Michael McLean
2022-10-12 01:35:02 UTC
The Doctrine of "Total Depravity"
by John Reisinger
One form of sin will often exclude another form of sin. (1) The "miser"
will be delivered from the sin of "wastefulness." (2) The "work-a-holic"
will be delivered from sloth and laziness. (3) The "Pride of position"
will often exclude immorality but only for fear of being caught.
Shakespeare said it well: "I see it has pleased Devil drunkenness to
give place to Devil wrath."
This truth explains the "apparent" change in some men when elevated to a
position of authority. Their nice personality is replaced with a
tyrannical attitude. Actually the man did not really change at all. His
true self came to the surface for the first time. The man was always
like that in his heart but he never had the authority or opportunity to
demonstrate it.
Bob, you should listen to this.by John Reisinger
One form of sin will often exclude another form of sin. (1) The "miser"
will be delivered from the sin of "wastefulness." (2) The "work-a-holic"
will be delivered from sloth and laziness. (3) The "Pride of position"
will often exclude immorality but only for fear of being caught.
Shakespeare said it well: "I see it has pleased Devil drunkenness to
give place to Devil wrath."
This truth explains the "apparent" change in some men when elevated to a
position of authority. Their nice personality is replaced with a
tyrannical attitude. Actually the man did not really change at all. His
true self came to the surface for the first time. The man was always
like that in his heart but he never had the authority or opportunity to
demonstrate it.
I listened to RC Sproul yesterday talk about "Election" and
"Predestination", and I think I understand the point where he left the
path now. What he said was right in his own eyes but he had a
foundational problem.
"Nothing to the table I bring", is his doctrine, and that is true, but
the problem is "belief", an independent capacity to believe that God put
in us.
That is why He said...
Joh 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten
Son, that whosoever BELIEVETH in him should not perish, but have
everlasting life.
He did not say, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only
begotten Son, so that he could pull your totally dead being out of the
ocean, and give you everlasting life.
He put a requirement on every living soul...to believe.
Let me explain further; this is important.
We are "belief beings." "Belief" is not good, and it is not evil. What
we believe "in" might be good or evil, but "belief" in itself is not
depravity. I believe I like strawberries. Is that depraved? So, we are
more than depraved beings.
Think of it like a fish swimming, or like us swimming. Swimming is not
subject to depravity; it just is, and "belief" is belief; it just is.
Sproul hasn't realised that, and it really fatally undermines what he
says.
He presupposes depravity determines belief, and it does in fallen human
beings, but our "belief being" is more than good or evil (depravity). I
can prove that to you.
I am sitting on a park bench. Where is the good, and where is the evil?
I breathe, where is the good and where is the evil. I eat, where is
the good, where is the evil. Please note, those are all acts of belief,
I sit on the park bench because I believe I am suited to that in the
moment, I breathe because my body believes it is in need of oxygen, I
eat believing it will give nutrition to my body.
In every way, we are belief beings, and our being is more than good or
evil. I am going to prove that to you below too!
So, saying we are all depraved, as in, that is all we are, is a sweeping
and narrow and false blanket statement. Yes, human beings are depraved,
unless transformed by God in our inner being, but every human being is
GREATER than good or evil; if we were just one or the other, we would be
an adjective.
The Lord Jesus Christ didn't go to the cross for good to defeat evil
only, to fix a "thing" problem. He went to the cross for much more than
that, for living souls beyond the value of the knowledge of good and evil.
Luk_23:34 Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what
they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots.
Read on, I am going to prove to you, as "belief beings", that we are
greater than a classification of "total depravity", from which all
things reformed theology is judged - Sproul's flaw.
That "belief" essence in each of us is where free will comes in, which
is not based on good or evil, it is just choice. Now think of Adam and
Eve in the garden. No sin has yet been committed.
At that point.
They are faced with a choice, a choice of belief, because they are
primarily "belief beings", and so are we. Again, no sin has yet been
committed. Are you hearing? Are you seeing? And that is where Sproul -
who I happen to like very much - theology is flawed, because man is not
just depravity and inert dead bodies at the bottom of the ocean. We are
living, breathing souls, belief beings...like our Creator.
And like Him, we have a free choice.
Yes, we have the knowledge of good and evil, and we chose evil, but we
still have the capacity in us as "belief beings" to believe God, and
repent for our own good (what He calls for), not because we are good,
but because we are "belief beings" and He gave us a free choice to do so.
God does not want anyone to be forced to want Him; He wants us to freely
elect to want Him, and in a sense it is no different to what type of
chocolate you choose to eat. However, God forbid, it is not such a
trivial matter, nor does God equate to the value of chocolate.
Isn't that ironic in light of us holding elections all around the world?
We elect on a purely arbitrary basis, and so it is when we come as
"belief beings" in electing God as the Lord of our lives.
Therein you see the supreme humility of a supreme and wonderful,
staggeringly beautiful, and consummate perfection of the character of
our Creator. He could just flick his finger, and we'd be gone, unworthy
of tying his shoelaces...yet.
Any questions?
Michael McLean
PS: When I get to it, I am going to post my early testimony which
highlights what is said above.
--
Jesus is the everlasting Father, Jesus is God, Jesus is the Lord.
Rom 5:8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were
YET sinners, Christ died for us.
Jeremiah 10:23 O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it
is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.
"To seek your own will is to seek your own glory."
"If God is not first in everything He is not first in anything."
"Sin is not what you do, it is what you are."
"What makes the bible the truth? The resonance of God."
"All men were born sinners. Why? Because all men were born not loving
God with all their heart, soul and mind. An abomination."
"Compromise will condemn you."
"There are no sinners in Christ Jesus."
"My sons are born of Me. In them is no darkness at all."
"You can't learn righteousness. Haven't you had enough time already to
know that?"
"The way of truth is the testimony of life."
"I merely speak the truth, what is revealed to me, and the cards fall
where God intends."
"Nothing that is produced is produced without first being faith."
"You can only find proof of God through faith because that is how we all
live, by faith."
"It is not what you do that matters, it is how you treat Me."
"Keep going forward. Forget about the past. Lift up your head, look
ahead."
"You cannot be free with guilt in your heart."
"Priority is everything."
"The truth doesn't need evidence, it is evidence."
"There is no greater possession a man has than his own will, to squander
it or to place it where it truly belongs."
"An atheist is a fool who thinks truth is found in living a lie."
"Saying "prove it" [as a foundation] is merely an ignorant straw man, to
an ignorant straw man."
"Wait, rest, be still, and know."
"No man can wash his own hands!!!"
"I find this in the Christianity religions: 'Nobody's perfect' they say,
and they use that as an excuse not to do what is perfect."
The Atheist: "They don't believe and put their faith in a Creator (the
obvious). So no evidence and proof is to be found!!"
"The world is the way it is because God can't compromise who He is."
"Man is not the centre of being."
"Man is incompatible with the natural world because of his sinful nature."
"And then the Lord said, "I see everything."
"Man has no greater idol than his own will."
"Where is God hiding? He isn't."
"If you don't keep all the scriptures, you can't keep any of them."
"You can't prove anything because everything depends on a person's
willingness to believe."
"Atheists are ultimately trying to be pointlessness, meaninglessness,
and purposelessness in their point, meaning, and purpose."
"The last day of creation will be the last day of time."