvinist. They don't understand what Calvinism is. It is shorthand for the doctrines of grace, what we call the five points of Calvinism, total depravity, what is that?

Oh, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, and preservation of the saints.

People get all riled up about Calvinism. I think, Steve, because they don't understand the historical definition behind the term. And so when we say the medieval time or the Middle Ages or the Turks did such and such in the Crusades, there's a historical background that gives it definition, that gives it understanding.

But today, pastors who are afraid of the doctrines of grace, God on the throne, free will thrown behind the bus where it belongs with all the other false idols of the world, pastors get very nervous when it comes to God on the throne.

So they have to quickly say, oh, beware of hyper-Calvinists. Calvinists don't preach the gospel. And they do some kind of ad hominem thing, Calvin, Bern, Servetus, when actually, they should be thinking, historically, is there significance to the term?

And do we believe what the term describes? After all, Steve, the word Trinity's not in the Bible, and we use that as theological shorthand. The word Bible actually isn't even in the Bible because it was written in Greek and Hebrew.

But just because the word isn't in the Bible, it doesn't mean it's not true. So if you'd like to say, I never want to hear the word Calvinism, but I'd like to talk about God's free, distinguishing, sovereign grace, because man is in dire need.

He is depraved, he's corrupted, he's unable of coming to faith by himself. I'm fine with that. I just tend, in theological circles, to say Calvinism, although it is rare that I say it on Sunday.

Well, I mean, you've just driven straight to the heart of the matter. The ultimate issue isn't a matter of the history, Calvin, and anything else, what does the Bible teach? People today act like Calvinism is some invention, as if it sprang forth in the 1600s, as opposed to just a correct understanding of the gospel, straight out of the Bible.

I don't think it's any, it may be anachronistic, in other words, it may be out of time, but it is certainly no exaggeration to say the Apostle Paul, and yes, even the Lord Jesus, would be a Calvinist in the sense that they believed, and believe, still, in the sovereign grace of God in salvation.

He alone saves. When I first heard James Boyce preach a sermon entitled Jesus Christ was a Calvinist, I couldn't believe what I was hearing. And of course, his congregation has been taught, and he's at 10th Presbyterian for a long time in Philadelphia, very historic church, and so his congregation knew.

But it is true, John the Baptist, Elijah, Moses, Jesus, they all believed in the sovereignty of God, the free, sovereign, distinguishing grace of God. And when I call someone an Arminian, Steve, I don't say, you follow a man, you're following Jacob Hermanduz, or the man who is also known as Jacob Arminius.

I just think that's a system that defines your theology, the way you think about God, and the way you think about man, and who's actually on the higher throne. So when I say the word Calvinism, I don't think, this is John Calvin, and here's what was going on in Geneva, and everything else.

And so today we wanna talk on WVNE 760, No Compromise Radio, what is Calvinist? What is Calvinist? What is, you know what, I was conflating things. A guy came to my office one time, Steve, this office right here, this study, and he said, am I a Calvinist?

Now, he was speaking. He wasn't saying, Mike, are you a Calvinist?

He wanted to know if he was. Yeah, he wanted you to evaluate his theology.

So I asked him a series of questions, and he said, well, I guess I'm a Calvinist. I said, I guess you are too, have a nice day.

You know, my wife, when we were, I was saved, and I think she was maybe saved, not really certain. I don't know if she knows if she was certain back then, but I gave her a book by Mr. Steele and Mr. Thomas, The Five Points of Calvinism, and I challenged her to read it, and she did, and she said, well, I believe everything that's in this book not because it's in this book, but because it's straight out of the Bible.

I mean, it was packed full of Bible quotes, and she'd only heard bad things about it, and that's what's interesting is there's this, as you said, caricature. There's this idea that it is a separate religion.

No, my friends, it is consistent with the Bible, and just to give you another kind of story, was listening to a man preach, well, sort of preach the other day, and he got into Ephesians 1, and when you talk about election, you're talking about the sovereign calling of God, and he went on to say that election didn't mean that at all.

It meant that God chose everyone, and that following that, it had to be kind of a two-part thing where we had to agree with God, and we had to want to be his friend as much as he wants to be our friend, and I'm listening to all this, and he just started skipping all over the Bible.

Listen, when we study the Bible, we need to do it in context, and when you study these doctrines in context, in the context of the scriptures that they're in, you will come to no other decision other than the fact that God is sovereign in salvation.

Was that church someplace in the South or by a shore? Ha! Ha! Allegedly. Allegedly. Here's something else we can do before we get into the particulars. We're talking broad themes now, general statements about Calvinism.

Is it important? What do we think about when someone says that term or that name or that moniker or that... Nomenclature. Yeah. That's excellent. That's good. Thank you. My thesaurus is not thesaurus-ing too well today.

When I talk to somebody, I like to say to them, do you know the greatest heroes of the faith, specifically the missionary heroes of the faith, have all been five-point Calvinists until recently, but when you look back at Adoniram Judson, sent here from Salem, Massachusetts, to Burma, to William Carey, to Jonathan Edwards, to David Brainerd, to those in pulpits like Charles Spurgeon, they were all five-point Calvinists, and I find it interesting that lots of people want to claim Spurgeon, claim Carey, claim some of these wonderful Calvinists as biographical heroes, but they would never tell you that they're five-point Calvinists because that would hurt their logic.

Yeah, they want to claim the man and then disavow the very theology that propelled them.

Boy, that's deep. Thank you. Thank you very much. So today we're talking about Calvinism, and again, as Pastor Steve said, shorthand, Calvinism is this, that salvation, as in Jonah 2, verse eight and nine, salvation is from the Lord, salvation is of the Lord, and God does not need man, man cannot save himself, and so when we think about why there's a need for the sovereign salvation of God, we come to the first letter in our acronym called total depravity, and that acronym, TULIP, starts with T, hence total depravity, total inability.

Total Depravity and Human Responsibility

Steve, when I say total depravity or total inability, and someone says, well, if man is depraved, that can't be true because men are responsible to repent and believe, how would you respond?

And this is a common question, how do you reconcile the sovereignty of God, that he's actually the king, that he's actually the monarch, that he actually gets to choose, versus the fact that man is held responsible?

How do I reconcile those two things? And the answer is I don't, the Bible teaches both, teaches that God is sovereign and that man is responsible, and I'm okay with that.

Well, that's an excellent point, one of the things I was taught early on, and Steve, you know this as well, because if I find something important that was taught to me, I pass it along, that when you mature as a Christian, you don't have to force mental closure, and so you just let things lie, and if the Bible teaches simultaneously the sovereignty of God and the responsibility and duty of man, and doesn't seem to be concerned that they don't reconcile in finite, sinful creatures' minds, then we just let sleeping dogs lie.

Well, here's another one,.

Jesus Christ is 100 God and he's 100 man. Well, which one is it? Is he 100 God or 100 man?

Absolutely, so let's come to the doctrine of total depravity, where God didn't make men fallen, God made Adam upright and in his own image, but Adam sinned, and now every person that follows Adam is a sinner, and they are wicked and depraved and totally incapable of pleasing God on their own.

They are depraved, they are, according to Genesis 6, verse 5, having a mind and thoughts and intentions and will that will go against God. What else do we know about total depravity?

Well, we know that the heart is deceitful above all else. We know that man, before salvation, is dead in his sins and trespasses. We know that there's no good in us to begin with. I mean, the opposite of it, and maybe it's a good thing to look at that, Arminianism would say that there is some good, some aisle of righteousness, some part of us that's untainted by sin that then can respond to the calling of God.

That almost sounds like Gilligan's Island of Righteousness. That's so fantasy, that's fantasy island. That's fantastical. That's fantasy island, the island of righteousness. It's interesting that scriptures, for instance, in Ephesians chapter two, talk about the spiritual deadness of mankind and spiritual blindness.

Psalm 58, that men are deaf. Ephesians chapter four, men are hardened. Romans chapter eight, that they're rebellious. Isaiah chapter 64, they are polluted. Jeremiah 13, unable to change. John chapter six, unable to come to Christ.

Now, doesn't that sound like, if we only had one of those, Steve, let alone putting all those together and more, we should say to ourself, robot, non-robot, puppet, non-puppet, able to experience free will, not able to experience free will.

That is a CV or a resume for total depravity.

Well, and here's the typical Arminian response is this. Well, you know, there are literally, fill in the blank, dozens, hundreds, millions of scripture. I mean, they don't say millions, but dozens, hundreds of scriptures that indicate we have a free will, to which I always say, give me one, just one.

Give me one that teaches free will. And I think it's maybe important to define free will. What do people mean when they say, well, I have a free will?

What does that mean? Well, if you have freedom to make choices that we wouldn't deny that. There's an agency that God, that means God doesn't make choices for you. But if you mean to tell me that your will as an unbeliever is free from the influence of Satan, read second Timothy chapter two, free from indwelling sin, read Romans chapter six, 1 Corinthians chapter six, free from the world system.

I dare you to watch a Big Mac commercial without being influenced. But the main issue, Steve, with free will is, is the will free from God's saving power? Can the will say no when God's will says yes?

The will can say no initially, but once God regenerates you, the will will say, yes, I believe. So is man subject to the sovereign hand of God?

Well, maybe a classic illustration of that, perhaps, is John chapter three, where Jesus is talking to Nicodemus and talks about, you must be born again. And then he describes the Holy Spirit's work as he describes it as a wind.

And it goes where it wishes. He goes where he wishes and does what he wants. And you just think about that. Would it be possible, as Jesus said, to be born again and then not to become a Christian, not to become a believer?

What would it mean to be born again, to be born from spiritual death onto spiritual life? Wouldn't you have to become a Christian? Could you just kind of be a nothing, born again, nothing? No, you believe.

When God removes the scales from your eyes, when he unstops your ears, when he allows your mind to comprehend scripture, if we're looking at 1 Corinthians chapter two, we would see that, very clearly, people believe.

They don't choose not to believe when those things happen. God never fails to save one upon whom he set his affection.

Total Depravity, the Fall, and Original Sin

Well, we're talking today about Calvinism on WV &E No Compromise Radio, and we're talking a little bit today about total depravity. We'll work through total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, effectual call or irresistible grace, and perseverance of the saints or preservation by God.

We'll work through all those, but right now we're talking about total depravity. Steve, I have a question for you regarding this depravity. Sinners come to Christ because they, A, make a proper use of the free will that God has given them, B, are born in a neutral state of freedom, just like Adam was, C, have been granted pervenient grace, or D, have been enabled by affectious grace.

I would have to vote for D. I mean, what were some of those bogus things? What was one of the, let me see here.

Let's go straight from Gilligan's Island, and this is the one before they had.

This one just kills me. They are born in a neutral state of freedom, just like Adam was. Listen, there were three people in the Bible who had free will, but I thought you said free will didn't exist. Oh yeah, there were three people.

Three persons. Yeah, Adam and Eve. Well, there are three persons now who have free will, the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, but were there three human beings who had free will? Adam and Eve before the fall, because they had no sin nature, and Jesus, who was born without the curse of Adam by virtue of him being conceived apart from any man, the activity of man.

You're exactly right, and there is even a difference that we don't want to get into that much today, but there's a difference between Adam's free will, Eve's free will, which were more conditional, and Jesus's free will, the Father's free will, and the Spirit's free will.

That's right. Who had this unconditional free will. You know what happens, Steve? When you get the fall wrong, when you get Genesis 2 and 3 wrong, everything else is messed up. Because Adam sinned, his sin was imputed to us, and if his sin is imputed to us, and we are now the children of wrath, and we are his offspring, and we are in Adam, those as unbelievers, something needs to be done, and there needs to be a work by someone else to give us a different kind of righteousness, Christ's righteousness, and so when people say, I deny total depravity, then number one, I think they have a misunderstanding of the fall of man.

Well, it's straight out of Romans 5, verse 12. The Bible says, therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned. And it goes on to say that, basically, Adam was the cause.

Sin came into the world and was spread to all men because of the fall of Adam. That is an irrevocable fact. It is just 100 true. It cannot be changed. Each little baby that comes into the world as cute and cuddly and precious as they might be is, as one of my old professors used to call them, a little sinful viper.

I mean, they have a sin nature.

That's bad against my self-esteem. Now, Steve, think about it. Self-esteem is such an idol today. Forget free will is an idol, although that's an idol, too. Self-esteem is such an idol. I don't have the right body image.

I don't have the right healthy image of myself. Well, this is the healthy image because this healthy image says, I recognize I've got a problem, and that is I'm sinful and can't save myself. God, help me.

But if I'm a Pelagian, that is someone who says the guilt of Adam's first sin, our original sin, is not imputed or given or counted towards me, then I've got a different way of thinking. If I'm an Arminian, I've got a different way of thinking that Adam's guilt and depravity has been transmitted to prosperity.

Yes, that's true. But as Randy Seaver said, they believe that a man in the state of sinful nature is unable to choose good over evil. But to this, the Arminian adds the doctrine of provenient grace, where God grants provenient grace to all sinners, freeing their wills to either choose or reject Christ.

Which is a fascinating concept. But again, I just go, I'm pretty simple. I mean, anybody who knows me knows that. And all I want is a verse. Give me a Bible verse that says we have provenient grace, that all men have been given kind of an override.

Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Great, that's John 1 12. I don't even have to look. For God so loved the world. Wait, let's just go to, you know, here's, and there's, you've just perfectly imitated the typical Arminian argument, because it's one verse, then another verse, then another verse, and just kind of a staccato fashion without ever looking at the context.

John 1 12 is a great verse, but you have to read verse 13 too, and it makes it very clear. It goes right back to the sovereignty of God, not the will of man. Steve, the letter kills, but the spirit gives life.

Thanks for sharing. We believe that at the fall, the sinner has been affected in every way, shape, or form. As one man said, has been detrimentally affected by sin. And that unbelievers cannot choose good, cannot choose God, cannot choose righteousness, cannot choose heaven, cannot choose to be born again.

They are unable to do it. They are spiritually unable, and therefore someone from the outside has to come to save them.

Ephesians 1–2 and the Necessity of Regeneration

Well, and I don't know what could be any more plain, you know, in Ephesians chapter one, where Paul just waxes eloquently, just praising God for this magnificent gift of salvation and describes all the work of the Trinity, you know, the father choosing, the son dying, the spirit sealing, and he just goes on and just talks about all the benefits that Christians enjoy.

And then in Ephesians chapter two, he explains why that had to be, because we're born dead in our sins and trespasses. We were just like, we were children of wrath just as the rest. We had no hope, no chance of anything other than doom and damnation and hell.

And then, but God being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, caused us to be, he does it, God does it. We don't do it ourselves. We don't choose God. God chooses us. He changes us.

And then after he changes us, we choose him. What if someone said, Steve, and you're a cop?

I was. Well, that's correct. I guess once a cop, always a cop. Do you have a badge in your pocket? I'll take the fifth on that one. What happens is we understand as policemen, as pastors, how bad people are, but not everyone is as bad as they could be.

No, no. We don't mean total depravity means that you're always as bad. Everybody has to be a Hitler. No, to me, the issue that's most insidious, Steve, is the grandma who is a proper lady, civically she's fine, and she knits for the city and does things like that for the food drive, but she's just as much of a sinner because she can't get God to please her on her own.

She's a city knitter. She's a city knitter. As Thomas Chalmers said, God made the country. The devil made the city. No, wait, let's see.

And man made the city, and the devil made the suburbs. That's right. Yeah, I've heard that recently. Yeah, recently, just a few minutes ago.

We got about 30 seconds to go. We are talking about Calvinism today. What is the historic definition of Calvinism? That's what we need to talk about, and is it biblically true? And here's your homework, Genesis 6, 5, Ephesians 4, and Ephesians 2.

Any other words of wisdom for five seconds, Steve? Repent and believe. Absolutely.

Call on God for mercy. He is the only Savior. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life-transforming power of God's Word through verse-by-verse exposition of the sacred text.

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