Link to "Why Calvin's Total Depravity Is Wrong"

Here's a link to a good post about "Why Calvin's Total Depravity Is Wrong", from Gary Ritter, an author who writes a lot about the end times and the rapture.  (I, too, am interested in that topic and write about it.)  I really enjoyed this post because it presented another reasonable, rational, biblical argument against Calvinism, one that I hadn't thought of before.  I mean, think about it:  If we are "totally depraved" and everything we do is "totally depraved," why would God single out certain behaviors as "depraved" in the Bible?  You can't get more "depraved" than "totally"!  So why would God emphasize the depravity of certain behaviors over others?  Just one more way that Calvinism doesn't make sense!  


[FYI, I added two comments at the end of his post, but they haven't shown up yet.  So here they are for reference, in case they didn't go through (I made a couple minor changes for better clarity):

Comment #1:  Very well thought-out and written.  I had never considered Calvinism’s total depravity this way before.  Calvinism would say that “total depravity” means we are so fallen that all we can do is choose to sin, that we can’t even want God or think about God or believe in God unless He causes us to do it (and He will only do this for the elect, but everyone else is out of luck).  But biblically, it’s as you say, “depravity arises from things people do or believe.”  If Calvinism is true that fallen man is “totally depraved,” why would God need to clarify that certain behaviors are “depraved”?  Wouldn’t ALL behaviors/beliefs of “totally depraved” people be “depraved”?  Why single out only some?  If Calvinism is true, there is no need for those verses you referred to because those sinful behaviors would be no more or less depraved than any other sin, because “totally depraved” is “TOTALLY depraved”.  There aren’t levels to it, and you can’t get more depraved than “totally.”  Thank you for giving me another rational, biblical argument against Calvinism.  I am going to link to this post on my blog.  God bless!

       

Comment #2:  A verse I found today which fits right in: Romans 6:12: “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, so that you obey its desires."  Paul is warning people to not let sin reign in their bodies, that doing so would cause them to have/obey sinful desires.  But Calvinists would have you believe that a God-given, "totally depraved" sin-nature forces us to have only sinful desires which forces us to ONLY and ALWAYS sin all the time, that we have NO INFLUENCE over whether we have/obey sinful desires or not.

But this verse shows us that the tendency to obey sinful desires comes as a result of our choice to let sin reign in our bodies (that our thoughts/choices lead to our desires and sins) ... NOT that, as the Calvinist believes, having a totally-depraved nature forces us to inevitably, irresistibly obey sinful desires (that the sinful desires - given to us by Calvi-god and we can't change/stop them - control our thoughts and choices).  Calvinists have it backwards.  

Plus, Paul is talking to believers here (vs 13: "... as those who are alive from the dead...").  Calvinists would say that the "elect" have new natures given to them by God and they are no longer totally depraved and cannot be ruled by sin.  If this is true, then why this warning for believers about something that is only possible for the non-elect, according to Calvinism?  And why make it sound like our choices affect our desires and whether or not we obey those desires?  Why warn us about something we have no control over, if God makes all our decisions and controls all our actions for us?  It doesn't make sense on any level when looked at through the lens of Calvinism.]