In the defense of the depravity doctrine, Romans 3:9-18 is often treated as a summary of man’s innate condition – proof that humanity is corrupt from birth and incapable of seeking God or doing any spiritual good. However, a disciplined analysis of Paul’s argumentative structure, a contextual reading of his chain of Old Testament quotes, and careful attention to the language of the text yield a different conclusion. Paul is proving universal guilt, not defining universal inherited inability.
In the defense of the depravity doctrine, Romans 3:9-18 is often treated as a summary of man’s innate condition – proof that humanity is corrupt from birth and incapable of seeking God or doing any spiritual good. However, a disciplined analysis of Paul’s argumentative structure, a contextual reading of his chain of Old Testament quotes, and careful attention to the language of the text yield a different conclusion. Paul is proving universal guilt, not defining universal inherited inability.
Of the proof-texts used to support the doctrine of Total Hereditary Depravity, few are cited with more confidence than Ephesians 2:1-3. To the proponent of inherited sin, Paul’s description of humanity as being “by nature children of wrath” is the definitive smoking gun. It is argued that if we are under God’s wrath by nature, then that nature – and its attendant guilt – must be something we possess from the moment of conception.
B.H. Carroll, the founder of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, articulated this position clearly in his Interpretation of the English Bible:
This passage knocks the bottom out of the thought that sin consists in the willful transgression of a known commandment. The apostle here refers to original sin – the nature with which we are born. 1
If Carroll is correct, then the Bible teaches that infants are born under the judicial condemnation of God. However, if we examine the context, the grammar, and the historical understanding of the Greek language, we find that Paul is not describing an inherited nature, but a spiritual condition manufactured by personal choice.
When David sat down to pen Psalm 51, he wasn’t writing a systematic theology on the origin of sin. He was a man crushed by the weight of his sin. What may have begun as a lazy season in a stalwart monarch’s life quickly deteriorated into a sin spiral. A lustful stare led to adultery with his neighbour’s wife. That moment of infidelity resulted in an impending birth. Fear of exposure drove David to deceive and intoxicate his friend Uriah, trying to cover his deed. When that failed, he sent Uriah back to the battlefield, carrying his own death sentence sealed by the king. In this Psalm, David wasn’t seeking an excuse or explanation; he was seeking a way back to God.
Calvinists love the book of Romans, believing it strongly supports their doctrine of Total Hereditary Depravity, particularly chapter 5. I suggest their reading of Romans 5 fails to grasp the true teaching of the apostle Paul (and the rest of Scripture). Advocates of the depravity doctrine often cite several verses in this chapter:
Romans 5:12, “…through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned…”
Romans 5:15, “…by the one man’s offense many died…”
Romans 5:18, “…through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation…”
Romans 5:19, “…by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners…”
Without careful study, one might conclude we died “in Adam” – that his specific sin brought spiritual death to every infant born thereafter. But there is a phrase at the end of verse 12 that serves as the master key to the entire context. Paul’s point is not that we inherited a sinful nature from Adam (as Arminius suggested) or the legal guilt of his sin (as Calvin taught). While death indeed entered the world through Adam’s transgression, the apostle explicitly stated that it spread to all men, not because of Adam’s sin, but “because all sinned.”
Elijah is the most memorable of the prophets during the early days of the divided kingdom. There were others before him, but they came and went quickly and with little fanfare. However, we have substantial detail about portions of Elijah’s work beginning in 1 Kings 17 and ending in 2 Kings 2. Additionally, he is referenced thirty times in the New Testament, which is more than any other Old Testament prophet (except Moses).
Faithfulness to God is not merely a feeling or a confession—it is a devotion to God which will shape how we think, how we worship, and how we serve. True faithfulness will affect every part of our lives. Below, we’ll discuss the mechanics of faithful living, though I think most of us are already aware of these things. The true struggle is one of consistency – having the day-after-day volition to put God first in all things. We need to take up the cross daily (Luke 9:23), search the Scriptures daily (Acts 17:11), and exhort one another to faithful service daily (Hebrews 3:13).
Laws that threaten religious freedom rarely begin by banning sermons. They begin with the redefinition of words — especially words like harm, hate, safety, truth, tolerance, and inclusion. Over time, those redefinitions reshape what a society considers acceptable speech, and eventually, what it is willing to tolerate from people of faith.
One of the last Bible discussions I had with my dear friend, Sean Cavender, addressed this question. As the children of God, we have the wonderful hope of an eternal home in the presence of God, where the pain and sorrow of this life are no more, where we are joint heirs with our blessed Saviour, and where the victory of immortality is won (John 14:1-3; 1 Thessalonians 4:17; Romans 8:15-23; 1 Corinthians 15:50-57; Revelation 21:1-7). These are wonderful things which the faithful anticipate, but understandably, the question of recognition and remembrance of our loved ones is frequently pondered in the minds of the elect. Will we know one another in heaven?
Folks will ask many important questions in life, but none is more important than this: What must I do to be saved? It was the question on the hearts of the people in Jerusalem at Pentecost when they realized they had killed the Saviour (Acts 2:37). Saul of Tarsus, stopped on the road to Damascus asked this of the Lord Jesus (Acts 9:6). And the jailer in Philippi asked the same of Paul and Silas, who were prisoners in his jail (Acts 16:30). There is no more important question to ask, and we want to be sure the answer we get is biblical and complete.
