Total Depravity in TULIP

Understanding Total Depravity in TULIP

Total depravity is the first -the foundation – of the five points of Calvinism (TULIP), describing the condition of humanity after the fall of Adam. It teaches that sin has so corrupted the entire person—mind, will, emotions, and body—that no one can, by their own strength, choose God or be saved apart from God’s grace. Calvinism traces this teaching to Augustine’s explanation of original sin, which holds that Adam’s disobedience affected all of humanity. Scripture passages often cited include:  Genesis 6:5, Romans 3:10–18 and Jeremiah 17:9.

Meaning of “Total”

The term “total” does not mean that every person is as evil as they could be, but that the scope (not depth) of sin has affected every part of human nature. This includes:

• Moral inability to love God or choose Him willingly – In accordance to Calvinism and Reform traditionalism, man has no free will.
• Spiritual blindness to God’s truth
• Selfishness and rejection of God’s rule 

Key Points

• Universal impact: Sin is not limited to the will; it affects the whole person.
• Inability to save oneself: Without God’s intervention, no one can trust in Christ or live a life pleasing to God.
• Not total evil: Fallen humans can still do good works, but these are done without the right motivation to glorify God 

Theological Context

Total depravity is the foundation for the other TULIP points:

• It explains why unconditional election is necessary—God must choose people apart from any merit in them.
• It leads to the belief that irresistible grace is needed to draw people to Christ.
• It underpins the assurance of perseverance of the saints—those God has chosen will not be lost 

In short, total depravity is the Reformed teaching that sin has corrupted every aspect of human nature, making salvation entirely dependent on God’s grace, not human effort.

Philosophical Premises of Compatibilism & Necessitarianism

In following its predecessors, “Augustine” and “John Calvin”, Calvinism and Reform Traditionalism have adopted the theological viewpoint of “Compatibilism” in attempt to reconcile the concept of Man’s “free will” with their theological view that because man is so “depraved”, and “unable to respond” to God’s “general revelation” and message of salvation, that God has had to “sovereignly” and “causally”,  choose, or determine, and thereby “select”, who will, and who will not, be saved.

The concept of Compatibilism, is in part, traced back to the Hellenistic era and the philosophical study of all things (metaphysics) by Greek Stoics who had come to view the Laws of Nature through the lens of Necessitarian Theory. In accord to their ontology, God, unlike the gods of Greek mythology, is perfect and His divine actions are therefore not random or unpredictable but orderly, rational, and providential.  God is the active principle, the eternal reason (logos) and intelligent immanent breath that structures and directs the development of all matter (to its smallest detail) throughout the cosmos in accordance with His plan. Cosmic nature in all its parts is the determining factor by which the laws of nature inherently govern the natural phenomena of the world.

Therefore, the natural world, is bound to and necessitated to abide to all the Laws of Nature. However, this ontology not only applied the laws of nature to that which are of physical nature, but also to that which is of moral nature. “Moral Law”, also known as “Natural Law”, pertains to, the immaterial rational, of beings like God, Angels, and Man and must not be confused with God’s written law.

The inclusion of moral nature – under the governance of the laws of nature – meant that, that which is of moral nature (God, Angels, and Man) can only “Will” to act in accordance with or as determined by its moral nature. This gave Augustinianism, Calvinism and Reform Traditionalism philosophical backing to support its teachings of “Total Inability” of the unregenerate Man, to choose contrary of his corrupted and immoral nature.  While some schools of philosophy viewed Necessitarian theory (AKA Determinism) as irreconcilable with the concept of free will, others argued that both do exist and that they are compatible with one another. Thus, the concept of Compatibilism was developed. 

From Total Depravity to Total Inability

The compatibilist concept of free will is founded on how “Will” is defined. From a TULIP theological viewpoint, the definition of the will must be viewed in its relation to the original sin and the spiritual depravity of man. Both of which render the definition of “will” regarding fallen man as captive to sin, a slave of sin and subject only to its master, which is sin. As per this viewpoint, the natural man is essentially “free” to do as he “wills” and the natural man “wills” only to actively suppress the truth of his unrighteousness. Therefore, because the natural man is bound by his sinful nature, the natural man is essentially rendered unable to respond to God.

It is important to understand that the “Total Depravity” of TULIP was born from Augustinian references to the utter deformity or depravity of human will and human inability, that had been directed against forms of synergism or semi-Pelagianism. As per Augustinian theology, TULIP in one part teaches that the unregenerate human, by his or her corrupted nature is dead in sin, cannot choose to act contrary of their own sinful nature, or to any internal and external influences that may pressed upon them.  They especially cannot respond to the “good news” that God himself calls them to respond to by believing. In keeping with the philosophical theories of compatibilism and necessitarianism, and its doctrine of “theistic determinism”, the unbeliever is of total Inability to believe the Gospel message. Nor can the unregenerate man, willingly, in any form of autonomous exercise, respond in faith to God and or Christ in relation to their salvation unless God has first sovereignly, effectually, causally, and selectively decided to regenerate them. Again, because Scripture clearly does not teach universal salvation, TULIP teaches that God makes His offer of Salvation so irresistible, that the unregenerate whom He has selectively elected / chosen to be saved cannot refuse it. 

Compatibilism’s incompatibility with Scripture

One of the biggest challenges for Compatibilism however is in its own incompatibility with Scripture, for it collapses under its own weight as early as in the third chapter of Genesis where we read how both Adam and Eve, having been created with sinless natures, were able to act contrary of their sinless nature and sin. According to Necessitarian Theory of the Laws of Nature and Compatibilism itself, it should have been impossible for Adam and Eve to do anything contrary to their sinless nature. Furthermore, It would also be as impossible as it should be unthinkable that God would act contrary to His perfect, righteous, and Divine nature and cause Adam and Eve to sin (James 1:13).  How do supporters of these doctrines address this question??

• C. Sproul teaches: “But Adam and Eve were not created fallen. They had no sin nature. They were good creatures with a free will. Yet they chose to sin. Why? I don’t know nor have I found anyone yet who does know”.
• John Piper teaches: “How God freely hardens and yet preserves human accountability we are not explicitly told. It is the same mystery as how the first sin entered the universe. How does a sinful disposition arise in a good heart? The bible does not tell us

They are not mysteries, they are contradictions for the Scripture does tell us how a sinful disposition arises in a good heart. 

No Copyright on Human Depravity

TULIP does not hold any copyright on the Scriptural truth in terms of the effectual and depraving scope of original sin upon the unbeliever. Thus, in keeping with Scripture and most – if not all – Protestant Christian confessions of faith (Lutheranism, Anglicanism, Methodism, Calvinism  and Arminianism), affirm that since the fall, there is not a single area or part of our human nature that remains untouched by sin’s corrupting influence. Not our mind, our will, our reasoning, our bodily instincts, or anything else that could be singled out.

TULIP Obscures the Theological Issue of Unregenerate Corruption With Human Ability / Inability

TULIP’s definition of “Total Depravity” as understood in “everyday language”, obscures the theological issue of unregenerate corruption with the issue of human ability or inability. Thus, without proper clarification and distinction, this obscurity can be both confusing and misleading.

There should be no dispute that the unbeliever is anything less than totally, completely, depraved and corrupt. Scripture clearly teaches, that as a consequence of original sin, all – with exception of Jesus – are conceived in sinfulness. This is not to say that the act of conception is sinful but rather that the sinful nature is transferred (as commonly believed) through the seed of the male human parent to the fetus. Thus, at the moment of conception a person is completely corrupted, depraved with sin, and thus rendered incapable of being in the presence of, or in relationship with God, the giver, and the sustainer of life. Scripture clearly teaches that we are not sinful because we sin, but rather, we sin because we are sinful, slaves to sin.

God’s Grace, God’s Sovereign Choice & God’s Revelation

God cannot be anything other than perfect and so God must be as perfectly just, as He is perfectly loving. God’s perfect justness demands penalty of death for the wages of sin, and so like the walking dead, the unregenerate and completely depraved in sin – are without any leverage or foothold whereby they in and of themselves might reach up to God or present any merit and escape punishment. Nor is there any impulse or instinct that is not subject to correction from God’s Word. Thus, it is impossible for the unbeliever to have within themself the ability to know of God, know of their sinful condition, know of their impending fate, know of the possibility of salvation or obtain salvation without God’s grace of revelation. It was by God’s sovereign choice and undeserved grace that He revealed Himself to us through His act of creation and through His word. It is by God’s sovereign choice and undeserved grace that He has revealed our sinful condition through our conscience, and through His law. It is by God’s sovereign choice and undeserved grace that He has given His Son as payment for our sin and revealed through Jesus and His Gospel the unmerited opportunity of salvation. It is by God’s sovereign choice and undeserved grace that He has given us two ears to hear and two eyes to see and the freedom to choose between life through faith in Christ or death in rejection of Him. 

TULIP teaches a “Total Inability” theology that dates back no further than Augustine. It teachings are in complete contradiction to Scripture which clearly states that the power of the Spirit in the Gospel enables the sinner the freedom to act, and respond positively in repentance and in placing their faith in Christ. However, the sinner also may freely act to reject that offer of salvation. This must be so, otherwise moral responsibility and moral effort, along with salvation by faith, which is much of what the Scripture is about, are rendered nonsense.

Understanding freedom of action

It would be as equally problematic to believe that Man has unconstrained free will, for will itself in all practicality, is somewhat of an abstract thing that depends in part on factors wholly beyond Man’s control. There are always external constraints on the range of known possible options that man can freely undertake. Therefore, it is important to make a distinction between freedom of will and freedom of action.

Adam and Eve had no more the ability to sin than they had the ability to grow physical wings without God providing them the ability to not only act on the option to do so, but also awareness of it.  In creating the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and commanding Adam and Eve to not eat of its fruit, lest they die, God had provided them the option, the awareness (and even warning) of the option, and therefore the ability (God enabled them) to freely act in obedience or to freely act in disobedience, and sin. Thus, while God created the potentiality for Man to act in sin, never did He necessitate, nor did He cause Man to act in sin. It was by Adam and Eve’s disobedient and free action, (not God’s) that they brought the catastrophic consequences of corrupted physical and spiritual natures, death, a cursed world, and separation from God, not only upon themselves but that has ever since, been visited upon, and inherited by all of Adam’s posterity, each born with the propensity to commit sin and fall under judgement and penalty of sin.

Being sinful, mankind now has no more the ability to be free of sin and its consequences then he has the ability to grow physical wings, without God providing man the ability to not only act on the option to be free of the judgement of sin, but also awareness of the option. God has made salvation possible by providing man the option, as well as awareness not only of the option but our need of it. Therefore, God has given man the ability (God has enabled man) to freely act in obedience of God’s command to repent of sin and accept by faith the substitutionary and sacrificial works of Christ, or to freely act in disobedience, reject Christ and remain under judgement of sin.

Calvinism and Reform Traditionalism’s teachings of Total Depravity is the founding block in which all of its other doctrines related to Election and Predestination rest. If this foundation collapses then so too does everything built upon it, come tumbling down.