Total Hereditary Depravity

A Doctrine from the Dark Ages

By Carl O. Cooper

Allow your mind to drift back 400 years. Long before you were born or even before America was populated by Europeans looking for a new land and a new freedom to practice their religious beliefs as they wanted without persecution.

It was during these times in 1594 that modern science was a mixture of alchemists, sorcery, and superstition. Witches were considered to be alive and many were burned at the stake. Houses were considered to be haunted by ghosts, and spirits were said to walk the corridors at night. People were afraid of those who were thought to be possessed with devils and evil spirits and religious leaders preformed exorcisms to rid people of demonic possessions. And the Bible talked about a Holy Ghost.

It was common knowledge in 1594 that ghosts and spirits haunted, inhabited, and indwelled people and things. And what’s more, they caused things to move, shake and tremble. Would the Holy Ghost do any less? It was easy to believe that the Holy Ghost would cause great miraculous events to happen in the lives of those it indwelled.

It was in this environment that John Calvin produced the doctrine of “Total Depravity”. This doctrine by Calvin, along with others, is still widely accepted by many religious people today. Many churches of many different denominations teach this doctrine of John Calvin as part of their religion’s creed.

“Total Depravity” or “Total Hereditary Depravity” as some would teach it, would say that all mankind inherits the sin of Adam and becomes guilty of Adam’s sin and are Spiritually lost even before they are born. Such a one is totally deprived of salvation and is Spiritually dead. He is so dead and so depraved that he cannot even have faith nor can he understand the Scriptures or even obey God’s will. In fact, he cannot even come close to God until the Holy Ghost indwells him and allows him to have an understanding of Spiritual things and to come to salvation.

It is easy to see how this teaching could have been perpetuated 400 years ago, considering the environment when Calvin lived. But today, it’s very hard to see how so many people can be led astray in their thinking with the amount of resources and knowledge that is available for everyone to study.

Just a quick look at Matt. 18: 3 shows us that God does not consider children to be depraved and lost and guilty of sin. “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.” In fact, this passage says just the opposite. Children are pure and without sin and we need to be like them in order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

I think everyone has read the passage in Ezekiel 18: 20, ^“The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.” Is this passage not crystal clear proof that we do not inherit the sins of Adam?

And what about the teaching that we cannot understand or obey the Scriptures until we are indwelled by the Holy Spirit? Many people teach and hold this view. But another check of the Scriptures shows this, also, to be wrong.

There are many doctrines taught concerning the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. There are many good books on this subject for more information. I would recommend the books by Howard Winters, Rod Rutherford, and Robert Taylor. These are very good sources for more study. But no matter what you believe about the Holy Spirit, whether you believe in a literal personal indwelling or whether you hold that the Holy Spirit indwells you indirectly through the word, or if you believe that the “gift of the Holy Spirit” is all the blessings given to those who are “in Christ”; almost all would agree that the Bible teaches in Acts 2: 38 that the “Gift of the Holy Spirit” was given after salvation. “³⁸ Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

It is true, however, that the only way to salvation is through the Gospel. And the Gospel has been revealed to us by the Holy Spirit through the Bible, the Inspired Word. And in this sense we have been guided into salvation by the Holy Spirit and taught what we must do to be saved. In fact, anything that man knows about God or God’s will comes to us by a revelation of the Holy Spirit. ¹¹ For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. 1 Cor. 2: 11. The Holy Spirit reveals God’s will to us through the inspired word.

It would be unfortunate for any person to feel that he was so “depraved and Spiritually dead” that he had no hope of understanding God’s simple plan of salvation and therefore made no effort to try to understand. That person would be forever Spiritually dead waiting for God to reveal what the Holy Spirit revealed long ago.

Carl O. Cooper