While all Christians believe original sin has affected every area of our lives leaving us in a condition of being separated from God, lost, and unable to save ourselves, total depravity (as defined by Calvinism) requires us to believe more than that. It requires a belief that all men are not only inherently sinful as a result of Adam's sin, but they have no desire to seek God or to respond positively to Him seeking them. Total depravity means, even if a man was capable of recognizing his lost condition, he is incapable of wanting to be saved from it. Calvinism not only teaches that you cannot save yourself but that you cannot even want to be saved by someone else (God). It is this definition of total depravity that has become the standard understanding. Total depravity has now come to mean total inability, which is far more than what the Bible means by the words spiritually dead. That alone is reason enough to disavow a belief in it. This book presents a dozen reasons why belief in total depravity should be rejected.
While all Christians believe original sin has affected every area of our lives leaving us in a condition of being separated from God, lost, and unable to save ourselves, total depravity (as defined by Calvinism) requires us to believe more than that. It requires a belief that all men are not only inherently sinful as a result of Adam's sin, but they have no desire to seek God or to respond positively to Him seeking them. Total depravity means, even if a man was capable of recognizing his lost condition, he is incapable of wanting to be saved from it. Calvinism not only teaches that you cannot save yourself but that you cannot even want to be saved by someone else (God). It is this definition of total depravity that has become the standard understanding. Total depravity has now come to mean total inability, which is far more than what the Bible means by the words spiritually dead. That alone is reason enough to disavow a belief in it. This book presents a dozen reasons why belief in total depravity should be rejected.
