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Home > Calvinism > 1. Total Depravity
Total Depravity, Original Sin, Depravity, Total Inability, Free WillTotal Depravity is probably the most misunderstood tenet of Calvinism. When Calvinists speak of humans as "totally depraved," they are making an extensive, rather than an intensive statement. The effect of the fall upon man is that sin has extended to every part of his personality -- his thinking, his emotions, and his will. Not necessarily that he is intensely sinful, but that sin has extended to his entire being.
The unregenerate (unsaved) man is dead in his sins (Romans 5:12). Without the power of the Holy Spirit, the natural man is blind and deaf to the message of the gospel (Mark 4:11f). This is why Total Depravity has also been called "Total Inability." The man without a knowledge of God will never come to this knowledge without God's making him alive through Christ (Ephesians 2:1-5). - by Jonathan Barlow
Little Innocents? by Sinclair Ferguson
Last thing at night, when our children were small, I often secretly watched them as they slept: there they lay, breathing rhythmically, almost imperceptibly, relaxed, at ease, enjoying "the sleep of innocence." But man - perhaps especially a father - looks on the outward appearance (1 Sam. 16:7). What of the heart on which God gazes?
Presbyterian Doctrine of Total Depravity by Thomas M. Gregory
Though written many decades ago, the following quotation is an admirable expression of the continuing concern of Reformed thinkers for the doctrine of total depravity.
Man's Utter Inability to Rescue Himself by Thomas Boston
A man that is fallen into a pit cannot be supposed to help himself out of it, but by one of two ways; either by doing all himself alone, or taking hold of, and improving, the help offered him by others.
The Deceitfulness of the Heart by David Black
True and faithful is the testimony of God. Men may amuse themselves and their fellow creatures with empty, high sounding descriptions of the dignity of human nature, and the all-sufficient powers of man; but every humble, every truly enlightened mind, will see and acknowledge the justness of the declaration in the text, that the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.
The Sinfulness of Man's Natural State by Thomas Boston
I shall hold the glass to your eyes, wherein you may see your sinful nature; which, though God takes particular notice of it, many quite overlook. Here we shall consult the Word of God, and men's experience and observation.
Total Depravity by Loraine Boettner
Paul, Augustine, and Calvin have as their starting point the fact that all mankind sinned in Adam and that all men are “without excuse,” Rom. 2:1.
An Examination of the Five Points of Calvinism - Part I: Total Depravity by Brian Schwertley
The doctrines of sovereign grace which have been nicknamed “Augustinianism” or “Calvinism” have been abandoned as obsolete, unfair, unbiblical, and irrational.
The Five Points of Calvinism - Part 1 by R. L. Dabney
Of the Five Points of Arminianism Dabney says, "Let any plain mind review these five changes and perversions of Bible truth, and he will see two facts: One, that the debate about them all will hinge mainly upon the first question, whether man's original sin is or is not a complete and decisive enmity to godliness; and the other, that this whole plan is a contrivance to gratify human pride and self-righteousness and to escape that great humbling fact everywhere so prominent in the real gospel, that man's ruin of himself by sin is utter, and the whole credit of his redemption from it is God's."
The Doctrine of Human Depravity: Introduction by Arthur W. Pink
This book is likely to meet with a decidedly mixed reception. Some of our readers will probably be very disappointed when they see the title, deeming the subject quite unattractive and unedifying. If so, they are to be pitied, and we would fain cherish the hope that God may bless these contents unto them.
The Doctrine of Human Depravity: Its Origin by Arthur W. Pink
That something is radically wrong with the world of mankind requires no laboured argument to demonstrate. That such has been the case in all generations is plain from the annals of history. This is only another way of saying that something is radically wrong with man himself.
The Doctrine of Human Depravity: Its Imputation by Arthur W. Pink
We are now to consider the bearing which Adam’s sin had upon his posterity, and the different effects which it entailed and produced.
The Doctrine of Human Depravity: Its Consequences by Arthur W. Pink
The key which opens to us the mystery of human depravity is to be found in a right understanding of the relations which God appointed between the first man and his posterity.
The Doctrine of Human Depravity: Its Transmission by Arthur W. Pink
In introducing this aspect of our subject we cannot do better than set before the reader what A. A. Hodge pointed out are "the self-evident moral principles which must ever be certainly presupposed in every inquiry into the dealings of God with His responsible creatures...
The Doctrine of Human Depravity: Its Nature by Arthur W. Pink
Coming more directly to our present subject, we shall now attempt to supply an answer to the still more difficult question, In what does the vitiation of man by the Fall consist, precisely what is the nature of human depravity?
The Doctrine of Human Depravity: Its Enormity by Arthur W. Pink
There is a far greater malignity in sin than is commonly supposed, even by the great majority of church members. Men regard it as an infirmity, and tem it a "human frailty" or "hereditary weakness." But Scripture calls it "an evil thing and bitter" (Jer. 2:19), an abominable thing which God hates (Jer. 44:4).
The Doctrine of Human Depravity: Its Extent by Arthur W. Pink
Neither the scientist, the philosopher, nor the psychologist can correctly diagnose the fatal malady which has seized upon all mankind, and still less is any of them able to gauge the full extent thereof. For a right and true knowledge of the latter, as much as of the former, we are shut up to what the Holy Spirit has revealed in Holy Writ.
The Doctrine of Human Depravity: Its Ramifications by Arthur W. Pink
Corruption has invaded every part of our nature, overspreading the whole of man’s complex being. As physical disorders spare no members of the body, so man’s very spirit has not escaped the ravages of depravity.
The Doctrine of Human Depravity: Its Evidences by Arthur W. Pink
Who but those blinded by prejudice and incapable of perceiving what is right before them would still believe in ‘the progress of man" and "the steady advance of the human race"? And yet such postulates are made daily by those who are regarded as being the best educated and the greatest thinkers.
The Doctrine of Human Depravity: Its Corollaries by Arthur W. Pink
The deep importance of this doctrine of man’s total depravity also appears in the close bearing which it has upon other aspects of the truth, and the light which it tends to cast upon them. Reject what is revealed in Genesis 3 and the remainder of the Bible becomes entirely meaningless.
The Doctrine of Human Depravity: Its Remedy by Arthur W. Pink
The sinner is guilty, and no creature can make an atonement for him. He is an outcast from God, terrified by His very perfections, and therefore does his best to banish Him from his thoughts. No tongue can express or heart be suitably affected with the woeful plight and abject misery of the natural man.
The Doctrine of Human Depravity: Conclusion by Arthur W. Pink
These two things we must believe if the Truth is not to be repudiated: that God has foreordained everything that comes to pass; that He is in no way to be blamed for any of man’s wickedness—the criminality thereof being wholly his. The decree of God in no wise infringes upon man’s moral agency, for it neither forces nor hinders man’s will, though it orders and bounds its actions. Both the existence and operations of sin are subservient to the counsels of God’s will, yet that lessens not the evil of its nature or the guilt of the transgressor.
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