T: Total Depravity
Definition: Total Depravity is the natural state of all men: conceived in sin and born as children of wrath, incapable of any saving good, inclined to evil, dead in sins, and slaves of sin. And without the grace of the regenerating Holy Spirit they neither will nor can return to God, reform their depraved nature, or prepare themselves for its reformation.
If human beings were born morally neutral or inherently good, it is likely that we would observe at least some societies or individuals who naturally achieve a state of moral perfection. If there were no innate predisposition in favour of either vice or virtue, there would be extreme variety in individuals’ moral character, with a significant portion of people being exceptionally virtuous through their own merit, unless the conditions which direct one towards moral corruption existed in the same way for almost every single human to ever have existed. Given the unlikelihood of the latter scenario, the former is more plausible.
Universally across all history and cultures, every single human being without exception eventually violates their own moral standards and the standards of their community. Even the most morally virtuous people (excluding Jesus Christ), are often considered morally virtuous due to their repentance for their own wrongdoings; Abraham, Mother Teresa, or Ali ibn Abi Talib never claimed moral perfection, and nobody attributed them as being morally perfect.
Therefore, the idea that humans have no disposition towards sin fails to explain the nature and actions of humans across all civilisations since the Fall.
The most plausible explanation for the universal moral failure of human beings is through a universal cause rather than a purely situational cause. If we recognise the existence of at least one human being who was without vice (as Christians, Muslims, Jainists, Jews, and Buddhists do), the situational cause which always leads to sin must necessarily have not applied to them, despite their existence within the exact same context as other sinful beings. The sinlessness of any given individual can only be explained if they lack the moral nature which predisposes them to commit sin.
The only hypothesis that explains why human beings universally commit wrongdoing is the hypothesis that there is a universal shared moral nature present in all human beings that directs us towards moral evil. Therefore, human nature itself is the cause of our sin.
Sin is perverted corruption of man’s most natural desires. Lust is a perversion of sex; gluttony is a perversion of nourishment; greed is a perversion of self-preservation; etc. The human mind is constantly under the influence of these cravings and their sinful counterparts. Thus, any attempt to choose God that originates within the human mind is under the influence of sin. God demands of all humans that they do not commit any sin whatsoever, which would mean that for the mind to become godly, it would necessarily abandon its sin. Yet because the human mind is infected with sin, there is no good reason to expect that it would ever choose God on its own.
In the words of John Calvin, “Because of the bondage of sin by which the will is held bound, it cannot move toward good, much less apply itself thereto; for a movement of this sort is the beginning of conversion to God.”
Non-Calvinists will respond to this with the doctrine of prevenient grace, which states that God offers all humans a form of grace that they are free to reject, thus explaining how humans can choose God even if they are in a sinful and depraved nature. However, it fails to explain why, even if it is possible for the grace to be accepted, why anyone would. A mind that remains under the corrupting influence of sin can be offered the rivers of life flowing from the throne of God, but because those things demand an end to the sin that they are in servitude to, there is no good reason to assume that they would ever willingly accept it. All prevenient grace does is give the sinner a chance to know that the Good exists, but it does not fundamentally alter their disposition away from sin or give them any likelihood of desiring God on their own.
Scriptural Basis:
Genesis 6:5
And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
Jeremiah 17:9
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
Psalm 14:2-3
The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God. They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
Psalm 51:5
Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.
Isaiah 64:6
But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
Romans 3:10-12
As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
Romans 3:23
For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
Romans 8:7-8
Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
Ephesians 2:1-3
And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.
1 Corinthians 2:14
But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
John 6:44
No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.
U: Unconditional Election
Definition: Unconditional Election is the unchangeable purpose of God whereby, before the foundation of the world, out of the whole human race, which had fallen by its own fault out of its original integrity into sin and perdition, He has, according to the sovereign good pleasure of His will, out of mere grace, chosen in Christ to salvation a definite number of specific persons, neither better nor more worthy than others, but involved together with them in a common misery.
If man is incapable of willingly choosing God with his own corrupted will, then one of two scenarios is possible:
Every single person is damned without exception
The will of an uncorrupted being saves some individuals
Because the religion that this debate is operating under does not teach the first scenario, we can assume the latter. As Christians, we must say that the only being who is entirely uncorrupted through their own merit (rather than the merit of another uncorrupted being) is God. Therefore, you can only be saved if God chooses you to be saved or not. Furthermore, God is eternal and unchanging, and thus His choice to save certain individuals would not have been made at any specific point in time, it is one of His eternal attributes. Thus, God’s decision to save certain individuals existed before those individuals were born; in other words, they were predestined. Not only this, but God’s decision to withhold His saving grace is part of His unchanging nature.
However, Unconditional Election specifically teaches that God’s election of certain individuals is not based on any foreseen righteousness, as taught by Arminians, but on His sovereign and decretive will.
Because any virtuous action performed by an individual with a totally depraved will must have derived their ability to perform said action from an independent and uncorrupted will, then the cause of their virtuous action is the uncorrupted will. The righteousness of the elect, specifically their ability to have salvific faith, is caused by an uncorrupted will external to themselves. The only uncorrupted will is God’s will. Consequently, if God elected people based on foreseen righteousness, then God’s election is based on something He Himself caused, thus making any human involvement in salvation an impossibility. Because even the elect are unable to choose righteousness through their own will, then their own righteousness must be derived from an uncorrupt will, God. Therefore, the predestination of the elect is not based on their foreseen righteousness, and Arminianism is false.
Scriptural Basis:
Ephesians 1:4-5
According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:
Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,
Ephesians 1:11
In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:
Romans 9:10-16
And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac;
(For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;)
It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger.
As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.
What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid.
For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.
Romans 9:18
Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.
Romans 9:21-23
Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?
What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:
And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,
Romans 11:7
What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded
John 15:16
Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain:
1 Thessalonians 5:9
For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,
2 Thessalonians 2:13
But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth:
2 Timothy 1:9
Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,
Matthew 11:25-27
At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.
Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight.
All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.
Matthew 22:14
For many are called, but few are chosen.
Matthew 24:22
And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.
Matthew 24:31
And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
Luke 18:7
And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them?
L: Limited Atonement
Definition: It is the gracious will and purpose of God the Father, that the quickening and saving efficacy of the most precious death of His Son should extend to all the elect, for bestowing upon them alone the gift of justifying faith, thereby to bring them infallibly to salvation: that is, it was the will of God, that Christ by the blood of the cross, whereby He confirmed the new covenant, should effectually redeem out of every people, tribe, nation, and language, all those, and those only, who were from eternity chosen to salvation and given to Him by the Father; that He should confer upon them faith, which together with all the other saving gifts of the Holy Spirit, He purchased for them by His death; should purge them from all sin, both original and actual, whether committed before or after believing; and having faithfully preserved them even to the end, should at last bring them free from every spot and blemish to the enjoyment of glory in His own presence forever.
Certainly the most controversial Calvinist doctrine (to the extent where many Calvinists, known as Amyraldians or “4 point Calvinists”, reject Limited Atonement altogether), but a Calvinist doctrine nonetheless, and, within the established context of Total Depravity and Unconditional Election, it necessarily follows.
If Christ paid the price for someone’s sins, God would not damn that person for those sins. If Christ paid the price for everyone’s sins, God would not damn anyone. Yet, God still damns people. Therefore, Christ did not pay the price for everyone’s sins. If Christ’s sacrifice made salvation potentially available to all, then salvation would be potentially possible for even the reprobate. Because God has predestined the damnation of the reprobate, there is no possibility for their salvation. If there is no possibility whatsoever for certain people to be saved based on God’s sovereign decree, then Christ’s sacrifice does not give them the possibility to be saved. Jesus said on the cross “It is finished”, which in Greek is “tetelestai” and also means “paid in full”. If Christ’s atonement only introduced the possibility of salvation, it would not in fact be finished; it would only be finished on Judgement Day when the salvation of souls is finally secured. So then Christ’s sacrifice did not give everyone the possibility of salvation, but fully secured the salvation of the elect by paying for their sins in totality.
If Christ’s sacrifice did absolutely nothing for anyone, then Christ’s sacrifice would have been pointless. God does not do pointless things. Therefore, Christ must have died to ensure the salvation of some people but not other people. In other words, His atonement is limited.
The only logical way to avoid Limited Atonement is through Apokatastasis, otherwise known as Universalism, or through complete damnation. If Christ died for all of the sins of all people, it would not make sense, according to God’s just nature, for people to be punished in hell for a sin that Jesus had already suffered the punishment for. If Christ died for only some of everyone’s sins, then they still have sins unatoned for and no one can enter heaven at all. These two positions are not only widely condemned but completely unbiblical. The only option that does not logically fall into these heresies is that Christ died for all of the sins of some people.
The general counterargument, particularly from an Arminian point of view, is that although Christ’s sacrifice applied to all humans and all their sins, it is only effective for those who have faith. This implies that not having faith is the sole thing which damns someone. However, unbelief is itself a sin, and if Christ died for all the sins of all people, He died for the sin of unbelief, and, as previously stated, God would not damn someone for a sin Jesus already died for.
Scriptural Basis:
Isaiah 53:8
He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.
Isaiah 53:10-12
Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.
Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
Matthew 1:21
And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.
Matthew 20:28
Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.
Matthew 26:28
For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.
John 10:11
I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.
John 10:14-15
I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.
As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep.
John 10:26-28
But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you.
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:
And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.
John 11:49-52
And one of them, named Caiaphas, being the high priest that same year, said unto them, Ye know nothing at all,
Nor consider that it is expedient for us, that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not.
And this spake he not of himself: but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation;
And not for that nation only, but that also he should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad.
John 17:9
I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine.
John 17:19
And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.
Acts 20:28
Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.
Ephesians 5:25
Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
Hebrews 10:14
For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.
I: Irresistible Grace
Definition: God not only sees to it that the gospel is proclaimed to the elect outwardly, and enlightens their minds powerfully by the Holy Spirit so that they may rightly understand and discern the things of the Spirit of God, but, by the effective operation of the same regenerating Spirit, God also penetrates into the inmost being, opens the closed heart, softens the hard heart, and circumcises the heart that is uncircumcised. God infuses new qualities into the will, making the dead will alive, the evil one good, the unwilling one willing, and the stubborn one compliant. God activates and strengthens the will so that, like a good tree, it may be enabled to produce the fruits of good deeds.
If human nature is to reject God’s saving grace, then it is an impossibility for some people to be saved unless humans are not the final arbiter of whether they accept salvation or not. As it has been established that prevenient grace fails to fundamentally alter the disposition of its subjects, for grace to save anyone, it must change their disposition of will. If God’s grace made humanity’s will completely neutral, unless there is anything that provokes our will towards good or evil, we would be stuck in a situation akin to Buridan’s ass, a thought experiment in which a donkey is placed in between two identical piles of hay, and because the animal has no logical reason to choose one pile over the other, it stays still and eventually starves to death. We would remain in such a scenario until something beyond ourselves drew us in either direction. If something did provoke our will towards either good or evil, the provocation must have been generated from a source outside ourselves for our will to be truly neutral. If our disposition of will, and thus our salvation, is dependent on the provocation of an external force, there is still no cooperation on behalf of the individual in their own salvation. The grace God offers some humans, but not others, must fundamentally alter their own inclination towards the Good, thereby eliminating the possibility for the individual to resist.
One misconception regarding the doctrine of Irresistible Grace is that God’s will overrides the will of the elect, yet their own personal will remains forever predisposed towards evil. It does not teach that the soul saved still wants to commit sin, but that God mystically and perfectly changes their disposition of will, so that they may be eternally inclined towards the Good.
Because human salvation is dependent entirely on God (monergism), if God relied on humans to accept His grace, they would be participating in their own salvation (synergism), which according to the doctrine of Unconditional Election, cannot occur.
Scriptural Basis:
Ezekiel 36:26-27
A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.
Deuteronomy 30:6
And the Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live.
Jeremiah 32:40
And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me.
John 10:16
And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.
1 John 5:1
Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him.
Acts 16:14
And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, which worshipped God, heard us: whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul.
Philippians 2:13
For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
2 Corinthians 4:6
For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 2:4-5
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;)
P: Perseverance of the Saints
Definition: God, who is rich in mercy, according to His unchangeable purpose of election, does not wholly withdraw the Holy Spirit from His own people, even in their melancholy falls; nor suffers them to proceed so far as to lose the grace of adoption, and forfeit the state of justification, or to commit the sin unto death; nor does He permit them to be totally deserted, and to plunge themselves into everlasting destruction.
God is perfect, and His nature is unchanging. If God Himself is perfect, His will must be perfect, as an imperfect will cannot come from a perfect being, nor can a perfect will come from an imperfect being. If God’s decretive will changed, there must be a reason for it to have changed. If God is perfect, for Him to change His will, His old will must have been inferior in some way to His new will. If some of God’s decrees are inferior to others, then not all of them are perfect. God’s will is perfect. Therefore, God cannot change His decretive will.
God’s decretive will to either save you or allow you to be damned has been determined before the beginning of time. Therefore, because salvation or damnation are a part of something that is unchanging, salvation and damnation are themselves unchanging. If God did allow one of the elect to be damned, He would have changed His decretive will, and thus, violated His own perfection. The Arminian counterargument is that although God’s will is perfect and unchanging, His will is itself conditional on whether the faithful remain within the faith or not. So instead of God’s will being “I will save this person”, it is “I will save this person if they keep having faith in me”. However, this brings us back to the problem of who the final arbiter of salvation is. If it is man, as the Arminian argument implies, then it necessarily relies on man’s depraved will, which is impossible. It must then be God who is the sole cause of salvation, rather than man. If God’s decree was entirely dependent on the faith of men, then the final arbiter of salvation is man.
Someone who is of the elect cannot ultimately lose their salvation, for if they did, either God’s election was not powerful enough to save them (impossible), or God’s willingness to save them changed (also impossible). It is only if God, after choosing His elect, does not let them fall into damnation, that God’s omnipotence and unchanging nature are preserved.
Scriptural Basis:
John 10:28-29
And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.
My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.
Romans 8:35-39
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Philippians 1:6
Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:
1 John 2:19
They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.
Jude 1:24-25
Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy,
To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.
1 Peter 1:3-5
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you,
Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
Ephesians 4:30
And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.
John 6:39
And this is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.
2 Timothy 4:18
And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom: to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
1 Corinthians 1:8
Who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Jeremiah 32:40
And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me.
Psalm 121:7-8
The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.
The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.
Hebrews 10:14
For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.
Matthew 7:22-23
Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
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