Refuting"Total Depravity" in Calvinism

 

  How Calvinists Perversed "Total Depravity"

The Evil of Calvinism

See also:

Calvinism's "Sovereignty of God":  Praising  and Blaspheming  God With One Fell Breath

A calvinist may not be an evil person, but calvinism is evil. It is an evil doctrine which has insiduously installed itself as a mainstream Christian doctrine, when in reality, it is a doctrine which blasphemes God in the one breath, using the same words which purportedly extol the virtues of God.  The average calvinist is not evil, but he practices the evil of calvinism which praises God while insidiously attacking the nature of God for being unrighteous and unjust at the same time. Whatever you hear out of the mouth of a calvinist purportedly praising God's sovereignty and power, always apply the question "what are you really saying on the obverse side?", ie. what are you REALLY saying about God? And you will find that calvinists are actually saying God is the CAUSE of all sins, evil having predestined everything; and then to cover their mouths which is lying, denying they do not mean that. But that's what you just said!! The heart of the evil of calvinism lies in their doctrine of predestination in which God had predestined Adam to sin in the first place. The rest of their evil hinges on this.

Calvinists, Murderers in the Name of Christ

Calvinism is slippery as a snake, the father of all lies, who was a murderer from the beginning, as Jesus had said of the devil. Truly John Calvin, the source of calvinist teachings was indeed a murderer, who had caused  Michael Servetus to be burned at the stake because Michael Servetus disputed his teachings. Not that a snake is actually slippery, but that it does give you that feeling that it is. Blur-blur calvinists wanna-bes out to extol themselves choose to be blissfully ignorant of John Calvin's part in the death of Servetus. 7 years before Servetus was killed, John Calvin rooted for his death, having written such to his friend, Thomas Ferrell dated February 13, 1546   :

"If he [Servetus] comes [to Geneva], I shall never let him go out alive if my authority has weight"

Other calvinist leaders were part of this heinous act of murdering in the name of Christ, and would continue to murder today, if the laws of the land had not changed. Judge for yourself what saith John Know, a calvinist leader of that time: "Now to you justifiers of Servetus: Servetus was an abominable blasphemer against God; and you are justifiers of Servetus: therefore ye are blasphemers before God, like abominable as he was"

Yes, calvinists have murdered in the name of Jesus . Knowledgeable calvinists with PhDs. continue to defend or excuse Calvin's part in the death of Servetus. People like Dr. Mark Talbot, Dr James White, etc ignore the words of Calvin, like what he wrote after the death of Servetus "Do not fail to rid the country of these scoundrels, who stir up the people to revolt against us. Such monsters should be exterminated, as I have exterminated Servetus the Spaniard" That what he wrote to Michael Paet, High Chamberlain of the King of Navarre.  The evil will defend their evil ones.

Yes, I agree that Servetus was a heretic. But is it CHRISTIAN to root for the death of a heretic, Mr. PhD in Christian theology? Was to Ok because it was done in those days? Would you not declare me a heretic and want me dead for stirring revolt today against you, if you can and declare that it was done in the understanding of the days, and not the scriptures? Can  you allow me the same privilege to declare you a heretic and proclaim you deserving of death in the name of Jesus the Christ?

The first time I faced a calvinist who had tried to force his perverted teachings onto me, I was totally caught off guard. I could see he was pushing nonsense to me. I could see he was throwing confusion into all I that I had, trying to fend him off. But I was unprepared then. I did not have the full information at hand to do a point for point defence against his nonsensical attacks. He came at me in the manner the Jehovah Witness cultists whom I often debated would do, preprogrammed, well-prepared and well-armed with this verse and that including the verse numbers. But I, on the other hand, could only vaguely remember my verses, but not the verse numbers. But still, that was enough to cause him to become agitated at my resistance. This calvinist was a man I had always viewed as one of my mentors in Christianity, a teacher of the bible in a college, who used to have a solid foundation in bible knowledge.  He is not an evil man who intentionally works against God. Of this, I am very sure. In fact, he has  zeal for God, but not knowledge despite the fact that there was a time he had good knowledge but now, he knows not what he has become and is doing.  How he had changed into a calvinist, I do not know. How he could be changed, I do not know either; but the devil has his ways.

Then, I was not prepared, but now I have done so.

Calvinism is best recognized by the acronym T.U.L.I.P.
Total Depravity
Unconditional Election
Limited Atonement.
Irresistible Grace
Perseverance of the saints.

What is Total Depravity?

This part will deal with Calvinists extreme rendition of Total Depravity.

Let me first affirm my agreement with the state of total depravity of mankind. I agree that mankind is born with the seed of iniquity in him, and is naturally bent on sinning. It comes naturally. No parents teach their babies to be selfish, covetous, to lie or to steal. With the seed of iniquity in them, babies do it naturally as they grow up. Again, I agree that mankind is totally depraved, but not in the way calvinists have twisted its meaning to be, in order to push through their evil definitions in the remaining letters ULIP that follow the letter T,  to blaspheme our holy God , even as they pretend to extol His virtues. To extol the sovereignty of God and to insinuate that He is the God who condemns those that He did not enable to be saved to hell is to call this holy God unjust. This, they have done but this, will they deny.

How Calvinists Twist The Meaning of "Total Depravity".

My understanding of the nature of total depravity of man is that man by himself is incapable of doing good for the sake of goodness and out of love. Total depravity means that man on his own cannot seek God and do good to honor God out of his fear for God. But it does not means that a depraved man is totally incapable of doing any good works. For do not we in real life see wicked men being kindly to their own mothers and people they love? Do not we see gangsters doing good deeds, too save that they do what they do for selfish, self-serving reasons and not for the sake of true righteousness? Bad people perform often charity to portray themselves in good light in order to get the praise of men, to gain hand claps and recognition! But those who know God and who are known of God are moved by the Holy Spirit to do good works in love,  so that the people who see their good deeds will glorify the Father in heaven.

However, the calvinists have perverted their understanding of the total depravity instead to become the total inability of a man to respond to the goodness of God to reach out to him. Watch Out against this slippery switch!. They bait and switch their arguments very rapidly between inability to do good and inability to seek God and respond to the goodness of God, causing you to become confused in your attempts to counter their claims. And they do all this just so that they can slip in the evil insinuation that the holy God is not so holy and just after all, because He had predestined some by election to be saved, and predestined others to be damned by not choosing them. The evil that is Calvinism mis-characterized the appearances of "predestination" in the bible to mean that God took away the free will of a man to respond to the goodness of God to be saved,  and in doing so, portray God as an unjust God who damns those He made incapable of choosing to be saved. See how Peter so clearly said of God : 2Pe 3:9  The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.  The calvinist teaching of total depravity goes directly against this scripture which says that God wants ALL to come to repentance and be saved.


The perverted total depravity doctrine came into existence only about 500 years ago. And this is what Justin Martyr says of that Calvinist twisting of predestination.

• For if it is predetermined that this man will be good, and this other man will be evil, neither is the first one meritorious nor the latter man to be blamed. And again, unless the human race has the power of avoiding evil and choosing good by free choice, they are not accountable for their actions.” -Justin Martyr (100-165 A.D.)

 Note  the above and compare it to what the calvinist are pushing to you. They are saying that man is still accountable for their actions even though God had not given them the power of avoiding evil.
 And here's what Tatian says of the free will that God had in fact given to man, which the calvinists say God did not:

•  “We were not created to die. Rather, we die by our own fault. Our free will has destroyed us. We who were free have become slaves. We have been sold through sin. Nothing evil has been created by God. We ourselves have manifested wickedness. But we, who have manifested it, are able again to reject it.” -Tatian (120-180 A.D.)

Calvinism, which started in the 1500s says some of mankind, in fact most of mankind is created to die.  Would these twisters ever show you what these early church fathers had said concerning the free will of men to choose? Of course not. Here's what Ireneus explained to the early church:

• “But man, being endowed with reason, and in this respect similar to God, having been made free in his will, and with power over himself, is himself his own cause that sometimes he becomes wheat, and sometimes chaff.” -Ireneus (130-202 A.D.)

Clear enough? I can quote more sayings of the church fathers to refute the calvinists' error here. But, I will let you dig for them yourselves. If you are keen enough to fight this evil, you will find the time and interest to do it. You will find that the cleverer calvinist is at best able to quote Augustine to find support for their twisted version of total depravity. And you might as well know that Augustine was also the father of the convoluted Roman Catholic doctrines.

Is Man Totally Unable to Fear God and choose to do good ?

The calvinists say yes, man cannot choose to do good. But let us look at Mannaseh, the Judah King who had promoted idolatry in Judah, burned his own sons alive in sacrifice to idols and did all manners of evil. The bible says that the Lord sent the Assyrians to capture him and exiled him in hooks to Babylon. There at Babylon, the bible says in 2Chr33: "when he was in affliction, he besought the LORD his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers"  YES! Mannaseh CHOSE to repent when he was suffering and the bible says God heard him and forgave him. Does it say anywhere, anywhere at all that God, enabled him to respond to the suffering this time around, while earlier on in  2Ch 33:10  when "the LORD spake to Manasseh, and to his people: but they would not hearken. "  He would not hearken, no could not hearken. WOULD NOT, see it??  Total depravity is not about not being able to respond. Total depravity is about not able to do good for the sake of righteousness and pureness of heart. To be deprave does not mean to be unable.

Does Regeneration Come First? or Salvation Comes Before Regeneration?

Here, it is necessary to address the calvinist tactic of using acrobatic semantics to confuse you in order to argue you down. They are very fond of this. Calvinists will assail you with the argument that a sinner needs to be "regenerated", i.e. made alive first before he can respond to accept the grace of God to save him. The logic they try to force down your throat with intimidating tones is that a sinner is dead in his sins, and being so, a "dead man" cannot react to God's grace unless God makes him alive first. And you, being unused to their nonsensical attacks becomes too confused to counter them. Think. A man who is dead in his sins is not physically dead. If he is, then it would be true that he is unable to react to God's grace. But that is not so. He is still alive and being alive, he can feel and think, which can cause him to repent. That was what we saw with Mannaseh above.

Calvinists may even attempt to use the case of Lazarus being resurrected to life by Jesus to support their argument that regeneration has to come first. You forget that Lazarus was already a believer in Jesus. And you forget that Lazarus was physically dead, not spiritually dead. And this example has no relevance to the issue of salvation. Lazarus was already  a believer who was physically dead, and Jesus commanded his departed spirit to return to the dead body, not made his spirit which is dead to come alive to receive salvation. See how devious calvinist arguments are?

No, regeneration does not come before salvation. Salvation brings about regeneration. A person who is truly saved enjoys the workings of the Holy Spirit in him, which makes him bear the fruits of salvation. It is the faith exercises first to believe in Jesus Christ that opens the way for the Holy Spirit to live in him. It is not the Holy Spirit that caused him to believe first and with faith coming out afterwards. Be aware of their illogical tactics presented with an aggressive stance to batter you into submission and acceptance. I repeat, NO, faith comes first to receive salvation, and regeneration results from salvation.


The calvinist error about regeneration before salvation is of their own making. They had erroneously considered faith to be works. Using this premise, they proceed to argue that the bible says that works do not save, and being so, faith cannot come before salvation. But what does Paul tell us in Romans? If faith which they consider is works can result in salvation, then salvation can no longer be considered to have come by grace. The failed to notice that for them to continue in this line of argument they are refuting themselves. They capitalize on the average Christian's confusion with work works and grace to argue their case. Let it be known here that wherever the bible speaks of works not being able to save, the bible is referring to the works of the law of Moses; the bible is not speaking of good works of love which are the fruits of the spirit. And that is exactly what the scripture means where it says "Faith, without works is dead". It is not refering to works of law, but works of the spirit. Faith that does not manifest the works of the spirit is dead faith. Simple, and not what the Calvinists batter you with.

Finally, this should scripture will put the calvinists' "regeneration first, salvation after" idiocy to its grave. Calvinistic insistently claim that one must have life first ( be regenerated first) before he can see life ( i.e. gain salvation). But scripture says exactly the opposite of it.

John 3:36 "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth upon him"

Get it?  He that believeth not the Son shall not see life! Get it? Not get life first, followed by faith, have faith first, believe first, then get see life.

 Conclusion.

And so, is it true that man is totally depraved? Sure! He is, but not in the way Calvinist put it.

We know man is not able to do good for the sake of goodness to others. But man is able to choose good, and to seek God when he is in pain and suffering. Yes, he does it for selfish reasons, which is why he is totally depraved. And now, I also know how to put it, total depravity is not total ability. See? And he is not as totally unable to choose good as you think. For his own selfish good, he can still choose to do good.

It is faith in Jesus that leads to salvation; true faith leads to true salvation and we know the faith is true when it results in visible display of the fruits of the spirit. If you cannot understand this, it is not because you are stupid. It is because you don't want to.

Jesus said in John 8:32 "and you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free".
I am free. I do not know if you are.