You claim that nowhere does Scripture teach that fallen man lacks the ability from birth to believe and respond positively to the Gospel. In reality, Scripture explicitly and repeatedly declares that natural man is spiritually dead, blind, and fundamentally incapable of doing exactly what you claim he can do.
Look at what the Word of God actually says about the spiritual ability of fallen man:
1. The Carried-Over Corruption from Birth
You state this inability from birth is unscriptural. Look at David's confession of inherited total depravity: [
1,
2]
- Psalm 51:5: "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me."
- Ephesians 2:3: Paul states that before we are quickened, we are "by nature the children of wrath, even as others." If you are a child of wrath by nature from birth, your nature is entirely opposed to God.
So your position is that God holds
unborn fetuses,
newborns,
infants and
young children to be personally
guilty for the sin a distant ancestor of theirs named ADAM committed? Does this make any moral sense to you? God long ago refuted the idea that He judges people for the sin of their ancestors:
Ezekiel 18:2-4
“What do you people mean by quoting this proverb about the land of Israel: ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the teeth of the children are set on edge’? As surely as I live, declares the Lord GOD, you will no longer quote this proverb in Israel. Behold, every soul belongs to Me; both father and son are Mine. The SOUL WHO SINS IS THE ONE WHO WILL DIE.
God goes into even more detail on this subject in verses 19-20
Ezekiel 18:19-20
Yet you may ask, ‘Why shouldn’t the son bear the iniquity of his father?’ Since the son has done what is just and right, carefully observing all My statutes, he will surely live. The soul who sins is the one who will die. A son will not bear the iniquity of his father, and a father will not bear the iniquity of his son. The righteousness of the righteous man will fall upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked man will fall upon him.
Now let us look at
Psalm 51 which, we must remember, was written after David had
committed adultery with Bathsheba and
murdered her husband. As soon as the true nature of David's sin was exposed by Nathan's parable of the pet lamb
Davis cried out
"
I have sinned"
Following that, he began to see how deep the influence of sin was in him which prompted him to say:
5 Behold, in iniquity I was brought forth, and in sin my mother conceived me.
Taken at face value, this verse seems to be saying more about his
MOTHER than David himself. Nevertheless, I do not think David was trying to
shift the blame to his
mother, his
family or the
culture he grew up in. To do so would NOT have been taking responsibility for HIS OWN SIN It would have, instead, been an attempt to
deflect blame away from himself. What David was seeing was that his connection to sin went much deeper than the sin he committed with Bathsheba. David was seeing that, from his earliest origins, he had lived among people who sinned in a race that habitually sinned
Augustine invented a theological construct to define sin for a sentient creature (infants and children) who the Bible says are innocent. He did this specifically to justify the Catholic practice of
infant baptism. In Augustine's time an infant who was not baptized would never be able to enter the eternal Kingdom.
2. The Verdict of Total Inability
You claim man can "respond positively to the Truth." Scripture flatly denies this, stating that the natural mind physically cannot receive or obey the things of God:
Unknowingly, you have swallowed the idea of
Theistic Determinism which Augustine
smuggled into the faith that had been once for all time delivered to the saints by the Apostles. Belief in absolute determinism, in one form or another, whether it was called
fate or by some deity's name was a common belief in most pagan religions of that time. Manichaean Gnostics who believed everything humanity did had been predetermined by one of two opposite powers. They reasoned that man himself, had been so ruined that he was unable to make any free choices apart from these
ruling powers.
These ideas which
had been rejected by the first 300 years of Christianity gained entry into the Faith in the Fifth Century through Augustine who, having been a Manichaen Gnostic himself, was predisposed to believe in
absolute theological determinism of every
event [including every
thought desire and
choice of every human that has ever lived]. In this system, there was no room for any free choice on the part of man. Those who still follow this error rationalize that taking away man's ability to choose somehow honors God but, really, it merely turns Him into a puppet master pulling the strings on his toys then judging them for following a script that God had already written for them.
This is one issue that divided the ancient Church in two divisions. The
Eastern Orthodox side, continued believing what they had been taught ever since the Apostles. While they rejected works-based salvation they still held that man was a free agent. This was due in large part because
they could still speak Greek. The Western Latin-speaking Roman Catholic side followed Augustine adopting his views about
total human inability and
theistic determinism. Since Martin Luther had been a Catholic monk of the Augustininan order, he naturally adopted Augustine's theology as did Calvin.
I DID say man can respond positively to the Truth. Actually, though, Paul is the one who said this.
…16 I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, then to the Greek. 17 For the gospel reveals the righteousness of God that comes by faith from start to finish, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”
The
gospel of salvation does not require
meritorious works only
Faith. Faith means to
trust in rely upon,
depend on Jesus. Although going from death to life is ordinarily a struggle it is not impossible. Christ's
death, resurrection, the power of the gospel itself and the activity of the Holy Spirit are all on our side bringing us to the point of
calling upon the name of the Lord.
Many insist that man's resistance to God is due to some metaphysical cause. However, it seems to me to be explainable as the result of our
stubbornness and pride. Look at the Rich Man who came to Jesus seeking eternal life. He was willing at first until he saw that Jesus demanded everything. Then he
went away sorrowful because he had many possessions. While it may have seemed difficult to Him surrendering was not really IMPOSSIBLE. Had he made the necessary surrender of faith his nature would have come into conformity with the will of the Master.
Wow. So calls to deny. Rediculous.
