Today's soundtrack is Stevie T: Album of Epicness, an absolute work of art by Steve Tereberry, a guitar god from Canada and one of my favourite YouTubers.
This evening, I'm reading the third chapter of Dr. James White's The Potter's Freedom, "The Inabilities of Man."
Dr. White begins by quoting C.H. Spurgeon, who said, "'As the salt flavors every drop in the Atlantic, so does sin affect every atom of our nature'" (p. 75). Our innate depravity separates us from God. Spurgeon said that "'[b]y nature, men are [...] dead in sin. If the Holy Spirit quickens, it cannot be because of any power in the dead men, or any merit in them, for they are dead, corrupt and rotten in the grave of their sin'" (p. 76). This teaching of man's inability to seek God due to man's sin is offensive to those who do not want God to sit upon His throne, sovereign over all. The rebellious pot wants to believe that there was something special about the lump of clay that he came from - that the Potter chose to make him into a vase instead of a chamber-pot because of some innate goodness. But of course there is no such thing. Man wishes to take away God's right to freedom to increase man's claim on freedom.
We cannot recognize our own depravity unless the Holy Spirit quickens us to see ourselves for what we are: creatures dead in sin. Dr. White says, "Outside of God opening the eyes of the heart, man thinks himself wonderfully pure, or at least acceptable in God's sight. That is why the unregenerate person cannot understand the urgency of the gospel message: until they see the depth of their sin and the holinesss of God, they find no reason to seek remedy for their condition" (p. 77). Man-centred religions say that man has an internal locus of control. Dr. White notes that this idea has even invaded Christianity, noting the preachers who say things like, "'God has cast his vote for you, Satan has cast his against you, and now the final vote is up to you'" (p. 77)! This is unbiblical: this takes control of history's events out of the hands of God and places them into the hands of a mere man.
The London Baptist Confession of 1689 reflects what reformed Christians believe about man's will: God began by giving man the opportunity to act according to his own choices, but he chose to sin, and was separated from God, and died in his sin; thus, man cannot perform good actions, as his heart is wicked and his actions all serve to reject God; thus, man cannot turn to God on his own. God, in His grace, brings man's heart back to life, allowing man to perform good actions; however, while man is still on earth, he is still influenced by evil. Only in the afterlife will man be free of temptation and only then will he wholly desire that which is good.
Dr. White says that the freedom that we will possess in heaven will "not be 'freedom to choose evil or good as we may desire' but 'freedom from the presence of, and inclination toward, evil'" (p. 78). Now, since Arminians believe that man's freedom to choose to sin or not to sin is what makes man human, does this mean that we will be something less than human when we are in heaven?
We can see right from the beginning of the Bible that man is completely corrupted by sin (Gen 6:5, Gen 8:21). Man's only desire is wickedness; from his youth his heart is evil continually. So if man's heart is perpetually wicked, how can he desire such good things as God's presence? Short answer: he can't. Jeremiah 13:23 says that those who do evil cannot do good things. God's grace is the only way that our heart's corruptions can be purged.
Dr. White notes that the Apostle Paul's message of the Gospel to the Romans does it right: he begins by talking about man's sinfulness. And this is the right way to do it. As Dr. White asks rhetorically, "[m]ight it just be that the good news cannot be properly understood unless the bad news is fully realized? (p. 81). Paul smashes all arguments for man's inherent goodness in Romans 3:10-18, quoting many passages from the Old Testament, essentially saying that no man does anything good apart from God. Dr. White summarizes it thus: "Outside of God's grace, man is a corrupted creation, violent, hateful, without understanding, without fear of God" (p. 82). Man does not seek God; man in his total depravity and corruptedness curses God and flees His presence.
In Ephesians 2:1-2 and Colossians 2:13, Paul teaches that man's deadness of heart is "the universal condition of mankind" (p. 83). Spiritual death does not mean spiritual inactivity; it means the absence of "the ability to do what is good and holy" (p. 83). See Romans 8:6-8, which shows us that unregenerate man is not merely neutral toward God, but he is hostile toward God. All of this flies in the face of the Arminian who says that an unsaved man has free will to do good or evil as he chooses. But according to the Bible, this isn't possible, as unregenerate man will always only choose evil.
Rather than taking the Rob Bell approach of trying to find the reasons why someone might reject Christ and then trying to determine whether God might overlook a person's rejection of Christ because of a perceived validity of a reason for that rejection, reformed Christians who believe that the Bible is the inerrant Word of God know that 1) God is sovereign and in total control, 2) man is dead in sin and will reject God, and 3) only through God's grace can man's heart be regenerated so that he will no longer reject God (See Jesus' words in John 6:43-44).
In John 8:31-34, Jesus says that men are slaves to sin. Slavery is not freedom. Therefore, having a free will to choose between sin and good works is impossible while one is in slavery to sin. This makes Dr. Norman Geisler's assertion that men "'are born with a bent to sin, but [they] still have a choice whether [they] will be its slave'" (p. 87) sound ridiculous. As Spurgeon said, "'What a vain pretense it is to profess to honor God by a doctrine that makes salvation depend on the will of man'" (p. 87)!