Alana L: 6m ("We're so depraved!")
This is the last post in the series based on this 14-minute video from Alana L.: 5 Signs Your Loved One is Becoming a Calvinist.
Point #6 (added to the end of her video):
M. At the end, Alana points out how you can recognize a Calvinist by how they constantly refer to themselves as depraved, wretched, worthless, etc.
Calvinists are taught to see themselves this way as a way of being humble, of honoring God and His "sovereignty." It is drilled into their heads repeatedly.
From my ex-pastor's February 1, 2015 sermon on unbelief: "Why would people reject Jesus?... The answer from the Bible goes back to the stubbornness, blindness, perversity, depravity, wickedness of the human heart... The human heart is described as sinful, wicked, blind, dead, deceitful, corrupt, evil..."
... and from his June 28, 2015 sermon on hell: "The Bible says...we are born enemies of God...in rebellion against God... depravity, wickedness, rebellion, and evilness of the human heart..."
... and from his August 16, 2015 sermon on predestination: “... we’re born steeped in sin... infected and absolutely contaminated by sin on every level…under the power of sin…slaves to depravity..."
... and from June 2, 2024: "Once we're reminded, friends, of our wickedness from the Bible, and our depravity, and our corruption, and our sheer propensity to evil, and how prone we are to selfishness, self-deception, dishonesty, pride, bitterness, anger, lust, laziness, envy, the real question is not 'Why doesn't God elect everybody?'... What's the real question? It's 'Why does God, in His infinite love and mercy, elect anybody?'" ["Infinite love and mercy"... but only enough for the "elect"? Hmm? Methinks someone doesn't understand the meaning of the word "infinite".]
... and from July 8, 2018: "God is not unjust to have mercy on some and not others - because of the wickedness, depravity, and innate rebellion of mankind...a planet of rebellious, sinful, wicked human beings.... [Here he goes on and on about how wicked, depraved, and rebellious humans are.] Once you grasp the...wickedness, evil, corruption, rebellion of the human heart, the real question is not 'Why didn't God elect everybody?' The real question is 'Why does He elect anybody?'
... and from April 17, 2022: "There is something radically wrong with human nature. It is dark, evil, bent, corrupt. The Bible's message is that we are thoroughly corrupted with wickedness, evil, selfishness, and sin, cut off from God. And if something doesn't change in that [meaning "if God doesn't change you"], we will not be reconciled to Him."
... and from his March 19, 2017 sermon about why there's suffering and evil in the world (referring to Hannibal Lector in Silence of the Lambs): "The secular assumption is that ‘normal’ people – whatever that means – don’t do things like that. They’re not cannibals and sadistic killers. Something went wrong with him. That’s a secular assumption… [because] from birth we’re born corrupt and evil. And so it’s a secular assumption to think that something has to happen to make us really evil. Any of us are capable of that kind of horrific evil. Hannibal Lector answers [the question 'What made you like this?'] very biblically...‘Nothing happened to me. I just am. I’m evil.' That’s the biblical worldview."
Calvinist pastors and theologians relentlessly hammer on total depravity. On how wretched we are.
And this is deliberate. They know that "total depravity" is the key to breaking people down (kinda like how abusers break down those they abuse to get them to stay and to feel like they deserve the abuse).
It gets us to feel so ashamed for being the terrible human beings we are that we will believe them when they say that we have no ability to think for ourselves or to choose God, and so we'll gratefully accept the idea that God must do it for us. And additionally, we'll just be so thankful that God chose to save anyone at all - because we're all so wretched and evil - that we won't push back too hard against the idea that God predestines people to hell. Because, after all, the non-elect "deserve" it for being such "wretched, evil" people, don't they?
As Alana said, "Once they start to believe this about themselves [total depravity], that's when they start to say 'I could never choose God. I'm too awful to chose God. He would have to choose me."
And when we're sufficiently broken down to the point that we feel terrible about ourselves and no longer trust our own judgment, thoughts, logic/reasoning capabilities, ability to make decisions, and our ability to understand the Bible for ourselves, then Calvinists can more easily and strategically lead us through Scripture and mold our thoughts and help us "connect the dots" until we believe that the Bible really does teach Calvinism and that it really does make sense for the most part (and we'll just chalk up any lingering confusion, doubt, or alarm to "mystery." After all, "who are we to talk back to God anyway?").
John MacArthur (The Most Hated Christian Doctrine): "
Translation: "If you don't agree with Calvinism's total depravity, you're prideful, self-delusional, denying the Bible, and not even a Christian."
[So "total depravity" is the most hated Calvinist doctrine, huh?
John MacArthur (God's Absolute Sovereignty): "No doctrine is more despised by the natural mind than the truth that God is absolutely sovereign. Human pride loathes the suggestion that God orders everything, controls everything, rules over everything. The carnal mind, burning with enmity against God, abhors the biblical teaching that nothing comes to pass except according to His eternal decrees. Most of all, the flesh hates the notion that salvation is entirely God’s work... believers deserve no credit for their salvation."
So which is it? Which one is the most hated Calvinist doctrine? Make up your mind, MacArthur.]
If these purely-Calvinist doctrines are so hated, then maybe it's for a good reason! Maybe it's because we sense something very wrong with them.
But to stop us from disagreeing, Calvinists (especially pastors) must use shaming, manipulation, and gaslighting - preconditioning us to want to side with them, to be afraid to speak against them, to distrust our own judgment, and to look down on those who disagree, to distrust their judgment and faith because they're apparently very bad Christians... or not even Christians at all.
If this is the only way Calvinists can get people to buy into their "most hated" doctrines, it's very telling... because people don't have to use these kinds of manipulative tactics if they're preaching something we all recognize as biblical truth. They only have to do it when they're preaching something they know we'll resist, trying to get us to buy something we don't want.
It all hinges on "depravity"
Calvinist pastors know that getting people to buy into Calvinism starts with getting them to buy into their definitions of sovereignty and total depravity.
Yes, those are biblical ideas... just not the way Calvinists define them. We looked at sovereignty in 5K, and now we'll look at depravity.
"Total Depravity" is one of those terms Calvinists have redefined Calvinisticly. Biblically it's about how all people are affected by sin, sinful, separated from God, unable to save ourselves, and in need a Savior. But in Calvinism, it means "Total Inability," that people are so depraved that we can't think about God, want God, seek God, or believe in God unless He makes us do it, and He'll only make the elect do it. Biblically, the only "inability" it has to do with is our inability to earn or deserve heaven on our own (which is why Jesus had to pay the price for us); it's not about being unable to think about or believe in God/Jesus.
No?
Well, neither can I.
And "no one seeks God" (Romans 3:11) does not count because it doesn't say no one can seek God. And as we saw in 1c, it's talking about people who have chosen to be wicked, to reject God. Romans 3:10-18 is taken from Psalms about wicked people who reject God. Notice even in Romans 3:12: "All have turned away..." This is why they do not seek God or understand, because they've turned away from Him. They have rejected Him and chosen to ignore His truth, and so their spiritual eyes and ears have become worthless.
So it's not that people are born "totally unable" to seek God or understand (nowhere in that section does it say people cannot seek God, just that they don't), but it's that those who turn away from God, who choose their sin over God, will not seek Him or understand. Their decision to reject Him leads to their inability to see/believe in God, not the other way around, as Calvinism teaches.
But do you know why Calvinists have to try so hard to push "total depravity" as "total inability"? Because they know that the rest of their TULIP theology hinges on it and flows from it. You see, if they're wrong - if God really gave everyone the ability to seek, find, believe in Him - then there is no Unconditional Election, no Limited Atonement, no Irresistible Grace, and no "elect" people to cause to persevere (but I still believe true believers cannot lose salvation, just not for the reason Calvinists say).
And Calvinists know this. They admit that one TULIP petal is built on the next and that there's a strategy to pushing Calvinism which all starts with "total depravity":
R.C. Sproul (Total Depravity part 1): "I say this because there’s a sense in which, if a person really embraces the doctrine of total depravity, the other four points in this five-point system more or less fall in line. They become corollaries of this first point."
Nick Batzig (Ligonier Ministries, "What is Unconditional Election?"): "The first doctrine represented in the acronym TULIP sets the logical course for this subsequent doctrine of unconditional election. The doctrine of total depravity (perhaps better termed pervasive depravity) necessitates unconditional election."
Dr. Mayhue (Election and Predestination: The Sovereignty of God in Salvation): "If you don't start with the total depravity of mankind, and understand that we are dead in our sins and trespasses, you'll never get unconditional election..." [FYI: Calvinists also wrongly definition "spiritual death" as "total inability," instead of it being what it really is: that our sins separate us from God. It's about our position before God, not about an inability to think or believe. But Calvinists start with their bad definition of total depravity/spiritual death ("total inability"), and it leads to a bad definition of election/regeneration, which leads to errors all down the line.]
John MacArthur (Doctrine of Election, part 1), about how, according to Calvinism, total depravity means spiritual death which means total inability to believe in God, and so therefore God has to be the one to cause the elect to believe: "Now the problem with this is how are these dead sinners going to resurrect themselves to do this unaided by God? You answer that question? How are those who are totally depraved, totally blind, totally dead going to come to the place where they make the decision for salvation? How they going to do that? Can't do it." [Non-Calvinists don't believe we "resurrect ourselves" either. We first put our faith in Jesus... and then the Holy Spirit, in response to our faith, resurrects us. We do the believing part; He does the "new birth" part. In that order! See this post for more on that.]
From the "church reform" article from Founders Ministry: "... We speak first of all of the doctrines of grace [that's code for Calvinism]. Teach your people that they are utterly depraved and dead in their sins without God. Teach them that God chose the elect for salvation from the foundation of time out of his own mercy and desire..."
Got Questions (What are the Doctrines of Grace?): "Because man is dead in sin, he is unable (and stubbornly unwilling) to initiate a saving response to God. In light of this, God, from eternity past, mercifully elected a particular people unto salvation." [Non-Calvinists don't believe we "initiate" salvation either. God does, by revealing Himself to people and calling all people to believe. We just choose how we will respond to Him.]
Pastor Johnson, Election and Predestination: The Sovereignty of God in salvation": "... all this hinges on and stems from the doctrine of total depravity... there are no depraved people who really want to know God. The thing is they hate God... they're not capable of loving God or pleasing Him or even obeying Him. They cannot do it. It's impossible for them, because their hearts are so fixed against Him.... And so he changes that animosity that we are born with towards God into a love for Him. That's what we mean by irresistible grace. That's another—that's the I in the tulip...."
John Piper ("Total Depravity - Unconditional Election"): "Here’s the conclusion for total depravity. Total depravity means that apart from any enabling grace from God, our hardness and rebellion against God is total. Everything we do is in rebellion against him in sin. Our inability to submit to God or reform ourselves is total, and we are therefore totally deserving of eternal punishment. It’s hard to exaggerate the importance of admitting our condition to be this bad. If we think of ourselves as basically good, or even less than totally at odds with God, our grasp of the work of God in redemption will be defective. But if we humble ourselves under this terrible truth of our total depravity, we will be in a position to see and appreciate the glory and wonder of the work of God discussed in the other four points... Let’s turn now to the doctrine of unconditional election. This is a hope-filled doctrine for those who feel totally depraved and utterly without hope and help..."
From my ex-pastor's April 21, 2024: "What is the doctrine [of election]? Well, here's the biblical doctrine: It is the Bible's teaching that unless God chooses to override - that's key - our sin, our resistance, our wickedness, our rebellion - that we are unable to see, savor, and treasure Christ as Savior."
From January 24, 2016: “We are God-haters. And unless God chooses to seek us and open blinded eyes, we are helpless and hopeless as slaves to sin.”
From February 28, 2016 sermon: "All people, all cultures, all generations are universally evil, spiritually ignorant, rebellious, wayward, worthless, morally corrupt, evil-mouthed, deceitful, full of bitterness, violent, miserable, and have no fear of God in their eyes. [Wow, we are horrible beings, aren't we? No wonder Calvi-god hates the non-elect so much.]... We're dead in sin, slaves to sin, unable and unwilling to seek God... No one is righteous... We are depraved down to the core... utterly saturated, permeated, and consumed by corruption... No one is righteous.
Theologians over the years have tagged this with the phrase 'total depravity'... which means that sin has infected and corrupted us internally, down to our core, it has suffocated any hunger for God. [Calvinists have philosophized "total depravity" to far beyond the Bible's view of it.] Total depravity means sin has invaded our entire being and has poisoned our hearts and minds and cut us off from God and completely squelched any hunger for God. That's what total depravity means.
Because our human nature is corrupted by sin, because our depravity has permeated us to the core, unbelievers cannot grasp God's truth clearly. It is only the Holy Spirit who can give a person the ability to go 'I believe that. That's me. That is who I am.' Or 'That is who Christ is and that is the gospel.' [See, total depravity is the first step. It leads to total inability, unconditional election, irresistible grace, and limited atonement: Calvinist predestination and election.]
John Piper ("Unconditional Election") shakes up the order a little here, but it's the same bad chain of reasoning: "So that’s why I’m starting...at irresistible grace. To see that grace is sovereign implies that depravity is total — that is, that we are totally unable to respond. [So he used human reasoning to reach this conclusion, not the Bible.] That’s what the implication is of saying that my resistance has to be overcome. Left to myself, I won’t and I can’t believe. That’s the meaning of total depravity."
Do you know what those big Calvinist Systematic Theology books are for? To lead us systematically from one point to the next (because all their points dovetail into the next, a natural progression), to educate us into Calvinism, into accepting terrible things we never dreamed we'd believe when we were a "simple-minded" Christian just reading the Bible in a commonsense way and taking it at face-value.
[If Calvinists can find even one verse which says that a consequence/curse of Adam's and Eve's fall was that God took away our ability to want Him, seek Him, believe in Him and make our own decisions - if they can find one verse that clearly defines "total depravity/spiritual death" as "total inability" - then I'll start the believe them a little more.]
The petals of Calvinism's TULIP all rise and fall together (which is why they teach it strategically).
But this means that if you disprove one, you disprove them all. And they know it:
Grover Gunn (A Short Explanation and Defense of the Doctrines of Grace): "... the five points are logically related such that any one of them implies the other four..."
Steven Lawson ("TULIP and the Doctrines of Grace"): "In reality, these five doctrines of grace form one comprehensive body of truth concerning salvation. They are inseparably connected and therefore stand or fall together. To embrace any one of the five necessitates embracing all five. To deny one is to deny the others..."
Herman Hanko ("The Five Points of Calvinism"): "It is apparent that all the five points of Calvinism... are important. Indeed, if any one of the five points of Calvinism is denied, the Reformed heritage is completely lost."
Heidelberg Theological Seminary ("The Doctrine of Unconditional Election: Based on Total Depravity"): "As we progress with this study it will be easy to see that one of these doctrines cannot be left out without destroying them all. They are dependent on each other and are welded together as the links of one chain because they have their unifying basis in the Bible. Those who claim to hold to only some of these doctrines will eventually have to admit that they hold to none of them as we have explained them here."
Loraine Boettner ("The Five Points of Calvinism"): "These are technically known as 'The Five Points of Calvinism,' and they are the main pillars upon which the superstructure rests... Furthermore, these are not isolated and independent doctrines but are so inter-related that they form a simple, harmonious, self-consistent system; and the way in which they fit together as component parts of a well-ordered whole has won the admiration of thinking men of all creeds. [And has deceived many into thinking it's "sound doctrine."] Prove any one of them true and all the others will follow as logical and necessary parts of the system. Prove any one of them false and the whole system must be abandoned. They are found to dovetail perfectly one into the other."
Calvinists themselves have issued the challenge: "Prove any one of them true and all the others will follow as logical and necessary parts of the system. Prove any one of them false and the whole system must be abandoned."
So why not test it?
Read "Is Calvinism's TULIP biblical?" (or these smaller posts by other people: "Why I Disagree with All 5 Points of Calvinism" and "What's Wrong with Five-Point Calvinism") to determine if you think the TULIP truly holds together... or if it must be thrown out completely.
[And lastly, watch Hitler and Calvinism. Seriously, you gotta see it.]
Well, that about does it for me.
Great video, Alana! I hope you do more like it to help educate people in how Calvinism takes over and where it goes wrong, how it contradicts the plain teachings of Scripture and destroys God's character, and why it's such a big deal and should be studied and refuted openly and firmly.
We've seen and heard it firsthand, watching it take over a whole non-Calvinist church full of good, well-meaning, God-fearing Christians within about 6 years. Unbelievable! And so we know that videos like Alana's are so important. Every voice helps in the battle against this relentless, voracious juggernaut.
[We left our church voluntarily in 2019 when we realized the elders would do nothing about the pastor's aggressive Calvinism. But sadly, very recently, it's gotten to the point at that church where they are now asking (forcing) long-term members and employees who disagree with the pastor's theology to leave, using bogus reasons for kicking them out like "failure to abide by the membership contract." Cult! I knew this was where it was headed when I saw that the church joined the 9Marks church-finder network after we left. Once again, here's our letter to our elders about the Calvinism in our church.]
You know, as a final warning, I think I'll end this post with a quote from another person who speaks against Calvinism, also showing how Calvinism takes over and the damage it does. This is from Will Hess from The Church Split (near the end of the interview called Stealth Calvinism and How it Splits Churches):
"I am not attacking my church, okay. It's just when you see it happen before your very eyes... It can happen anywhere. You think that you're safe, maybe in your church, but you're not, even though you trust the people around you. They're good people around you. They're loving, thoughtful, serving. But because they might not be aware of this particular issue... anyone can bring something stealthy in. You have to just know what that is, right. You have to be aware of the terminology. You have to be aware of what you believe. You have to be aware of precision: 'How can I be more precise in my speech so that I'm very clear in where we stand on things?'... You have to be aware of the issues. Because if you don't, they WILL split your church or you're gonna have a bunch of brainwashed people, or you're gonna have a bunch of people so theologically confused that they defunct from the faith or they're no good in their evangelistic efforts because they have a ton of contradictory views."
Yep, it happens just like that. We watched it happen. So act early when you suspect that your friends are wading into Calvinism or that it's taken over the pulpit/church. Because time is of the essence. The longer people are immersed in Calvinism, the stronger the Calvinist vice-grip gets on their minds, and the more their faith suffocates without even realizing it. If you wait too long, it may be too late.
