ABondSlaveofChristJesus
Puritan Board Freshman
[b:44752a9d98]The chaos of my denomination makes my head spin[/b:44752a9d98]
I’ve been thinking a lot about the people in my Southern Baptist denomination and their beliefs. I will tell you that the majority of them are Arminian dispensationalist, but if you were to ask them the majority would claim to be 3 or 4-point Calvinist(if they know anything about calvinism, a lot of them probably don't even know who Calvin is). They usually reject the point of limited atonement or irresistible grace or both. However, one point they all seem to agree on is total depravity, and I just don't get it!
Total depravity states that because of original sin we are incapable of doing anything good because our total being has been depraved. We can be paralleled to God in a sense. While God is free and has all the mechanical ability to do evil, he still cannot do evil because of his good nature/character. All Southern Baptist in general would agree with that. Now on the other end of the stick the same situation applies to mankind except it is the complete polar opposite. Just like God, man is free and has all the mechanical ability to do good, but (due to original sin) cannot do good because of his evil nature/charater.
So God can’t do evil because of his character and we can’t do good because of our character. Basically, what I’m getting to is this. If an unregenerate is dead to do anything morally good, then how could he make the greatest moral decision ever? The depraved mind could never desire such a pure motive.
[color=green:44752a9d98]EDIT: Title Clarity (fredtgreco)[/color:44752a9d98]
I’ve been thinking a lot about the people in my Southern Baptist denomination and their beliefs. I will tell you that the majority of them are Arminian dispensationalist, but if you were to ask them the majority would claim to be 3 or 4-point Calvinist(if they know anything about calvinism, a lot of them probably don't even know who Calvin is). They usually reject the point of limited atonement or irresistible grace or both. However, one point they all seem to agree on is total depravity, and I just don't get it!
Total depravity states that because of original sin we are incapable of doing anything good because our total being has been depraved. We can be paralleled to God in a sense. While God is free and has all the mechanical ability to do evil, he still cannot do evil because of his good nature/character. All Southern Baptist in general would agree with that. Now on the other end of the stick the same situation applies to mankind except it is the complete polar opposite. Just like God, man is free and has all the mechanical ability to do good, but (due to original sin) cannot do good because of his evil nature/charater.
So God can’t do evil because of his character and we can’t do good because of our character. Basically, what I’m getting to is this. If an unregenerate is dead to do anything morally good, then how could he make the greatest moral decision ever? The depraved mind could never desire such a pure motive.
[color=green:44752a9d98]EDIT: Title Clarity (fredtgreco)[/color:44752a9d98]