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  THE TOTAL DEPRAVITY OF MAN CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION
  by A.W. Pink
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CONTENT
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The Total Depravity of Man

Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION

The subject which this chapter is designed to introduce is likely to
meet with a decidedly mixed reception. Some readers will probably be
very disappointed when they see the title of this book, considering the
subject quite unattractive and unedifying. If so, they are to be pitied;
we hope that God will bless the contents to them. Medicine is
proverbially unpleasant, but there are times when all of us find it
necessary and beneficial. Others will be thankful that, by divine grace,
we seek to glorify God rather than please the flesh. And surely that
which most glorifies God is to declare "all his counsel," to insist on
that which puts man in his proper place before Him, and to emphasize
those portions and aspects of the truth which our generation is most in
need of. As we shall endeavor to show, our theme is one of immense
doctrinal importance and of great practical value. Since it is a subject
which occupies A Vital Contemporary Question It is our deep conviction
that the vital question most requiring to be raised today is this: Is
man a totally and thoroughly depraved creature by nature? Does he enter
the world completely ruined and helpless, spiritually blind and dead in
trespasses and sins? According as is our answer to that question, so
will be our views on many others. It is on the basis of this dark
background that the whole Bible proceeds. Any attempt to modify or
abate, repudiate or tone down the teaching of Scripture on the matter is
fatal. Put the question in another form: Is man now in such a condition
that he cannot be saved without the special and direct intervention of
the triune God on his behalf? In other words, is there any hope for him
apart from his personal election by the Father, his particular
redemption by the Son, and the supernatural operations of the Spirit
within him? Or, putting it in still another way: If man is a totally
depraved being, can he possibly take the first step in the matter of his
return to God? The Scriptural Answer The scriptural answer to that
question makes evident the utter futility of the schemes of social
reformers for "the moral elevation of the masses," the plans of
politicians for the peace of the nations, and the ideologies of dreamers
to usher in a golden age for this world. It is both pathetic and tragic
to see many of our greatest men putting their faith in such chimeras.
Divisions and discords, hatred and bloodshed, cannot be banished while
human nature is what it is. But during the past century the steady trend
of a deteriorating Christendom has been to underrate the evil of sin and
overrate the moral capabilities of men. Instead of proclaiming the
heinousness of sin, there has been a dwelling more upon its
inconveniences, and the abasing portrayal of the lost condition of man
as set forth in Holy Writ has been obscured if not obliterated by
flattering disquisitions on human advancement. If the popular religion
of the churches—including nine-tenths of what is termed "evangelical
Christianity—be tested at this point, it will be found that it clashes
directly with man\

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Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/aw-pink/the-total-depravity-of-man-chapter-1-introduction/
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