035. What do you mean by the doctrine of total depravity, and how do you prove it?

What do you mean by the doctrine of total depravity, and how do you prove it? By the doctrine that man is totally depraved we do not mean that he is totally corrupt. The doctrine is that the will of the unregenerate man is set upon pleasing self and is therefore totally wrong, for it should be set upon pleasing God. The will that is not absolutely surrendered to God is turned the wrong way. But while seeking to please himself a man may do things that are morally attractive and beautiful. A man is not necessarily drawn to vicious and disgusting things. He prefers things that are high and noble and true, yet he may not prefer them because they are what God wills but because they are the things that attract him. He is as truly depraved as the man who chooses the vicious things, but his tastes are not as corrupt as those of the man who chooses vicious things. What every unregenerate man needs is a total turning around of his will, so that he no longer seeks to please himself but surrenders himself in all things to do the things that please God and because they please God.

We prove the doctrine of total depravity, first by the Scriptures. For example, Romans 8:7—"The carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be”; Ephesians 4:18—"Having the understanding darkened, begin alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart”; Jeremiah 17:9—"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked”; and many other Scriptures.

We prove it also by an appeal to facts. The picture of the unregenerate man given in the Scriptures at first sight seems to be too dark, but as we come to know men better—especially as we come to know ourselves better, and above all as we come to know God better and see ourselves in the light of His holiness—the Bible doctrine is found to be absolutely accurate.