I will first show by the advocates of total depravity, what they mean by it. The “Presbyterian Confession of Faith” thus defines it: “The sinfulness of estate whereinto man fell, consisteth in the guilt of Adam’s first sin, the want of that righteousness wherein he was created, and the corruption of his nature, whereby he is utterly indisposed, disabled, and made opposite to all that is spiritually good, and wholly inclined to all evil, and that continually.”
The “Shorter Catechism” says: “The sinfulness of that estate whereinto man fell, consists in the guilt of Adam’s first sin, the want of original righteousness, and the corruption of his whole nature.”
The “Baptist Philadelphia Confession” tells us that “Our first parents, by this sin, fell from their original righteousness and communion with God, and we in them, whereby death came upon all, all becoming dead in sin, and wholly defiled in all the faculties and parts of soul and body.”
The “Methodist Discipline” says: “Original sin standeth not in the following of Adam, (as the Pelagians do vainly talk) but it is the corruption of the nature of every man, that is naturally engendered of the offspring of Adam, whereby man is very far gone from original righteousness, and of his own nature inclined to evil, and that continually.”
John Calvin, in his explanation of this doctrine, says: “Original sin seems to be the inheritable perverseness and corruption of our nature, poured abroad in all parts of the soul, which first makes us deserving of God’s wrath, and then also bringeth forth those works in us, called in Scripture, the works of the flesh. These two things are distinctly to be noted, that is, that, being thus in all parts of our nature perverted and corrupted, we are now, even for such corruption, only holden worthy of damnation,” etc.
W. W. Perkins: “In reprobate infants, the execution of God’s decree is this: as soon as they are born, for the guilt of original and actual sin, being left in God’s secret judgment unto themselves, they dying are rejected of God forever.”
Twiss: “Every man that is damned, is damned for original as well as actual sins, and many thousand infants, only for original.”
Arthur Hildersham: “There is in them (infants) a natural proneness, disposition and inclination to every thing that is evil; as there is in the youngest lion, or of a bear, or of a wolf, unto cruelty, or in the egg of a cockatrice, before it is hatched. You have heard it evidently proved, 1. That all infants are sinners and deserve damnation. 2. That many infants have been vessels of wrath and fire-brands of hell.”
Here we have a full, clear, perfect definition of total depravity, as held by Presbyterians, Baptists and Methodists. It is here taught that all mankind are by nature, “utterly indisposed, disabled, and made opposite to all that is good, and wholly inclined to all evil.” Every human being, according to this theory, that God ever made, is “wholly inclined to all evil”—to lying, cheating, stealing, murdering, etc., etc., etc. All men, then, by nature are liars, thieves, and murderers. This is the character of every infant when it is born into this world. Mark the words, “There is in infants a natural proneness, disposition and inclination to every thing that is evil; as there is in the youngest lion, or of the bear, or of the wolf, unto cruelty, or in the egg of the cockatrice before it be hatched,” and hence the writer adds, “1. All infants are sinners, and deserve damnation. 2. That many infants have been vessels of wrath and fire-brands of hell.”
If these are correct views of human nature, for six thousand years God has been creating totally depraved beings—thieves, liars, assassins, murderers. God is the source whence all crime flows, for he creates all mankind villains; gives them all an “inclination to all evil.” And this is not the worst of it—all deserve everlasting damnation, because God created them inclined to villainy of every name and grade. The definition of depravity given above, means all this, says all this, and to be a true Presbyterian, Baptist, or Methodist, one must believe all this. But we ask, who really believes a word of it? Who believes that God is the monster these creeds represent? Who believes that he has cursed us all with an infernal nature, and will then damn millions forever and ever, for being cursed with such a nature? Where is the mother who really believes that her infant is totally depraved, wholly “inclined to all evil,” “a fire-brand of hell,” and “deserves damnation?” People may subscribe to such horrid notions, preach them, and try to defend them, but who really, heart and soul, believes them?