What is the doctrine of total depravity?
It is the doctrine that the natural man is never able to do any good that is fundamentally pleasing to God, and in fact does evil all the time. Another way of describing total depravity is to call it total inability. This refers to the inability of man to do, understand or even desire the good. Edwin W. Palmer from “The Five Points of Calvinism” 2. What are the elements of the doctrine? • Man is a sinner from birth. • Man is dead in sin, meaning that man can not do, understand or desire good. • Man must be regenerated by the Holy Spirit in order to respond to the things of God. 3. Is the term, “total depravity”, found in the Scriptures? The term is not found in the Scriptures. The remainder of this study sheet is to determine if the concept is found in the Scriptures as defined in the answer to the second question. 4. Is man a sinner from birth? If the doctrine of total depravity only stated that man is a sinner, I, for one, would agree. But the doctrine states that man is a sinner fro
