I will try to keep these posts short to make it graspable enough to be considered a lunch-time thought - though I imagine I will fail frequently in this. And you all can tell from the time that I posted this and because of the detailed explanation ahead of it, I have been working on this post for a couple days, not just off the top of my head!
Anyway, I am reading a book by Lawrence Vance called, The Other Side of Calvinism. After reading the first 200 pages of basic history of the debate between Calvinism and Arminianism, he finally started on the 5 points of "TULIP." A chapter for each doctrine. As I read through the book, I plan to post here some of the major themes that are written, and then I will interact a little with it. One thing that may disappoint some is that I tend to completely disregard arguments that I find weak or hollow, so I may not mention them at all. I will try to focus on what I consider to be the major issues at hand. So... here goes:
Total Depravity:
The doctrine of Total Depravity is the teaching that man, because of the Fall of Genesis 3, when sin entered into the world, has been born with a sin nature. This sin nature depraves man of being able to save himself. The point where both Arminius and Calvin would agree: "Human nature has been and is utterly corrupted by sin so that man is totally incapable of doing anything to accomplish his salvation." Man does wicked deeds because he is depraved. He is not just depraved because of his wicked deeds.
- Romans 5:12-21 is a great text to show that man inherited Adam's sinful nature...
- Romans 3:10-18 is a great text to show how sinful man has become...
- Ephesians 2:3 shows that even born-again Christians were in times past sinners by nature...
Where the two parties go their own way is with the idea of Total Inability. Calvinism says that man "of himself, cannot repent and believe." That is, when confronted with the Gospel message and Holy Spirit conviction, a man is not able of himself to respond positively to that. Arminian theology would say that God has given all men the ability to respond positively to the gospel and Spirit's conviction, or to resist it. Both sides agree that man's human nature by itself cannot just start to believe, but rather the Holy Spirit has to do a work first - the Calvinist says the Spirit has to quicken (make alive) a man, to regenerate a man, to re-birth (born again) a man, in order for him to be able to believe. This quickening comes apart from anything on man's side of things. Once he is born again, he then is able to believe. Arminius says that the faith comes as a response to the Holy Spirit, and once a man believes, he then is born-again and becomes a son of God.
The agreement is this: Man is sinful by nature. Do you really have to teach a little child how to lie? how to be selfish? how to steal? You sure do have to teach them how to do good though. Man became sinner because of his nature passed on to him by his first father, Adam. The wages, the penalty for that sin is double-death. [Revelation 20:14 speaks of the second death. The first is the physical death when the body dies. The second is after the Judgment and is eternal.] When mankind was at enmity with God, that is, they were God's enemy (which we are by nature), God still showed unmerited favor, grace, by sending His Son Jesus to pay that penalty for the sin of mankind (Romans 5:8). Without God's grace, man would be without hope, having violated God's law and thus being unrighteous by God's standards. "But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith He loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)" (Ephesians 2:4-5).
To the praise of the glory of His grace!
